Scared To Eat

[maitai]

I've joined this community a few days ago and some of the comments on the thread have made me want to cry because everyone has welcomed me with open arms and being in this forum has been helping me accept my new diagnosis.

But ever since I was diagnosed i've been so scared to eat. Like I keep telling myself "if you don't eat, your BG won't spike" even though that's not true, it's what I keep telling myself and I keep having anxiety whenever I have to eat.

Has anyone else experienced this and can anyone share some tips with me about different recipes to share/search for?

 

[JoKalsbeek]

I've joined this community a few days ago and some of the comments on the thread have made me want to cry because everyone has welcomed me with open arms and being in this forum has been helping me accept my new diagnosis.

But ever since I was diagnosed i've been so scared to eat. Like I keep telling myself "if you don't eat, your BG won't spike" even though that's not true, it's what I keep telling myself and I keep having anxiety whenever I have to eat.

Has anyone else experienced this and can anyone share some tips with me about different recipes to share/search for?

There is food that won't affect your bloodsugar too badly, if at all. Meat, fish, above ground vegetables/leafy greens, olives, full fat yoghurt or double cream, butter, eggs, cheeses, mushrooms, nuts and seeds... Check Dietdoctor.com for recipies. You can't process carbs properly anymore, so don't avoid food, just cut down on carbs! I was terrified of eating when I saw my meter hit 18 after what I thought was a "safe" meal... Know exactly how you feel. Just eat to your meter; test before and after a meal, and if it goes up more than 2 mmol/l, that meal was too carby. (If you want to have it again anyway, reduce portion size) If it stays below that, you can safely eat it again. There is food for us that we can eat, really!

 

[Prem51]

But ever since I was diagnosed i've been so scared to eat. Like I keep telling myself "if you don't eat, your BG won't spike" even though that's not true, it's what I keep telling myself and I keep having anxiety whenever I have to eat.

Has anyone else experienced this and can anyone share some tips with me about different recipes to share/search for?

Hi @maitai and welcome to the forum (I didn't see your first post).
I was like you when I was first told I was diabetic, terrified of the possible complications and scared to eat anything. For the first three weeks after diagnosis all I ate was one tinned salmon/mayo sandwich made with wholemeal bread each evening. For the following three months I just ate one small meal each evening, a sandwich, a bowl of soup, or 2 or 3 onion pakoras, or a couple of hard boiled eggs.
It did mean I started to lose weight at 1-2 lbs a week mainly from round my middle, and when I went for my 3 month HbA1c retest my bg had fallen from 49 to 44, and I had lost over 20 lbs.

You do need to eat something. There is a section on this forum on low carb recipes. And a thread for Type 2s on 'what you have eaten today' which will give you some ideas. Also look at www.dietdoctor.com for low carb recipes.
Basically if you are Type 2 protein (meat and fish), healthy fats like dairy products, avocados, nuts, oily fish and olive oil, and vegetables grown above ground are ok. Eggs are good too.

 

[rhubarb73]

Do not be afraid of the spikes. They are there to teach you not to kill you. Nothing really bad will happen because you spike for a few hours. A few weeks ago you had T2 and didn't know it and were probably either spiking all the time or permanently at high BG.
T2 doesn't kill you in a day, or even a month... it creeps up slowly over a long time. Once you know it is there you can protect yourself from its long term effects.
By focussing on a healthy low carb diet and testing regularly you are on the path to getting BG control.
Over time the spikes will give you information about what foods affect you in different ways. Although sometimes there will be rogue spikes that you just cannot explain. There just will be. Accept it, and don't fret about it.
If your long term trends move in the right direction you'll be reducing your risks.

 

[Guzzler]

This is a very common (and normal) reaction in the first few weeks after diagnosis. I remember going to the fridge and the store cupboard and just staring at stuff thinking 'I daren't eat anything'. There are great recipes, as people upthread have said, on Dietdoctor.com, on Ditchthecarbs and on Youtube. Once you have a list of meals you will be adding to that list all the time and your choices will only grow in number. Low carb is not restrictive it's just a little different.
I got into a bad habit of thinking of all the food I couldn't have instead of thinking of all the tasty, nutrient dense food that I could/can have. It does get easier very quickly.

 

[Alexandra100]

as people upthread have said,

I love this usage, which is new to me. It gives me a whiff of "up country" open air and vast terrritories! And after all the Forum is pretty vast.

 

[Freema]

I love this usage, which is new to me. It gives me a whiff of "up country" open air and vast terrritories! And after all the Forum is pretty vast.

At first I also looked at almost all foods as kind of poison , it is such a shock to have this condition , but the way to go as I see it is to try to be positive and collect recipes of what one in fact can eat with no trouble at all.

I have changes my food choices a lot;

In between meals I snack on olives, all kinds of nuts well only half a handful though as they are very calorie dense , cheese sticks, cauliflower raw, cherry tomatoes ( instead of fruits) ,strawberries , raspberries ,pork schratsings , half an avocado, an egg, a little full fat yoghurt ( no sugar added) sometimes with sucralose in it because I find sucralose tastes very much like real sugar, cucumber because it is so low in carbs and calories, cellery sticks with peanut butter , meat and cheese stuffed red peppers , salmon pate’ , sugar free gum
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/101-healthy-low-carb-recipes

 

[Rosiegough_]

I was exactly the same at the beginning but I am slowly learning what foods are ok for us xx

 

[Resurgam]

It is a great shame that newly diagnosed people do not get much advice, if any at all about what they can eat - when there is so much which is not only safe but delicious.
Any meat shellfish or fish in its natural state is going to be pretty much zero carbs, eggs and cheese are fine, and there are all sorts of salad things and veges which are low carb.
Things to avoid - basic stodge, potatoes, bread - any cereal/grain is going to be high carb.
Roasting a chicken of joint of meat with low carb vegetables in the tin should be fine, so that's dinner, then next day more chicken and a huge salad - that should reassure your body and mind that this diabetes lark might not be so bad after all.
If you have a family to feed you can add heavy carbs if they would feel deprived without them. Be prepared for envious looks if you make yourself a serving of steamed cauliflower with cream cheese and then a hard cheese grated on top - I like red Leicester - keep it warm until the cheese melts. I have heard of families going over to low carb foods completely in the weeks following one person going low carb just because the foods look, and smell and then taste delicious.

 

[Terrytiddy]

Hi @maitai what level of carbs are you aiming for? Bacon, eggs and mushrooms is a great meal and very low in carbs. As mentioned you will soon see what spikes you and what to avoid or have less of. You will be fine we are all with you on this journey.

 

[PenguinMum]

As everyone “up thread” has said I too was bewildered at first but with the support and friendship of the forum I set about the discipline of testing at first bite and two hours after, writing the details etc down (I’m old school, pen and paper, many use apps!) and learning what was ok to eat. I also tweaked the usual family meals to suit me because I wasn't going to look for a recipe all the time (eg. bolognese on bed of green beans, chill with less of the kidney beans with cauliflower rice, curry same, etc). If you do that you will soon learn what you can or more importantly eat. Try not to worry though and as regards FBG I struggled for 6 months to get them acceptable.
Ask any questionson the way, I am still learning after 8 months! All the best

 

[kitedoc]

I love this usage, which is new to me. It gives me a whiff of "up country" open air and vast terrritories! And after all the Forum is pretty vast.

As long as it is not Jack rope climbing up the beanstalk !

 

[Alexandra100]

As long as it is not Jack rope climbing up the beanstalk !

Beans are off my menu, but maybe the stalks would be OK. Good source of fibre? Certainly grow above ground.

 

[Geoffno6]

I still open the cereal cupboard and look longingly at the muesli, porridge, crunchy nut cornflakes etc that has sat there untouched for a month

 

[Alexandra100]

I still open the cereal cupboard and look longingly at the muesli, porridge, crunchy nut cornflakes etc that has sat there untouched for a month

If you actually ate some, I bet it would be a disappointment.

 

[AloeSvea]

@maitai, you will feel soooo much better once you get a blood glucose meter and can start seeing for yourself what food is great on your meter and in your body, and what isn't. I hope you can do this, as in getting and using a meter, (via your practice nurse or doctor, and how and what is super dependent on what country you are in) because this method of 'eat and meter' is a godsend for so many of us in terms of taking the guesswork out of what you can eat safely and what you can't. It will help the anxiety no end.

I say this as someone who has joked more than once that I would be diabetes-free if only I didn't have to eat! But yeah, there is that not-small-issue of needing to eat and drink water to live! . And living is great. (And so is eating! And drinks can be lovely too.)

You are so young your body hasn't 'set in' with some of the stubborn stuff yet, (not a scientific or medical explanation but one I would use on my own adult children! , as in it is super practical). And if you lower the sugar and carbs, and the processed food you should see some fast results. Simply being - go whole foods as much as you can, whatever foods you like to eat that don't come out of a packet in the centre aisles of the supermarket or the takeaways. If you are not vegetarian, whole foods includes dead animals, fish, kaimoana, poultry. Dairy if you are tolerant to dairy. (I tried a Maori word in there, as 'maitai' could either be the cocktail or a polynesian word! I thought I would try it out.)

Is upping exercise something that you can do right away too? People are different how much this affects their blood glucose levels, but walking a lot, or even just as much as you can, or exercising, or however you want to look at it is all good for everyone, and especially someone with a metabolic dysfunction, which is what type two diabetes is. It's the 'fit' part of 'fit and healthy'. And you have so much of your life ahead of you to live - being as fit as you can be would a terrific survival strategy. Exercise to begin with can just mean walking - still marvellous movement.

I hope to see and read you more on this forum, and hope your new journey with food is ultimately a good one! So many of us in here have found that it is, it has been. I know this is true for me.

 

[derry60]

I love omelets filled with spinach, mushrooms, spring onion, any kind of meat with a lovely salad. I even sometimes do a chili beef omelet..Its yummy

 

[Moggely]

Hi I still, after almost 6 months have a bit of fear of food. I ate almost nothing the first 2 weeks and lost over 14 kilo's it was very dramatic lCHF when i did force myself to eat that was. However I'm getting a lot better due to the advise of people on this forum It was a God send for me. I'm still new here but I just wanted to say you won't always feel this way. Happy that you found this forum. Welcome. Oh and I meant to add that the spike scared me also but now I'm learning that Oh well it will go down again just go for a walk . lol. However it never spiked over or into the 8th mark, but has sometimes in the higher 7's, mostly 6's now so am more relaxed about it.

 

[briped]

I still open the cereal cupboard and look longingly at the muesli, porridge, crunchy nut cornflakes etc that has sat there untouched for a month

If nobody in your household eats them, why don't you either bin them or give the unopened ones to a food bank? Or, when you look at them, remember what they tasted like and imagine you're eating them. Chances are that you'll think 'naah, they weren't that good after all'. I do that with chocolate

 

[Addyb]

I can see how it can play with your mind. I'm newly diagnosed so currently testing the waters and seeing what bumps my levels up. Earlier for testing purposes I had 2 foxs choc chip cookies and it bumped me from 10.6 to 15. I know I shouldn't of had them but let's just say I'm in a curious all new phase were I'm seeing how bad certain foods are.