Type 1 Can you buy low carb meals

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@Jamietomkinson1990 I don’t understand.
Do you want low carb pre-prepared meals because you want to eat low carb because you have read that makes it easier to manage type 1 diabetes?
Or is the focus on the carb counting and pre-prepared meals because you don’t have the patience to cook?

If the latter, why go low carb?
I thought most, if not all, pre-prepared meals have the number of carbs written in the packaging.

Even if you go low carb, you still need to work out how much insulin to inject and when to inject it. Being type 1 you cannot take that away.
 

welovedzig

Well-Known Member
Messages
212
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
This is my handy go to if I am too busy to cook. Lidl frozen fish with cheese sauce (mornay?) Get it out of the freezer, lift out the fish and sauce while frozen. Drain a tin of sliced mushroom really well (just take lid off and press down till no more water drains out) stick the mushrooms in the black tray. Put the fish back on top. Put some frozen cauli and broccoli on top of that. Add loads of grated cheese. Cook in the oven how it tells you too but add 5-10 minutes. Eat both pieces of fish. You should be quite full. good luck.
 

misterjohn

Member
Messages
9
Is there anywhere to buy low carb meals or do you have to make them I am a unstable type 1 diabetic was born with it and now 28
Hi Jamie

I'm a T2 recently diagnosed diabetic (mid-December 2018). At diagnosis, my HbA1c read 51.

Maybe like you, I don't want to become a kitchen princess.

I'm pretty new to watching the diet and I'm trying to follow a rough-and-ready low carb approach. But I'm not remotely knowledgeable.... so take the following with a small pinch of low-fat salt.

I've found a great range of fairly low-carb frozen meals at Iceland. They're marketed under the brand 'Slimming World'.

They're fairly exotic.... and they come in a very modest range of sizes. They're also quite cheap.

Typically I aim for the meals with a carb count of below or around 10g per 100g. I get the large size (500g or 550g) ... because I'm quite tall and I get quite hungry.

Last night I had chicken and chorizo-style sausage paella. 550g with 12.5g carb per 100g.... of which sugars account for 2.1g. Total carbs therefore: around 70g (of which around 12g are sugars). Cost: £3.50. Microwave time (from frozen): 12 mins.

I would probably eat 3 of these a week (mainly at the weekend). My nearby Iceland is in a major city .. and there is usually a selection of around 20 to chose from... of which a number are vegetarian-friendly. Some are curries. Others suggest side dishes of rice. If I'm brave, I might once in a while choose an option which suggests rice. Then I get Uncle Ben's wholegrain rice (£1) which cooks in 2 mins in the packet.... but contains lots of carbs (30g per 100g). I don't choose such a combination often.

Daytime during the week, I get a fairly cheap meal in a place where I work... The meals are not diabetic-friendly so I have to be ruthless in asking for very tiny portions of either potato or rice.

Alternatives I'm learning to use: the Heinz Big Soup range (7.6g per 100g of which 2.2g are sugars). In the evening, I might have a tin of beans (baked... but also mixed beans or reduced salt/sugar options). To this I add a tin of mackerel in virgin olive oil. Total cost: £1. Prep time: 3 mins.

A reminder: I'm new to this, I'm not an expert at all (I'm just learning), and I've only attended one briefing for newly-diagnosed diabetics. So check what I have written; consult others.

I'm following a simple rule of thumb. I never eat anything I like. Sounds daft? Maybe. But I've managed to get HbA1c down from 51 to 40 in three months. I've taken a sledgehammer to all my favourite foods. Gone: bread, thick buttered toast, biscuits, cakes, crisps, Pringles, chips, white rice, any kind of yogurt (except plain Greek yogurt), all breakfast cereals (except plain porridge), ice cream (obviously! and it means no more trips to the cinema!)..

When people say (including my nutritionist) "a little bit of what you fancy does you good", I pay no attention. It's not advice I would give to someone giving up cigarettes... or cocaine, for that matter.

Hope some of this might be useful.

Thanks for reading.

Best wishes.
 

HSSS

Expert
Messages
7,465
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi Jamie

I'm a T2 recently diagnosed diabetic (mid-December 2018). At diagnosis, my HbA1c read 51.

Maybe like you, I don't want to become a kitchen princess.

I'm pretty new to watching the diet and I'm trying to follow a rough-and-ready low carb approach. But I'm not remotely knowledgeable.... so take the following with a small pinch of low-fat salt.

I've found a great range of fairly low-carb frozen meals at Iceland. They're marketed under the brand 'Slimming World'.

They're fairly exotic.... and they come in a very modest range of sizes. They're also quite cheap.

Typically I aim for the meals with a carb count of below or around 10g per 100g. I get the large size (500g or 550g) ... because I'm quite tall and I get quite hungry.

Last night I had chicken and chorizo-style sausage paella. 550g with 12.5g carb per 100g.... of which sugars account for 2.1g. Total carbs therefore: around 70g (of which around 12g are sugars). Cost: £3.50. Microwave time (from frozen): 12 mins.

I would probably eat 3 of these a week (mainly at the weekend). My nearby Iceland is in a major city .. and there is usually a selection of around 20 to chose from... of which a number are vegetarian-friendly. Some are curries. Others suggest side dishes of rice. If I'm brave, I might once in a while choose an option which suggests rice. Then I get Uncle Ben's wholegrain rice (£1) which cooks in 2 mins in the packet.... but contains lots of carbs (30g per 100g). I don't choose such a combination often.

Daytime during the week, I get a fairly cheap meal in a place where I work... The meals are not diabetic-friendly so I have to be ruthless in asking for very tiny portions of either potato or rice.

Alternatives I'm learning to use: the Heinz Big Soup range (7.6g per 100g of which 2.2g are sugars). In the evening, I might have a tin of beans (baked... but also mixed beans or reduced salt/sugar options). To this I add a tin of mackerel in virgin olive oil. Total cost: £1. Prep time: 3 mins.

A reminder: I'm new to this, I'm not an expert at all (I'm just learning), and I've only attended one briefing for newly-diagnosed diabetics. So check what I have written; consult others.

I'm following a simple rule of thumb. I never eat anything I like. Sounds daft? Maybe. But I've managed to get HbA1c down from 51 to 40 in three months. I've taken a sledgehammer to all my favourite foods. Gone: bread, thick buttered toast, biscuits, cakes, crisps, Pringles, chips, white rice, any kind of yogurt (except plain Greek yogurt), all breakfast cereals (except plain porridge), ice cream (obviously! and it means no more trips to the cinema!)..

When people say (including my nutritionist) "a little bit of what you fancy does you good", I pay no attention. It's not advice I would give to someone giving up cigarettes... or cocaine, for that matter.

Hope some of this might be useful.

Thanks for reading.

Best wishes.
Really glad this is working for you and cut enough carbs to get your results but this is still pretty high carb really and many of the meals you suggest would still badly spike many of the type 2’s in here. 70g in one meal or maybe 100g if you add a rice would be giving me scary numbers after eating. Have you tested the meals to see what they’re doing to you individually rather than just a 3 month average of all your meals.

It’s not about being a kitchen princess it’s about me wanting to be healthy. Plenty of easy lower carb meals to be made once you think of the constituent parts of a meal differently
 

misterjohn

Member
Messages
9
Really glad this is working for you and cut enough carbs to get your results but this is still pretty high carb really and many of the meals you suggest would still badly spike many of the type 2’s in here. 70g in one meal or maybe 100g if you add a rice would be giving me scary numbers after eating. Have you tested the meals to see what they’re doing to you individually rather than just a 3 month average of all your meals.

It’s not about being a kitchen princess it’s about me wanting to be healthy. Plenty of easy lower carb meals to be made once you think of the constituent parts of a meal differently
Hi, thanks for reading my post.

I'm only recently diagnosed... and I'm not on medication. The protocols that my health provider follows suggest that I shouldn't need a testing kit until I go on medication; so this means I'm not testing. (I might actually buy a kit myself because I'm learning slowly that our bodies react differently and that testing might be useful).

I'm following a rule of thumb that the nutritionist gave at an introductory briefing for newly-diagnosed diabetics. The suggestion was to keep under 10g per 100g for carbs when following food labels.

As I mentioned in my post, I would only be eating these Slimming World meals at the weekend. And it would be a very rare occasion indeed that I would take an option which recommended a side dish of rice.

I've made a commitment to myself to increase exercise (I've become very dependent on fossil fuel transport over the last couple of years). So the recent HbA1c reading comprises a week of cycling (when we had the unexpected heatwave). However, cycling since then has proved impossible!!

I'm hoping to commit myself to swimming maybe once or twice a week.

Hopefully this extra biographic information will put my HbA1c reading in perspective.

I'm going to take another look at some of the pre-prepared meals at Tesco ... because it's possible that they are carrying some meals which meet the rule of thumb of below 10g per 100g of carbs.

The Iceland range contains, as I mentioned, a modest range of sizes. 550g is the maxinun. There are some at 500g, some at 350g, some as low as 300g. Some are lower in carbs (the minestrone soup, for instance, is 6g per 100g ... but it is 500g).

Thanks for reminding me that not one size will fit all!! I need to keep that firmly in mind and moderate any future postings accordingly! Point taken!
 

Listlad

BANNED
Messages
3,971
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi, thanks for reading my post.

I'm only recently diagnosed... and I'm not on medication. The protocols that my health provider follows suggest that I shouldn't need a testing kit until I go on medication; so this means I'm not testing. (I might actually buy a kit myself because I'm learning slowly that our bodies react differently and that testing might be useful).

I'm following a rule of thumb that the nutritionist gave at an introductory briefing for newly-diagnosed diabetics. The suggestion was to keep under 10g per 100g for carbs when following food labels.

As I mentioned in my post, I would only be eating these Slimming World meals at the weekend. And it would be a very rare occasion indeed that I would take an option which recommended a side dish of rice.

I've made a commitment to myself to increase exercise (I've become very dependent on fossil fuel transport over the last couple of years). So the recent HbA1c reading comprises a week of cycling (when we had the unexpected heatwave). However, cycling since then has proved impossible!!

I'm hoping to commit myself to swimming maybe once or twice a week.

Hopefully this extra biographic information will put my HbA1c reading in perspective.

I'm going to take another look at some of the pre-prepared meals at Tesco ... because it's possible that they are carrying some meals which meet the rule of thumb of below 10g per 100g of carbs.

The Iceland range contains, as I mentioned, a modest range of sizes. 550g is the maxinun. There are some at 500g, some at 350g, some as low as 300g. Some are lower in carbs (the minestrone soup, for instance, is 6g per 100g ... but it is 500g).

Thanks for reminding me that not one size will fit all!! I need to keep that firmly in mind and moderate any future postings accordingly! Point taken!
This is quite an interesting thread from my angle as the husband of a wife who is in the business of supplying preprepared foods to the public via some of the outlets mentioned. I should point out that she cannot buy any of them from her employer nor would not if she could - her policy. It is also a long time since we bought preprepared meals. I cook at home but find it tough going - it works though and is getting a bit easier as time goes by. I completely understand your thinking though.
 
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HSSS

Expert
Messages
7,465
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi, thanks for reading my post.

I'm only recently diagnosed... and I'm not on medication. The protocols that my health provider follows suggest that I shouldn't need a testing kit until I go on medication; so this means I'm not testing. (I might actually buy a kit myself because I'm learning slowly that our bodies react differently and that testing might be useful).

I'm following a rule of thumb that the nutritionist gave at an introductory briefing for newly-diagnosed diabetics. The suggestion was to keep under 10g per 100g for carbs when following food labels.

As I mentioned in my post, I would only be eating these Slimming World meals at the weekend. And it would be a very rare occasion indeed that I would take an option which recommended a side dish of rice.

I've made a commitment to myself to increase exercise (I've become very dependent on fossil fuel transport over the last couple of years). So the recent HbA1c reading comprises a week of cycling (when we had the unexpected heatwave). However, cycling since then has proved impossible!!

I'm hoping to commit myself to swimming maybe once or twice a week.

Hopefully this extra biographic information will put my HbA1c reading in perspective.

I'm going to take another look at some of the pre-prepared meals at Tesco ... because it's possible that they are carrying some meals which meet the rule of thumb of below 10g per 100g of carbs.

The Iceland range contains, as I mentioned, a modest range of sizes. 550g is the maxinun. There are some at 500g, some at 350g, some as low as 300g. Some are lower in carbs (the minestrone soup, for instance, is 6g per 100g ... but it is 500g).

Thanks for reminding me that not one size will fit all!! I need to keep that firmly in mind and moderate any future postings accordingly! Point taken!
The protocols you mention are sadly not uncommon and whilst may be an improvement on the prediagnosis diets of some are still very carb laden for many if not most type 2’s. They may be a little more helpful than a general diet in slowing the decline into diagnostic levels but are not likely to reverse it in many. It depends how much you are ready and able to use diet as a control method I guess. In the general,population I can only assume the powers that be think a little change by lots of people is better than a lot of change in some. I want a lot of change in me! The gradual decline of those following those same protocols (ie diabetes is a degenerative condition and until recently believed irreversible in any sense of the word) has done little to help the population and ever increasing numbers of diabetics diagnosed!

As far as testing goes this is a thinly disguised cost cutting measure. How on earth are you to know what a meal does to you and it’s suitablitity if you don’t check it. Would you cross the road with a blindfold on ? Correctly done it can provide a wealth of indisputable evidence of how food affects YOU. Some people only test for a while til they get to grips with their typical (new) diet and then only if they try new things. Although food is the most important it’s not the only factor. Exercise,stress, illness, sleep, medications all have a role too but are not always as controllable.

The 10g /100 rule is a bit arbitrary. If you’re eating a tiny portion of something then that’s great. If it’s a large portion then no so good. Perhaps it’s a good starting point whilst you get used to looking at foods in the light of carbs but overall carbs, both per meals and per day is probably more relevant.
 

Nick4344

Well-Known Member
Messages
92
Hi I’ve found a Thai green curry chicken stir fry in Lidl. It’s really nice, low carb and low calorie. Takes 12 minutes to cook

IMG_0390.jpg


IMG_0391.jpg
 
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ringi

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,365
Type of diabetes
Type 2
It is possible to do a Thai Green Curry chicken stir fry using frozen veg and frozen cooked chicken strips from Iceland along with some Thai Green Curry paist. The jar of curry paist keeps for many weeks in the fridge.

(I think Iceland also sells precooked breaf strips.)

Personally I add a tin of coconut milk and if I have it in the freezer at the time some chicken stock.
 

Nick4344

Well-Known Member
Messages
92
It is possible to do a Thai Green Curry chicken stir fry using frozen veg and frozen cooked chicken strips from Iceland along with some Thai Green Curry paist. The jar of curry paist keeps for many weeks in the fridge.

(I think Iceland also sells precooked breaf strips.)

Personally I add a tin of coconut milk and if I have it in the freezer at the time some chicken stock.

What’s the calorie / carbs in that?

Thanks
 

ringi

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,365
Type of diabetes
Type 2
What’s the calorie / carbs in that?

Thanks

Carbs are very low other then the Green Curry Paste, the Paste I use is 7% carbs with about 25g of Paste per person, but other Paste has more carbs. It then depends on the choose of frozen veg (and how much), green veg is clearly low carbs, but sweet peppers do have some carbs.

Sorry I have never worked out calories, but will clearly depend on how much coconut milk is used. (Unused coconut milk can be frozen for next time)

PS I also make it with frozen fish, but the fish needs cooking in the oven first.
 

Nick4344

Well-Known Member
Messages
92
Carbs are very low other then the Green Curry Paste, the Paste I use is 7% carbs with about 25g of Paste per person, but other Paste has more carbs. It then depends on the choose of frozen veg (and how much), green veg is clearly low carbs, but sweet peppers do have some carbs.

Sorry I have never worked out calories, but will clearly depend on how much coconut milk is used. (Unused coconut milk can be frozen for next time)

PS I also make it with frozen fish, but the fish needs cooking in the oven first.

Thanks