Worried and scared diagnosed type2

[ijc060572]

For years been prediabetc 17 and 18 hba1c 45, 46. Then in 2019 went to 50. With exercise and food in 5 months got that to
41. Then this year another blood test July 21 came back 53. Said was covid related, comfort eating, live alone and said would alter diet again.

im on atorvistattin for high cholesterol btw.

Walking daily 10k steps, diet 3 meals a day, cut out chocolate, had banana and apple a day, more chicken than red meat, veg and potatoes, porridge or weetabix breakfast and whole meal bread, chicken, tuna or hame sandwiches at dinner,

3 months later worst score ever today of 54. Don’t understand it and feel thick as really don’t understand food types. Don’t have sugars in tea, coffee either,

feel lost

 

[Antje77]

diet 3 meals a day, cut out chocolate, had banana and apple a day, more chicken than red meat, veg and potatoes, porridge or weetabix breakfast and whole meal bread, chicken, tuna or hame sandwiches at dinner,

Hi @ijc060572 , welcome to the forum.

Reading your post, I think there is plenty of room to make some changes to your diet and get your numbers back in the pre-diabetic or even non diabetic numbers!

All carbs are converted to glucose in the body, and you seem to be choosing a lot of high carb foods: bread, sandwiches, banana, potatoes, porridge and weetabix are all foods with lots of carbs.
Can it be you have been avoiding fats? This isn't very helpful with diabetes.

Many of us have found that by lowering those carbs and instead get our calories from more fats and proteins helps a lot in getting our numbers down.
At 54, you're only just over the diabetes treshold, just substituting some things should make your numbers drop significantly.

You might like to have a read of this: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/

 

[ijc060572]

I just get totally confused, I feel I’m supposed to eat one type to keep cholesterol down and opposite for diabetes.. I thought I’m supposed to eat potatoes, whole meal etc ..

no wonder gone higher as I’ve changed diet to eat more of them

lost and feel so silly thst I don’t understand carbs etc.

 

[Antje77]

I feel I’m supposed to eat one type to keep cholesterol down

What about getting things right with diabetes first?
I, and many others, have found our cholesterol levels greatly improved when blood sugar went down, even while eating more fats.

 

[ijc060572]

I need to work out what I’m supposed to eat to sort this out. Heads spinning as seems I’m eating wrong things, feels like better on full English breakfast than porridge and weetabix now

 

[Ronancastled]

had banana and apple a day

Dodgy

more chicken than red meat

Why ?

potatoes

Pure starch

whole meal bread

No difference than white, both bad

sandwiches at dinner,

Ahem

Who gave you your initial dietary advice ?
You are eating all these high carb foods & your A1c is only 54, you're obviously producing insulin.
Imagine how good that A1c would be if you adopted low carb ?
You've got this

 

[Antje77]

feels like better on full English breakfast than porridge and weetabix now

Definitely, have the full English minus the toast and the beans, and your diabetes will thank you!

 

[ijc060572]

Advice given when cholesterol high, that’s what’s been trying to control for years not type 2, that’s what’s now come on, I was told eating too much red meat, fav meal, steak, burgers, bacon, told needed to cut out biscuits and eat fruit as better sugars, hence bananas, apples etc.

Told to have 3 meals a day without snacking, just fruits, so evening meals third meat, third veg, third potatoes, chips form, mash, roast etc

 

[ijc060572]

Omg I thought beans good for me.. I’m a lost cause to you lot

 

[Antje77]

I’m a lost cause to you lot

Not at all!
You're at the perfect starting point to improve your diabetes!

Is your cholesterol alarmingly high?

 

[KK123]

For years been prediabetc 17 and 18 hba1c 45, 46. Then in 2019 went to 50. With exercise and food in 5 months got that to
41. Then this year another blood test July 21 came back 53. Said was covid related, comfort eating, live alone and said would alter diet again.

im on atorvistattin for high cholesterol btw.

Walking daily 10k steps, diet 3 meals a day, cut out chocolate, had banana and apple a day, more chicken than red meat, veg and potatoes, porridge or weetabix breakfast and whole meal bread, chicken, tuna or hame sandwiches at dinner,

3 months later worst score ever today of 54. Don’t understand it and feel thick as really don’t understand food types. Don’t have sugars in tea, coffee either,

feel lost

Hi there, you've come to the right place for advice. Don't feel bad for thinking that the diet you are currently on was one that was 'good' for you, it can be a lot to get your head around given the current dietary 'advice' from GPs etc. As a person with diabetes (no matter what type), carbs in any shape or form are tricky to manage when you are trying to keep your glucose levels low. Of course different types manage and process the result of those carbs in different ways and I will let the type 2s advise you on their well researched methods.

Just to try and give you a different perspective on the science behind it though, if I was to eat an apple, or a banana, or a bowl of porridge or an orange or any other 'good item', I would have to take insulin for it to stop my levels soaring. If I was to eat a chunk of cheese or a steak or an egg, I (generally speaking) would not need to take any bolus (fast acting) insulin for it.

If I was to eat a few squares of dark chocolate or even a chocolate eclair cake I would need far LESS insulin than for that oh so healthy apple!

Get yourself a list of foods that have no or very few carbs, doesn't matter what it is, just stick to them for a few days and test your levels, you will be surprised.

It's not just about the white stuff (sugar), it's about the amount of carbs in food. Try not to look at individual items as healthy in and of themselves but in terms of how many carbs they have, for example, a large plate of bacon & eggs will have virtually no carbs in but a bowl of porridge may have 30/40. In terms of 'Will this item raise my levels', well yes, an apple will and and 10 eggs won't.

 

[ijc060572]

Cholesterol think was 6.2 when put on statins, last count 4.1 so controlled.

so throw away the apples and get an eclair, that’s my kind of language .. in moderation of cause. Feel depressed as stopped all the things I liked for supposedly “better” things, fruits instead of cream cakes and get worst result of my testing life

 

[catinahat]

I’m a lost cause to you lot

No one is a lost cause because we have all been in exactly the same place as you are now.
https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html
This will explain some important stuff and set you on the right path

 

[catinahat]

cream cakes

Cream is fine, hardly any carbs in cream. Cake on the other hand is not so good

 

[KateS14]

Yes, all the different (and often conflicting) food advice can be really confusing! But cutting down your carbs will really help to get your blood sugars under control, and hopefully you should be able to find a way to include plenty of foods that will also help your cholesterol too.

Do you have a glucose meter that you can use to test before and 2 hours after a meal? That will really help you to work out what level of carbs you can cope with. You may find that you don't necessarily need to cut out all carbs, but that reducing the portions of them may be enough to start getting your hba1c under control and moving in the right direction again.

 

[ijc060572]

Yes, all the different (and often conflicting) food advice can be really confusing! But cutting down your carbs will really help to get your blood sugars under control, and hopefully you should be able to find a way to include plenty of foods that will also help your cholesterol too.

Do you have a glucose meter that you can use to test before and 2 hours after a meal? That will really help you to work out what level of carbs you can cope with. You may find that you don't necessarily need to cut out all carbs, but that reducing the portions of them may be enough to start getting your hba1c under control and moving in the right direction again.

I don’t but I will order one tomorrow.. once I understand it better I can do this, I’ve spent 3 months trying to do what thought right and all the comments tonight have actually proved I couldn’t have done it more wrong, cut out eggs, bacon, scrambled eggs for example for the supposedly healthy porridge and weetabix

 

[Antje77]

Cholesterol think was 6.2 when put on statins, last count 4.1 so controlled.

Doesn't look like your cholesterol is much to worry about then!
Please focus on diabetes first. When I was first diagnosed my total cholesterol was 7,0. now it's 3,9, without statins, and I'm definitely eating more fats, including saturated fats than before diabetes.

 

[Antje77]

I don’t but I will order one tomorrow.. once I understand it better I can do this

You definitely can, and a meter will be very helpful!
If you test just before eating and around 2 hours after, you can compare the numbers. If it's risen more than about 2 mmol/l you might want to do a bit less carbs next time.

If you're planning to use your meter a lot, you'd best order one with the cheapest test strips, @Rachox has a good piece of information about meters.

 

[Rachox]

Hi @ijc060572 and welcome to the forum, here’s some info on UK meters, and to be clear I have no commercial connections with any of the companies mentioned.


HOME HEALTH have the Gluco Navii, which is a fairly new model and seems to be getting good reviews, links to the strips and the meter:

https://homehealth-uk.com/all-produ...ose-meter-test-strips-choose-mmol-l-or-mg-dl/

There are also discount codes for when you come to buy more strips - "navii5" and "navii10" will give you 20% off purchases of 5 packs of strips and 25% off 10 packs of strips respectively.


Then they sell the older SD Code Free, details to be found here!

https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/

Discount codes for the Code Free strips

5 packs 264086

10 packs 975833



SPIRIT HEALTHCARE have a meter called the Tee2 + found here:

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...e2-blood-glucose-meter?variant=19264017268793

with the strips found here:

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...py-of-tee2-test-strips?variant=19264017367097

Some members have got a free Tee2+ by phoning up to order, with a large order of strips they often throw the meter in for free:

Phone number 0800 8815423


With more expensive strips is their Caresens Dual, this one has the advantage of glucose and ketone testing in one machine, it’s to be found here:

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/collections/caresens-dual



If there is a choice of units of measurement then ‘mmol/L’ are the standard units in the UK, ‘mg/dl’ in the US, other countries may vary.


Don’t forget to check the box if you have pre diabetes or diabetes so you can buy VAT free. (for all meters and strips)

 

[ijc060572]

Those asking why followed diet I did. In july when got score 53 and met nurse at doctors got given an NHS booklet called

At High risk of Type 2 diabetes information booklet

and given the 3 months to use diet to see if could reduce the score - yes its gone up 1

The booklet basically says reduce fat and saturated fat intake and eat more fibre and it lists as follows which foods high in fibre

fruit
vegetables
wholegrain cereals (hence weetabix)
wholegrain bread
brown rice and pasta
oats (hence porridge)
peas
beans
lentils
grains

it then goes on to list fruit a day as apple, banana etc and where possible include in your diet a day, and lists New potatoes, porridge oats

So I've followed that and then come on here last night to be told in effect thats all wrong and what is helping to make matters worse for me..

Minefield