I don’t understand

[richardhurst]

I’ve been diagnosed with type 2 for just over a year and take one Metformin in the morning and one in the evening. To be honest I’ve still just eaten what I want because my levels have never been high, generally 7-8.4 but I’ve decided to turn a new leaf and be good and try to lose weight. Thursday and Friday I had the following

Breakfast - 1 wheatabix with skimmed milk and a banana
Lunch - scrambled eggs
Dinner - chicken and broccoli

Readings all good averaging between 5.9 and 7.00 so I thought great I’m doing well. Come this morning I get up and check my blood, 7.9 before breakfast so I take my tablet, have my wheatabix and a banana and then 2 hours later check my blood and it’s at 8.9. So for the rest of the day all I’ve had is 2 sips of the wife’s latte and a handful of popcorn and I just checked again and it’s 8.6. I just don’t get it???

 

[MikeZ]

I'm no expert on diet or Type 2 but I suspect that your body is going to take some time to react to your new diet... and the early readings might not be all that indicative of anything. For my part, I found that getting some exercise helped as much, if not more, for lowering my BS. Congrats on the new leaf but give it some time.

 

[xfieldok]

If you are trying to eat low carb to reduce your numbers, the wheatabix, skimmed milk and banana are doing you no favours.

 

[Rachox]

Hi Richard, and well done on trying to improve your health.
Just a bit of background for us to be able to help you. Do you know your past and current HbA1c readings?
A quick look at your food from yesterday lunch and dinner look good, in other words, low carb. Carbohydrates turn to sugar once eaten. So the villain here is your breakfast I’m afraid. Weetabix, banana and skimmed milk makes about 40g of carbohydrate, an amount that most Type 2 can’t tolerate. For instance I only eat 50g/day

 

[richardhurst]

What do people suggest I have for breakfast?

 

[richardhurst]

Hi Richard, and well done on trying to improve your health.
Just a bit of background for us to be able to help you. Do you know your past and current HbA1c readings?
A quick look at your food from yesterday lunch and dinner look good, in other words, low carb. Carbohydrates turn to sugar once eaten. So the villain here is your breakfast I’m afraid. Weetabix, banana and skimmed milk makes about 40g of carbohydrate, an amount that most Type 2 can’t tolerate. For instance I only eat 50g/day

My past 3 yearly fasting readings have been 41, 41, 51

 

[xfieldok]

Personally, I would cut out the popcorn as well.

 

[richardhurst]

I’m really struggling to get my head round what to eat. Do more carbs increase glucose levels? Ideally I want to just to eat smaller portions and less junk food. I don’t really want to be trying a low carb diet. I just want to eat healthier and smaller options to lose weight and hope in turn that reduces my levels

 

[JoKalsbeek]

I’m really struggling to get my head round what to eat. Do more carbs increase glucose levels?

Practically all carbs turn to glucose, so that'd be bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, corn and most fruits... For breakfast, you'd be better off with eggs, bacon, maybe a tomato, cheese and if you're still hungry, some high meat content sausages. Or full fat greek yoghurt with some nuts and berries...

 

[richardhurst]

Personally, I would cut out the popcorn as well.

But there are virtually no carbs or sugar in salted popcorn?

 

[Daphne917]

What do people suggest I have for breakfast?

Hi @richardhurst welcome to the forum. How about Full fat Greek yoghurt and berries or bacon and eggs or omelette or, if your BS doesn’t rise too much, eggs on toast - I have one slice of Tesco’s high protein loaf. I’m sure others will be along with more suggestions

 

[Pipp]

What do people suggest I have for breakfast?

If you like a cooked breakfast, eggs, bacon. Cold breakfast alternative, full fat Greek yogurt, nuts, avocado. I’m sure there will be other suggestions, too.

 

[Daibell]

I’m really struggling to get my head round what to eat. Do more carbs increase glucose levels? Ideally I want to just to eat smaller portions and less junk food. I don’t really want to be trying a low carb diet. I just want to eat healthier and smaller options to lose weight and hope in turn that reduces my levels

Hi. In many ways a carby diet is a junk food diet I'm afraid. As others have said try eggs and bacon or similar for breakfast. The right fruit is fine but not tropical fruit such as bananas. One Weetabix isn't too bad.

 

[bulkbiker]

But there are virtually no carbs or sugar in salted popcorn?

Salted popcorn is just over 50% carbohydrate I try to avoid anything more than 5% so I'm sorry but its not great.

Any carb will turn to glucose when eaten (apart from fructose which helps your liver become fatty). In your shoes a low carb way of eating would be exactly what I'd advocate.

 

[Jollymon]

But there are virtually no carbs or sugar in salted popcorn?

You really need to get that app called calorieking and review the carbs that you’re eating in popcorn.

Anything “sugar free” might be “sugar free” but still contain carbs too.

Calorieking is available online as a resource for free.

 

[jjraak]

Weetabix is on my NO BUY list along with most cereals.

Full fat milk here only.

The trouble is, all the foods previously eaten, are still sloshing around somewhere inside of us..
The diet or low carb, is a slow steady progress over weeks and months just to get back to normal/acceptable levels
And even then there is glucose/fats stuffed into a lot of places it shouldn't be.

So while what you do today MAY make a difference to your blood glucose levels, it's entirely likely that older sugar deposits will leach out into the blood stream in the mean time, to be used up, which is good.

What we need to NOT do is keep topping up the glucose with HIGH CARB foods.

Think of it as bin, we have been storing rubbish in for years.
We can only take out one item a day...and the goal is to reduce the amount in the bin.
Pointless to bother taking any out if you keep dumping more in..the rubbish is the sugars....and as stated ALL Carbs turn into sugar....a substance that to all intents and purposes diabetics are allergic to, as you probably know.

Great start, a little fine tuning and you'll soon get the hang of this.

And don't be too hard on yourself, if you have a bad score or a bad day.

our body IS our saviour, but it can also be our enemy, and it's as sneaky and cunning as it has to be, when it wants to get its own way.

The secret is to spot them, which you are doing, and not let them become several bad scores or a few days of them.

 

[richardhurst]

Weetabix is on my NO BUY list along with most cereals.

Full fat milk here only.

The trouble is, all the foods previously eaten, are still sloshing around somewhere inside of...
The diet or lie carb, is a slow steady progress over weeks and months just to get back to normal/acceptable levels
And even then there is glucose/fats stuffed into a lot of places it shouldn't be.

So while what you do today MAY make a difference to your blood glucose levels, it entirely likely that older sugar deposits will leach out into the blood stream to be used up, which is good.
What we need to NOT do is keep topping up the glucose with HIGH CARB foods.

Think of it as bin, we have been storing rubbish in for years.
We can only take out one item a day...and the goal is to reduce the amount in the bin.
Pointless to bother taking any out if you keep dumping more in..the rubbish is the sugars....and as stated ALL Carbs turn into sugar....a substance that to all intents and purposes diabetics are allergic to, as you probably know.

Great start, a little fine tuning and you'll soon get the hang of this.

And don't be too hard on yourself, if you have a bad score or a bad day.

our body IS our saviour, but it can also be our enemy, and it's as sneaky and cunning as it has to be, when it wants to get its own way.

The secret is to spot them, which you are doing, and not let them become several bad scores or a few days of them.

Thank you can I ask why full fat milk would be better than skimmed milk? How about Almond milk?

 

[hankjam]

I could be wrong but in taking out the fat it's alters the ratio of fat/sugars/protein... in favour of the sugars. Full fat is good as the fat becomes the major energy source.

 

[xfieldok]

The skinnier the milk, the higher the carbs. I take double cream in coffee. When I first started, I couldn't tolerate ss milk and had to give up tea for a while. I can now tolerate a splash of milk so tea is back on the menu.

 

[Bluetit1802]

If you are serious about improving your blood sugar levels and also losing weight, you need to learn which foods contain too much carbohydrate and avoid them. The more carbs you eat the more insulin your pancreas will produce in order to push the resultant glucose into your cells. The more circulating insulin you have, the more difficult it will be to lose weight (and easier to gain weight) and the more insulin resistant you will become. This will do your blood sugars no good at all.

Any food that comes in a packet of some sort will have a full nutrition label on it. Look for the total carbohydrate amount (ignore the of which sugars). It is best not to eat anything that is more than 10% carb - ie 10g per 100g. unless you are about to eat a very small amount such as a spoonful. Any foodstuff you are not sure of you can easily find the carb content by using Google to find it on a British supermarket website. Typing in "salted popcorn Tesco" brought this up
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-..._ex3anymaok0DexYNYIaAqHCEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds