Newly diagnosed with type2

[Lynntay]

Hi, I'm looking for advise about type 2 diabetes. I'm nearly diagnosed but don't have any symptoms to indicate diabetes, will i be offered medicine or is there an alternative as I don't like taking tablets.
Any information will be gratefully received thank you

 

[Melgar]

Hi @Lynntay and welcome to the forum. A T2 diagnosis always seems to come from nowhere, usually when you are having general lab work done for something completely unrelated. In many cases people are totally unaware they have raised blood sugar levels, no symptoms at all. Some people however, do have symptoms.

Many people here on the forum start cutting down on their carbohydrate intake. The body will turn all Carbohydrates into sugar, no matter what form they come in, whole wheat products, pastas, cakes, rice, virtually anything that contain carbohydrates. Starches too. If you take a look around the sub forums you will see many threads dedicated to food topics for T2s. You might also have a look at https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/jos-nutritional-thingy.210026/

One of our members @JoKalsbeek wrote this as an information piece about carb reduction.

Some members here have great success with very low carb diets . I'll tag @ianf0ster for you.

If you don't mind me asking, what would be a typical daily diet for you. Also what were your HbA1c results?

 

[Lynntay]

Hi, my HbA1 levels is 50. My daily diet consists of porridge with strawberries for breakfast, lunch is usually a wrap/ sandwich of salad with a slice of processed meat and evening meal is either chicken with veg or pasta. As well as eating more fruit and drinking over 200 ltrs of water of low sugar juice. I have green tea for a breakfast drink. I don't have any cravings for food and don't snack so as a lost to see how to cut my food down any further. Advise always welcome xx

 

[lessci]

Personally - Swap the porridge for Greek yoghurt with your berries, go down the North European cold meats & cheese route or eggs in any form. Lunch loose the bread/wrap and increase the salad, add some dressing. Dinner more green leafy veg and less pasta. It's not about eating less, it's about eating differently. Just one of these tweeks might be enough to drop you back down into pre/non diabetic levels. It's also about what works for you, you need to be able to sustain your changes in the long term

 

[Lynntay]

Personally - Swap the porridge for Greek yoghurt with your berries, go down the North European cold meats & cheese route or eggs in any form. Lunch loose the bread/wrap and increase the salad, add some dressing. Dinner more green leafy veg and less pasta. It's not about eating less, it's about eating differently. Just one of these tweeks might be enough to drop you back down into pre/non diabetic levels. It's also about what works for you, you need to be able to sustain your changes in the long term

Thanks for info xx

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi @Lynntay and welcome to the forum. For years while my GP knew that I was prediabetic (though they didn't tell me) I was advised to eat porridge for breakfast and eat lots of fruit, veg, whole grains and to eat low fat.
I now understand how that pushed me into Type 2 Diabetes and also to slowly but surely gain an extra 1/5th of bodyweight, having been slim for all my life until then.

We have nearly all been misled: For those of us who are susceptible, eating lots of fruit and grains (even whole 'brown grains') push us into having higher blood glucose than is good for us. Also, it isn't the quantity of the food which is the problem, it's the type of food, so there is little point in counting calories or trying to cut down of food/ That just tends to make you hungry and miserable and is why most popular weight loss diets don't work for more than a few weeks - then the dieter runs out of 'will power'; understandably so, because they are trying to starve themselves!

I learned from my Blood Glucose meter that in my case and for the vast majority of others, eating fatty meat and fish, even cheese and cream (unless you are allergic to dairy) helps you keep slim, because body weight and blood glucose is ultimately determined by hormones - satiety hormones and insulin. So isn't it best to eat things which both increase satiety and don't raise your insulin by much?

Proteins and fats fill that bill almost perfectly while fruit have lotas of sugars, and the carbohydrates in veg like potatoes digest from starch into glucose very quicky indeed. Note the Glycaemic Index of mashed potato is higher than that of table sugar!

It took only a few weeks before my blood glucose response for my meals was 'normal', about 4 moths for me to lose that excess weight, and in less than a year I'd had 2 consecutive HbA1C results in the normal range - meaning I was technically in full remission form Type 2 Diabetes. Remission - not cure, since if I started eating all the low fat, high carbohydrate food my GP advised I'm sure I would be back with diabetes quite quicky, since that is what caused it in the first place!

 

[Lynntay]

Hi @Lynntay and welcome to the forum. For years while my GP knew that I was prediabetic (though they didn't tell me) I was advised to eat porridge for breakfast and eat lots of fruit, veg, whole grains and to eat low fat.
I now understand how that pushed me into Type 2 Diabetes and also to slowly but surely gain an extra 1/5th of bodyweight, having been slim for all my life until then.

We have nearly all been misled: For those of us who are susceptible, eating lots of fruit and grains (even whole 'brown grains') push us into having higher blood glucose than is good for us. Also, it isn't the quantity of the food which is the problem, it's the type of food, so there is little point in counting calories or trying to cut down of food/ That just tends to make you hungry and miserable and is why most popular weight loss diets don't work for more than a few weeks - then the dieter runs out of 'will power'; understandably so, because they are trying to starve themselves!

I learned from my Blood Glucose meter that in my case and for the vast majority of others, eating fatty meat and fish, even cheese and cream (unless you are allergic to dairy) helps you keep slim, because body weight and blood glucose is ultimately determined by hormones - satiety hormones and insulin. So isn't it best to eat things which both increase satiety and don't raise your insulin by much?

Proteins and fats fill that bill almost perfectly while fruit have lotas of sugars, and the carbohydrates in veg like potatoes digest from starch into glucose very quicky indeed. Note the Glycaemic Index of mashed potato is higher than that of table sugar!

It took only a few weeks before my blood glucose response for my meals was 'normal', about 4 moths for me to lose that excess weight, and in less than a year I'd had 2 consecutive HbA1C results in the normal range - meaning I was technically in full remission form Type 2 Diabetes. Remission - not cure, since if I started eating all the low fat, high carbohydrate food my GP advised I'm sure I would be back with diabetes quite quicky, since that is what caused it in the first place!

Thank you for info, which was most helpful. I too was advised to eat porridge wholemeal bread/rice and lots of fresh fruit, so now I can see why my sugar levels are high. So I will go back to my eating plan as before to see if that has any effect on my levels. Onwards and upwards xx

 

[Dee1960]

Hi @Lynntay and welcome to the forum. For years while my GP knew that I was prediabetic (though they didn't tell me) I was advised to eat porridge for breakfast and eat lots of fruit, veg, whole grains and to eat low fat.
I now understand how that pushed me into Type 2 Diabetes and also to slowly but surely gain an extra 1/5th of bodyweight, having been slim for all my life until then.

We have nearly all been misled: For those of us who are susceptible, eating lots of fruit and grains (even whole 'brown grains') push us into having higher blood glucose than is good for us. Also, it isn't the quantity of the food which is the problem, it's the type of food, so there is little point in counting calories or trying to cut down of food/ That just tends to make you hungry and miserable and is why most popular weight loss diets don't work for more than a few weeks - then the dieter runs out of 'will power'; understandably so, because they are trying to starve themselves!

I learned from my Blood Glucose meter that in my case and for the vast majority of others, eating fatty meat and fish, even cheese and cream (unless you are allergic to dairy) helps you keep slim, because body weight and blood glucose is ultimately determined by hormones - satiety hormones and insulin. So isn't it best to eat things which both increase satiety and don't raise your insulin by much?

Proteins and fats fill that bill almost perfectly while fruit have lotas of sugars, and the carbohydrates in veg like potatoes digest from starch into glucose very quicky indeed. Note the Glycaemic Index of mashed potato is higher than that of table sugar!

It took only a few weeks before my blood glucose response for my meals was 'normal', about 4 moths for me to lose that excess weight, and in less than a year I'd had 2 consecutive HbA1C results in the normal range - meaning I was technically in full remission form Type 2 Diabetes. Remission - not cure, since if I started eating all the low fat, high carbohydrate food my GP advised I'm sure I would be back with diabetes quite quicky, since that is what caused it in the first place!

I was prediabetic and told to do exactly what they told you. So I did within 3 months I was full type 2 diabetic and loads of medication. I've been thinking about trying white bread instead of the wholemeal Ive got a monitor so can keep checking to see what's happening. I've also noticed if I eat fats and creams my mmol hardly moves.