How do you get your levels down in the first place?

[Mamamoose]

Hi there - just diagnosed type 2 this week. Been told to use diet control and given leaflets about diet and a meter with the advice to 'play with it'. My question is - if my level at the beginning of the day is 11.2, every time I eat this will go up and I need to metabolise the sugar which I am obviously not doing well, so how do I get the baseline levels to fall between 4 and 7?

The obvious answer is to eat less at each meal than I can metabolise, but I am eating so little already. I was so upset by the whole thing yesterday that I couldnt decide what to eat for the best. So I didnt eat anything after breakfast and by 4pm my level was 7.8. I was hungry but pleased and thought I would eat something when the level dropped below 7. Tested again at 8pm and the level was 8.7! How had it gone up when I had had no food or drink all day? I'm afraid I flipped at that point and had beans on toast, cheese and fruit.

So here we are again with 11.2 before breakfast, and I dont want to eat anything in case its the 'wrong' thing. My 2 hour level after porridge was 0.5 up on the pre-breakfast reading so I presume that isnt a good choice for me. I thought it would be a healthier option than other cereals. I understand about the low carbs and I've seen advice on having a vegetable only diet and then re-introducing carbs and seeing what effect it has on the levels, but its almost impossible for me as I don't eat many vegetables and dont like meat or eggs. I am prepared to try, but a plate of half a tin of tuna (in water) with fresh garden peas and carrots (nothing else at all) put the 2 hour level up by 2 points. Very despondent and scared at the moment . Sorry its such a long post.

 

[daisy1]

Hi Mamamoose and welcome to the forum

You will find this information which we give to new members a good starting point. Basically, you need to cut down on the carbohydrates you eat. It is normal for your levels to go up if you haven't eaten all day. Try not to cut the quantities too much but be careful with the carbs instead and eat regular meals. You are right to test before and 2 hours after meals as that way, as you have seen already, you will find out which foods you can eat.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find well over 30,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes ... rains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

 

[Indy51]

Welcome to the forum.

Firstly, I'd say don't panic and certainly don't try to starve your blood glucose into submission - it doesn't work that way. In fact, many people report that eating smaller meals, more often helps to even their levels out.

Daisy has given you a lot of information to come to grips with - once you've absorbed that information, come back and ask more questions.

Dietary control is more of a marathon than a sprint - gradual improvements, meal by meal, will mean better control overall. It took me several weeks to consistently get my levels down, so don't feel you have to achieve everything in the shortest amount of time possible. Slow and steady :thumbup:

Best wishes,

 

[Mamamoose]

Hi again - thank you for the replies, but I had already read all of the info you gave Daisy, and lots of the other posts from newly diagnosed too, and loads of other stuff around the web. Not that I'm ungrateful for your reply of course!

Am I correct in thinking that if I have the same readings morning and evening I have eaten an amount of food that my body can to metabolise? Therefore I need to eat less than this for the readings to drop? If so, I'm not sure how I'm going to cope with this. I dont want to go blind - it has always been my worst nightmare - but I genuinely dont know if I can manage to eat less than I have been this week. Is life worth living if I can only eat things I hate?

I know the answer is yes - pull yourself together and get on with it - thousands of other people do all the time. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get a grip. But at the moment I cant stop crying and I'm so hungry.

 

[GraceK]

Mamamoose ... you're being way too hard on yourself. You're diagnosed, you're scared and you don't know where to start for the best. That's normal and understandable and you need information in small chunks to begin with.

As someone else said, the answer isn't about eating less, it's more about what we eatthat we can't metabolise. For most of us it's the simple carbs like bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, cakes, etc. Some of us can eat quite a few of them, some of us can't. I'm one who can't at the moment and I found that out by eating and testing 2 hours after and seeing how bread, potatoes etc affected my blood sugar. Once I knew what to avoid, I then went here -

http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

and discovered that there's a lot that I can eat without restriction

I also discovered that cutting out the carbs stopped all cravings within a few days, my blood sugar came down gradually to that of a non diabetic over 3 months and my energy and sense of wellbeing is vastly improved.

It hasn't taken long for me to get from sleeping most of the day, eating the rest of the day to being more energetic, not hungry, not craving. It was worth sitting down and looking at the website, then stocking my cupboards with the recommended foods and getting to grips with it.

 

[hanadr]

One good way I use to dorop my BG down if it does creep up a bit [although nowadays it's rare to go over 6!]
I use an Atkins Fat Fast, which I'm sure you can Google. It's a couple of days of near zero carbs. Drops weight off fast too.
Hana
Ps it's perfectly safe!

 

[SueR]

I haven't cut carbs out totally as I need a cereal boost in the morning - please don't everyone jump on me here, because I have had to accept the fact that protein just doesn't stop the hunger first thing. However, I have cut down considerable during the day and my levels are dropping with my evening readings falling into line with the targets given to me by my DSN.

I remember first being diagnosed and the amount of info that hits you in the face, plus the panic that sets in when you don't seem to make progress. With me the secret was making gradual changes which has allowed my body to adapt to the fact that it doesn't need carbs. In time I know I can overcome the breakfast cereal problem and eat a lower carb breakfast.

 

[GraceK]

I haven't cut carbs out totally as I need a cereal boost in the morning - please don't everyone jump on me here, because I have had to accept the fact that protein just doesn't stop the hunger first thing. However, I have cut down considerable during the day and my levels are dropping with my evening readings falling into line with the targets given to me by my DSN.

I remember first being diagnosed and the amount of info that hits you in the face, plus the panic that sets in when you don't seem to make progress. With me the secret was making gradual changes which has allowed my body to adapt to the fact that it doesn't need carbs. In time I know I can overcome the breakfast cereal problem and eat a lower carb breakfast.

I've still to overcome the odd packet of crisps that every now and then I give in to, and the odd half a fish and chip supper that calls to me now and then. We low carbers aren't all saints just doing our best.

 

[Mamamoose]

Thank you so much for your replies. I have taken the advice to eat a certain food/meal and see what it does to my levels. It is helpful to know that the levels should drop gradually over a few months instead of expecting to get down below 7 instantly. I have tested banana (not good) and my usual wholemeal bread/cheese/salad meal with only one slice of bread this time and the level at 2 hours was lower than before the meal, even though I also added in a glass of milk. So maybe bread is something I can't take much of either. Just waiting to test weetabix in case thats better than porridge (again not good).

I think part of the difficulty is that I am so used to dieting, low fat, low calories but not necessarily low carb, and this is not the same. Its hard to get my head around the fact that I dont need to be so worried about the fat content, just the carbs.

I had a quick glance at the dietdoctor site - very scary for me as the only things I should be eating are those things that I dont - meat, eggs, above ground vegetables. I do eat fish (usually in the form of tinned tuna or fish fingers) and salad vegetables but otherwise I think the only veg I eat are root veg. I am so worried about not finding anything I like that I can eat, but will continue with the testing and see what happens.

 

[GraceK]

It's amazing what you find you really like from that list of foods on the website ... once you cut out the carbs you've been filling up on. I had been giving vegetables a wide berth for years and I don't know why, because I like them. But I always tucked into the carbs on my plate first and then had no room for veggies.

It's all about forming new habits really.

 

[Daibell]

Hi. We are all different with regard to our diabetes, so may be you are finding it more difficult than some just as I have done. If you are overweight and not used to a smaller diet, then insulin resistance may be the key diabetes problem and tackling the diet may help quite rapidly. May be you are not in that position so it may take longer. How old are you and are you overweight? These factors can influence the diagnosis. Many of us move on to medication fairly quickly and this may be true for you, so if the low-carb diet, exercise etc doesn't deliver after a few weeks then do see your GP and discuss starting some meds. BTW, cooked root vegetables can be fairly high-GI carbs. Raw carrots are always better than cooked. Cheese is generally on the agenda for diabetics.

 

[hophead]

My advice would be to reduce portion size, reduce carbs, get used to a daily exercise regime and aim to lose weight SLOWLY.
I weight myself every week and aim to lose a Kg a week. Apart from a couple of blips I've managed it.

 

[Mamamoose]

Hi again - thanks for all the advice.

My advice would be to reduce portion size, reduce carbs, get used to a daily exercise regime and aim to lose weight SLOWLY.

Well this is certainly happening as I cant find anything I CAN eat yet without raising my levels. My portion sizes are about a quarter of what I would have eaten before, when I was maintaining my weight, and I am not eating breakfast as I cant think what I am allowed. The rest of the day I am just having salad and tuna with a little cheese, water to drink and sugar free jelly. This is miserable and the weight is falling off - cant see how it wont when I cant eat carbs - anyone would lose weight on a diet of salad and water. I am 55 and overweight - my BMI is 34 so the weight loss is good, not complaining about that. I'm worried I'm not getting the nutrition I need as I'm probably only eating about 500 calories a day, if that. But when I add in any carbs my level goes up too much.

As I said before I am a very fussy eater and do not like vegetables much, except it seems the ones I cant have like potatoes. I dont like pasta or rice or eggs and I dont eat meat. Just been looking through diabetesuk site - thought YAY there is a page with low carb breakfast ideas - there were two! Same for the pages for lunch and dinner ideas. Very disappointing. However I did see there is a forum for people doing low carb - might get some more ideas from there.

I need to test more food and see what it does - maybe I'm trying to run before I can walk and should step back and slow down. I think I expected to be able to get my levels down to between 4 and 7 almost instantly and I'm sure this isnt possible. There's a lot of help here so I'm sure it will all come together soon. Thanks again.

 

[lucylocket61]

Mamagoose:

What was you HbA1c or diagnosis blood sugar level?

I notice you have only been diagnosed for a few days. It can take several weeks of watching your food before your levels drop. It doesnt happen overnight or in a few days.

So please dont despair. Be patient, keep going, and it should be OK. If it is still at the same level as at diagnosis, after a month then have another think, but see what happens for a few weeks first.