Innocents fruit drinks

[MaggieAnne]

Good Morning, I was diagnosed just before christmas with Type 2 Diabetes. Like many of you I have been told by the nurse not to test, to increase my carbs not to drink concentrated fruit juice. I am now on Metformin twice a day.

I really miss my fruit I know I have to cut down on grapes but now I am having hardly any fruit. Can I have the Innocents fruit drinks - small bottle or carton once a day? My husband says I am kidding myself but I reckon as they are pure fruit one should be ok, what is the opinion of the forum.

I have increased my carbs but only put on weight. I am going to go low carb next week to see what effect that has. I have bought a monitor and purchasing my own strips. How long after each meal should I test myself to see what impact different meals have on my blood sugars?

Thank you for your help.

 

[forkhandles]

Hi maggieanne, welcome to the site, someone more knowledgable than me will be along shortly to answer your questions.

 

[hanadr]

Innocents smoothies are far from innocent. Check out the carbs.
A true low carb diet doesn't include fruit. However that's hard and many of us have a little. Particularly berries. I am addicted to blueberries as much as to Macadamia nuts.
In fact I ate too much of them yesterday with a bit of roast chicken for my lunch. Delicious, but not too wicked.

 

[tubolard]

What fruit would you normally eat? In theory the following are Low GI: Apples, Blackberries, Blueberries, Cherries, Grapefruit (be careful with this one if you're taking a statin), Grapes, Guavas, Lemons, Limes, Oranges, Nectarines, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Raspberries, Strawberries, and Rhubarb.

What is particularly concerning is that you've been advised not to test. You are newly diagnosed and therefore there is a change of regime taking place - how on earth you are meant to establish good blood glucose management without testing is beyond me.

I would go back to your GP and show that you understand how testing can help you with BG management and insist that they prescribe you test strips. There's a thread, here, about how DUK understand PCTs have interpreted NICE guidelines. So perhaps, armed with both NICE guidelines and this you might stand a chance of persuading them to comply with your expectations of how you should be treated.

Regards, Tubs.

 

[MaggieAnne]

I had the 'discussion' with the nurse about testing and you will find this as incredible as me - she said if I kept testing myself my fingers would be damaged and then when I have problems reading how would I read braille - yes its hardly believable but we have had this discussion twice now! Fortunately I can manage the cost of the strips just now so eh lets just move on!

I used to have no breakfast, then lunch was melon and parma ham or soup, then tea was probably meat and veg or if busy something easy like scrambled eggs or boiled egg. in between, a bowl of grapes or peaches or bananas, pears any fruit really. Drink was usually fruit juices all sorts. Yes ok not a balanced diet but now I have gone to cereal for breakfast - bran flakes and skimmed milk - I really cannot manage porrige. Soup but with bread roll at lunch time or jacket potatoe with butter and a little cheese and meat and veg or again eggs in the evening. The fruit during the day was me! They called me a fruit bat at work :lol:

I am on the statins so no more grapefruit juice. For the first time since diagnosis I had mango yesterday and about 2 hrs after my blood was 10.

Thanks for your feed back.

 

[fergus]

I had the 'discussion' with the nurse about testing and you will find this as incredible as me - she said if I kept testing myself my fingers would be damaged and then when I have problems reading how would I read braille - yes its hardly believable but we have had this discussion twice now!

:shock: That's one of the most shocking bits of medical advice I've ever heard, and I've heard a few. Jeez.

All the best,

fergus

 

[hanadr]

I looked on the Innocents web site. I should think they must be scared of the sugar content of their product. there's no nutritional breakdown. I could work it out from the ingredients, but I'll leave that to anyone who wants to drink some.
I know it tastes nice, but "Natural" doesn't equate with "Good for you", as advertising would suggest.
Deadly nightshade and Death cap mushroom are both perfectly natural things.

 

[popps]

I had the 'discussion' with the nurse about testing and you will find this as incredible as me - she said if I kept testing myself my fingers would be damaged and then when I have problems reading how would I read braille - yes its hardly believable but we have had this discussion twice now!

And I thought my practice nurse was bad! :shock: If at all possible, refuse to see her again. Consult your GP and explain why. Is there a coven of evil (or just plain ignorant) practice nurses out there?

 

[hanadr]

Hi Maggie
that nurse need to go to re-training.

 

[chocoholic]

I had the 'discussion' with the nurse about testing and you will find this as incredible as me - she said if I kept testing myself my fingers would be damaged and then when I have problems reading how would I read braille - yes its hardly believable but we have had this discussion twice now!

OMG. That is an outrageous thing for a nurse to say!!! :roll: :roll: Unbelievable!

 

[tasha]

Innocent smoothies are very high in sugar. In fact I use them when I hypo-just a few sips will bring me back up quickly. The media (I know-not always to be believed) compare their smoothies to a can of coke!

 

[saz1]

That is absolutely outrageous!!! You have grounds for a serious complaint for that kind of comment!!! I'm a nurse myself but definitely would advice you to take that further, that kind of comment could affect someone detrimentally and be very very dangerous! Urgh, how an earth has she ever managed to become a practice nurse with that attitude.... :evil:

 

[CliveG]

Avoid all pure juices innocents or not. I've been advised a very small glass (the size restaurants used to serve when you could get orange juice as a starter back in the 70's, ie about a double shot glass) is permissible now and again but probably not daily (and not concentrates). (If you need a juice drink Tesco do a cranberry juice drink with a very low sugar content but uses sweeteners, it may be a good trade off for you, but again don't drink daily)

As for this amazing non testing advice...some health professionals have suggested that regular testing can contribute to frustration/stress which can elevate blood levels and advocate that your regular 2-3 monthly medical test count should be the gauge for setting interventions.

Personally I have experienced lots of frustration and stress getting my self-test results down over the last year but the test helped me to feel more in control and helped me with recognising some foodstuffs that don't work for me.

I'd say, insist on a self test kit and get testing....

 

[Trinkwasser]

I had the 'discussion' with the nurse about testing and you will find this as incredible as me - she said if I kept testing myself my fingers would be damaged and then when I have problems reading how would I read braille - yes its hardly believable but we have had this discussion twice now!

:shock: That's one of the most shocking bits of medical advice I've ever heard, and I've heard a few. Jeez.

All the best,

fergus

Sounds like she is aware of the likely consequences of her diet.

 

[Trinkwasser]

http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/d-day.html

This may help you make your tests more effective.

I can tell you that I can eat small quantities of strawberries, blueberries and cherries but only half an apple, and I can only glance quickly at a banana then look away again.

I couldn't possibly have found that out without testing.

You may find a different response but in general fruit are little bags of sugar and most of their beneficial contents can be obtained without the BG spikes by judicious choice of vegetables.

Have a look at the thread Eat The Rainbow

 

[SilverAndEbony]

I feel that I should point out the Innocents are mainly smoothies, not fruit juices. The difference being smoothies are made of the whole fruit blended to make it smooth. So they have more of the fibre of the fruit than fruit juices.
They are still made of fruit, and so have intrinsically lots of sugar. But it's more like eating an apple than drinking apple juice. But not exactly like eating an apple as the fruit will be more quickly digested than the whole fruit.

But either way, I love smoothies! I used to make my own with frozen fruit. It makes a lovely chilled drink. We used to have a juice hub next to work - to everyone that used to work at the Juice Hub on Wine Street, Bristol we love you and miss you! Your smoothies after a company party, and paid for by the company (yea!) were wonderful!

quick edit:
I've realised I've mislead everyone. Innocent smoothies contain fruit juice AND blended whole fruit. So the fruit content is not completely blended whole fruit.

 

[goji]

I checked the back of a carton (banana and strawberry). For 250ml (a decent glass size) you are looking at 34 gm of carbohydrate. That is really quite a lot of carbs and would be a no go area for me now.

I used to drink Innocent all the time (before I learnt about low carbing) and can understand why you miss them. Now I try and eat berries (stawberries, blueberries and raspberries) and apples every day as I like fruit.