Type 2 Asking for a friend... phnarr phnarr

Sarbak said:

Well, this is depressing, if true. So, are you saying that despite going from my highest (65) back down to 37 in the normal range within 4 months of diagnosis... and if I continue to manage my bg levels well going forward, I am still going to see diabetic complications? I mean, I understand that being diagnosed with T2D is a serious thing, but was I (am I) being foolish for thinking that maybe my hard work had undone the damage so long as I stick to my new and improved diet and lifestyle? If complications/deterioration is inevitable, are we all just fighting to delay the inevitable?

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Oops!

A last minute edit that I threw in without thinking about it. I should have made it clear I was talking about age rather than HbA1c levels. While HbA1c isn't definitive, it's good enough for the medical profession to use it as their main diagnosis tool. I'd say that if you can keep it in the non-diabetic range, you're probably doing as well as anyone who's operating at the higher end of that range, but not high enough to receive a formal diagnosis,

I was just trying to say that there's not much point worrying ourselves over every little risk we take with respect to letting our blood sugar spike from time to time, when we're not going to live forever anyway. No doubt a few things will race to finally see me off. I just don't want diabetes to win.

Sarbak said:

Yeah, I totally agree - but I define "treats" as something that we know we shouldn't have, or at least very often. So, for me, planning a low carb WOE for the rest of my life, a treat would be... hmmm some crunchy tiger bread, or spaghetti bolognese from my favourite Italian or (drooling as I type) a piece of lemon drizzle cake. I never had much of a sweet tooth, so a life without biscuits, sweets, chocolate, ice cream, cakes (except occasional lemon drizzle), desserts generally, is no big deal. Even giving up rice, root veg and cereal is not a problem (except goose fat roasters on xmas day). But the bread.... sigh.

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I still eat home made bolognaise. I do a larger portion, with no pasta, but could probably get away with including a small amount of pasta. As carby foods go, pasta isn't the worst.

I'd suggest experimenting to see what you can get away with. I don't seem to spike too badly if I don't exceed 50g of carbs in one sitting, and I try to keep it to 30g for most meals. So I can have 6 Iceland chicken pakoras if I fancy them. I used to have 8 pre-diagnosis. When first diagnosed, the 15g/100g of carbs figure scared me off.

If you want that drizzle cake, then see if you can find a low carb recipe. There are some quite effective sweeteners that are non-digestible (so zero net carbs) but that still give a reasonable approximation of sugar taste. Erythritol is my favourite, so far. I find it sweetens Greek yoghurt rather nicely.

It's different for everyone, but regular bread is a killer for me. Two slices are roughly 30g of carbs, yet it'll spike me a solid 2mmol/L when 30g of most other carbs probably wouldn't. Low carb breads are available, but a lot of the reduction is in the portion sizes, so expect tiny slices. The Keto King bread maker recipe works well for me (there's a video on YouTube.) I actually like the bread it produces, and a piece the size of a thick toastie slice of a regular loaf probably has about 3g of carbs in it rather than 15. It makes nice sandwiches or bread and butter. I don't think it toasts particularly well, and it isn't good for soaking up fluids, such as gravy.

You can improve potatoes and rice by soaking and/or part cooking, then pouring away some of the starch. If you cut your spuds smaller, then par-boil and rinse them before roasting, you'll reduce their impact on your blood sugar, though to an unknown degree. These are never going to be the best foods for people with our condition, but with the right preparation and portion control, they're certainly not off limits.

I'm just weighing in here- I was really worried and stressed about my first Christmas. I am from a big family and my role was to make the three desserts we had as a tradition. So we started something different- we didn't host Christmas which we normally do. we made some keto desserts- custard, jelly (diet) and cream. that way I still had dessert but only one gram of carbs a serve so I could have seconds. we has seafood so none of the usual roast vegetables that we had. I love seafood so it worked.

I think that it would be dangerous for me to up my carb intake, in Australia we have a chocolate brand which lets me have 1 gram for 3 small squares of milk chocolate. I eat that - obviously not too much and that helps me allot. one day I will reduce that to help my palate change but I wanted to start with my mind change- this is not a diet- it is a way of life for the rest of my life.

good luck.