Blood work results today

There are quite a few people on the forum who are not in the diabetic range of Hba1c - which I assume is what your results are - because they have cut down on the amount of carbohydrate they eat so as to get their blood glucose levels to drop. Some are taking medication and some are not either because they chose not to , or they had bad reactions to tablets prescribed.
The advice to cut down on sugar is only half the story - all carbohydrate turns to sugars when digested, so starchy foods such as bread or potatoes, grains such as rice, fruit and vegetables such as banana or parsnips all crank up your blood glucose. That is seen in the Hba1c results, and high levels can mean unpleasant consequences.
You can go on eating things similar to your present diet - but altering the carb content, either reducing it or substituting lower carb foods.
I will tag our @daisy1 as she has a useful and informative article about diet, but when you have read it, task any question - there are people with lots of experience.

Hansenguy62 said:

Should i have taken the mads to assist or am i on them forever obce i start. Nothing was really offered except meds and to cyt down sugar. Bit worried and concerned what to do for myself.

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It is good that your doctor gave you the choice of trying to sort this out with diet and no meds. I am really grateful to my doctor who game me the same choice (hence, my user name on this forum).

The 6.5 is probably the result of a test called the HbA1c (details here: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/what-is-hba1c.html). That would be 6.5% which is the percentage of "glycated hemoglobin" in your blood. Any reading of 6.5% or above indicates diabetes. Your reading is only just in the diabetic range, which is one reason to be optimistic that you can adopt a diet-only approach.

A number of people on this forum have had success in doing this by employing a low-carbohydrate diet, and indeed this is what I did after my doctor recommended it. I was able to "reverse" my Type 2 diabetes within two months, by which I mean, bring the HbA1c back into "normal" (non-diabetic) levels. For details of my journey, see signature below.

For information about the low-carb lifestyle, these two links are useful: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diet/low-carb-diabetes-diet.html and https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb.

Unfortunately there isn't a medical consensus on the best kind of diet to control Type 2 diabetes. (At your age and with the information you provided, it is likely, but not certain, that you are Type 2 like 90 percent of people with diabetes.) It is typical that your doctor gave little guidance except to "cut down sugar." This is misleading because "carbohydrates" covers much more than what most of us think of as "sugar."

Welcome to the forum and good luck in bringing your condition under control. This is a great place to get information -- at times it may even seem like Too Much Information but hold on tight, it is worth it.

Hansenguy62 said:

Bit worried and concerned what to do for myself.

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These are normal feelings. For me, the diabetes diagnosis nine months ago was devastating. I had no symptoms of the disease (like you apparently) and thought of myself as reasonably fit. It was harrowing at first, but it gets better over time. Education is the key, and the more you know, the more empowered you will feel to deal with it.

Hansenguy62 said:

Thank you so much, I’m really not a great eater I realize, cutting down carbs and sugar and replacing with? Would be your advice?

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simply foods with a lower carb content - for instance swapping baked potatoes for cooked cauliflower with cheese and coleslaw or cream cheese and grated hard cheese, making pasta dishes using leek layers split open rather than lasagna, or strips of aubergine or other veges of suitable size and shape, plus using cutters to create noodle like alternatives, or spiral strips of vegetables all help to give the same sort of things to eat but without the consequences of high carb foods.

Hansenguy62 said:

Awesome this is so helpful. Just the reply i was looking for. I am very grateful too. No pun intended lol

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You're welcome. We are not very far apart in age and while we have different "types" judging from the photos (I am a lifelong stringbean) you will be surprised at how similar our diabetes stories can end up being if we eliminate or drastically reduce some major carbohydrates from our diet. It can be confusing at first, and the cooking (and the shopping!) can be a challenge until you adapt to it. Over time it gets much easier.

This forum is full of stories of people who have "reversed" their Type 2 diabetes with a low-carb diet alone, or with a low-carb diet plus a drug called Metformin which is the first line of treatment when drugs are used. I don't take meds and there are plenty of people on this forum who don't. It is appropriate for some people.

If you follow a low-carb diet, the new HbA1c test you are having four months from now will give you a picture of how well you are doing.

By the way, if you want precise control of this process, many people here will advocate that you obtain your own blood glucose meter for home testing. This enables you to find out which foods "spike" your blood glucose levels, and avoid them. I chose not to do this, and it has worked for me. However, having a meter does have a lot going for it and I am sure some people will come along to explain this.

Edited to add: I am in America by the way and it is not yet late at night here, whereas it is well past midnight in the UK where this forum and many of its members are based. You will probably get quite a lot more advice a few hours from now when Europe wakes up.

Hansenguy62 said:

Thank ypu onve again ypur knowlegs in very valuable to me
What would you suggeat eating and not eating im useless to be honest when it cpmes to fighting diabetes. I love oats. Turkey. Baked beans. Fish
Not keen on salads but can eat them
Of course ill cut out all chocs and candy and sugar drinks
I feel beter already knowing i can fight this .

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It is awfully hard to go into food-by-food detail in this way. You will have much more success by going to some of the web links (for instance https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb which I already provided a couple of posts back) and planning your meals in some detail. I will give some really crude guidance below but we are all different. It basically reflects what I did. (By the way, no oats. No baked beans. Sorry!)

I eliminated completely the following foods:

• Grain products including all bread and cereal (by the way "whole wheat" bread is no better than white).
• Beer (which is basically liquid bread).
• Pasta.
• Rice.
• Potatos.
• Milk (but some dairy products are OK, see below).
• Nearly all fruit (fruit is essentially nature's form of candy).
• Blatantly sugary stuff such as candy, soda, and most of the common desserts.

That should get you started but the above are not the only carbohydrate-laden foods, which is why I ended up doing a lot of research and reading a lot of food labels (on the Internet or in stores).

Foods that are low-carb or low-enough carb:

• Meat (makes little difference whether it is lean meat, red meat, whatever, all of it is low-carb).
• Fish, as long as it is not cooked with a high-carb batter or breadcrumbs.
• Butter and cheese. Greek yogurt in moderate quantities.
• Salads.
• Many vegetables, especially if they grow above ground. Below-ground ones: check the nutritional information for carbs.
• Eggs.
• Small quantities of berries.
• Nuts (great as snacks; you could be very hungry to start with).
• 85% or higher dark chocolate, in small quantities (a square or two).
• Wine and many spirits.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, there are lots of other delicious low-carb foods, check out the dietdoctor website linked above. There is also a "low-carb" sub-forum here at diabetes.co.uk where we swap recipes and advice.

At this point you are probably really confused. What, all those foods that for my whole life were touted as healthy, are bad for my health now that I have diabetes? And all those villains such as butter or eggs or red meat are OK? Yup.

You don't have to follow lists (like the above ones) slavishly. We all carve our own way, and we all decide how extreme to be about our diets. You are only just in the diabetic range, on diagnosis.

In my case I just jumped for the extreme diet: ultra-low-carb (30g of carbs per day or fewer). You don't have to do this and you may be able to achive great results with a less extreme approach.

At this point your head is probably reeling, and you will be in mourning for all those lovely carbs. The good news is that although this diet can be really tough for the first few weeks, in time, your body adapts to eating fewer carbs and the cravings go away.

By the way this dietary approach is often called "low-carb, high-fat" (LCHF) because all that energy lost from the missing carbs has to come from somewhere! I actually adopted a variant of this, low-carb, low-fat and it works for me. I feel fine even though I should probably be dead. We all occupy a different place on the diet spectrum.

Finally, and I realize this is a bit depressing: This is not really a diet but a lifestyle. Once you have started, you have to stay on it for the rest of your life, in order to achieve continuous control of your blood sugar levels.

Yep. Time to roll out the cliché: It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Goodnight.

@Hansenguy62

Hello and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you need to and someone will help.


Basic information for New Members

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 147,000 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

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.

Over 250,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - an evidence-based, structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

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.

Good day. I just wanted to clarify something I wrote yesterday.

I said something to the effect that foods we have been taught to believe are "healthy" can be harmful for diabetics, and conversely that foods we have been taught may be "unhealthy" in excess (eggs, red meat, etc.) are "good."

I should have phrased this more carefully. While things like red meat, eggs, and fatty foods are a go-to food for some us who are on the Low-Carb, High-Fat diet, I would like to avoid the impression that they are automatically "all-around healthy" foods. I really only wanted to say that they are useful foods in controlling diabetes, because they have very little effect on blood glucose levels.

How healthy those foods are (once you discount diabetes) is a different subject. These foods have been demonized for as long as I can remember, and I am 60 years old. Some of what is said about them is probably true, some of it probably false, but that is another subject altogether -- and one that stirs passionate debate on this forum.

It partially explains why I went for "low carb, low-fat" because that lets me keep a foot in both parts of the "good food" equation. Whether is is sustainable in the long run, time will tell. I've only been doing this for nine months.

(Edited later, to fix "high-carb" to "low-carb" in the above paragraph!)