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Confused with carbs

rebowe1308

Active Member
Messages
25
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I seem to only post questions starting “I’m confused” !

I was told I was t2d 4 weeks ago so my head is so conflicted from one post to another. Not sure what I am doing is for the best.

I have been using diabetes.org.uk for some recipe ideas and there are things that are up to 60g for a meal.
They also give recipes for chickpeas, bananas, apples. All of these I have been told on here to stay away from.

Can someone who Is more knowledgable give me an idea of how many grams of carbs I should be looking at for 1. A snack and 2. A meal ?

I apologise I can not reply to messages on here and have emailed a query about not being able to reply, so please don’t think I am being rude by not replying

Any help would be much appreciated
 
Hi welcome to the forum.
Try https://www.dietdoctor.com/
It’s a good place to start with meal ideas.
 
No one answer to that. How many carbs you eat depends on your own metabolism and it’s personal degree of insulin resistance.
It’s a bit trial and error I’m afraid. Either jump right in and cut the all then gradually reintroduce what’s safe for you or the reverse. Drops the obvious and see how that works and keep cutting carbs til you get where you want.

anything under 130g a day is usually what’s called low carb. Under 20-30g often gets called keto.

In here are people doing all aspects of this scale. Testing with a meter is the quickest and surest way to work out your levels, otherwise you have to wait months and maybe a year between drs tests to se how your chosen path is working.
 
Oh and eating filling meals then waiting til the next time you are actually hungry is far better than snacking. Every time you eat you raise bgl and insulin and ultimately we want both to drop, as a type 2 both are typically too high. We can’t , usually, measure insulin so by proxy infer it via bgl as best we can.
 
I second getting a meter. With that you can simply see how different foods affect your blood glucose so you can base your decisions on that.
rebowe1308 said:
I apologise I can not reply to messages on here and have emailed a query about not being able to reply, so please don’t think I am being rude by not replying
Click to expand...
Could you try replying by simply typing in the box at the bottom of the page instead of hitting the reply button beow someone elses post?
 
Thank you all very much. I have an appointment this week with the nurse so will discuss having a meter
Let’s see if this message posts
 
Welcome @rebowe1308 your replies have shown up
Loads of us type 2s here have had success in reducing our blood glucose levels and HbA1cs to non diabetic levels by cutting our carb intake. Diabetes.org follows older thinking that you need a regular intake of carbs to stabilise blood sugars. I’ve never understood this as carbs turn into sugar once eaten and as type 2s we don’t metabolise sugar properly. I’m afraid your nurse may well follow the same guidelines as Diabtetes.org
As others have said I think the best approach is to buy a meter (as a type 2 it’s doubtful you will be given one on the NHS) and test your meals to see how well your body tolerates them.
We can provide info on meters should you choose to buy one.
 

Hi @rebowe1308

i'd liken this to the video wars.
those that new..chose video 2000..failed miserably, though by miles the best

those that didn't do the homework
chose betamax or VHS

DUK & DCUK
two competing formats
DUK is betamax.
it looks similar, but when I was first on there, testing was crowned upon andd the advise WAS basically the EATWELL plan

here is VHS land.
the format is more LC..LCHF..& KETO,
And all proved by testing ..something duk seems to be not very keen on.

here it's almost a religion..or at least great advice.

and I think it's more transparent .. food you CAN eat with guides as to what to check for and when

there it all seemed..let's just do what were told, and just lets see in 3/6/12 months how things are going....

( i want to KNOW today what hurts and damages ME..not in a few months.. )..

but you might be a more patient person then me..<respect.>

I get het up because i think, ..no i KNOW i am important enough to ME and MY family,
that THAT is how it should be,....it should be like that, right, knowing this day this week. we are making poor choices,
so WE CAN amend them

(if people are ok with just taking the pills and waiting to get sicker..and sicker, ad infinitum..then that's fur them to fecide...BUT..that DON'T sound like YOU )


AND more importantly this forum plainly displays the success & failures of it's approach...
see the signatures under SO many posters

the simple truth..and you will find this out IF you want to, regardless of forums used, your body will tell you, if you don't learn for yourself.

Is as T2D we are allergic to sugar.
and sugar is what carbs turn into.
so we are Carb allergic as well

EATWELL...mmhhh

Duk is good for T1D
but the advise for T2, is poor

How a Forum that can claim to help those who have such an allergy, advise such a high dosage of the very agent we are allergic to, defies logic..but they are only following Gov't advice as laid out in times of old as the "Eat ye well" plan
(..and i guess being sponsored by a major soft drinks company has it's own issues...)

roundly mocked on here as "Die well" or
as i like to call it." Eat till ya drop..off bits of your body " Diet.

But it's a democracy. so we all vote with out feet, and hopefully with our heads.

many on my courses were happy to take the advice and eat what they liked and take the meds.
have to say, i hope i never get to think like that

Go seek PROOF that the "Eatwell and wait to Die" plan works..ps Good Luck, you might be a while.

Then come back here and search the numbers under each members posts..mine for instance.

then decide what group YOU think offers the best way forward for YOU.

reading back i do sound belligerent,,not meant, honestly
i was you once, as were so many of us...so forgive me.

i want YOU to make the best choice for YOU.


may the numbers IF you choose, always be in your favour
 
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Well, for me personally, the type of carb matters a lot. Beans/lentils, below ground veggies, low-glycemic fruits such as berries, melons and stone fruits, along with nuts and seeds are all great for me. Chickpeas are a very regular part of my diet - 3-4 days per week. I’ll eat 1/2 large apple, or a small one with peanut butter regularly. Processed carbs, bread, pasta, and rice are all a no-go.

people will tell you all carbs are equal for them. But 50 grams of white bread or rice, and I’ll hit 180 (10). But 50 grams in a veggie heavy salad with beans and I’ll never top 130 (7).

So, I’m afraid no one size fits all and testing is your best bet.
 
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I tested my response to certain carbs and specific amounts. I don't really worry about the carbs in broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, or green string beans or tomatoes and small amounts of onion as they are very low GI and ok. Occasionally I eat butternut squash boiled and carrots as a special treat. I know I can cope with 52g rolled oats in the morning, as long as I combine it with a fat, and I can have up to 70g blueberries with my porridge. White corn tortillas two of them with a meal, and a very specific korshan grain sprouted sunflower seed sourdough bread treat me very well. Right now I hover around 110 net carbs a day some from vegetables berries, and half from the bread i have with lunch and tortillas with dinner. But I have been ill lately so I don't know what they will do to my latest HBA1C but the glucose monitor states I can cope with them and I don't get more then a 1.4 hour rise after 2 hours from any of my meals. porridge actually gives me the lowest of a 0.6 rise after 2 hours. and a peak of 1.4 after 1 hour.
 

Personally, I would not focus on recipes as much as key foods to remove from your diet and key foods to balance in. I have no idea where the bananas and chick peas thing comes in, you should research food nutrients. Very easy to do on Google. What you are looking for are total net carbs. To get your issue addressed in the short term, you need to eat normal meals but with the least amount of net carbs (carbs minus fiber) with the most amount of nutrition value. This usually means lean meats (mostly chicken/turkey and only occasional red meat) and lots of vegetables, particularly green vegetables. Nuts (some are better than others), and berry fruits rather than highly sweet fruits. I won't go into details, Google is your friend on this.

Sometimes I think people add recipes here in a bit of a naive way. I instead for myself made lists of foods that I felt I could eat based on research and then put together recipes that made use of them. After a while, you'd be surprised at the variety of meals you can still have that are extremely low in carbs while sill being nutritious.

I don't know your particular situation but I know for myself that I've one extreme and have just stuck to takign in as few simple carbs as possible and when it comes to meals made up of proteins, fats and vegetables I don't count the carbs. I would be surprised if I were eating any more than 40 grams of non-fiber carbs per day and my A1C went from 9.8 to 6.2 in about 3 months.
 
Regardless of what your nurse tells you or doctor, you need a meter, no doubts about it. It basically removes the blindfold of glucose responses to food. You will over time work out what foods to avoid, you can't do that without knowing what your glucose levels are. It's that simple, but unfortunately the medical establishment just doesn't get it. Cost cutting measures etc often result in newly diagnosed being told not to test. You have every right to test and know what is going on. Don't let anyone tell you no.

Dietdoctor is a great spot to start as has been pointed out. I'll also second what @Jim Lahey stated about this nutritional guide https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog/jokalsbeek.401801/ by the wonderful @JoKalsbeek .It is imo the best written guide on here.

It's a learning process and we all still learn new things about diabetes and ourselves.
 
JayAmerican said:
Sometimes I think people add recipes here in a bit of a naive way. I instead for myself made lists of foods that I felt I could eat based on research and then put together recipes that made use of them.
Click to expand...

What does this mean? What do you think people here are naive about? How did you make a list of foods, and based on what research?
 
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Hi @rebowe1308 ,
You've already been given the link to my Nutritional Thingy, so I'll not bludgeon you over the head with it, but I'm hoping it's already given you a little clarity. Meals and snacks... Well, the really hardcore folks on here have one meal a day with no snacks for instance, some have 2 meals and one snack, three square meals and 3 snacks, some fast a few days per week.... And you can have 6 meals a day while staying under 20 grams of carbs. So there's no way of really giving you a "this amount of that at such-and-such intervals". That's where your meter comes in. We're all different, so cut-and-dry answers are rare. A meter'll let you know what works for you and what decidedly doesn't. Personally I stick to 20 grams or less of carbs a day, skipping breakfast, while others go for 20 grams per meal and have 3 of those. Just test before a meal and 2 hours after the first bite, and if you hit 2.0 mmol/l or less, that meal was perfectly fine for you. Meaning your body could cope with what you put in it. The recipes over on .org.uk aren't the ones that are endorsed here, on .co.uk (different organisation!). I was a member of the Dutch version of it, and I cancelled my membership when their magazine had a big cover article with a high tea. With more carbs than I eat in two whole weeks or so. At the same time, they were giving away a book on low carbing as a prize. So slowly things are trickling down, worldwide, but it's taking forever. The conflicting information is confusing, confounding, and infuriating. But again, that's where your meter comes in: it doesn't adhere to some dogma or another, it just tells you whether your body's coping, yes or no. Trust it.
 
Thank you all for your help and info. I think it will all be trial and error but will be starting by getting a Meter. Thank you all so much
 
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