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Confused with diet.

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fendertele

Well-Known Member
Messages
221
I was diagnosed about a month ago and GP didnt give me much except a leaflet that basically wanted me to become a vegetarian by the looks of it.. cutting out meats etc and told me a dietician will be in contact shortly to discuss it further.

Having no idea what to do next I've came here and the general consensus was High protein,High Fat,Low carbs unless i picked it up wrong ?

So making sure carbs come from fruits that dont spike blood, above ground veg, meats, eggs, full fat dairy, etc....

I've been on this strictly for a month and tbh i've been feeling great on it... probably a bit bored with lack of variety but much more energetic and was expecting to possibly get some monitoring device to test myself regularly after eating foods to get a rough idea what's okay to eat and whats going to be troublesome.

My 1 hour dietician appointment was basically an hour of getting told i've been doing this and that wrong and should be doing this..

I've not to be eating full fat anything and should be eating low fat option all the time.
I've to eat wholegrain foods... wholegrain bread,pasta, brown rice etc.... and potatoes.

And mainly watching out on packaging for anything above 5.1 sugar per 100g.

5.1 or less sugar per 100g = green
5.1 to 22.5 per 100g = amber ( okay on occassion)
22.5 > per 100g (never eat )


I would love to reintroduce some of these foods they have mentioned esp wholemeal products as it would make for less monotonous meals but not at the expense of it causing me issues.

I also mentioned about being able to test so I could check if certain foods are going to cause spikes or not, like a home testing kit to measure my blood after eating but she told me no, that i'd be getting tested every few months and this test would be able to tell the doctor if im controlling it correctly or not without any need for regular checks. :/

Thanks for any tips.
 
I'm afraid you've come up against a fairly common problem with medical advice about type 2 diabetes. Namely, that dieticians & GPS do not as a general rule keep up with new research on the condition. They tend to follow the Eatwell plate methodology & they absolutely do not like to see anything else working.

I'd do your own research & get yourself a blood glucose meter. You'll be able to tell what impacts your blood sugar levels & when your next HBA1C is lower you can tell the dietician how you did it.

PS. I got my HBA1C from the to 34 in 3 months with low carb & lost 15kg. There are countless examples of others who have done similar on here.
 
Your nurse is not up to date with what is considered healthy for type 2 diabetics these days. Stick with what you’re eating and get yourself a blood glucose monitor to see the truth about what effect carbs have on you. I went low carb immediately on diagnosis and now nearly four years later I continue to eat low carb and have non diabetic HbA1cs.
Have a look at this website for ideas of what to eat, it doesn’t have to be boring:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/u1
 
The advice you're getting has never reversed anyone's type 2 diabetes. I got the same advice in the beginning and was told my diabetes was chronic, progressive and inevitable. I would gradually worsen until I die, and lifestyle factors would only slow the progression. My doctor has now changed his tune.

The testimonials here and other places will speak for themselves. The medical community was wrong about nutrition for type 2 diabetes. It's taking a while for the main-stream to get the message.
 
The problem is that you are being told to avoid the foods you can cope with and could live on indefinitely, protein and fats, and to eat the foods you can't cope with - carbohydrates.
I'd expect a good understanding of the situation at about the age of eleven in an ordinary setting.
 
The 5g carbs per 100 guide can be useful BUT ONLY WHEN ALSO USED WITH QUANTITY.
For example I have a jar of cajun seasoning that I use on meat.
It is a 50g jar and has 40g carbs per hundred so the whole jar has 20g carbs. (half of 100g)
However each jar give at least 25 portions (teaspoon 2 gs ) of the seasoning, so each portion is 0.8g carbs. Fine a low carb diet.

I also have some chocolate
It too is 40g carbs per hundred .
It is a 200g weight bar. The whole bar has 80g carbs
An average serving (4 sqs) is 25g in weight so that gives 10g , not so good in a very low carb diet. And its very difficult not to eat more than 25g at a time. Who can stop at 4 sqs?

So 2 foods, both the same carbs per 100g, but one has 10 times as many carbs per portion.

( some very strict carb people wouldn't touch either product as both have sugar in. Me?, this is away of life, life involves some sugar, just very small amounts)

So when checking labels, think too about the amount of it you will eat.
 

Wow how wrong can they be..

Although if you held those levels to be total carbs (as opposed to sugar) then you'd probably do ok.

Your dietician seem to be stuck at the latter end of the 20th Century partly probably due to them being NHS supplied so unable to stray far from the Eatwell mantra which many of us have shown to be completely incorrect T2 treatment.


Wholegrain foods usually have as many carbs as non wholegrain and will likely spike your blood sugars just as much.

I would have asked how many of their victims (sorry patients) had achieved remission following that advice.
 
Hey everyone yeah I was disappointed but also excited as my mind immediatly went to ohhh great I can order a Indian curry with some rice aslong as it's a tomato based sauce and she agreed that would be fine just stay clear of creamy ones.

At this point i always mentioned the only fruit im eating is apples,berries as i'd read that bananas have a bit too much sugar when ripe and was told I can eat any fruit I want just stick to one serving at a time... so one banane or one apple etc.

They wondered why I was doing full fat diary and pointed out that im swapping diabetes for cardiovascular problems down the road... so to go low fat all round.

So yeah my whole months shopping was rendered useless at this point...

As it was meats,eggs,double cream,mayo,leafy veg, sugar free jelly etc....

Im in UK any suggestions for a blood sugar monitor to buy ?
 
Here’s some info on UK meters, and to be clear I have no commercial connections with any of the companies mentioned.

Spirit Healthcare have a meter with cheap strips, the Tee2 + found here:

http://spirit-healthcare.co.uk/product/tee2-plus-blood-glucose-meter/

with the strips found here:

http://spirit-healthcare.co.uk/product/tee2-testing-strips/

Some members have got a free Tee2+ by phoning up to order, with a large order of strips they often throw the meter in for free:

Phone number 0800 8815423


With more expensive strips is their Caresens Dual which I currently use, this one has the advantage of glucose and ketone testing in one machine, it’s to be found here:

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/collections/caresens-dual




Home Health have recently bought out this one, but I haven’t heard any reviews yet, links to strips and the meter:

https://homehealth-uk.com/all-produ...ose-meter-test-strips-choose-mmol-l-or-mg-dl/


There are also discount codes for when you come to buy more strips - "navii5" and "navii10" will give you 20% off purchases of 5 packs of strips and 25% off 10 packs of strips respectively (these are printed on a business card supplied with the meter).


And to be totally transparent I used to use the SD Code Free from Home Health which has the cheapest strips available if bought in quantities of 5 or 10 pots with the codes below. However I found it to be becoming less and less reliable. Here it is for anyone wanting to give it a go, just bear in mind it seems they are replacing it with the Navii, details above.

https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/


and here for the extra strips

http://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/sd-codefree-test-strips-to-be-used-only-with-the-sd-monitor/

There are discount codes if you buy in bulk.

5 packs 264086

10 packs 975833


Disclaimer, I haven’t used any of the discount codes that I have quoted recently so I don’t know if they are still current.


Don’t forget to check the box if you have pre diabetes or diabetes so you can buy VAT free. (for all meters and strips)
 
Yeah as everyone has said, a lot of the advice from the professionals is just plain wrong for us. A monitor will tell you the truth without preconceptions or bias, I would trust that.

Those same professionals are hopelessly behind the curve with respect to causes of cardiovascular disease as well. There is plenty of evidence that dietary fat of the natural variety is not harmful now and never was, and that cholesterol does not cause heart disease. So what does? Well.... That would be the excess of glucose in the blood promoting inflammatory responses all over the body and generally doing Bad Things. I would happily eat the contents of your shopping basket, it sounds much like mine!
 
fendertele said:
They wondered why I was doing full fat diary and pointed out that im swapping diabetes for cardiovascular problems down the road... so to go low fat all round.
Click to expand...
Complete nonsense of course.. but pretty much par for the course..
 
I don't really know what to say. That advice is (in my opinion) guaranteed to raise your blood glucose levels pretty quickly and will ensure you will, in due course, experience the full range of diabetic symptoms and consequences. Buy a monitor and test before and 2 hrs after meals. That will give you an independent snapshot of what is happening to your BG levels in reaction to food. If they are right, there is no way I should have been back in normal BG range in four months and the many other personal accounts of LCHF success could not have happened. Yet here we are. You have a choice.
 
I agree with everyone else. If you followed their advice you would get what they expect which is a progression in your condition. You won't get it put into remission/reversal.

I am so so grateful for this site. I keep saying it because I can't articulate how much this site changed my life.

Good luck!
 
Regarding cardiovascular problems, my GP is wanting to put me on statins, at least twice now. My cholesterol has never been high. Their reasoning seems to be 'our calculator shows you are at risk of a heart attack or stroke within the next ten years so let's put you on statins'. I am choosing not to take statins long term as no high cholesterol.
I did take statins briefly, but after seeing a press report that that particular one was causing kidney damage I stopped.
 
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