Diabetes advice question ...

you know the questions are too easy when i know the answers

I voted yes. I could not come to terms with the conundrum that I was charged with lowering my blood sugars but I was to eat carbs with every meal.

I am a little logical in my thoughts and this made no sense at all.

Yes of course, the advice I was given was 'don't eat anything sweet' . Since using my meter I have found that I can eat most sweet things occasionally, but the bland carbs are by far the worst.

Deleted my post because I didn't read the question properly, thought you meant the advice given on here. But if you meant the advice given by the 'professionals' you can move a vote from no to yes, apologies.

Surely diet is as personal as diabetes is everyone is different and because it works for one it doesn't mean it will work for everyone


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A no brainer really ! I think this is something vitally important in the early stages. Individuals can "tweak" their diet as their experience, knowledge and control develops.

When first diagnosed I was not told about the role of carbs at all. So my thoughts were a nice slice of bread was great because the 'of which sugars was low'. It wasn't until I joined here that I learnt the role of carbs.

as a a type 1, I wouldn't have benefited from being told to cut carbs right at the beginning, as I would have had too many other things going through my head....

I was diagnosed in 1998, so the information/education available was atrocious, not through the fault of the staff at the clinics, just simply the knowledge and understanding they had at the time....

now a days, once a good knowledge and understanding has been achieved, then the cutting of carbs can be mentioned as wise, that's if the patient hasn't worked that out already.....

P.S. I love carbs............

I was given very confusing advise at diagnosis. "Eat even more carbs", the things that increase blood sugar levels!! "Don't worry about rising levels as we can increase medications".

Diabetics need to be educated about how the 'sugar' gets into their blood and given the equipment to be able to take charge of their condition proactively.

So YES, the importance of reducing the total amount of carbohydrates eaten needs to be made more clear by health care professionals to newly-diagnosed diabetics

Depends on the individual and the circumstances.
A general cut carbs, is much the same "one size fits all" as the eatwell plate.
My diet was excessive, I needed to cut carbs, fats, and protein.
The eatwell plate was an improvement on my diet at the time.
So a yes in that sense.
Now my diet is balanced, and a lot less, it's still more carbs then others, so it's a no now.

A thousand times YES! It is for each individual to decide what is most effective and sustainable for them, but how can you make an informed decision if you are not presented with all of the options? This point was NEVER mentioned to me, yet it would have made post-diagnosis dietary changes much easier, and have generated much quicker and unambiguous results which would have done wonders for my sense of control.

You ask for the views of members on the views on the advice we received when newly diagnosed but then in the poll you ask "Do you think that the importance of reducing the total amount of carbohydrates eaten needs to be made more clear by health care professionals to newly-diagnosed diabetics?" Surely advice about diabetes is not all about diet is it?

So it rather depends on the info one was given I suppose. Personally I was given very good advice on all aspects of diabetes from diet through weight loss to all about insulin and who it works in our physiology this advice was accurate and very helpful and given to me by a SDN I saw at the hospitals diabetes unit, I doubt however that everyone gets such good advice so its a hard question for me to answer.

I think most people are told to eat a healthy diet and to lose weight is that good advice? We can all argue about what is a healthy diet but how many overweight diabetics were not advised to loose weight and is that not good advice, regardless of diet?

Sid Bonkers said:

I think most people are told to eat a healthy diet and to lose weight is that good advice? We can all argue about what is a healthy diet but how many overweight diabetics were not advised to loose weight and is that not good advice, regardless of diet?

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Yes,I do agree weight loss when required and exercise are important in conjunction with reducing carbs but there are many diabetics who are active and with a normal BMI at diagnosis but many type 2's I've come across were not advised to reduce starchy carbs and were told to eat plenty of starchy carbs with every meal,avoid refined sugar and avoid saturated fat- so without any weight to lose or increase in exercise as they are already active enough-what is left? Lot's of medication with potential nasty side effects(Metformin is good but only helps a little) OR the obvious solution to advise patients to cut down significantly on the offending food group,i,e Carbohydrates.

novorapidboi26 said:

as a a type 1, I wouldn't have benefited from being told to cut carbs right at the beginning, as I would have had too many other things going through my head....

I was diagnosed in 1998, so the information/education available was atrocious, not through the fault of the staff at the clinics, just simply the knowledge and understanding they had at the time....

now a days, once a good knowledge and understanding has been achieved, then the cutting of carbs can be mentioned as wise, that's if the patient hasn't worked that out already.....

P.S. I love carbs............

Click to expand...

WRONG!! The info about counting carbs has been known for ever!!! I was diagnosed in 1965 and was taught to count carbs from day 1. I was in hospital for 2 weeks learning how to do it all and it's stood me in good stead ever since. I think it's criminal that they stopped teaching this at some point - not sure when that was - but it has made a lot of people very much worse off and has cost the NHS £££££s…..

Just wish I'd been given information about the effects of carbs when first diagnosed. Naively following a diet based on the plate model and not given a meter is not an ideal way to control T2.

I was given printed sheets when I was recently diagnosed.

The only nod to reducing carbs was the phrase "eat fewer pies."

Other advice was "fill up on bread, potatoes, pasta...at every meal."

Disgraceful.

Sorry, the majority of people nowadays eat too many carbs n sugar.... Its the lifestyles pre diabetes that are causing the rises in diabetes as a whole...as for when you become diabetic, i was diagnosed early eighties and taught 'exchanges' and kept in hospital for 4 days after my gp diagnosed me as type 1.
This too has a bearing on the care of type 1 diabetics..so many are sent away from a clinic with pens and insulin and not really educated in their first initial days of diagnosis. I was given very good care and instructions when I was admitted to hospital and told how to work lut my exchanges and alter my doses etc before I left hospital, I was not allowed to leave hospital before they had made me go hypo by running up and down the stairs with my normal injection and no food....
I am so glad that the medical professions and media are now recognising that carbs and sugar are the killers, but lifestyles of those that are not genteically damned to have type 1... The rest of the public have to wake yp to the fact that too many carbs n sugar will make them more susceptible to diabetes, obesity and heart conditions etc.

Moderate carbs and moderate portion size is imperative to all the human race whether with a diagnosis of diabetes or not.


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Like Lisbet and DD, I've always known about carbohydrate and the need to balance insulin correctly. Years ago carbohydrate wasn't listed on food as it is nowadays and diabetics had to look at picture drawings of the common foods and work evrrything out in 10gram exchanges like a slice of bread with the end bit cut off so that 15grams would equal 10. I stayed in nospital for 7 days before being allowed home and was also made to have a hypo. As I got older, I started to realise that carb caused me to gain weight so I reduced the carb and reduced the insulin

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