Hi Mongoose39uk and Mary
Okay, I'll join you Mongoose... I don't low carb either and, like you, I sometimes find that when I post, low carbers immediately mention carbs, like when I posted something about fruit smoothies with semi-skimmed milk recently and another post I read where someone was happily sharing his wife's cake recipe. At first I was annoyed but then I thought to myself, it's okay, they're just flagging up that semi-skimmed milk is quite carby for those following low carb.
For myself, I was diagnosed 6 months ago. My DSN suggested I swap white for brown, eat porridge instead of sugary cereals, eat fruit and vegetables, continue to eat bread, pasta, rice, etc but brown rather than white. I do all of those things. I would say I'm probably what you would call 'reduced carb' - I probably eat between 120-180g of carb a day. I eat smaller portions of food though and I eat more vegetables and fruit. Bananas and oranges don't work for me but berries, apples and pears do (and I know the former are low carb and the latter relatively high carb - but my BGs are fine when eating them). I eat Burgen bread (but other breads tend to spike my BGs). Pasta, rice and even potatoes don't give me high spikes but I eat relatively small portions (about 80g). I eat biscuits (rich tea fingers and even shortbread fingers) but can only eat 1 as a serving. I don't drink fizzy drinks (not even diet ones). I don't drink milkshakes. I mostly drink water, with maybe 2 cups coffee or tea a day.
I find it interesting to read about people's adventures with food on the forum but I take only what I need from them - I still learn a lot of useful things, like using lactose free milk as a carb reducer - but from all of my reading on here the biggest thing I've learned is what everyone says... everyone is different and you need to find your own way by testing/experimenting (and we should respect that, I think).
My stats - 27 mmol/L at diagnosis in May 2012. Average daily BG levels now - around 4-5 mmol/L morning fasting with a range of 4-7 across the day, average 5-6. I sometimes get things wrong and will get a spike to around 8-9 mmol/L but usually only if I try something new or a food I know is going to spike it, like if I'm being naughty with a cake or something.
I find the idea of high fat, low carb difficult because if you have other issues to deal with high fat or high protein can be an issue (like if you have problematic kidney function or something).
Following my own experiments and a low cal (1200 a day) diet with 5 mile a day exercise I've lost 2.5 stones since diagnosis (and lost 2 stones prior to diagnosis simply through having diabetes) including time off (don't diet when on holiday) - had a month off in October when I was fed up with dieting - didn't lose weight but didn't put any on either so that was quite pleasing. Back to diet/exercise now in a bid to shed final stone to get me to my ideal weight, after which I plan to keep up the exercise but gradually return to the recommended daily intake of calories of around 2,200.
Medication: I was on 3 metformin and 2 x 12 units insulin for first 6 weeks after diagnosis, then insulin was removed and metformin reduced to 2 x 500 mg daily. I was on statins for a month but then gave these up as I was unhappy taking them. They did reduce my cholesterol levels from a high of 7 to a low of around 2.5 but since giving them up, with my diet, I've stayed within the normal range and currently have a total cholesterol of 4.6, with an HDL ration of 3.6. First HbA1c - aug 10 was 45 (6.2) which I was happy with. Next one due end of this month, so hopefully it will have come down a little more, to within the 5% club.
Anyway, just wanted to say, great to have this thread and a chance to share our views on what food we eat and what it does for us, whether we are low carb or high carb or reduced carb... at least we all have one thing in common - we're all diabetics at heart (or should that be diabetics in the pancreas). :lol:
