• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Diabetic diet

M

m0tec

Newbie
Messages
2
Hi All,

I have recently been diagnosed as type 2. My doctor wishes to try and diet control my condition first without resorting to tablets. The trouble is that my appointment with the diabetic nurse is not until the end of june. I am 42 years old, 5 foot 8, and weigh 14st 6.

The reason that I discovered I was a diabetic is recent irritability, severe tiredness, and more trips to the loo.

Can anybody please suggest a yes/no kind of table for foods that I can/cannot eat prior to seeing the nurse?

I realise there is a lot of information on the internet, but as I am newly diagnosed I am not sure what information is pertinent to me.

My bloood sugar readings taken over the last week range from a high 20.4mmol/L to the lowest so far of 10.4.

I have cut out the obvious from my diet straight away, coke/sugar/crisps/chocolate/white bread/"normal marg/butter"etc

I am now using slender as a sweetner, eating wholemeal bread, tomatoes, oily fish etc.

I know that you must have hundreds of requests like these on a regular basis, and apologise if I've missed a "sticky" somewhere with the relevent information

Many Thanks,

Alan :D
 
Hi Alan,

I am in a very similar situation to you. I was diagnosed with T2 a few weeks ago, and am initially aiming for control by diet. The difference is that I got to see a nurse within a couple of days - the end of June sounds really bad, but I guess that this is the usual NHS postcode lottery.

Before you get to meet your nurse you should learn all that you can about the condition, and you should try to get your BG down as much as possible. What your nurse will almost certainly tell you to do is to follow a low sugar, low fat diet eating complex carbohydrate at each meal. This is quite similar to the GI diet, and there are many books and web sites devoted to that. This seems to be the standard NHS advice. You will quickly see, if you peruse these forums, that this is not the only approach to diabetes control and many people have more success with a low carbohydrate diet (rather closer to the Atkins diet, but with more vegetables). Everyone is different - the trick is to find an approach that works for you.

At the moment I am following the NHS line, and it seems to be working (my fasting BG is mostly just below 7 and it usually comes down to under 10 within a couple of hours of eating) - also I was mildly symptomatic, and the symptoms have largely disappeared. That said, I would like my numbers to be lower, so in the future I intend to experiment with a low carb diet.

The other thing that is really important is exercise. Increasing the amount that you exercise will help a lot (this is probably as important as diet). I have taken to cycling almost everywhere, and aim to spend at least an hour a day on my bike. I am also investigating treadmills, to make exercise more convenient in the evenings or when the rain is horizontal!

One of the other things that your nurse will probably do is give you a stack of leaflets. The most useful one that I got is produced by Diabetes UK and called Understanding Diabetes: your key to better health. You can download an electronic version directly from their web site. You might also want to invest in some books (I certainly did). Two that I am finding useful are Type 2 Diabetes: The First Year by Gretchen Becker and
Type 2 Diabetes: Answers at your fingertips by Charles Fox & Anne Kilvert.

Lastly, keep an eye on these forums - there is a great community here and a lot of good advice to be had.

Good luck,

Tim.
 
Welcome to the wonderfully confusing world of type 2 diabetes,Alan! I take it you are able to test your blood sugars when you give us those figures which,BTW are very high! The best thing is to cut down on the portion sizes you are eating and to lower the amount of carbohydrates that you are eating.Go easy on the starches,cut them down portion size as these give you high readings.If you test about two hours after a meal and your readings are high then you will know to limit that particular food.Everyone is different so it really is a game of trail and error when it comes to finding out whether,bread,potatoes,rice pasta etc send you sugars up.Keep a food diary for a week with notes on your readings beside each meal so that you can spot any obvious patterns.
Have a good read around this forum and ask questions,there are a lot of knowledgeable people on here who are only too willing to answer questions.At the top of the page there is a search bar,enter in a key word and see what comes up.Happy browsing!
 
Hi Tim, and Sue,

Many thanks for your replies. It is very much apprieciated.
I think I have known for a while that I have diabetes, but like many I suspect chose to ignore it.

Only recently I lost my temper "big time" and it was at that point I decided something must be done about it.

As you can see in my first thread I am overweight, which until now didn't really bother me. I do not drink much alchohol, but have what looks like a typical beer belly. ;-) The annoying part is the rest of my body is as it should be!

My doctor was always going on about losing weight, and to stop smoking (My only real vice) but unfortunately I chose to ignore her. Now that I have been diagnosed I am determined to try and turn a negative into a positive and lose some weight. Ideally I would like to get down to my 11 1/2 stone of 10 years ago ;-)

I am keeping a record of my BG, at the moment only twice a day, upon wake up, and approx 2 hours after my evening meal. I am also keeping a reading of my daily food intake. Today is the first day that I took a reading after lunch, because I was worried that my levels would go through the roof.

I cooked grilled chicken breast, baked potatoes (tesco finest) peas, sweetcorn, and gravy. After testing, this is the lowest figure I've had so far! (9.7) I cannot believe that it would be so low.?

The diagnosis has really given me a kick up the butt, I realise that I am in fact lucky. I am a type 2 and do not need to rely on daily/hourly doses of Insulin. However I am a computer/atm engineer that covers an average of 30.000 miles a year in my work, so I feel that I have to be so careful.

Take care,

Alan
 
Read Dr. Richard Bernstein's Complete diabetes solution. It's THE BOOK. Look on David Mendosa's website. these resources will lead you to others.
I'm a type 2 5 years past diagnosis and last year discovered low carbing. It works for me. I'm 61 years old 5 feet 7 and now 14 and a half stone. Was well over 16 last year. I have gone back to eating fats, probabaly quite a lot and as I've lost thee weight, my skin has recovered well. Few wrinkles and not much sagging. I'm sure it's those fatty acids it gets to repair itself with.
 
Hello

For information, some Sainsbury's food stores (Bury St Edmunds being one) have an arrangement with the local hospital whereby once a month they have a dietitician (or someone equivalent) go into their store and will take you round the store to show/advise you what you can have and what you can't have.

I found this most useful when i was first diagnosed.

Good luck :mrgreen:
 
Back
Top