hello all ... I have been reading through so many sites and there is so much information and so much of it I find confusing and contradictory. I had diagnosis confirmed on 7th March 2017 ... and I after reading all the bumpf oonline I am hesitant to put any food or drink in my body. What I need right now is a list of foods that are OK for me to eat (but shellfish as I am allergic), another list of foods i should avoid altogether, and lastly a list of food and drink I can have as a once a day treat, a digestive biccy with the morning cuppa for example.... or those lotus caramelised biscuits.
diabetic newbie here ...
- Thread starter aquonut56
- Start Date
miahara
Well-Known Member
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- 1,019
- Type of diabetes
- Type 3c
- Treatment type
- Insulin
Hi and welcome! @daisy1 will pop up with a very useful list for anyone newly diagnosed. A complete list of foods would be pretty long, but most folk here tend to follow LCHF (low carbohyrate, high fat) diets and of course cut out refined sugars. In essence this means that you don't overload your system with sugars as all the carbs you eat are turned into blood glucose during digestion. You can check the carb contents of most pre-packed foods by looking at the backs of the packets, don't be misled by the traffic lights on the fronts.
If you decide to go low carb the things to cut out or down on are the starchy foods such as potatoes, rice, pasta and bread. You can eat meat and fish and most veg, though some root vegs are a bit higher than others in carbs. Fruit is fairly ok, though some fruits are high in sugars, rasps, strawberries and blueberries are among the lower sugar fruits.
We all react differently to different foods, my BG spikes with porridge but others can tolerate it. The bset way to learn how foods affect you is to get a blood glucose test meter and test before and after a meal.
There are lists of diabetic friendly foods and I think there are probably some on this site along with recipes, but I found recipes on another UK diabetes site that were not all that low in carb content, so beware.
If you want a really very comprehensive list of the nutritional content of almost 3000 foods and have MS Excel you can download the Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset - just google for it.
Another good source of help is the book Reverse Your Diabetes by Dr David Cavan, it explains the condition and contains dietary advice. The first chapter -First of all; do not worry, take control, is good advice.
You'll get plenty help and advice from other members shortly. Just hang on in and don't panic!
Edit - I've just checked out digestive biscuits. A plain digestive's carb content is 65g/100g of carbs and a choc digestive 61.8/100g and both have a glycaemic index of just over 60 which is pretty high being 60% of that of pure glucose. So you'll be slightly better with the choc variety, but personally I wouldn't eat more than one
Dave
If you decide to go low carb the things to cut out or down on are the starchy foods such as potatoes, rice, pasta and bread. You can eat meat and fish and most veg, though some root vegs are a bit higher than others in carbs. Fruit is fairly ok, though some fruits are high in sugars, rasps, strawberries and blueberries are among the lower sugar fruits.
We all react differently to different foods, my BG spikes with porridge but others can tolerate it. The bset way to learn how foods affect you is to get a blood glucose test meter and test before and after a meal.
There are lists of diabetic friendly foods and I think there are probably some on this site along with recipes, but I found recipes on another UK diabetes site that were not all that low in carb content, so beware.
If you want a really very comprehensive list of the nutritional content of almost 3000 foods and have MS Excel you can download the Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset - just google for it.
Another good source of help is the book Reverse Your Diabetes by Dr David Cavan, it explains the condition and contains dietary advice. The first chapter -First of all; do not worry, take control, is good advice.
You'll get plenty help and advice from other members shortly. Just hang on in and don't panic!
Edit - I've just checked out digestive biscuits. A plain digestive's carb content is 65g/100g of carbs and a choc digestive 61.8/100g and both have a glycaemic index of just over 60 which is pretty high being 60% of that of pure glucose. So you'll be slightly better with the choc variety, but personally I wouldn't eat more than one
Dave
Last edited:
Resurgam
Expert
- Messages
- 9,868
- Type of diabetes
- Treatment type
- Diet only
Personally I stick to low carb foods, mostly under 10 percent carbs - as I find that really densely carb foods have a larger impact than I can cope with. By cutting out the high carb foods I have almost normal readings and still have a lot of delicious foods to chose from - in fact many people are surprised at just how well they can eat and yet see their BG levels dropping.
DevonVee
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 108
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
Hi
It depends on your levels. A nice treat is a cup of coffee with cream no sugar.
What you need to understand is that all carbs convert to sugar. This is what is sloshing around and you cannot process as well as before. The NHS guidelines you will be given tell you to eat plenty of carbs. This in the experience of a lot of people on this forum is wrong. Look up Sarah Hallberg on YouTube. She gives a simple explanation of why that approach is not working. Yes you can do it for a while but eventually will need to medicate more and more to control. If you ditch the carbs you can get control. I have only recently been diagnosed but have been insulin resistant for many years. I followed NHS advice and it did me no good. It is not easy realising that you are going to have to change what you eat if you want control.
Meat, green veg, nuts berries are good. A lot of fruit will cause you problems. Cut refined carbs like bread pasta white rice. Ditch all low fat stuff it is often packed with sugar.
Consider a blood glucose meter. It will tell you what carbs you tolerate better.
Consider low carb high fat. Natural fats replace the calories so you are not hungry.
Keep reading and don't panic. It will not kill you quickly. Make changes slowly that you can cope with.
It depends on your levels. A nice treat is a cup of coffee with cream no sugar.
What you need to understand is that all carbs convert to sugar. This is what is sloshing around and you cannot process as well as before. The NHS guidelines you will be given tell you to eat plenty of carbs. This in the experience of a lot of people on this forum is wrong. Look up Sarah Hallberg on YouTube. She gives a simple explanation of why that approach is not working. Yes you can do it for a while but eventually will need to medicate more and more to control. If you ditch the carbs you can get control. I have only recently been diagnosed but have been insulin resistant for many years. I followed NHS advice and it did me no good. It is not easy realising that you are going to have to change what you eat if you want control.
Meat, green veg, nuts berries are good. A lot of fruit will cause you problems. Cut refined carbs like bread pasta white rice. Ditch all low fat stuff it is often packed with sugar.
Consider a blood glucose meter. It will tell you what carbs you tolerate better.
Consider low carb high fat. Natural fats replace the calories so you are not hungry.
Keep reading and don't panic. It will not kill you quickly. Make changes slowly that you can cope with.
NoCrbs4Me
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 3,700
- Type of diabetes
- I reversed my Type 2
- Treatment type
- Other
- Dislikes
- Vegetables
Welcome to the forum! I usually recommend that newbie type 2s read "Blood Sugar 101" on this website:
If you manage to read the whole thing, you'll likely understand type 2 diabetes better than any HCP you consult with.
If you manage to read the whole thing, you'll likely understand type 2 diabetes better than any HCP you consult with.
Energize
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 810
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Tablets (oral)
Welcome @aquonut56 and welcome to the forum
All very good advice given above Cutting carbs is most likely contradictory to the advice the NHS 'professionals' have given you, if any yet. However, you don't need carbs, in spite of what you may get told, in the general opinion of the members here
Another thing you can do to help yourself considerably, in spite of what you are likely to be told by the nurse when you see him/her, is to buy yourself a meter and check which foods you can tolerate and which you don't. Yes, you may well be told that 'Type 2s don't need to test' but would you expect to be in control of a car if you didn't have the info from the panel, ie speedo, petrol gauge etc? Of course not - you'd be floundering, sooner or later
The most cost effective meters and test strips seem to be
SDCodeFree £11.99
Test Strips £7.69
https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/
Code for discount - 5 packs 264086; 10 packs 975833
Tee2 meter (Free)
Test strips £7.75/50
http://spirit-healthcare.co.uk/product/tee2-blood-glucose-meter/
There are lots more on the market but consider the cost of the test strips, as it's the strips that all add up cost-wise in the end.
All very good advice given above
Cutting carbs is most likely contradictory to the advice the NHS 'professionals' have given you, if any yet. However, you don't need carbs, in spite of what you may get told, in the general opinion of the members hereAnother thing you can do to help yourself considerably, in spite of what you are likely to be told by the nurse when you see him/her, is to buy yourself a meter and check which foods you can tolerate and which you don't. Yes, you may well be told that 'Type 2s don't need to test' but would you expect to be in control of a car if you didn't have the info from the panel, ie speedo, petrol gauge etc? Of course not - you'd be floundering, sooner or later
The most cost effective meters and test strips seem to be
SDCodeFree £11.99
Test Strips £7.69
https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/
Code for discount - 5 packs 264086; 10 packs 975833
Tee2 meter (Free)
Test strips £7.75/50
http://spirit-healthcare.co.uk/product/tee2-blood-glucose-meter/
There are lots more on the market but consider the cost of the test strips, as it's the strips that all add up cost-wise in the end.
Thanks guys .. that is really useful feedback and very much appreciated ...Welcome @aquonut56 and welcome to the forum
All very good advice given above
Another thing you can do to help yourself considerably, in spite of what you are likely to be told by the nurse when you see him/her, is to buy yourself a meter and check which foods you can tolerate and which you don't. Yes, you may well be told that 'Type 2s don't need to test' but would you expect to be in control of a car if you didn't have the info from the panel, ie speedo, petrol gauge etc? Of course not - you'd be floundering, sooner or later
The most cost effective meters and test strips seem to be
SDCodeFree £11.99
Test Strips £7.69
https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/
Code for discount - 5 packs 264086; 10 packs 975833
Tee2 meter (Free)
Test strips £7.75/50
http://spirit-healthcare.co.uk/product/tee2-blood-glucose-meter/
There are lots more on the market but consider the cost of the test strips, as it's the strips that all add up cost-wise in the end.
daisy1
Legend
- Messages
- 26,457
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Tablets (oral)
- Dislikes
- Cruelty towards animals.
@aquonut56
Hello and welcome to the Forum To complement the useful advice you have received, here is the Basic Information we give to newly diagnosed members. I hope this will be helpful and that you will received more advice from other members.
BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS
Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.
A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 147,000 people who are demonstrating this.
On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.
The role of carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.
If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.
The bad news
Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.
The good news
People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.
Controlling your carbs
The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.
The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.
Choosing better carbohydrates
The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.
Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.
Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a free 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.
Eating what works for you
Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.
To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.
The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:
Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.
You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.
Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. They're all free.
Hello and welcome to the Forum
To complement the useful advice you have received, here is the Basic Information we give to newly diagnosed members. I hope this will be helpful and that you will received more advice from other members.BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS
Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.
A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 147,000 people who are demonstrating this.
On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.
The role of carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.
If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.
The bad news
Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.
The good news
People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.
Controlling your carbs
The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
- Reduce your carbohydrate intake
- Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.
The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.
Choosing better carbohydrates
The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.
Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.
Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a free 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.
Eating what works for you
Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.
To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.
The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:
Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
- Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
- structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
- self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education
Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.
You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.
Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. They're all free.
- Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
- Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
