Diet and shiftwork

Hi @garydee1 and welcome to the forum.

Do you have access to drinking water? It is essential that you drink enough fluids during the day. If not, your Employer has a duty of care and this needs addressing.

If you tell us how you are managing now and the types of food you eat, we will try to help.

Do you have any other ailments/conditions ?
What are your shift patterns? It is not impossible to cover meals and shift patterns, many here do

As for testing, ideally on waking, before and after breakfast, same for lunch and dinner and then at bedtime. When you are first diagnosed these testing times, along with a food diary will help you understand which foods are raising your blood sugars.

I'll tag @daisy1 as she has a newbie's guide that will help.

@garydee1

Hello Gary and welcome to the forum

In addition to the information @catherinecherub has given you, here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Other members will be along soon to help you. Ask as many questions as you like and someone will be able to reply.


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 over 130,000 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

Reduce your 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

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

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

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

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

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 bloodglucose 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.

I can imagine that it must be a nightmare establishing any kind of routine when you're on split shifts. But there might be someone here who can advise with that.

As to your other points, our bodies turn all carbs into sugars. So think about pasta, rice, bread and spuds, in fact all the things you've grown to accept as staple parts of your diet. They are loaded with carbs and it's the total carbs you're interested in when looking at the food labelliing. There is a reference number of 260g intake per day. I don't know where this comes from but many of the folks on here have cut down on this significantly as a way of managing BG's. The challenge is finding other things to eat but it's not too hard and you'll get good advice here. You may want to search these forums for LCHF (low carb high fat) but that's a lifestyle choice not advocated by NHS (yet).

garydee1 said:

Greetings as a newbie here, I have not had the greatest start. Diagnosis at hospital, pressure to take metformin, which I have refused at this time. However, I work shifts and where I work, I have to follow airport security rules. So no liquids over 100ml. This leaves me with a quandry as to what to use as main meals and snacks. I am managing to maintain in side the guidlines set by nice. But when should I test and when should I eat.

Does anyone out there work shifts and how do you manage.

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I don't work shifts, so I've never lived that part, but I think, over time, we've all had to work out packed lunches or food arrangements for travelling, so hopefully we can help you at least a bit.

What sort of think would you normally have had, before diagnosis? And you mention ready meals. Are you allowed to take ready meals through your security screening? And finally, what sort of things do you like to eat?

Just trying to take some clues, so that we might point you in the right direction.

garydee1 said:

Thanks all for replying. I tend to like savoury as opposed to sweet stuff. Though before diagnosis my life choices were not the best, I have worked shifts all my working life and im going to miss those kebabs and fry ups. I have been taking through foods, with less than 4% sugars (not total carbs) so am learning here. Yes I can take ready meals through security, but has to be predominantly solids and not liquid. So yogurts and soups are out, rice pudding is in (not that i would eat rice pudding). As for fatty foods, again have to watch it as have controlled hypertension (god I am a wreck). I suppose I was hoping to find that supermakets and restaurants would label for diabetes, perhaps they should. In mean time your knowledge will prove invaluable. I have however also been surrised at some of the foods I can eat.

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Do you carry any excess weight?

Most elements of a fry up are diabetic friendly, and as you learn more about your blood and how things hang together you may feel more confident eating fattier foods.

Diabetes can run in families.

Well, you're here now, and the posters here can certainly give you some ideas. Lots of T2s start off carrying a bit of weight, but quite often the need to drop the cabrs facilitates weight loss, which is the silver lining I guess!!

By the sound of it, you could probably achieve quite good results if you can get your head around things. Quite a few people (including me) have achieve non-diabetic leves, and managed to hold them there. In my case, that's only just for about a year, so far, but it can be done. Like plenty of others, I don't take any medication either.

Have a really good read around the forum and have a look in the diet areas, as you'll get lots of ideas on there. There's a great thread called something like, "what have you eaten today?", where folks post what they've eaten that day. I've had some wonderful ideas via that thread.

It would also be good for you to have a look at the threads talking about the Newcastle Diet. That's a short, sharp shock and can lead to a real fast improvement in blood scores, and considerable weight loss. It's not the way forward for everyone. I didn't do it, but it would be good for you to have a read. There are a couple f guys doing it right now, and getting good results.

I'd be astonished if weight loss didn't help you. My bloods improved as my bit of excess dropped off, and my blood pressure really improved too.

That's your homework!!

But, finally (I have to go out), you didn't say what you would have had in the past for your mid-shift meal. Give us a few actual clues, rather than just "bad choices", because as you say, you might be surprised by some of the stuff you can have.

If you have access to cooking facilities then it will be a lot easier for you. Even a microwave makes it possible but make your own ready meals as most of the commercial ones are full of sugar and salt and unpronounceable chemicals. You can make a large batch of suitable ones and freeze into individual portions. It is a shame that you are not allowed soups but salads will be alright now and again. You can jazz up a salad to include, nuts, maybe beans and plenty of vegetable choices and they can be satisfying. Some people can cope with specialist breads, the possibilities are endless

Carbohydrates turn to glucose in the body and most people find that the more carbohydrates that they eat then the higher their blood glucose. You will find various examples of how many carbohydrates people eat to maintain their blood sugars, some below 10gms and anything in between up to about 150 so there is no one size fits all.
The essential tool you need is a blood glucose monitor to plot your readings. Not all G.P.s will give these out to Type2s and the main reason seems to be the cost of supplying test strips. If you have no luck with your G.P. people here can recommend a cheap one on sale.

Take your time to get your head around the advice you are being given, anything you don't understand then please ask. Nobody will be able to say with certainty what you should and shouldn't eat as our responses to foods are different. That is where your meter comes in.
Please also be aware that no two days may be the same and factors like exercise or lack of, stress, infections, poor night's sleep will affect your readings.

Most of all remember that this is a marathon and not a sprint, you will get days when you feel that you cannot get it right, others when it is plain sailing and then there will come a time when you know that you are getting there, you have grasped the fundamentals and things are improving.