diet and type 2 diabetes

I'm not surprised you are tired :shock: You need to eat!!!

You should always have breakfast as Metformin needs to be taken with food. Personally I tend to have some berries and some nuts (as I low carb) but on the weekend I'll have egg on granary toast.

You should have 3 meals a day, not eating will make you ill. Also if you eat properly, you won't need to snack on crisps (not good) or on jelly sweets (one of the worst things you can have!!!)

I don't mean to sound preachy, but with your diet and smoking you are seriously risking your organs and future health!

I agree, I think your body will thank you if you eat better and once improved the odd treat will be fine.

The sweets are basically pure sugar!

If you wanted to list a few meals that you do like you'll get some comments from people on how to improve things.

Do you still have weight to lose? That will help too. It's 5 weeks since I made changes and I feel better already and this group is a great help.

general_zod said:

the smoking is not doing me any favors at at all. I just want to be in control in my illness so I can have a better future.

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Non diabetic smokers run the risk of damage to their extremities. Feet etc. have circulation issues since they are the furthest thing from the pumping station. If you smoke then some of the red blood cells carry carbon monoxide around the body instead of oxygen so reducing the "quality" of the blood. In severe cases affected parts are amputated.

Diabetics may have high sugar levels in the blood which can also cause circulation issues. Extremities and fine capillaries can be damaged and probably will be in time.The damage to these capillaries will in turn cause nerve damage resulting in all kinds of other damage and in some cases it results in amputation of affected parts.

Can you see where I'm going with this?

A diabetic who smokes is getting a double whammy.

I'm glad I no longer smoke cigarettes.. What I do smoke (or vaporise) is a vasodilator. I need to get this household off of an addiction to pasta whilst my ma is away. When she's here we cook from scratch together but my dad opts for ready meals. Breaded things. I've learned that breaded things and breakfast cereal are Satan


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general_zod said:

I really need to have a a good look at my diet,

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Your current regime of missing some meals and snacking at odd times is typical but it's not a good approach. You need to eat good food regularly. It's more easily said than done I'm afraid but you can, with time and effort, get into a routine.

I like to cook and prepare all the meals. Nothing much out of a tin or packet, very little frozen. Things that are in these categories are ingredients, tin of tomatoes, packet of lentils or pearl barley, frozen green peas, that sort of thing. Mostly these things get added to soups and stews. My daily routine is porridge for breakfast and a piece of fruit mid morning. Lunch will be a salad or open sandwiches using pumpernickel or bread with high rye content. These I eat with sliced sausage and cheese, sometimes a tinned fish, like mackerel. Today's salad was essentially tomato with sliced red onion, olives and feta cheese with some salad greens and lightly drizzed with an oil and balsamic vinegar. Mid afternoon will see another piece of fruit.

Evening meals vary. In a week I aim for two red meat nights, two poultry nights, two fish nights and one vegetarian night. These meals are nearly always served with a carbohydrate filler but always one from the lower GI type. Tonight is a shin beef, tomato and shallots stew which has been slow cooked for 8 hours. The changes to the food structures is amazing when you cook like this as things break down chemically. I will have it with couscous. My wife will have it with mashed potatoes, but they would spike me something rotten, so I have the couscous. Still, I will add some spices to liven it up and maybe add some green peas. I could use brown rice but I'll have enough of that with curries.

For supper I will have a couple of dark rye crisp breads with very thinly sliced cheese and very thinly sliced pickled onion, or maybe a sardine paste.

For some reason, if I spend time preparing and cooking food, I am not hungry thinking about it. I even bake my own bread and have learned to enjoy the magical chemisty of it. Learning about spices too and how to cook with them has been fun. Feeling involved with the food that I eat seems to stop me overeating.