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Diet help please

A

AndreaC

Newbie
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Hi all. I am new and recently diagnosed type 2. I am not finding the doctors or nurse very helpful and still confused on how to control my glucose bloods :( When i ask for guidance and a diet sheet I am told they dont do them anymore and to just eat sensibly and healthy. Thats all ok and i think I am eating sensibly but I keep having lows and struggling.

Basicaly I wake and my levels are at 3.8, I eat a bowl of weetobix and a banana but only get my bloods as high as 5.3, then i struggle through the day to get them up, so have chocolate which sends my bloods then up to 11+. All the time im feeling so drained and lethargic and I am struggling to get through the days as have what feels like no energy. yesterday at work I Got the shakes, sweat, lethargic and anxious. My friend at work made me somthing to eat to get sugars up again, before that we took my glucose blood levels and it was 6.2? I dont get why I was having a hypo at that reading? After eating I was fine but flushed and felt even more drained wanting to sleep.

I really dont understand any of it on how to control things. I am getting to scared to eat and then to scared not to eat as it seems no matter what i do I never balance out.

Because I am recently diagnosed I am not on tablets as they want to monitor how i go on diet alone.
 
Were those recent lows when the weather was very hot?
I ask, because I usually have good control and the hot weather just wiped me out last week.
Otherwise.
If you eat normal chocolate, it will shoot yoour bg up, it's full of sugar.. Try to avoid sugar if you can and if you crave chocolate, Go for the 85% cocoa solids type.
Eating healthily is problematic, because most people think that means low fat and high carb. that will usually cause problems to diabetics. I can't really understand lows of 3.8 if you are not taking any tablets. Write down a typical days menus and we'll se if we can help.
 
Hi. No this was during this week when it has been cooler.

Breakfast: Weetobix with semi skimmed milk, fresh ornage juice.
Mid morning snack 10.30: banana, 1 digestive. (fruit may vary with pears or apples)
Lunch: Cracker breads with low fat spread and salad, or, soup and bread roll or Ham salad cob.
Mid afternoon snack 3pm: 2x digestive or rich tea biscuits
Dinner: either spagetti bolognaise or steamed salmon, potatoes & vegs or Rice and chicken or pasta and pesto with steamed veg.
Before bed 11pm I have a apple or peice of fruit which helps me feel better when getting up in the morning for some reason.

I dronk loads, mainly decafinated tea (I dont have sugar) or water. I dont drink pop or cordial juices. The above is a guide to give you idea of how I eat as some meals vary for variety.

fast bg thismorning was better at 5.7. Not aure why as didnt do anything different?

I also dont understand safe levels. I mean what is classed as low that you need to do something about it, and whats classed as high? There are so many different things said I am confused and want to be able to keep on top of it all so dont have problems and end up feeling ill.
 
Hi andrea,
Unlike you, I can't have weetabix as they sky rocket my blood sugars!
I am on low carb, so i don't eat bread,pasta,rice,
You can have something called flase hypo this means your blood sugars drop all of a sudden to levels you are not used to! This then gives you a hypo feeling,
I worry about a hypo when my blood sugars drop to below 4!
I find that in the heat my body goes through more hypo's as it can't cope with the heat!
Diabetes reacts to orange juice, Andrea you are okay if in a hypo situation!
I find that if i eat bread i am through the roof the whole time!
Andrea this link explains the whole false hypo, I found it put a few things into place for me
http://diabetesupdate.blogspot.com/2007 ... hypos.html
I hope this helps explain a little! It is all very confusing! I hope this will help explain a few things!
Sandy
 
Hi Andrea, I'll comment individually on your foods, but you still seem to be having quite a high carb diet, which certainly wouldn'r work for me, I'd have to take masses of medicine, which I've chosen not to dp




Breakfast: Weetobix(68% carb) with semi skimmed milk, fresh ornage juice.(9% carb)

Mid morning snack 10.30: banana, 1 digestive. (fruit may vary with pears or apples) All fruits contain carbs, bananas are particularly full of them 23%)
Lunch: Cracker breads(71%) with low fat spread and salad, or, soup and bread roll or Ham salad cob. Most breads 45% to 55% carb depending on type
Mid afternoon snack 3pm: 2x digestive or rich tea biscuits(plain biscuits 68% to 75% depending on type)
Dinner: either spagetti bolognaise or steamed salmon, potatoes & vegs or Rice and chicken or pasta and pesto with steamed veg. Spaghetti(Pasta25% rice32%)
Before bed 11pm I have a apple or peice of fruit which helps me feel better when getting up in the morning for some reason.

I dronk loads, mainly decafinated tea (I dont have sugar) or water. I dont drink pop or cordial juices. The above is a guide to give you idea of how I eat as some meals vary for variety.

fast bg thismorning was better at 5.7. Not aure why as didnt do anything different?
As you can see, depending on your portion sizes, you are eating a fairly high proportion of carbs.
I note you avoid sugar. that is good, but starches turn to blood sugar too and so do natural sugars in fruit.
I couldn't get away with your diet, I'd be sugar loaded.
Also you avoid fats. you don't need to. Don't eat masses of fats, but don't be scared o them, they don't affect your Blood Glucose.
Some suggestions for changes.
Breakfast
eggs ( scrambled in the microwave is quick.)
Snacks
nuts or seeds
Fruit
Berries are lower carb than apples or bananas. Juice is a trap.Smoothies are potentially catastrophic
Lunch
Have salad instead of cracker bread. I sometimes make my own burgers and wrap in a lettuce leaf instead of a bun
Dinner
Extra green veg intead of pasta or rice, or a tiny Portion of steamed New potatoes( 2 walnut size is my portion)

I also dont understand safe levels. I mean what is classed as low that you need to do something about it, and whats classed as high? There are so many different things said I am confused and want to be able to keep on top of it all so dont have problems and end up feeling ill.
A safe level is to stay close to 5 -6 at all times and up to 7 after meals. Going below 4 may impair your function.
Get yourself a copy of Collins Little Gem Calorie guide. It's under £5 and small enough to fit into your bag. As a general rule if sometihing contains more than 10% carb, think carefully about eating it.
Carry some glucotabs or lucozade if that's at all likely
 
Have a read here

http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/d-day.html

then have a look through the Stickies and Success Stories for more ideas.

In view of your lows, without medication (if you were taking pills I'd suggest you were overmedicated) you might be suffering what I used to have - Reactive Hypoglycemia - where the carbs in what you eat shoot your BG up, but your insulin doesn't turn up until too late, and too much, and drops your BG rapidly. You react not just to the BG low but the rate at which it drops.

What they currently call a "healthy" diet has far too many carbs and not enough fat for normal people. and is even worse for diabetics. I'd suggest testing about half an hour after you eat, then at 1, 2, 3 and 4 hours afterwards, to see if I'm right and your BG goes up and then crashes down. Best way to deal with this is to drop the carbs until you no longer get the highs, then the lows will look after themselves. Also probably a good plan to eat little and often rather than a few big meals, and spread your carbs out over the day.

You can eat more or less as much as you please from this list

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/joomla/free-veggies

also meat and especially fish, eggs, nuts and cheese should all work without causing BG spikes. Keep some fast carbs like fruit juice in reach in case you go low again but use it sparingly.

Long term, exercise will help to reduce your insulin resistance. Don't panic, with the right information this can be quite controllable. If they offer metformin I'd take it.
 
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