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Feeling a Little Overwhelmed

C

Crazy Joe

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hey.

Just thought I'd say hello. I had a phone call from my doctor on Monday, who told me I'd scored 56 on a HbA1C blood test and that I likely had diabetes. I have another blood test in the morning to confirm. Not really sure what happens next. Over the past few months I have successfully managed to lose 2 stone, so I guess I'm going in the right direction at least. My doctor said that hopefully I can manage this with lifestyle changes, rather than meds ...and I should look at reducing carbs. When I asked him if I should consider a keto diet, he said he wasn't a fan. So, yeah, I'm basically rummaging around on the Internet trying to work out what this impending diagnosis actually means ...and feeling guilty because I couldn't think of an alternative to brown rice for dinner this evening. Not having a particularly good week. But hello anyway.
 
Hi @Crazy Joe , welcome to the forum.
Crazy Joe said:
and feeling guilty because I couldn't think of an alternative to brown rice for dinner this evening.
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The easiest alternative is more of whatever you were having with the rice without the rice!
Another much used alternative is cauliflower rice, either pre-made from the supermarket, they tend to sell both fresh and frozen, or just buy a cauliflower and use a hand grater and you'll have cauliflower rice in only a fraction of the time it takes to cook real rice.

When going for the first option (just leave the rice or pasta), there are some nice cheap things you can use to make more of whatever you make: onions, cabbage celeriac can be added to many dishes without changing the flavour too much or in a bad way.
 
Crazy Joe said:
should consider a keto diet, he said he wasn't a fan
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Keto isn't actually a defined word, so it can mean different things to different people. A lot of doctors seem to think it is very high in fat, and is maybe unsustainable.
All I know is I've found a way of eating that suits my body, as evidenced by the results on my blood glucose monitor and my hba1c results. It's low carb with no gear of fats from meat and dairy. It doesn't have a name or a label.
I hope you find what suits you.
Do you have a meter? That should be your first step towards low carb.
 
I don't have a meter. I was only given the news yesterday. But someone else mentioned that there is such a thing as a continuous glucose monitor that gives feedback to my mobile on blood sugar levels and how they react to what I eat. I like the sound of that. Is this the same as you are talking about. If so I would be very interested in any tips about what to buy.
 
There are 2 types.
Cheapest is the finger prick type that uses test strips. The monitor itself can be cheap but watch you chose one were the strips aren't too expensive. At first , while you learn, you will get though a lot of strips, perhaps 8-10 a day
@Rachox has some info on what and where to buy.

The second sort are the continuous monitors where a sensor takes your bg through a fine needle being stuck to your arm. Results feed to your phone. Each sensor lasts 10-14 days depending on make and costs about £50 a week.

Both have their pluses and minuses. I use both, finger pricking once a day just to keep myself on track, but I buy a cgm when going on holiday or anywhere else where I can't in full control of my food. But this is after the first initial phase of learning what food does or doesn't suit me

Have a read round the forums, there's loads of opinions and info
 
What I would do, it being early days, is start with a meter and teststrips first before and after meals to get an idea on what to change.
And then invest in a Freestyle Libre to get a better understanding on patterns for some more finetuning.

A sensor is much more expensive than teststrips, so for me it would make sense to use the cheaper option while reading up and do my first experimenting.

Like @MrsA2 said, Rachox will give you info on meters, and I think they still give out a free sample of the Libre in the UK: https://www.freestylelibre.co.uk/libre/free-trial.html
 
I'm not on any kind of keto diet, but I naturally don't eat many carbs. I never have. I don't actively avoid foods with carbs I just don't enjoy eating high-carb foods like rice and bread and potato etc. So, I don't eat them. Never have. I'm not in ketosis either -- I have ketone test strips -- so I guess that the carbs I do eat are "enough" for me. My dietician is a bit angry with me for not eating enough carbs but I'm not going to eat something just for the sake of, err, eating enough carbs. I'm on insulin so I do understand that carbs are important but my sugar levels are going ok. I guess that I also need to consider what I'm eating instead of carbs to ward off complications but I don't eat a lot of saturated fat either. Sometimes I do, like yesterday, but more often I'm getting few carbs because I eat foods that have more fibre or protein than carbs... not higher in fat. So in general I'm not replacing carbs with fat and don't see the problem. I've got an appointment with a new dietician who hopefully understands that I'm not going to change my diet to include 42 million serves of carbs a day. I'll stick with my protein and non-starchy vegetables that I actually enjoy eating

Edit: I just checked and in the last two weeks about 20% of my daily energy intake was from carbs. This is what the dietician was "angry" about. The dietary guidelines in my country suggest 40-65% of energy intake comes from carbs. I just don't know how I can achieve that without adding bread, rice, couscous, etc, etc to every meal (and I don't like the taste and/or texture). I eat a lot of broccoli, zucchini (squash) and other vegetables because I do like them, but they have more water and fibre than digestible carbs. Hopefully the new dietician understands that I'm not eating like this because I've joined a diet, it's just my normal... diet
 
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As a T2 I'm of a similar mind to @MrsA2 regarding "keto" - as far as I'm concerned a ketogenic diet is essentially an ultra low carb one where we are burning fats/ketones as our main energy source rather than carbs. So it's simply(!) a matter replacing one form of fuel (carbs) with another (fats) which should help reduce our glucose levels. No special food required! In general around 20-25g carbs will virtually guarantee you end up producing ketones, and then below 50g carbs a day to help keep you in ketosis. I've eaten this way for over 9 years now and have been able to keep my glucose levels to lower pre-diabetic - much of the time without any diabetic meds at all.

In a slightly different form a ketogenic diet was first used in the 1790s for the management of T2 diabetes so it's nothing new. There's also a strict therapeutic version used since the early 1900s for both managing epilepsy, and to (slightly) help T1 diabetics before invention of insulin.. However it seems to me that this low carb way of eating has currently been turned into a fashionable/trendy money spinner for special "keto" foods, diets, cookery books, , clubs, websites, etc.

As already mentioned, a glucose meter (or sensor) is a vital tool for helping determine and manage your glucose levels, and if you choose to go very low carb , urine test strips are a fairly cheap initial way of testing whether you're producing ketones, but in general when you've adapted to using them you won't normally be eliminating them as waste, so there are blood ketone meters and strips to check for them by pricking fingers as you do for glucose.
 
I don't think I agree with a keto diet for T1 diabetics who are on insulin. That sounds scary, but I could be wrong. I do agree that the low-carb way of eating has become a trend/fad. I don't eat low carb because of a conscious choice though and I roll my eyes whenever I see a package of food in the supermarket with "keto friendly" plastered all over the packaging
 
The OP is T2, so my post was mainly related to our use of low carb /ketogenic diets. However I actually found it interesting and informative when I discovered that very restricted carbohydrate diets were used in the 1920s BEFORE insulin first became available for T1 treatment, as there was no other treatment available, but no way was I suggesting it was currently a viable alternative, though I am aware that some of our T1 members choose to limit their carbohydrate intake too.

ETA: It's also worth being aware that we don't need to consume any carbs at all: our brain however does require about 120g glucose a day for its basic functions, which can be generated by our liver, but the rest of its needs can alternatively be fuelled by ketones.
 
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I didn't mean to sound as if I was disagreeing with your post; I found your post interesting. I was just discussing Since we're on the subject, before insulin became available the prognosis for T1 diabetics was not good, even if they were on a low-carb diet. You know that though I guess

Edit: I'm not suggesting that we need carbs either. What I am suggesting is that T1s on insulin and who are also on a fixed dose of bolus insulin might need a certain amount of carbs just to counteract the insulin. I'm on a fixed dose of bolus so I have to have carbs whether I like it or not otherwise I go low
 
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£50 per week for Libre2? Wow that's expensive. In Canada we pay $96 every 2 weeks. I am interested as I am spending next winter in Wales.
 
Sorry to only just respond to your tag @MrsA2, @Crazy Joe here’s some info on UK meters, and to be clear I have no commercial connections with any of the companies mentioned.

HOME HEALTH have the Gluco Navii, which is a fairly new model and seems to be getting good reviews if you use this link and select the meter plus 5 packs of strips, and then add the code dcuk (all lower case) at check out you may get money off, I’m not sure if this code is still valid.


https://homehealth-uk.com/all-produ...ose-meter-test-strips-choose-mmol-l-or-mg-dl/


Links to the strips for future orders:


https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/glucose-navii-blood-glucose-test-strips-50-strip-pack/


There are also discount codes for when you come to buy more strips - "navii5" and "navii10" will give you 20% off purchases of 5 packs of strips and 25% off 10 packs of strips respectively. Again I’m not sure if these codes are still valid.


Then they sell the older SD Code Free, details to be found here!


https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/


Discount codes for the Code Free strips, again I haven’t used them in a while.

5 packs 264086

10 packs 975833



SPIRIT HEALTHCARE have a meter called the Tee2 + which is quite popular however I haven’t been able to find it on their website lately.


(Old link which doesn’t work for me now but maybe works for you, if it doesn’t try the phone number below

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...e2-blood-glucose-meter?variant=19264017268793 ) or Google it and you’ll find it’s available from other outlets.


The strips are to be found here:

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...py-of-tee2-test-strips?variant=19264017367097


Some members have got a free Tee2+ by phoning up to order, with a large order of strips they often throw the meter in for free:


Phone number 0800 8815423


If there is a choice of units of measurement then ‘mmol/L’ are the standard units in the UK, ‘mg/dl’ in the US, other countries may vary.

Here’s the link to the Freestyle Libre site, this is what I use these days, https://www.freestylelibre.co.uk/libre/products.html

Don’t forget to check the box if you have pre diabetes or diabetes so you can buy VAT free. (for all meters and strips)
 
But the original post is by a non medicated, newly diagnosed T2 who has already mentioned that they are feeling overwhelmed. Talk of fixed dose insulin and needing to have carbs to avoid going low is not going to help Crazy Joe deal with this diagnosis or any anxiety it has caused.
 
Yes, I was wrong
 
Let's go back on track folks.

By all means start a new thread on low carb and insulin/T1, it's a very interesting subject!

But let's not forget this thread was posted by someone who was only diagnosed with T2 two days ago, unmedicated, and feeling overwhelmed enough already.
 
Hi and welcome to the forums. I have been doing an extremely low carb way of eating for over three years now, and most days (I mean 95% plus) I take in around 20g carb, mainly incidentally in eg green veg or soft cheese. It is working very well for me - see my sig block fpor details. I do sometimes describe this as "keto" in that it's the sort of level I need to be at to initiate and maintain ketosis, which is a natural process by which the metabolic system uses body fat as fuel, producing ketones in the process. There is sometimes confusion between dietary ketosis, and diabetic ketoacidosis. DKA is very serious, combines high blood glucose with high levels of ketones, and can be fatal.

However, if you go into any supermarket you'll see a range of things described as a "keto bar" or similar. Last time I looked at one of these, it had in a 100g bar (iirc) 40g sugars, plus some other things I didn't recognise and which might also have been sugars. "Keto" as a term isn't defined, so food manufacturers are free to stick the term on anything they fancy, no matter how misleading it might be. I suppose they must get sales through it, presumably from people who don't read labels.
 
Melgar said:
£50 per week for Libre2? Wow that's expensive. In Canada we pay $96 every 2 weeks. I am interested as I am spending next winter in Wales.
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Sorry I mistyped... the Libre in the UK is £50 a sensor which lasts 2 weeks
 

Just to confirm, the code was still valid a week ago and gave a 25% discount
 
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