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food Yes or No

Hi Resurgam
My mornings start with one toast crumpet or toast 19/20g carbs 0: 9:00hrs
Lunch time either fish or cheese or sliced ham 5-6g 13:00 hrs
Tea time again a sandwich (half slice) cheese or ham 18:00 sometime have a slimming world meal but making sure its under 10g carbs
thats it unless I feel like a treat of a few (5) crisps
Keep feeling tired all the time, but put it down to old age, and my depression doesn't help, I don't test myself as my quack advised against it????
well done for the remission bit. I need to lose about 4 stone.
 
Guzzler said:
One way to look at it is like this, the NHS mantra on diet hasn't changed much in the last 20-30 years but the rates of obesity and Type 2 Diabetes has soared in that time. Obviously, summat is wrong, right?

Lowering carbs is not an "extreme" option. Lowering your carb intake will aid your health and well being as well as lessening the risks of complications fiurther down the line.

A carb is a carb no matter what colour it is and it is carbs that do the damage.
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Excellent quote @Guzzler a carb is a carb.. brilliant!! :)
 
You know I like that "A carb is a carb" but you forgot unless its a fuel injector. (sorry couldn't resist that, old motorcycle habits die hard)
but you are absolutely right by cutting down on my carbs I know its better for me, and I do love my red meat, without the chips now.
 
Thank you for adding me.
Is sliced corned beef or spam ok for pre diabetics please?
 
shh139 said:
Thank you for adding me.
Is sliced corned beef or spam ok for pre diabetics please?
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I've been known to eat a whole pack of sliced corned beef for a meal. Its fine for my bg and high enough in fat to keep me feeling full.

Spam I haven't looked at but it i think is you read the ingredients and nutrition label it will be much lower rmeat content and full of fillers

What does your meter tell you about what they do to your body?
 
A tin of 90% meat spam has 3.5g carb per 100g a tin I think is 340g so that would make a can about 12g carb.
 
The information about diet is very confusing. Part of the problem is we are conditioned to think high fat is bad but for diabetics carbs are the enemy.

I usually have porridge in the morning with either cinnamon and a few blueberries or a small spoon of peanut butter and wondering if that is the wrong thing now.

Must admit I like a bit of grilled spam and love corned beef, problem is both can be very expensive now (used to be a cheap food).

My problem is I like corned beef in a sandwich, preferably wholemeal with seeds, which is probably a No No.

Very difficult to know what to do for the best.
 
andrewk75 said:
The information about diet is very confusing. Part of the problem is we are conditioned to think high fat is bad but for diabetics carbs are the enemy.

I usually have porridge in the morning with either cinnamon and a few blueberries or a small spoon of peanut butter and wondering if that is the wrong thing now.

Must admit I like a bit of grilled spam and love corned beef, problem is both can be very expensive now (used to be a cheap food).

My problem is I like corned beef in a sandwich, preferably wholemeal with seeds, which is probably a No No.

Very difficult to know what to do for the best.
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So test those meals with a meter. (Before starting to eat and 2 hrs later) you want to create a “normal” response by adjusting the carbs in the meal. So that means a rise between the two readings of 2mmol or less. Once you are eating foods that do that all the other readings will improve. Porridge and bread, of any type, are usually no go or very limited items for most type 2 but test and see for yourself what your response to them is.
 
HSSS said:
So test those meals with a meter. (Before starting to eat and 2 hrs later) you want to create a “normal” response by adjusting the carbs in the meal. So that means a rise between the two readings of 2mmol or less. Once you are eating foods that do that all the other readings will improve. Porridge and bread, of any type, are usually no go or very limited items for most type 2 but test and see for yourself what your response to them is.
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Thanks I have never had to test before, but will get myself a meter. The annoying thing is when I was first diagnosed and went to a diet session for the newly diagnosed porridge was one of the foods suggested as was wholemeal bread.
 
andrewk75 said:
Thanks I have never had to test before, but will get myself a meter. The annoying thing is when I was first diagnosed and went to a diet session for the newly diagnosed porridge was one of the foods suggested as was wholemeal bread.
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Sadly that’s the nhs low fat, whole grain advice that’s standard for diabetic or not. It didn’t work for many of us in here to neither to stop us getting type 2 nor definitely not to solve it - unless our previous diet was full of sugar and processed stuff Then I guess it helps. And the nhs seems to assume we were all fat lazy gluttons stuffing our faces with sugar all day. Not helpful or true. Oddly they do also find low carb programs and some practices are very switched on. So it’s pot luck what advice you get.

They also don’t advise testing as 1) many dont understand how to test food suitability, only for insulin dosing and hypo avoidance so they can t teach what they don’t know as thus see it as pointless 2) they’d have to fund it if they recommend it and they can’t afford to under short term financial plans even though it’d saves millions long term 3) some people won’t use the data or won’t want to test so another excuse not to recommend it.

@Rachox has info on the most economical to “run” as the cost is in the strips much more than the meter itself.
 
Thanks very much, this is very useful. When I was newly diagnosed someone did suggest a high fat low carb diet which went against NHS advice. I just tried to lower carbs, have porridge for breakfast as the healthy option with scrambled eggs with a slice of wholemeal/seeded toast as a weekend treat. Might be something to have more regularly and have the porridge as a treat.

I will get myself a monitor, as I am about to start taking Forxiga and worried that cutting carbs significantly could raise the risk of hypos. That is aside from needing to pee more often with the inconveniences that brings.

Thanks again.
 
Ah. Forxiga is an sglt2 medication. They dont always play nicely with very low carb diets. In rare but real cases they can cause a dka without the typical high blood glucose warnings. The advice is to use other medications if using a very low carb diet, assuming the medical staff involved are aware of this contraindication that is! (And low carb may well avoid the need to take those extra medications anyway)

in general we should adjust medication to a suitable diet - not the other way around if you want to reduce long term complications and reliance on drugs that don’t always address to the root causes (insulin resistance in type 2), not just the more obvious symptoms (High blood glucose as a result of insulin resistance).
 
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andrewk75 said:
Thanks I have never had to test before, but will get myself a meter. The annoying thing is when I was first diagnosed and went to a diet session for the newly diagnosed porridge was one of the foods suggested as was wholemeal bread.
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My NHS "newly diagnosed" course came with a Diabetic Nurse telling everyone to eat lots of starchy carbs and avoid fats, and a newly qualified NHS dietitian telling us that dietary fat is your friend, carbs are not essential and are the driver behind raised blood glucose levels. Sounds like your course was the "eat more carbs" sort.

I was already on the low carb path but it was good to know that at least some people in the NHS are returning to the traditional pre-1980s advice of reducing starches and sugars - ie carbohydrates - in the diet.

The key to all this for individuals is blood glucose testing - it's how you know which foods do what to your system. I've found (I'm in my fifth year of ~20g carb/day) that I've got a little better at dealing with some carbs - I'm not inclined to push that too far. You'll only know whether you're happy with how you handle porridge (for example) if you have information on how well your system can clear the resulting BG rise.
 
I will reduce my carbs but not drastically initially just to see how I get on. I spoke to the pharmacist and he suggested not doing anything too drastic initially but to see how I got on with the additional meds first.

I know that my carb count is too high, which is why my Hba1c figure doesn't seem to go down much, so there is scope to reduce it without cutting it out drastically/completely in one go.
 
JoKalsbeek said:
. Because of my wonky thyroid I can't go as low as I'd like, but I average 75 grams of carbs a day,
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Hi, sorry to take thread off topic - I also have a dodgy thyroid - underactive. Just wondering what the reasoning is for not going ultra low carb?
 
Helen H said:
Hi, sorry to take thread off topic - I also have a dodgy thyroid - underactive. Just wondering what the reasoning is for not going ultra low carb?
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My thyroid has recovered a bit of activity on low carb according to the annual tests I have had for decades now. I used to need 200 micrograms of Thyroxine and now I am down to 125 daily, prescribed dose, but I feel uncomfortable taking that amount and get heart palpitations, so I am going to suggest lowering the prescription to make it official that I need it reduced again
 
Resurgam said:
My thyroid has recovered a bit of activity on low carb according to the annual tests I have had for decades now. I used to need 200 micrograms of Thyroxine and now I am down to 125 daily, prescribed dose, but I feel uncomfortable taking that amount and get heart palpitations, so I am going to suggest lowering the prescription to make it official that I need it reduced again
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Thanks for the reply, that is interesting that your diet has made a difference. I have been on 100mg thyroxine for 5 years now and my levels have been stable and good. I am currently doing keto to lose some weight (not a lot as my bmi is now 23) but still like to get rid of some excess belly fat. I will have to keep an eye out for any symptoms to do with my thyroid just in case (not due another test until October).
 
Helen H said:
Hi, sorry to take thread off topic - I also have a dodgy thyroid - underactive. Just wondering what the reasoning is for not going ultra low carb?
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The "reasoning" in 2018 was mainly nonsense from my endo, but I didn't know that at the time. Since then I've done carni/zero carb, which admittedly had drawbacks that had nothing to do with my thyroid, and I've stuck with keto for the most part. And intermittent fasting, and, well, you know, everything my endo would've frowned and tutted at.
 
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