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fruit and root veg? Oat bran? what to eat?

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Fighterofprediabetes

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Hello everyone. My doctor has said I am prediabetic; Hba1c level 47. fasting blood glucose 6.6. She wants to do repeat blood tests in 3 months. I am 79kg and 5 foot 5. So trying to lose weight too. And cholestorol also too high.
I have always tried to have a good mixture of fruit and veg, but would I be best having no fruit at all.. for example today I have had a plum. a pear and half an apple!

I had also been making myself cheap simple soup with carrot and onion but are all root veg to be avoided?

Am having cabbage broccoli and curly kale as veg but I would much prefer peas, carrots onion parsnip... ! are all root veg really bad?

I am a cheese lover so need to cut out a lot of that to help with cholestorol. Was eating oat bran, as I thought this would help cholestorol , and gives fibre, but maybe that has too many carbs??Have already cut out bread and having tiny portions of potato and the like. and no cake or biscuits needless to say. And not having breakfast cereal. In view of need to reduce cholestoral how many eggs a week could I have. I do like nuts but they are high in calories too. So what is it best to fill up on?

I would be grateful for any advice and encouragement please as I really would like to halt my progression into type 2 diabetes. And by the way I have watched several programs from Michael Mosley who advocates quick weight loss with very restricted calories. I know for sure I could not stick to that, hence asking for advice. Thank you !
 
Hello and welcome. This link has lots of basic and helpful information for you: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/basic-information-for-newly-diagnosed-diabetics.26870/
 
Quick reply

1. Dump the fruit, full of sugars ...
2. More eggs the better.
3. Cheese no problems
4. No brans / cereals of ANY type ... full of carbs
5. Fish and meats and chicken fine
6. Root veg problematic at best
7. More high fats

CARBS / SUGARS (same thing effectively) are the problem, NOT cholesterol.

8. Get a meter to test your bloods. Pronto ... you're dancing dangerously on the edge of being diabetic and once you're there, no way to return to "normal"
 
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Hi and welcome,

what is the carb content of the oat bran you are using?

I have seen some that is basically just fibre, with very little blood glucose impact, with all the carby stuff removed, and I’ve seen stuff like Allbran which has added sugar and rubbish which would impact blood glucose.

getting a blood glucose meter and checking out your foods and overall meals will enable you to tailor your intake to suit your body.
 
I like every thing what Mike D wrote, personally I have been following almost same diet for long time and I take no medicine, I am pre diabetic.
 
Fighterofprediabetes said:
thank you for the replies I have received. still working out how this forum works. need to get meter soon then!
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I always say a CGM such as libre freestyle is best as it gives 14 days worth of readings 24/7. Expensive but worth it. Can use your phone as the reader so no need to buy one of those. I also found Ben Bikman, his books, podcasts, website etc to be really useful to give an understanding of what is happening in your body. Personally I find knowing how the carbs etc affect my body helps me to avoid them. Good luck with it all, it can be quite daunting but you CAN get your blood sugar/ insulin down.
 
Thank you for your comments. have just looked at the libre, I am now retired so need to be aware of costs but doing nothing is not an option! Might be worth getting a libre as you say as it would give good indication to a newbie like me as to the direct effect of certain foods. I had never heard of Ben Bikman before; thank you I have found several articles and you tube videos so will look at those later. Thank you for taking the time to reply and pointing me to good advice
 
thank you; i bave used all the oat bran now so dont have the packet; was mainly using to increase fibre intake and hopefully reduced cholesterol but for the moment I am going to concentrate on reducing carbs. Thank you for your comments. There is a lot of advice to read!
 
Omar51 said:
I like every thing what Mike D wrote, personally I have been following almost same diet for long time and I take no medicine, I am pre diabetic.
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Thanks a lot for your specific comments. I am going to reduce carbs considerably and also for the moment avoid fruit. I am not a great lover of green veg and normally prefer say carrots onions parsnip. But yesterday I had a good portion of broccoli and also curly kale, I don't like luke warm veg so made sure I served these hot and ate them before they had chance to become cold! Meter for testing will be delivered tomorrow and i may even get a libre as someone else suggested even if just for 14 days while i assess affect of certain foods. thanks again
 
I will rest on my comments .... best of luck
 

Refer to Mike's post above.

Best to kill carbs and fruit completely. 47 is dangerously close to diabetes as has been pointed out. You probably don't have much time to remediate the situation.

Welcome to monk's life (if you want to get this under control).
 
Abbots are doing a free trial of the Libre 2 if you're in the UK, you have to answer a couple of questions about Diabetes , and download the libre link to a smartphone
 
Rach612 said:
How are you getting on? Is the GP going to repeat your HBA1c test? Really hope you’ve managed to get your number down.
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Hello it is kind of you to ask. Indeed I will be having a repeat HBA1c test in June so really hope there will be a noticeable difference. Am testing with a meter at the moment. Drastically reduced carbs and virtually eliminated fruit at least for the moment. Am avoiding any high readings and for the moment I am not taking too much notice of the "fasting" reading BUT what concerns me possibly is that even after meals, 2 to 3 hours after my reading will be something like 6.2 6.3 6.4. 6.5 So that seems to be my "base" low. Having said that I have lost nearly 5kg weight in about 5 weeks so hoping that weight loss will result in change to blood sugar levels soon. ?? Any idea how soon I should see reduction in HBA1c after weight loss?) Enjoying bacon and egg for breakfast. for the moment concentrating on blood sugar level and not cholesterol level. Thank you again for following up me.. it is really nice to know that there are folks like you who are sufficiently interested in a total stranger to offer support and advice . Further comments most welcome!
 
Fighterofprediabetes said:
BUT what concerns me possibly is that even after meals, 2 to 3 hours after my reading will be something like 6.2 6.3 6.4. 6.5
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that is well within the normal range. What is your number before eating? The important bit is that the gap between before and 2 hours after is 2 or less points.
 
Hello again folks. I cannot believe that it is nearly 3 years since I first posted on here. Several of you gave me some very helpful comments. During the last 3 years I did initially lose quite a bit of weight, definitely cut down on carbs and fruit and was doing regular exercise. But I am very cross with myself as I have let things slip again; there is really no excuse. I am angry as I do believe I could have prevented getting into the diabetic range.

Have had another HBA1c test last week. had a call from the Practice Nurse today to say the result was 48, so the Doctor has given me a telephone appointment for the middle of March. Does this mean that I am automatically now declared to be Type 2 diabetic? I thought maybe she would get me straight in and start me on metmorfin or something but she apparently does not think any urgent treatment is needed. Is that normal?

My feelings this evening are a mix of being angry with myself, and a failure as I reckon that I should have been able to prevent getting to this situation. From tomorrow I am going to try to resume having a brisk walk twice a day if I can as I am sure that helped with my numbers before.

Whenever I think about food and choices I seem to crave more the things I should not have. This evening I had fish in breadcrumbs (the breadcrumbs are no good for me , I know. and some sprouts and broccoli, neither of which I like. It is a shame when you finish a meal thinking you did not enjoy it at all. I think my husband and I may have to have different meals as he loves meals like stews which at this time of year would contain a lot of root vegetables. I guess we can separate the meat and cook different accompaniments for me, I also dislike kale and spinach even though I know they are good for me.

Sorry to ramble on; by the morning I will pick my spirits up and get in fighting mode again for the sake of my own health and I want to be around long enough to see my grandchildren as they get older.

Nuts, eggs, plain fish; I definitely will incorporate more of these in my meals again. And I do not sleep well so I am sure that makes my blood sugars worse.

Bye for now, whoever is out there and struggling too. I know there are a lot of people worse off than me. I do not feel sorry for myself JUST ANGRY WITH MYSELF
 
I get angry at myself at times too. Think it's part of it, particularly when so much of our society is around "bad for type 2" foods.
However, there plenty of help and support on here.
Some simple food swaps might help you.
Try mashing sprouts with butter and cream to make a lurid but good tasting mash, or mash celeriac or swede to have with stews.

I eat some root veg, carrots for example, but just a few. Potatoes and parsnips are definitely off the menu though.

Do you have a finger prick meter and some up to date test strips?
I find actually seeing what those thing do to me quite motivating
 
Usually it takes two HbA1c tests in the diabetic range to be diagnosed, and at 48 you're exactly on the diagnostic threshold... I don't know how your practice does it, but if they test a next time in a month or so to confirm diagnosis, your numbers may have dropped down again to prediabetic/non-diabetic numbers. Anger is fine, just use it to do something constructive, fuel your willpower with it if you can, and hey presto, you're on your way to good again.

You might be offered medication, it's your choice whether to accept it or no. But just a few tweaks in diet should make all this go away again, so it might not even get that far.

At 48, you've still been doing something right, because if the penchant for T2 is already there, I would expect worse from someone who became lax with the diet, actually. So you've not let the ball drop too badly. Take heart, and kick ***!

Hugs,
Jo
 
Don't be angry with yourself, a level of 48, due to variations in Hba1c tests, is effectively where you were 3 years ago. You've done well to stop any decline for 3 years. They cannot diagnose on that figure, as it is borderline, hence another test. So by knuckling down until the second test, your number only needs to drop by 1 mmol to stave off diagnosis. DON'T be angry, this test is the wake up call you needed, to realise, pre diabetes is a constant skirmish, that you know you have the tools to stave off the war.
 
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