Good evening - new here

Welcome

There is a vegetarian section where you’ll find members that manage low carb without meat or fish who be able to guide you. https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/vegetarian-diet-forum.71/

Personally I’m not sure I could do it that way. It’s certainly not easiest choice for a diabetic that needs to eat low carb so if you’ve made that choice for moral reasons that’s the best place to head for ideas and help. If you however chose to not eat meat believing it was the healthy option you may want to rethink that in light of diagnosis and ease of diabetic control. No pressure or judgment either way.

If you’re going down the short sharp shock of very low calories (again not sure I could do that) then make sure you have a plan for what follows this as it’s a short term temporary kickstart. Some members have had some good success with it and if you do searches you’ll find their stories (also known as the Newcastle diet).

And please do keep a close eye on your numbers. Glicazide and a drastic dietary change can result in hypos. If the numbers go too low go back to your medics and ask for it to be lowered. Eating more carbs to match your meds is counter productive

Hi @RachelN76 and welcome to the forum. First let me tag in @daisy1 for her useful info post in case you haven’t stumbled across it yet. I’ve used a low carb way of eating since diagnosis two years ago when my HbA1c was 70. I take just Metformin and got my HbA1c non diabetic in four months. I’ve lost a shed load of weight too. I can’t help you with the veggie aspects of taking on this way of eating but there’ll be plenty of others who can advise you.

RachelN76 said:

Thank you - to be honest, it was your posts that made me think about the low carb high fat thing! And I probably remember your posts because of the stunning picture.

I suppose I’m a moral/habitual veggie. Went veggie when I was 13 because of the nice fluffy animals, and that was 30 years ago now, so I do t think I’d know what to do with a bit of meat or fish if I wanted to!

I’ll go and have a look at the veggie forum - thank you.

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The photo was chosen at my diagnosis trying to fight the feelings of doom. I was hoping to rise above the ashes of my health which at the time was a total mess and diabetes just the latest thing in a long line of fairly significant problems. I’ve actually done much better since.

Hope you find inspiration in the sub forum

I live with a habitual veggie of over 50yrs. He keeps threatening to try meat but doesn’t. He did add fish about a decade ago on a working holiday that had absolutely no veggie choices. It has made life catering for him in the family somewhat easier and eating out.

Hi,
Welcome to the forum,
I'm sorry about your diagnosis, please don't be hard on yourself.
Good luck in achieving better figures.
Please ask any questions that you might have.
Take care

RachelN76 said:

Good evening everyone.

I’m new here, and officially diagnosed as type 2 today. With a HbA1C of 96 and a random glucose of 14.5
Morning BM today was 12.2 which I’m horrified at. Pre meal just now was 8.4

I’m very, very annoyed with myself. I had gestational diabetes 9 and 12 years ago, so I knew if I didn’t watch my weight and my diet that this was coming. Well, I didn’t watch my weight, and so here were are. Perfectly preventable, but I’ve CHOSEN to do this to myself. So I’m rather angry at me at the moment!

But, that will pass and I’ll have to get on with it. So i’ve Done the Newcastle type diets before, so that’s going to be my starting point. I’ve got metformin and Gliclazide (been told to be careful with that if I’m only on 600cals, but GP is lovely and letting me kind of bumble along and sort it out). Also have appointment with diabetic nurse tomorrow.

I’ve been lurking here and I know there are a lot of people who are big fans of the high protein, high fat diet - which sounds fantastic to me, but I don’t eat meat or fish, so I’m not sure how possible it is?

Anyway, I’ve seen loads of good advice on here already, so I’m looking forward to chatting to you all.

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Welcome here , frist thing you might have caught type 2 anyway so to be fair towards yourself stop blaming it won’t help you in any way on your journey from now on , but type to is luckily a condition that can be tamed and actually rather fast be twisting ones eating habits , hope you’ll join in and be a part of this great forum and ask all the questions you need an answer to ️

@RachelN76
Hello and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it both interesting and helpful.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 600,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.

There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

Welcome to the forum @RachelN76. It is a shock when you get that diagnosis but you will get a lot of good advice and support on here.

RachelN76 said:

Good evening everyone.

--.

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You're getting loads of excellent advice already, but I just wanted to add to them once more, for good measure: You didn't choose to do this to yourself. I tried so hard to lose weight, did everything the dietician told me to do... Which was exactly wrong for someone who was genetically inclined to get diabetes, and I just ballooned some more. I can't process carbs, the resulting glucose gets stored in my fatcells. Whatever my fat intake was or wasn't had nothing to do with it, while the dietician did her usual lite-mantra. Just so you know, weight gain is a symptom of prediabetes, not a cause, and if you don't know why there's weight gain (namely, the inability to process carbs back out properly), there's not much you can do about it when all the advice you get is "Cut fats, cut fats, cut fats!".

Cutting carbs is a lot easier if you add meats and fish to your diet, but from what I gather, some people manage the vegetarian way. In any case, get a meter, see what works for you, specifically. What works for your blood glucose levels, your lifestyle, your moral compass, everything. And quit kicking yourself around. If you don't know what the problem is you can't do anything about it. Now you know. Now you can tackle it.
Good luck,
Jo

RachelN76 said:

Good evening everyone.

I’m new here, and officially diagnosed as type 2 today. With a HbA1C of 96 and a random glucose of 14.5
Morning BM today was 12.2 which I’m horrified at. Pre meal just now was 8.4

I’m very, very annoyed with myself. I had gestational diabetes 9 and 12 years ago, so I knew if I didn’t watch my weight and my diet that this was coming. Well, I didn’t watch my weight, and so here were are. Perfectly preventable, but I’ve CHOSEN to do this to myself. So I’m rather angry at me at the moment!

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Don't beat yourself up - we all do it. I knew I had prediabetes last year but still carried on as usual until I got the diagnoses a while back. The key is to use the bad news as a trigger to change your diet permanently.

So i’ve Done the Newcastle type diets before, so that’s going to be my starting point.

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Good plan based on my results. I started VLCD a few weeks ago and as of today have lost 30 lbs. The encouragement comes from the immediate change in weight and glucose measure. Good luck!

Rachox said:

I’ve lost a shed load of weight too.

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Your profile pictures are proof of that! Great job.