Hello!!

Hi and a warm welcome to the forum Amanda

Hopefully Daisy will be along shortly with her advice for new members to the forum.

you may need more fat to replace the lost carbs and if you are still craving, you may need to drop more carbs, drink plenty of water and a bit more salt

http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf it’s a long page and a video
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarb101/a/firstweek.htm

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/lowcarbliving/a/Food-Cravings.htm because carbs don’t give up easy.

testing
http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/14045524.php
food count
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

Newcastle diet aims in 8+ weeks to mimic or better the rate of ~80% remission, for surgery T2
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/
http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2010/mar/weight-loss-surgery-and-type-2-diabetes.html

http://www.lowcarbdietitian.com/blog/carbohydrate-restriction-an-option-for-diabetes-management

Hello and welcome!

It isn't just sugar you have to cut out. There is sugar is many other things normally regarded as healthy, for example milk and fruit. It is natural sugar, but nonetheless still sugar. Perhaps you could tell us what you are currently eating on a typical day, and whether your other ailments require a special diet.

The best way to learn about food is to test it out. This will mean testing immediately before you eat, then again at 2 hours after your first bite. Maybe also at 1 hour and 3 hours in some cases. Look at the rise after eating. If it is more than 2mmol/l there is something in that meal that needs attention.

Fáilte MsP, good too see ya here Place is a wealth of information. Even the main site has heaps of info. Makes Diabetes Ireland look like a joke. Those links Jack sent ya are good. Ohh yeah get the "myfitnesspal" app on your phone its deadly, Has a bar-code scanner on it so you dont have to write all the stuff in manually, using the cam on your phone, you "scan" the barcode on products and it just pops up all in nutritional info for you. Greats for keeping track of your carbs you eat. Another app is called "On Track" Its a diabetes management app that allows you to keep track of your BS readings and shows you all sorts of graphs and stats in relation to your highs, lows, day, week, month and HbA1c averages.

Hi Amanda, welcome.

To add to the above, I can see a few items in your foods that would make my (and most other T2s) blood sugars spike badly - muesli, toast, bread on sandwiches, potatoes, rice, pasta, bananas. Whilst these are the so-called 'healthy diet' recommended by many they are usually not suitable for diabetics. Doesn't really matter if it's 'wholemeal' or not. Carbohydrates are like sugars for us, they are best avoided. Also low fat dairy (or low fat anything) often contains added sugar so full(er) fat varieties are better unless other issues make that less desirable for you.

Jack has given you some useful low-carb links, have a good read around and ask any more questions. We're here to help you.

Hello Amanda and welcome to the forum

noblehead said:

Hi and a warm welcome to the forum Amanda

Hopefully Daisy will be along shortly with her advice for new members to the forum.

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Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask all the questions you want and someone will help.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

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 over 100,000 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

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

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

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 bloodglucose 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.

Hi again,

I agree with @sanguine. Your diet is far too carb heavy for a diabetic. If you cut the carbs, and change back to normal dairy foods, you will see an improvement. I suggest you test out all your meals by testing immediately before each one then again 2 hours after your first bite. Look at the difference. If it is more than 2mmol/l there is something in that meal that needs reducing or avoiding. It will most likely be bread, rice, pasta, potatoes or cereals, possibly milk and almost certainly most fruits. Testing this way is the only way to learn what your body can or can't cope with. We are all different in that.

Hi and welcome. A lot of good advice from posters. Yes, your diet is too carb heavy at present. Don't worry too much about fat contrary to popular opinion. It's the carbs that make all of us, not just diabetics, gain weight and if diabetic, carbs cause blood sugar rises. Keep an eye on packaging labels as sugar is added to everything e.g. spaghetti hoops

Look for foods with less than 10g carb per 100g, even 5g per 100g.

msprim said:

Now this is the info i need - thank you sanguine

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There's also a good book (better than the app I understand) called 'Carbs & Cals' which is just photos of foods and meals with the carb, calorie, protein and fat values. When I started LCHF I used it extensively for the first few weeks until I got into the right routine.

Congratulations amanda well done onth eweight loss, tell me do you use a meter to check your fasting blood levels and again ater meals?

when you first cut carbs you shed a lot of water, you need to drink more and add an extra teaspoon of salt a day, you may find that added healthy fats help too
the link I gave you for 'the first week' explains it