Hi new to this blood sugar v high

Hiya jayneyf, another Type 2 here. More info please! How long since diagnosed, BS levels then & now, what you were advised to do & eat and what you eat now, in detail. Are you overweight? Do you feel well generally?
Welcome to the club

OK, thanks, you're in the right placed to sort this out, and I'll tag @daisy1 to give you her excellent introduction. I'm just off to lunch meself -- cold meat & salad, no bread, no fruit except berries, never pasta or rice, no spuds except very few new ones ... do you get an idea of the difference? See ya later.

Daisy's advice will help you with your food choices.
Did you get any dietary advice when you were diagnosed? I ask because a lot of the things you are eating will raise your blood sugars. Not all veg end fruits are ideal for us, some have high carbs or high sugars in their makeup. Potatoes might be alright for some if they have a small portion but others find they cannot eat them. The same with bread, some can eat seeded or rye bread, some have to limit it to one slice and some cannot eat it at all.
It really is a minefield as to what we can eat as an individual.
Have a good read around the forums and always be prepared to ask questions as nothing is considered silly. If you could get your levels down then your medication will be reviewed.

Hi and welcome. Can you let us know what your BMI is and how old you are? The diet advice you have received is typical NHS madness and not based on any science. Diabetics are glucose intolerant and need to keep the carbs down. So, avoid the porridge and bananas. I have a small portion of home-made muesli with eggs and bacon. Oats are better not stewed as porridge. Make up with protein, fats and veg. Don't worry about having fat as the advice on that is also wrong. Note that if you have excess weight then Metformin should help a bit together with some other drugs. Gliclazide is better if you are slim and the pancreas is failing as it stimulates the pancreas to produce more insulin and you may already be making too much due to insulin resistance. The right diet is the key.

Hi,

Sadly, most of us are told by our nurses/GPs to eat carbs with every meal, especially wholegrains. Unfortunately, ALL carbs convert to sugar once inside the system and will therefore raise your levels. Bread (of any type), potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals (including porridge) and things containing flour are the worst culprits, plus we also need to be careful with fruit and milk as they both contain a lot of sugar. Best thing is to seriously reduce those carbs and test, test, test. Use your meter to test before you eat then again 2 hours later and see what that meal has done to your levels. A rise of more than 2 mmol/l is not good. Try the meal again with reduced carb portions, and do this until you reach a portion your body can cope with. It may be one slice of bread, or no bread at all, 4 new potatoes or 2 new potatoes, or none. Get the picture?

Have a good read round the forums and ask questions. No question is too daft if you don't know the answer.

No meters are 100% accurate, and it is quite unusual to get the same readings with consecutive tests. They only have to work within a 15% plus or minus accuracy range.

@jayneyf

Hello Jayney and welcome to the forum

As you have seen from the posts from other members, a diet with so many carbs will keep your levels high. Here is the information we give to new members which includes advice on diet and carbs and I hope you will find it helpful. Some of this you will already know but it will help you to see what you can eat and what you shouldn't. Carry on asking questions and members will help you.


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 over 140,000 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, I have the same problems , High BS , but it did not seem to be linked to anything , in the end it turned out to be stress causing BS spikes..........

Hi , another one here who was told to eat starchy carbs , disaster for me as it took me from pre diabetic to diabetic . This was before I read everything I could get my hands on and joined this forum where I realised that the carbs were the culprit . The links from Daisy should help you a lot , you can reduce your blood sugar and quite quickly too . I`m afraid it is a minefield but follow the low carb diet and you will get there

jayneyf said:

Thanks, so what do you eat?

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Have a read of this thread.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/a-new-low-carb-guide-for-beginners.68695/

and this one

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-have-you-eaten-today.75781/page-15#post-850459

jayneyf said:

Hi Ive been diagnosed a while and everything was under control but recently blood sugars have gone really high - have tripled dose of gliclazide to 160mg am and pm with no affect, today the nurse is calling for an update and Im going to try the newish drug that takes sugar out when you wee. Any help would be great Thanks

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Same here, sugar spike that doesnt drop. Have read on this site about no bananas or potatoes etc, but on the diabetic menu's it gives menu's with these in . So confused. So to simplify... eat any veg that grows out of the ground not underground.Eat any fruit ending in berry.Eat meat, fish,cheese, milk,eggs.Information overload or what?