• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Hi there. My mother was diagnosed with glucose intolerance.

J

Jimmy900

Newbie
Messages
2
Hi Everybody. I am registering on behalf of my mother who doesn't use the internet.

She was diagnosed with glucose intolerance but I'm a little confused on what diet she should eat. Is there a thing called 'impaired glucose intolerance' or is it simply known as 'glucose intolerance'.

I've seen some websites saying that a starchy meal with carbs is recommended like pasta, potatoes etc but on the diet sheets on this website there are low carb diets advertised. If you could point me in the right direction I would very much appreciate it.

Kind Regards
 
I think it's called impaired glucose tolerance and it means your mother is not processing glucose properly for any one of a number of reasons.

If she can't handle glucose then in my opinion eating lots of carbohydrates won't help. Currently there are two schools of thought about diets. The old one that has much prevalence says to eat lots of carbs but no-one seems to know where that advice originated. This site has thousands of members who do not eat lots of carbs and lower their Hba1c (sugar level) as a result.
 
Thanks for getting back to me. It's a little strange that there are two schools of thought about this. The official NHS section on this states that it's advisable to eat starchy foods with a low GI rating but other experts are saying to cut the carbs out altogether. Is there any sort of consensus on what school of thought people can officially agree on?
 
Jimmy900 said:
Thanks for getting back to me. It's a little strange that there are two schools of thought about this. The official NHS section on this states that it's advisable to eat starchy foods with a low GI rating but other experts are saying to cut the carbs out altogether. Is there any sort of consensus on what school of thought people can officially agree on?
Click to expand...
No there isn't and you have to use your own judgement. You can either go with the Eatwell Plate that is decided by a committee of representatives from the food industry or you can take the word of about 150,000 people who live with diabetes every day.
 
@Jimmy900 - Hello and Welcome to the Forum :). I will tag @daisy1 who will provide you with some basic information that all new members receive.:)
 
First I have never seen anything that explains a difference between glucose intolerance and pre-diabetes/diabetes so think about being on the road to diabetes. Having read these forums for years and many others there is a very clear concensus about the role of carbs and for anyone who is on the diabetes 'journey' then you must keep the carbs under control. Having a glucose meter helps you find out what affects you most and by how much. All carbs are converted to glucose in the body - need I say more?
 
@Jimmy900

Hello Jimmy and welcome to the forum. Here is the basic information we give to new members and I hope you will find that this will help your Mother. There is a lot of advice about carbs which need to be restricted and a link to the Low Carb Program which she could try. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to 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 well over 220,000 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 free 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.
 
Jimmy900 said:
Thanks for getting back to me. It's a little strange that there are two schools of thought about this. The official NHS section on this states that it's advisable to eat starchy foods with a low GI rating but other experts are saying to cut the carbs out altogether. Is there any sort of consensus on what school of thought people can officially agree on?
Click to expand...
My brother and myself are first trying to cut down the carbs to under 60 a meal and so far this seems to be working for us but for some this would be considered to high a carb level
 
To try to explain, all carbs (whatever their GI, colour, shape or size) convert to glucose once inside the system. The lower GI ones just take a bit longer to do this. That is scientific fact, and as this is the case, it makes total sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate we eat or we are just adding glucose to our bodies every time we eat. The less carbs we eat, the better our glucose levels will be. This has been known since forever. In fact, low carb was the only treatment for diabetes before insulin was invented. Why the NHS advocates eating starchy carbs is beyond most of us, but most likely because the giants of the food industry sit on the advisory panels.

Perhaps you could tell us which tests your mother had, and what the results were. We may then be able to explain whether she has what is termed "pre-diabetes" and how close to the diabetes threshold she is.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
To try to explain, all carbs (whatever their GI, colour, shape or size) convert to glucose once inside the system. The lower GI ones just take a bit longer to do this. That is scientific fact, and as this is the case, it makes total sense to reduce the amount of carbohydrate we eat or we are just adding glucose to our bodies every time we eat. The less carbs we eat, the better our glucose levels will be. This has been known since forever. In fact, low carb was the only treatment for diabetes before insulin was invented. Why the NHS advocates eating starchy carbs is beyond most of us, but most likely because the giants of the food industry sit on the advisory panels.

Perhaps you could tell us which tests your mother had, and what the results were. We may then be able to explain whether she has what is termed "pre-diabetes" and how close to the diabetes threshold she is.
Click to expand...
This web-link takes you to a New Scientist article from 1982 which represents much of the thinking at the time about having high carbs. DUK took some of this advice at the time:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...nepage&q=harry keen low carbohydrates&f=false
 
Back
Top