Hmm, didn't see that coming

sanguine

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Cheers Indy - we always use olive oil for cooking, might give coconut oil a try. I don't like chunks of fat with meat either, never have, the texture makes me gag - although I will eat streaky bacon if crispy, and the odd slice of black pudding. I will also eat tapas-type processed meats (should I be reviewing that?) and butter definitely tastes better to me than olive oil spreads like Bertolli.

So you seem to be saying it's "low carb and don't overdo the fat"?
 

Joe Sweatthang

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I'm intrigued by the LCHF diet, especially the potential weight loss bit. The LC is a no-brainer, the HF seems a bit counterintuitive, I need to read more about that.
The fat part is a no brainer. What's your brain made out of ? FAT. Funny how when in the seventies all those so called scientists told us not to eat fat and the occurrence of heart decease, obesity and dementia started to steadily rise. Carbs are cheaper to produce than animal protein. The good thing about high fat low carb diet is that after as little as a couple of weeks, your brain will actually start sending out a "I'm full" signal and you will not feel any where as hungry as you would on lots of carbs. By the way, human food portions have steadily increased in size over the past 50 years.
 
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Scandichic

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Thanks Bluetit. I called in at the surgery today in the middle of my brisk walk and collected a printout of all my test results. Guess what, much more information that they never bothered to 'volunteer' to me! Including HDL 1.22 mmol/L, from which I assume my LDL is 5.7, triglycerides of 5.66 and gamma GT of 217 iu/L. So I can see why the statins were prescribed but I'm still not taking them until I can assess what I can do myself with exercise and diet. And even then probably not.

So on T2+2 and I've only had 4 thin slices of wholemeal bread since T2 zero, no sugary cereals, some grilled sausage and tomato and mash potato last night, and for lunch just now some carrot sticks with hummus (love hummus), a bit of mackerel pate and an apple. I used to be vegetarian (defeated by bacon sandwiches!) so have no issue with fruit, veg and pulses. If I can kick the bread habit that's a very significant carb reduction for me. Also had a couple of 40 minute brisk walks, and pleasantly surprised by recovery time.

I'm intrigued by the LCHF diet, especially the potential weight loss bit. The LC is a no-brainer, the HF seems a bit counterintuitive, I need to read more about that.
Try www.dietdoctor.com the website is one of the largest health blogs in Sweden. It is written by Dr Andreas Eenfeldt, who is a doctor specialising in obesity and diabetes. I forget where he practices in Sweden. More detail provided on the Swedish version but I have written to him and received a very speedy response. Anyway all the info is there in English as well as Swedish. I started here, after being referred there by Totto from this forum. I started my journey on the 28th of January and have now lost 1 stone 6lbs.
As a creature of habit, I usually have 1 sausage (both Lidl ands Asda do 97% meat sausages) and a poached egg, a yoghurt with a handful of blueberries or salami and cheese, a handful of nuts, bean bake and a square of very dark chocolate. The bean bake is my evening meal. Sometimes I have pan fried salmon with Puy lentils and a handful of spinach chucked in or a cod Thai soup or chicken casserole made with double cream, cognac and tarragon with green veggies. Brekkie and lunch are repetitive (because I don't have much time but my evening meals are very fab and I am always full. Why don't you try it for a month and see what happens? Oh, and believe it or not it lowers cholestrol...... Good luck!
 
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Scandichic

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The fat part is a no brainer. What's your brain made out of ? FAT. Funny how when in the seventies all those so called scientists told us not to eat fat and the occurrence of heart decease, obesity and dementia started to steadily rise. Carbs are cheaper to produce than animal protein. The good thing about high fat low carb diet is that after as little as a couple of weeks, your brain will actually start sending out a "I'm full" signal and you will not feel any where as hungry as you would on lots of carbs. By the way, human food portions have steadily increased in size over the past 50 years.
If only my dn and doc would take this on board!!!!!! According to my dn, my weight loss is due to my diabetes! So not hing to do with cutting out wine, sugar, cakes biscuits, sweets, rice, potatoes, pasta and bread then?! image.jpg
 

Mud Island Dweller

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Sanguine potato is the enemy l am afraid especially mashed food that will spike you up. And to be honest dump bread wholemeal has a higher gi than sugar. You can get think it is bergan a very low carb bread but eat and test.
If you are going for sausages then check the carbs are 5/100g/sausage.

If you are going low carb high fat as l think you say you are? Aim for food with 5gcarbs/100g product carbohydrate is a term for sugar.
Go down the forum home page to the low carb forum and read Vivs modified Atkins Diet.

Also get the brilliant Carbs and Cals book but full not pocket size not sure what the app is like

l agree with Indy it doesnt mean adding loads of fat is using butter or in coffee cream (lower carb than milk) helmans mayo and eggs. But no skimmed or low fat they have added sugar.
Fruit in small amounts apples be careful quite high carb but berries are fine.

Get a digital scales to weigh food a big help.

Abd do a seach here for cholestrol lots on the forum about it. (and google) if you go lchf diet it will change and l think takes up to 6months to settle.
 
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Indy51

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Cheers Indy - we always use olive oil for cooking, might give coconut oil a try. I don't like chunks of fat with meat either, never have, the texture makes me gag - although I will eat streaky bacon if crispy, and the odd slice of black pudding. I will also eat tapas-type processed meats (should I be reviewing that?) and butter definitely tastes better to me than olive oil spreads like Bertolli.

So you seem to be saying it's "low carb and don't overdo the fat"?
IMO, it's more like "low carb with as much fat as you like", emphasis on the you. I'm quite happy eating my fat in the form of double cream - other people can have the pork crackling (gag me!) - it's not a prescriptive thing, personal taste will always count. Main message is not to fear fat, only to fear bad fats like high omega 6 oils and trans fats.

I wouldn't use olive oil for cooking unless it's really low heat cooking - coconut is a much more stable oil for higher heat cooking.
 
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Bluetit1802

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I use Rapeseed Oil for cooking. It's better than olive oil at higher heats and just as good and safe. Crisp & Dry is fine.
 

sanguine

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T2+3 - I'll probably keep posting here until I have had my diabetes nurse session, I should be well fledged by then :). This is partly as a 'diary' to provoke feedback and also to ask the odd basic question.

So what have I been eating since yesterday lunchtime? Some chicken breast, couscous salad and green beans for dinner, with a Flora pro-active yoghurt (original flavour). Breakfast today I had two thin (honest) slices of toast with butter. Just done my brisk walk and called in at our new Waitrose :cool: on the way home. Spent much more time than usual looking at the labels. Came away with some full milk, double cream, brazil nuts and some avocado oil (no coconut oil, but this said 91g fat/100ml, no trans, no carbs, no sugar). The bread counter smelled wonderful but I didn't buy any. Specialist producer green and red Thai curries looked promising for treats, and Indonesian satay chicken.

Just had a greek salad and some brazil nuts for lunch.

I'm going to order a BP gizmo and a blood test kit (any particular recommendations?) so that by 16 April I can show the DN what I've been up to.

(Better get back to work now - I work from home which is flexible, but I'm a bit behind this week because of, er, other more immediately important issues ;)). Promise I won't overdo the smileys in future!
 
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sanguine

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While I have my last caffeine of the day, it occurs to me (I'm sure it has to many) that if 'fat' the noun and 'fat' the adjective were different words the world today might be a bit different.
 
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Mud Island Dweller

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l have the www.abbottdiabetescare.co.uk/your-products/freestyle-freedom-lite from Abbots healthcare if you contact them they should send you a free one and usually about 10 sticks. if you can not get free sticks from the dr (meant to but for t2 hit and miss) then get sticks from abbots as well half the price as a chemist.
or you can get the sd codefree off amazon l looked but put off by comments but folks here do use them. at the moment the dr is supplying my sticks.

As a t2 dont need as much detail etc as those on insulin but l like it as there is a connector l can plug in and will read loads info off my meter ... if you get abbots one ask them for the computer conecter stuff as well.
 

2131tom

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Hi

<snip> I was just expecting a rap on the knuckles about diet, exercise, weight etc but it was straight into 'You've got Type 2 diabetes, this is life-changing, here's a prescription for statins, make an appointment to see the nurse for a diabetic intro session, thank you and goodbye'. Well it wasn't literally that, but pretty close.

So here I am, fasting glucose level at 10.4 (well it's winter and the weather's been awful yadda yadda) and wondering what to believe. If I look at T2 symptoms, I'm not thirsty all the time, I'm not wanting to pee frequently, so is it true and is the sugar level just a blip? Is this denial? <snip> My inclination is to go with the diet improvement (I don't think I eat unhealthily, although I eat too much bread and could cut down on the red wine a bit) and get some more exercise to reduce my sugar levels and lose some weight (I'm 60, 90kg and 1.69m). Which is what I planned to do anyway, now with more incentive. Ideally I'd like to see my GP in a month or two with significantly lower blood sugar and be able to say 'look, no statins!'. Am I kidding myself?

Hi, Sanguine.

I'm a bit late to the discussion, but your symptoms (or lack of) and your GP experience on diagnosis almost exactly mirrored mine, and I thought it might be useful to let you know how things have gone since.

We're all different, so it's not possible to predict how things will go for you (though you won't know if you don't try), but I did manage to get the measure of control that you're looking for by eating less overall and going moderately low carb (no bread, pasta, potatoes, rice etc.). I cut out all avoidable sugar, upped my intake of vegetables and drank quite a lot more water. I cut way down on the beer (aka 'liquid bread') but found I could increase my intake of dry red wine, without any problems. I didn't cut down on protein, fats or cheese, and introduced oily fish into my diet 2/3 times a week.

I used my BG meter to see how different foods were affecting me (IMHO you're working blind if you don't), which meant I then knew which to avoid (again, we all react differently), and kept a record of all my BG results on one of the web-based (free) programs. That meant I could see week-to-week how things were going.

It's hard to stick to it, and I've found family and social pressures are the hardest to resist ("Oh, go on, the odd slice or two (of Banoffee Pie) won't hurt" or "Surely you can have a couple of days off (the 'diet'), now and again?") but it's not as bad as I first thought it might be. It's also been a lot better since I changed my GP for one who actually cares.

Good luck and let us all know how you get on.
 
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sanguine

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Good luck and let us all know how you get on.

Thanks Tom, I certainly will.

One of the best things about this site that I've found so far is the chance to hear from others with similar experiences and the encouragement that goes with that.
 

rizzo

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Hi, Sanguine.

I'm a bit late to the discussion, but your symptoms (or lack of) and your GP experience on diagnosis almost exactly mirrored mine, and I thought it might be useful to let you know how things have gone since.

We're all different, so it's not possible to predict how things will go for you (though you won't know if you don't try), but I did manage to get the measure of control that you're looking for by eating less overall and going moderately low carb (no bread, pasta, potatoes, rice etc.). I cut out all avoidable sugar, upped my intake of vegetables and drank quite a lot more water. I cut way down on the beer (aka 'liquid bread') but found I could increase my intake of dry red wine, without any problems. I didn't cut down on protein, fats or cheese, and introduced oily fish into my diet 2/3 times a week.

I used my BG meter to see how different foods were affecting me (IMHO you're working blind if you don't), which meant I then knew which to avoid (again, we all react differently), and kept a record of all my BG results on one of the web-based (free) programs. That meant I could see week-to-week how things were going.

It's hard to stick to it, and I've found family and social pressures are the hardest to resist ("Oh, go on, the odd slice or two (of Banoffee Pie) won't hurt" or "Surely you can have a couple of days off (the 'diet'), now and again?") but it's not as bad as I first thought it might be. It's also been a lot better since I changed my GP for one who actually cares.

Good luck and let us all know how you get on.
 

rizzo

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What are these web-based, free programs of which you speak? Seriously though, I have lost touch with how my bg is responding to what I'm eating day to day and need to get wtih the program, no pun intended.
 

2131tom

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What are these web-based, free programs of which you speak? Seriously though, I have lost touch with how my bg is responding to what I'm eating day to day and need to get wtih the program, no pun intended.

I use mySugr, at https://mysugr.com/companion/ which I downloaded onto my iPhone and is great for recording BG readings and calculating daily, weekly and monthly averages and looking at trends etc. You can also e-mail the results and do a printout, if you send them to a pc. That's been useful in showing my GP how things had been going over a 3-month period. (Yes, he said he wanted to see them, to discuss how they might affect the next stage in my treatment).

I believe there are other programs available, but I came across mySugr first, it did what I wanted it to do, so I've stuck with it since.

Hope that helps
 

sanguine

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Nearly a week in, going LCHF as much as I can, and I've lost 2kg since Monday morning. Test kits arriving this week so I'll be able to see for the first time what my blood sugars are (and blood pressure) since they were last tested on 18 March. Fingers crossed!

This weekend is a prearranged birthday celebration so carb intake a little more than I would prefer, including some red wine and a few chips, but I will go without the potatoes and Yorkshire pud in the Sunday roast tomorrow. But on the whole I'm looking at sandwiches, pastries etc and thinking 'no, I really don't want that any more".

My wife is a great support because she's needing to lose weight as well so we can low-carb together.

Work stress is not helping (not an employer issue, it's just the job) but I'm hoping that once I start making progress on the diet and exercise then that will make me feel better about work as well, and reduce the impact of the stress on my whole condition.
 

sanguine

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Now 9 days since diagnosis and just over 2 weeks since my formal fasting blood test.

Received my test kit on Monday, but not got into a full routine yet due to travelling for work. Anyway, what I've got so far is:

Monday pm, pre-dinner, about 6 hours after last food - 6.2
Tuesday pm, 2 hours after eating - 6.9
This morning before breakfast - 7.3

After a week of nearly LCHF I'm fairly encouraged by this, but I would have expected this morning to be lower - what's that about?

Rod
 

Mud Island Dweller

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What was breakfast you also need to take bloods pre meal and 2 hrs post
Sometimes you may want to take it 1hr post if you wary of a foid or an anytime snack or worried.
l may be wrong pre and 2hrs post tend to be the main ones