I am new to Diabetes and need some help

Suze A said:

Can someone please explain ? I noticed that the label on a tin of Baked Beans stated that the values for 100g were carbohydrates 12.6g of which sugars 3.3g.What does this mean? Is this high level? What is considered a reasonable amount of carbs/sugars. I am totally lost!

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Hi @Suze A ,

Like Kenny said, "It depends"... And it does depend on a slew of things, really. And if you're just starting out, I'm guessing you don't yet know what amount of carbs per day suits you. We're all different, you see... So while one person is fine with beans, another might not be, while a third is okay with it if in small amounts. All T2 differ, we don't all have the same level of insulin resistance/sensitivity/output, so you need to find out what works for you, specifically.

How do you do that, you ask? Get yourself a meter and start testing around meals. Test before the meal and 2 hours after the first bite. You'll miss the spike that way, but the information you want is whether your body could process what you've put in there, which it'll let you know after 2 hours have passed. You're looking for a rise of 2.0 mmol/l or less between those numbers. If you're higher than that, a meal had more carbs than you could cope with. If it's 2.0 mmol/l or lower, the meal was perfection far as blood glucose goes, and worth repeating in the future. Keep that up, and your over all blood sugars will come down. You don't have to get it right overnight. I didn't know how to do this when I started out, so I just lowered carbs to some arbitrary daily number, found I felt better on less, halved it again, and ended up on a ketogenic diet of about 20 grams a day or less. It can fluctuate a bit, especially over the holidays of course, but that's the number I feel best at. But that's me. Could well be you feel excellent and have normal, non diabetic numbers at 40 or 60, maybe 80 grams a day. There's no telling, because I'm not you. So take your time to find out what works best for you. You didn't become diabetic overnight, you don't have to fix things overnight either.

I'll also add, being a vegan complicates things a little, because the foods that are low to zero carbs often do come from animals. (Meat, poultry, fish, full fat dairy, eggs), while plant-based foods often contain carbs in varying degrees. Pulses more than spinach, for instance. It's not easy adhering to a vegan diet when low carbing (I can't do it, others who are more creative and have less other issues to deal with as well, can), but there's people here who seem to be able to pull it off, so https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/vegetarian-diet-forum.71/ might help with that. https://www.dietdoctor.com/search?s=vegan could well do, too.

Personally, I'd give the beans a miss. A hundred grams of beans isn't a lot, and at 12,5g of carbs I'd already be going over my limit for a meal. At a portion of 250 grams you'd be taking in quite a bit more. So... Start testing, see what works for you. Then go from there.

Good luck, and welcome,
Jo

Hello and welcome @Suze A

I completely agree with @KennyA and @JoKalsbeek .

We are all different and we each need to find a way of handling our diagnosis in a way that works for our life.

I have been keto for a long time. Recently I've been slipping a bit and probably eating more than 20 grams of carbs on some days. There's been a lot going on in my life and I really love carbs. We don't usually have the food in the house but.. Anyway my plan is to go back to keto.. For me- I find the fewer carbs I eat the less I generally crave. I love carbs- that's just the reality for me. I find it easier to have none than to be low carb as such. But that's what generally works for me.

The first thing I suggest (as others have) is to get a meter and work out what what amount of carbs your body can tolerate. Thi may vary depending on a whole host of things like the type of carb, your exercise, your stress, the time of day (many find they can tolerate more carbs later in the day), whether you are sick...

Once you know that you can start to make decisions about what you eat. It needs to be something that's sustainable. For me keto generally is. For you it may be a different level of carbs.

Good luck and welcome.

Welcome @Suze A you asked about the carbs of which sugars are… aspect of the labelling. As a type 1 I inject insulin on the amount of carbohydrates that are actually in a product so in this case the 12.6. The sugars part of it relates to the pure bit and how quickly it will affect your blood glucose levels. The rest of the carbs will have an impact but a bit slower. So a Jelly baby for example would be 5g carbs and 5g sugar so a good item for a hypo.
I would suggest as a vegan using beans but without the sauce aspect. That is the bit full of fast acting sugar. As others have said test to find out how your own body reacts to them.

When I used to be T2 I was always mindful of sugars / carbs and tried to eat less of this on the basis that I was attempting to maintain my sugar levels through "sensible" eating and medicine ( no insulin )

Try and read up as much as you can about food and what is likely to spike you - avoid these foods etc

For example I was "Ok" with low sugar/salt version of baked beans ( by Heinz )

Lentils though for some generally are the better type of carbs, but it used to spike me ( so I'd have very little )

Bread - I always looked for slices that had no more than 11g carbs ....

Tomato ketchup / Brown sauce, I stopped having - these are way too sweet.

Fruits- Strawberries and raspberries and unripe bananas were "Ok" for me in moderation . Not blueberries etc ...

There are books that list carb values for all foods - a very useful resource. Try and get one - something like this ?


Good luck