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in shock but coping

C

Curran

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Hello all. Got my diagnosis about a two weeks ago with a reading of 87 HBa1c...so the Doc. put me straight on Metaformin 500 2 daily with an increase after two weeks and another after three weeks which will mean 2000 per day...still reeling but coming to terms slowly...I have been a vegetarian for over twenty years so couldn't believe this diagnosis.
 
Hello @Curran

Welcome the forum, your certainly in the right place for support, the shock will wear off but the important thing is your here and there's lots of advice to help, I'm tagging @daisy1 for our new members information, but please ask away.
 

Sadly, vegetarianism relies heavily on carbs so may be a contributory factor to your diagnosis. It’s time to get rid of them and get healing.
 
hi @curan.
welcome to the hood.

same tablets here, mate.
not a veggie, but we all travel the same road.
 
helensaramay said:
Vegetarianism is not always a choice. As previously mentioned, there is a sub forum on vegetarian diet to check out before incurring potential issues by suddenly eating meat.
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You at absolutely right but I didn’t suggest eating meat, just getting rid of the carbs.
 
helensaramay said:
Fair enough. I misinterpreted your message to suggest ditching vegetables.
Vegetarian diets need not be any more carb heavy than a "traditional Western diet" if protein is consumed as cheese, eggs, tofu, quorn, etc.
Click to expand...

Yep but most base their diets on carbs and then add to them. I spend my summers catering for vegetarians and vegans and the vast majority are carb addicts. Most vegans will eat a slice of normal cake too.
 
Hi Curran,

As others stated it's the carbs we can't process, and as a vegetarian, you'll have been eating a lot of those. Doesn't really matter that they were in otherwise healthy, vitamin-laden, whole-wheat, unprocessed foods, a carb's basically a carb. And there's a lot of them in spuds, underground veggies, rice, pasta, bread, corn, fruit... It's, from what I gather, still possible to treat your T2 with a diet change that is vegetarian though. Not easy, but do-able. Others here do it, in any case. Do you eat eggs, use butter, cheese, double cream/clotted cream? Those are low in carbs, as are quite a few nuts (not all, sadly.). Above-ground veggies/leafy greens are good, except for legumes. And if you really still want to eat fruit, go for a few berries with something fatty, like full fat greek yoghurt. It'll slow the uptake of the carbs down and keep you feeling full. Check dietdoctor.com for some extra info and their visual guides for nuts for instance... I hope this helps a little.
 
I am a vegan but type 1, not low carb, and I always want to warn people that have eaten healthy etc to watch out for being a misdiagnosed type 1. I ate well and swam laps, did a lot of walking at work and questioned the type 2 diagnosis and I was ignored for years until I switched doctors and they tested me.

Given that, my husband is a type 2 vegetarian and has an A1C of 6.2, but he does take metformin 3x a day. He originally had a 8. 4 I think when diagnosed? And with the metformin and a few changes in his diet, he now does great. The changes were not as many potato chips or to sit down with the whole bags of cookies and eat until he was full. And while he has not cut out junk food, he is better about limiting how much junk food he eats. He eats a salad every day and now will snack on my bowl of veggies in the evening. he pays more attention to what boosts his BG now, when I switched to Dexcom I had a few Libre sensors I put on him so he could easily tell what affected him.

But you do not have to be high carb and be a vegetarian or vegan, I and now my husband eat sprouted whole grain bread, 10 carbs per slice, bowls of veggies, about 5 carbs per cup, whole wheat pasta, depending which 25 carbs per cup. My pasta is mixed with lots of veggies, I use tons of tofu, beans on foods for protein on a lot I eat, you lower the carb count when you do that.

Just like type 1 runs in families, type 2 does too. My husbands mother and sister both are type 2. By far neither of them are vegetarian or even close to it. Your diet doesn't always protect you from genetics.
 
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Hi and welcome! I’m type one, but pescatarian so when I’m skint, my diet is basically veggie. I also eat low carb and it’s not that hard, there’s plenty of recipes and ideas online. If you’re on Facebook, check out the Vegan Keto Made Simple page, there’s tons of info there with no animal products at all.
 
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I'm vegan (but type 1) and I don't eat pies, pastries, cakes and biscuits and junk food rubbish like that*; I eat what my doc considers an incredibly healthy diet (her words). Eat 8-10 portions of veg/salad/fruit per day (I have my fruit as blueberries, but the rest of my portions are salad, raw veg and cooked veg). I eat a lot of tofu (a low carb food) in many and varied forms and some seitan but I make it myself and know what is in it (thus I control portion size). I enjoy nuts, pulses and seeds and if I do eat carby food, then it'll be chickpea pasta, brown rice with veg (far more veg and rice) and occasional potatoes (not really liking potato or bread).

There are loads of low carb vegan foods around; just got to be picky what you choose! And be prepared to cook from basics rather than just buy ready-made but that is true for any chosen dietary lifestyle I think.


*caveat - I munch Oreos as my get-out-of-a-hypo-fast food....
 
As a low carbing veggie there is a wealth of recipes available for you to stay veggie but eat within the requirements of your diabetes - do a bit of netsurfing and don't forget the Amazon marketplace for very very cheap second hand books. If I remember rightly Rose Elliott did a very good low carb veggie one that I got for my daughter in law (although she's headed towards vegan now and using the Bosh boys and the Dirty Vegan books).

Also - you are a very experienced veggie and I doubt you've spent 20 years eating rubbish, so I bet that you know what you like, and will be able to adapt it to low carb (if that is your choice).
 
wiflib said:
Yep but most base their diets on carbs and then add to them. I spend my summers catering for vegetarians and vegans and the vast majority are carb addicts. Most vegans will eat a slice of normal cake too.
Click to expand...


In that case may I just say that they are not true vegans. All the vegans I know would ask you about the egg, butter and milk content of the foods you are supplying and if it contained any of those things, would refuse it.

Also - generalisation much?
 
wiflib said:
Yep but most base their diets on carbs and then add to them. I spend my summers catering for vegetarians and vegans and the vast majority are carb addicts. Most vegans will eat a slice of normal cake too.
Click to expand...
Presumably because they are not diabetics so do not need to lower their carbs. When members here are vegan or vegetarian they will adjust their diet to suit them
 
@Curran
Hello and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it both interesting and helpful.

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 well over 600,000 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 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.
 
Pinkorchid said:
Presumably because they are not diabetics so do not need to lower their carbs. When members here are vegan or vegetarian they will adjust their diet to suit them
Click to expand...

The OP has only just been diagnosed and his diet is likely to be high in carbs. I was advising him to drop them.
 

I’m surrouned by and cater for vegans regularly, there are very few that do it properly like you do.
 
I am not a vegan or vegetarian just a very low meat eater as I really only like chicken so I do have quite a few meat free meals then I will have options like tofu and Quorn and I enjoy it. As WuTwo said there is plenty of good foods you can have without having heavy carbs. People do not just stop being vegan and vegetarian because they have diabetes
 
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