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

Indian Food !

V

vibez_well

Member
Messages
9
Location
Sheffield
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi All,

Recently diagnosed T2 about a week back. The 1st test result was 22 ! following week was between 7 - 12.
I've been reading up a lot and a bit confused about my food. Am an Indian student here in the UK so I need to make quite a bit of adjustments in my food.

I've eaten white rice twice a day all my life, but have no problems ditching it. Well, I havent had rice for the last 10 days now.

My question is if one can have wholemeal brown bread (Rowan Hill)
Serving Size: 100 g, Calories: 217, Fat: 1.8g, Carbs: 37.4g, Protein: 9.6g
I have 4 slices toasted along with a fried egg and some lettuce. Would this be ok ?

I've read some conflicting info about chappatis/rotis. We used Wheat flour to make our chappatis and not the readymade ones, So is safe to eat that ? All along I was under the impression that Wheat Chappatis were the best alternative to rice. Wrong ?

I havent been able to test for a couple of days since Ive run out of strips and they're expensive ! But I guess I will have to buy some and test out by eating different things and making a note of it.

Any Indians out here ? ( only coz I wanted to get the feedback from people who eat Indian food daily ! )

i think its easier to manage BS levels by having English food, everything Indian looks too rich & carbs laden. confused & frustrated. :***:

Thanks ! :thumbup:
 
I'm Trinidadian so I'm used to eating curry and rice, pholouri, paratha, kurma, roti, tamarind/mango chutney and curried potato or chick peas all the time. It's been hard living without mama's cooking.

She did switch to brown rice and buckwheat. I'm not sure if this is much better however :/


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
vibez_well said:
I havent been able to test for a couple of days since Ive run out of strips and they're expensive ! But I guess I will have to buy some and test out by eating different things and making a note of it.
Click to expand...

That is exactly the advice you will get from this board. To test and adjust your own menu accordingly. My first instincts, though, are that you are unlikely to be very happy with the results you get from eating bread no matter what type.

Perhaps you could let us all know what works and what doesn't.
 
As an Englishman living in Southall I have many opportunities to eat Asian food. A number of my friends are also T2 diabetic.

I politely decline - rice, chapattis, naan, Asian tea (or I insist on it being unsweetened) Asian sweets, etc... Also I find the over-use of chilli unpleasant, so I carefully fish out identifiable meat & paneer from the mix, & avoid the sauce/gravy. The spices would not bother you.

My friends often cook for me a separate portion & offer salad, fruit & nuts, & yoghurt. They do not take offence. At an Indian restaurant, I simply take what I consider I can eat safely. But I often provide a contribution to the meal in the form of my "cake-bread" made using ground almonds, coconut flour, eggs,butter, olive oil, baking powder, cinnamon, but without sugar of normal carb flour. For such occasions I may sweeten it with a ripe banana or sultanas.

My diabetic friends eat their rice & other carbs because they comprise an Indian diet, even though they saw my mobility transformed by cutting out the obvious carbs.
 
As others have said or implied, any carbs need to below-GI, so the best bread is whole-grain, Burgen etc and only one or two slices at a time; a typical slice is 13 gm. Keep and flour, rice, pasta as unrefined as possible and use the meter to show you how you are doing
 
thanks for your replies all !

wow, now I'm kindof clueless what to eat for breakfast. I did see people writing about having 2 eggs for breakfast etc. i can have that, but am sure to be hungry in a hour coz am used to having my tummy full :lol: i eat fairly laaarge portions 3 times a day.

being a student on a really tight budget, my veggie shopping bills are shooting up. guess i need to learn to control my appetite or something.

God !! what did i get myself into :crazy:

am getting myself some strips tomorrow and start intensive testing. then i should have a clear idea of what my poor body can tolerate.

Daibell said:
As others have said or implied, any carbs need to below-GI, so the best bread is whole-grain, Burgen etc
Click to expand...

Daibell, what did you mean by "carbs need to be below GI ? and what is Burgen ?

Thanks again.
 
How old you are and what about your weight .. do you have any Gym and exercise for you or just have you study and the food eating..
doing any job in your part time or not..?
 
Hi Vibez,
One thing that's in your favour and which you definitely shouldn't ditch are the spices - so many that are typically added to Indian foods are fantastic at helping with diabetes; if you or any friends / family know an Ayervedic practitioner they will be able to offer lots of advice that's already in line with the foods you're likely to enjoy.

Example are turmeric, ginger, cinnamon - but the list is extensive. I usually make a smoothie (not fruit based) with at least one of those three spices every morning for breakfast.

Ghee is also great for cooking, so don't drop that either.

You basically (probably - though as others have suggested, test to check) want to be aiming for lower carbs. Don't be afraid of fat as it won't spike your blood sugars, and protein (meats, eggs, fish) in moderation (too much, ironically, can also cause spikes).

I often make a fish curry with lots of spices flash fried in coconut oil (but you can use ghee) and then fish added and a little water - it's delicious!

I also grate fresh ginger into everything - a fresh ginger with freshly chopped chillis, lime juice and olive oil makes a delicious dressing to pour over fish or salads... Fresh ginger and a squeeze of fresh lime juice is delicious in a glass of sparkling water too!

Hope some of these suggestions help - as long as you have the desire to, I'm sure you'll figure it out
 
whiterock said:
How old you are and what about your weight .. do you have any Gym and exercise for you or just have you study and the food eating..
doing any job in your part time or not..?
Click to expand...

am 32 and weigh abt 85 kgs. I dont 'gym' at all and exercise is a bit on the lower side :thumbdown: but these days i tend to walk or rather cycle around. 2 days of the week, i work at a bakery here and thats HARD labour for 8 hours :***: I've noticed when am back from work, my sugar levels are nice and low :thumbup:

--
I've been eating & testing regularly and overjoyed to find my sugar levels well in control. pretty much a fixed menu these days. Bored of it, but somehow works for me. the results are all around 6-7 :thumbup:
my HB1AC test result was shocking !! 104

breakfast: 4 slices of wholemeal brown bread with 1 egg omelette & some veggies.
lunch: 4 chappatis with chicken curry.
evening: cafe latte with sweetener. maybe 1 biscuit.
dinner: 4 chappatis with chicken curry.
 
Hi Sunshine_Kisses,

Thanks for your suggestions, will keep em in mind. We're great fans of fish curry too and the part of India I'm from, we use coconut oil in EVERYTHING... :roll:

I've got really high cholesterol levels too, so i'm off coconut oil and use sunflower oil moderately. I think i should make another switch to olive oil. so **** expensive though. lets see how things turn out !

Cheers ! :wave:
 
How high is your chol level? And what is the value of the components? It's not all bad. We need cholesterol as it's made by the body & is vital to health. My total chol is always above 5.

I've heard heart consultants (who should know (!)) demanding that we should reduce total chol below 3, even below 2, because, they find the heart blockages do comprise a cholesterol-like substance. With everyone, except me, taking statins, cholesterol should be generally low, so why ever-increasing heart disease? And do the consultants analyse the cholesterol history of their patients before coming to the "cholesterol is bad" conclusion.

BUT does cholesterol in the blood deposit in the arteries & cause trouble? And does consuming veg & animal fats cause raised dangerous cholesterol? I use a mix of coconut flour & ground almonds (both 50% fat) in place of wheat flour. My mix provides a unsweetened "cake" that is a staple in place of bread, potatoes, cake, etc. My b'fast is a "porridge" of coconut & almonds. A high fat diet is very sustaining, reduces the temptation to snack on biscuits & sweets.
 
Hello Vibez,

Burgen is a sliced loaf from most supermarkets. It's fairly low(ish) carb at about 13g per slice. If you can, try and cut down to a max of 2 slices of bread for breakfast. Eggs cooked any way are ok - poached, fried, scrambled, omlette. Without looking it up, I don't know how many carbs there are in a chapati, when I make a curry at home I normally have a mini naan which come in packs of 4 or 6 and the ones I don't use I stick in the freezer. They're pretty quick to defrost and warm up if they go on a low setting in the toaster, rice I stick to brown and have 3 tablespoons. If I go out for a curry I normally have a lamb or chicken shashlick which is basically a kebab and comes with a salad.

I can't imagine how hard it must be working in a bakery with all those lovely smells and fresh bread, and pastries mmmmmmmmm! You must have a will of iron not to be tempted.

You will get loads of support and advice from the forum so don't worry about asking what you think are any silly questions. If we haven't asked them already we've probably thought of them.
 
PS:- I get testing strips from ebay. You have to trawl through to find a good price but the last lot I had were £30 for 3 tubs.
 

How tall are you? 85 kg is fine (my weight) if you are over 6ft tall 8) but too much if you are 5ft 6in. Another check is your waist measurement - it should be no more than 36"
 
I'd avoid using olive oil for cooking unless its very low temp cooking. The smoke point for olive oil is very low compared to sunflower or groundnut oil. Cooking temps above the smoke point create toxins in the oil which are bad in a number of ways including being carcinogenic.

Mrs Bear is italian so we do use a colossal amount of olive oil in the bear household, but never for frying, for that we use sunflower and for stirfry etc we use groundnut.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
IanD said:
How high is your chol level? And what is the value of the components?
Click to expand...

Hi IanD, My total cholesterol is 6.6 mmol/L but my trigylicerides are 7.1 (the normal range is less than 1.69) :crazy:
the nurse said we may have to start some meds to bring it down a bit. i'm on a low fat diet these days... lets see how the next blood test turns out. its a blessing that i've a really nice, patient and friendly nurse.


Chris, yes its torture working in a bakery when u've diabetes :lol: but then i've got used to it now. *sigh* how i used to pig out on them pastries and breads till a month back !! :cry: Chappatis have about 20gms of carbs when i checked some sites&books.

StephenM said:
How tall are you? 85 kg is fine (my weight) if you are over 6ft tall 8) but too much if you are 5ft 6in. Another check is your waist measurement - it should be no more than 36"
Click to expand...

i'm 5'11. I used to weigh about 95 earlier but now on a downward trend yay !! :thumbup:

Thanks for the olive oil tip Thommothebear, wasnt aware of this at all. looks like olive oil may not work for me
 
I make spicy lentils and veggie dishes with plenty of garlic and ginger sometimes a little rice or bread followed by fruit.... I am a strict veggie and a new t2 well a few months now....I have cut sugar out of everything...I dont test this is not supported by my health centre but have regular hba1c with lower figures and wright loss since giving up sugar can't give up my spices though so many health benefits....
 
I am of Indian origin. Haven't given up much by way of Indian food and now eat five small meals a day instead of three.

My Diabetes Nurse advised me to keep eating chapatis as they are supposed to be slow-release as far as carbs go. Check out my HbA1c.
 
Chappatis, nans and parathas are all to be found in 'wholemeal' varieties but few are. The problem is the same as with bread, if it contains some wholemeal flour, even if it is less than 10%, it can be described as wholemeal. Sounas wholemeal nans appear to be the genuine article as they don't spike me, many others do though.

Athough not a vegetarian, I cook several of the recipes from the Prashad Cookbook: Indian Vegetarian Cooking and a good flatbread is a must in my opinion. Parathas are quite easy and the Manjulas kitchen series of videos on youtube show you how to make these things yourself. It's one way of making certain you get proper wholemeal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUcVlGze5lQ

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444734717/r ... wo=&hvqmt=

My favourite is a mixed lentil curry with a spicy chickpea and tomato side and mushrooms with spicy garlic. Most of this sort of stuff can be made up in larger batches and frozen for later use. It's all very very cheap, nourishng, OK for most diabetics and easy for a beginer.
 
I make paratha/bus up shut at home using a lot of butter. I heard the fat helps you process the carbs better or something? In that case would paratha or curry meat with roti be better in a way than a larger thicker naan or chana roti with less fat?


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…