introduction and a few questions

Hi delicate flower and welcome.

@daisy1 will give you some reading material to get you started.

In the meantime try to bear in mind that the body turns all carbohydrates into glucose. So reduce intakes of pasta, rice, potato and bread. Fruit has carbs in it so be aware it's not free for diabetics.

Meat, fish, eggs, cheese, olives and nuts are all generally pretty good for us. I'm a T1, but there will be some T2's along soon with some advice. (Look at the total carb content on nutrition labels, not just sugar).

Hi there @delicateflower & welcome to the forum, you have certainly come to the right place for help & support.

It appears @urbanracer has already Tagged daisy1 who will come along with lot of useful information we give to all new members.

If your looking for pre cooked meals or ready meals you may find it very difficult. to find anything appropriate. It is the carbohydrates that you need to reduce. On all the packets you will see the carbohydrates listed and it also will say of which are sugars. please ignore this it is the the total carbs.

Many of the T2s on here would recommend that you eat to your meter, that will then tell you how many carbs you can tolerate per meal. Are or should I say is your husband testing his Blood Sugars levels?

Neil

@delicateflower

Hello and welcome to the forum, both to you and to your husband. Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. It gives a lot of information on carbs which you both need to cut down. Ask all the questions you need to 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 over 140,000 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

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

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

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 bloodglucose 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.

Hi delicate flower

Waitrose have a range called Easy cook....quite a number of them are low carb and healthy...just shove in the oven kind of thing, though often portions are for two. They don't include veg so your other half would have to cook some veg....

All the best

Hi welcome to the forum - the NHS doesn't have a good track record with helping patients with T2 diabetes unfortunately. Most diabetic nurses advise against testing so that they dont have to prescribe the testing strips which can be expensive however the only way to find out what your blood sugar levels are and how they are affected by what we eat is by testing. Get a meter - there are several available and there is a section comparing metres under diabetes management (apologies but not sure how to do links!!!!). Unfortunately we are all individuals so what works for one of us won't for somebody else but I have found that by lowering my carbs and eating full, as opposed to low, fat food my weight, BS and cholesterol levels have all reduced. This forum is great for support and advice so don't be afaid to ask questions if you're unsure. Just one more thing has your husband been told that he is now entitled to free prescriptions due to being on diabetic medication?

delicateflower said:

Hello everyone,

Thank you so so much for your valuable advice. I am certainly going to look into waitrose's healthy meal range. Just to answer Neil, no, my husband is not doing the sugar home test. We have asked the diabetes nurse and she said he did not need to, because the blood test would be fine. I find it strange, I thought you would have to control the sugar levels daily.
My condition is opposite to most people with diabetes, I am insulin resistant, so this is a learning curve for me. At the moment my husband is blanking everything out, it has only been one month since the diagnosis and he can't come to terms with it yet. He is so depressed, no matter what I say, I can't get him out of it. I guess I just have to give it time, let him grieve. I just wish I could help him more. The nurse said is sugar level is not coming down but he has only been on metformin about 1 month. The diabetes care helpline said the nurse is not giving the metformin time to get into his body. She wants to put him on glycoside or glycosol, do forgive me if I am not orrect, but apparently that could have the opposite effect and bring his sugar levels too down. To me, the most difficult thing is to work out carves. I get all confused, it is a little like counting calories if you know what I mean. I am more a person to cook a récipe tailored to diabetes than to see all carves. I know I have to think diferente but this is all new to me.
Once again, thank you so very much for your help.

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If your husband is feeling depressed, does he understand that high BG's can sometimes affect a persons moods? If you get an opportunity to discuss it with him, he may need to take positive action to break the cycle.