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Just diagnosed, but bewildered by the terminology

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Davey1644

Newbie
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Hi, just diagnosed last week, on my birthday, and cutting out the processed food and sugar, isn’t a problem. Where I’m lost is what carbs are exactly, and how much is too much. I know to cut out, bread, potatoes pasta etc, and this isn’t a problem really. But everything I look at seems to be a no no, and the advice I’ve read seems conflicting, full of acronyms or you need a medical degree to understand! My nurse has suggested replacing with vegetables and apparently I’ve been eating too much fruit, but I have to say I’m floundering with what is good and what is bad exactly. As an aside, I had some plain low sugar weetabix type cereal with milk after no sugar for few days and was overwhelmed how sugary they tasted, and changed to porridge now, is this ok? Is milk ok? Confused, lol.
Many thanks
 
Thanks, I read the newbie T2 thread, and found it acronym filled and confusing advice, that why I posted this thread. At least your advice is clear, many thanks again.
 
Davey1644 said:
Hi, just diagnosed last week, on my birthday, and cutting out the processed food and sugar, isn’t a problem. Where I’m lost is what carbs are exactly, and how much is too much. I know to cut out, bread, potatoes pasta etc, and this isn’t a problem really. But everything I look at seems to be a no no, and the advice I’ve read seems conflicting, full of acronyms or you need a medical degree to understand! My nurse has suggested replacing with vegetables and apparently I’ve been eating too much fruit, but I have to say I’m floundering with what is good and what is bad exactly. As an aside, I had some plain low sugar weetabix type cereal with milk after no sugar for few days and was overwhelmed how sugary they tasted, and changed to porridge now, is this ok? Is milk ok? Confused, lol.
Many thanks
Click to expand...
Porridge, cereal, weetabix, anything made with grain, rice or corn just isn't suited to a Type 2, or most of us, anyway. Milk does have carbs, but if you absolutely have to have it, go full fat or better yet, cream. Less carbs there. https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html might explain things a little better, but bulkbiker's list of basics is a really good one... And let us know which things you don't quite get, we'll explain them. We all started out "blank" at one point or another. And it's a shock getting diagnosed (And on your birthday! Sheesh!). Makes it hard to take up information and it is SO MUCH to learn all in one go. So take it easy, read the little quick-start guide I linked to, and go from there. List your questions, throw them out there, and there's always someone around with an answer.

Good luck!!!!
Jo

PS: You're going to be fine. Just so you know.
 
Give us a list of the confusing terms and we’ll explain them for you. We all had to learn somewhere.
 
Hi. As you may have found you need to look at the back of food packaging for carb content and ignore the front which only mentions one of the carbs i.e. sugar. Grains are carbs and any form of sugar. Root vegetables have a high carb content. Tropical fruit has high sugar levels so best avoided. Porridge in general is not good. Set yourself a daily max total carb intake of something like 150/day or less and see how you go. Proteins and fats are fine.
 
Hello and welcome,

It is not uncommon to find it a bit (or a lot) overwhelming. But ou have found this site which the best place to get information.

People vary with how many carbs they eat.

Have you got a blood sugar meter? If not I highly recommend that you get one. The idea is that regular testing will let you know what effect a meal has on your blood sugar levels- if you test before a meal and 2 hours afterward and it goes up by more than 2 the meal had too many carbs. (lots of 2 there which makes it a bit easier to remember.)

I agree that the easiest way to start is to base meals around low/no carb things- meat, fish, cheese and eggs.

Good luck - continue to ask questions and welcome.
 
If low carbing is your route, then try www.dietdoctor.com which is full of info and also recipes and guides on what veges, fruits, nuts etc that are best suited.
 
I stick pretty rigidly to foods containing less than 10grams per 100 grams of carbs, wherever it is possible. It becomes 2nd nature to flip the packet over to check the carb content. And where there is a choice I go for the lower.

It is easy to forget though that smaller portions of foods containing higher percentages of carbs can work too. So 50 grams of baked beans at 11grams of carbs per 100 will be only 5.5 grams of carbs. So I often have a small portion with a full English breakfast.
 
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Hi Davey1644
I've been doing low-carb (high-fat) for two months now. I vary between 800 cal and no count (that averages out around 1600 cal daily but keeping protein low to less than 60g when I can as protein, FOR ME, makes a negative -ie raises- difference to my fasting blood sugar levels)
I've added so much veg to my diet its untrue! I never ate many carbs like bread or weetabix or oatmeal so there was little to cut out except fruit and meat.
Eggs (with their choline) are apparently good for my fatty liver so I have added them back in although it is up and down and I love lambs liver and kidneys so that's in once a week, lightly fried, but only 15 grams of onions (1/6 medium) as they're not well tolerated yet.
With veg, I eat about 3/4-1lb a day in one meal, sauté in butter, duck fat, lard, bacon fat or beef dripping. The standard veg in my cupboard are Swiss Chard, asparagus,Cavalo Nero (kale), cucumber, pak or bok choy, spinach, french beans, courgettes and celery.
My frying pan is mostly filled with a mix of 2 or 3 of these chopped; I'm not much for cooking. Any more varietis of veg and I end up throwing some out. Sweet potato, white potato and red pepper in 30g amounts, even in fat, are not well tolerated by me, yet. Apple and pears are must worse than them. Weirdly, to 125g of fresh raspberries in 50ml of double cream (not thickened) I react like green veg:). I'm currently flirting with white and red cabbage, and leeks in cream, but may have to learn to make coleslaw and actually cook.
I hope you'll think of low-carb as adding to your variety of foods rather than being restrictive.
I did find I get badly cracked lips if I don't put 1 or two teaspoons daily of sea salt on my food and I benefit from juice of half a lemon in water, daily if I remember.
It is simpler to use he veg area of the supermarket rather than reading packet labels as I despair of the amount of sugar added sneakily to even most bacon.
Good luck!
 
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