Just diagnosed via HbA1c test

itsnotme said:

Am slightly scared, though I do know the best way to manage the disease is via exercise and better diet control. Am swapping white pasta for wholemeal and home made pasta will have a mix of wholemeal and normal OO flour. I suspect that I won't be diet only at these levels...

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Hi @itsnotme , welcome to the forum.

For some, diet only is enough at those levels, others need some help from medication, and both are fine.

Wholemeal doesn't make that much of a difference for many of us, it's all carbs tat raise blood glucose, no matter their colour.
You might want to invest in a glucose meter to test before and after meals to see what meals are fine, and what meals can use some tweaking to be more friendly to your diabetes, a meter can give you a lot of control to manage your own condition!

I think you'd like to have a read of this informative piece written by one of our members: https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html

Wish you all the best!

itsnotme said:

Took a blood test a few days ago and got the call from my doctor today telling me that my score was 99. I still have the confirmatory test to come. It came up as part of a medical for adopting a child, my urine test showed presence of glucose. My wife and I have adopted one already and I was all clear last time (4 years ago). There is a strong family history of diabetes in my family. My wife was unable to have children due to PCOS, and her medic al came back clear. We are desperate to adopt again especially as a potential match is a half sibling of the child we have adopted.

Am slightly scared, though I do know the best way to manage the disease is via exercise and better diet control. Am swapping white pasta for wholemeal and home made pasta will have a mix of wholemeal and normal OO flour. I suspect that I won't be diet only at these levels...

I have no symptoms at all at the moment, so while I'm not entirely surprised as I am clinically obese and the familial history, it's still a jolt. My doctor told me the numbers but these were meaningless to me until I started googling.

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At diagnosis my HbA1c was 91 and I am managing it on diet alone, but under 40 gm of carbs a day to have a HbA1c of 43 after 7 years.
As far as I can tell the high carb foods are high carb no matter what colour they are.
There is a low carb forum on Facebook which is not closely associated with treating diabetes which might help with food choices, but from time to time there is a post from someone with PCOS who has unexpectedly fallen pregnant - low carb can do that, but it could be distressing for your wife.
I found a blood glucose meter really useful for finding out what I could eat, as we are all oddities in what things cause spikes - I find legumes provide more carbs than they are supposed to, almost double the listed value, so I restrict the amount I eat.

I was 101 at diagnosis and got it down to 39 in 3 months going low carb. Like really low carb. No bread, rice pasta of any colour etc.
I didn't sustain it and its currently sitting at 64. Although I'm making a concerted effort and have got my daily average blood sugar from 9ish to 6ish. And that's o ly after 2 weeks of low carb again.
Keep on the forum, get a glucose monitor and read the amazing advice on here. It's more than possible to successfully get your numbers down.

becareful about root veg, as these are high in carbs, anything grown underground are off limits. Puree carrots will have a high sugar content. I would certainly recommend swopping your whole meal spaghetti and rice and use barefaced rice or spaghetti. I went to a Chinese restaurant last night, and took the rice, they cooked it for me.
As recommended early post. Do buy a glucose monitor, this is the best tool. It will show you which foods you can eat safely and which don't. It will be your best friend

itsnotme said:

Took a blood test a few days ago and got the call from my doctor today telling me that my score was 99. I still have the confirmatory test to come. It came up as part of a medical for adopting a child, my urine test showed presence of glucose. My wife and I have adopted one already and I was all clear last time (4 years ago). There is a strong family history of diabetes in my family. My wife was unable to have children due to PCOS, and her medic al came back clear. We are desperate to adopt again especially as a potential match is a half sibling of the child we have adopted.

Am slightly scared, though I do know the best way to manage the disease is via exercise and better diet control. Am swapping white pasta for wholemeal and home made pasta will have a mix of wholemeal and normal OO flour. I suspect that I won't be diet only at these levels...

I have no symptoms at all at the moment, so while I'm not entirely surprised as I am clinically obese and the familial history, it's still a jolt. My doctor told me the numbers but these were meaningless to me until I started googling.

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wishing you all the best you've got such a good incentive to change the way you eat for life with your adoption plans and current parenthood.
I was diagnosed 9 years ago with an hba1c of 97 and initially went down the healthy diet - low fat wholemeal lots of fruit and vegetables plus lots of exercise and although I did knock the numbers down some - weight and sugars by two years later despite sticking to same regime my figures were heading up again. At that stage 7 years ago I discovered low carb and went fully keto with intermittent fasting and it's this that made the difference for me getting my hba1c into low 30s and losing 5 stone in weight even though I discontinued meds. 7 years later I'm still meds free and similar low weight. I eat more carbs than in the early years but mainly from veggies and I can't imagine changing this way of eating as I enjoy it and it's sustainable for me. There's been a lot of experimentation on the way though working out what raises my bgs by using my blood sugar meter.
you can do it and you can do it if quickly if you use your reasons for changing to inform your habit changes. As a family carer I knew I had to turn my health round and it's still what keeps me on track.

I’m another that found the NHS healthy eating plan just led to higher and higher blood sugar levels. Once I switched to low carb I could see the difference in levels. of course you don’t need to believe random strangers on the Internet suggesting different diets. Indeed doctors themselves may differ in their views. There are many doctors now advocating low carb diets.

the best information is the information you get from your body. The best thing you can do right now is get a blood sugar meter. Test before you eat and 2 hours afterwards. That will show you how much your meal has caused your blood sugar to rise. Aim for no more than a two point rise after 2 hours. You will soon see what meals cause you problems.

if you decide to try low carb there are low carb pastas out there. I like an edame and mung bean one from Holland and Barrett. There are companies selling low carb bread (my favourite is srsly seeded bread and rolls), granola (Keto Hana). These two are both on line. Celeriac makes good chips, roasties and dauphinois. Even my fussy husband enjoys that.

I enjoy my diet which consists mainly of fish, meat, eggs, above ground veg, Greek yoghurt, berries, butter, cream and cheese.

Hopefully you'll be able to find a good balance. I can't tolerate carbs it seems. Ate a mini pork pie, only 12g carbs and it spiked me and I can't go anywhere near bread as they do the same. Threw away some lovely flat bread as a small piece shot me sky high.
DN will probably advocate a normal diet with some carbs. Basically, a balanced diet. Mine did but then rang me to find out how I'd dropped my BG so quickly.
Having not counted carbs for the past few years, I am happy that I need to stay low carb.

itsnotme said:

Second test was slightly lower at 96. Have an appointment with the diabetic nurse and doctor on Thursday for next steps which will involve Metformin

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I'm one of those who was rather high, like you, and took the low carb route successfully these past 7-odd years. So, yes, it can be done... In my experience, not with pasta, though. That said, there are alternatives to pasta that might suit...? Wholemeal isn't low carb by any means, but there are brands that are, just requires a little bit of searching. And who knows, cauliflower rice may be a godsend, as well as Konjac noodles.

I'm not going to lie to you though, going low carb enough, when you're thoroughly "up there" in HbA1c, does require a certain amount of sacrifice. And you're right, it has to be sustainable for a long, long time... It's not for everyone, very low carb/keto eating. Thankfully there are different ways to tackle diabetes. Low carb is one, medium low carb (so cutting back some, but not too drastically) with medication added in, or medication only... In the end, the choice is yours. Low carb/keto worked for me, zero carb didn't, alas. We're all different, and this is something I could fit into my life. It might not fit into yours.

Whatever you end up doing... Test around meals. Before a meal, and two hours after the first bite. It might tell you a certain meal was too carby, but it could also mean you just have half the portion of spuds or something, next time. Because you can make an informed descision, as you know where your blood sugars are at. Don't walk into this blindly if you don't have to.

I don't know how fast you need to have a re-test, and I don't know whether desicions made based on that are final when it comes to adoption. I'm assuming the kid you have an eye on needs a roof over their heads, and soon. So to be on the safe side and get numbers down quick, at least give the pasta a miss for a while, just for the time being...? Until everything's sorted and the child is where they're supposed to be: home. Then sort out what you want to do with your health, what is acceptable to your lifestyle and enjoyment of life. Because I'm assuming they're not going to be snatching a child out of loving arms if one's HbA1c is a tad high after adoption.

Anyway, good luck!
Jo

Hey, was diagnosed two weeks ago or thereabouts, have found that tracking my carbs (and making sure I don't go over 150g a day) helps. Admittedly these past two weeks have been an exercise in finding out which carbs spike my blood sugar and which don't. For example a McDonalds or a pizza will send my blood sugar rocketing (spent a good 20 hours at between 9-10mmol/l one day) but tinned soup, sourdough bread and porridge don't. I've also taken up walking a lot more. I've found even a 15-20min walk a twice a day be it to the shops, down the canal, to work etc, helps. I have the bonus incentive of playing pokemon go and catching pokemon when I walk though. Alternatively I also exercise in my room with resistance bands on days like today where it's raining and grim

Hi @itsnotme welcome to the forum. You will get lots of useful information here.
First rule is don't panic.
Diabetes is a marathon not a sprint. While some people have had quick success by going very low carb (below 50 g), addressing the issues one step at a time is also a way forward and easier sustainable, at least it was for me. I recall my situation in some of what you posted. I got diagnosed in 2014 with an HbA1c over 100. I liked pasta, potatoes and bread (still do), I travelled a lot for work, ...
Being able to cook will help you, measuring blood sugar is required despite the NHS not wanting us to do it.
Our bodies are not combustion engines. Thus calories from carbs quickly increase our blood sugar levels whereas calories from fats are more satiating. In case you decide to lose weight, intermittent fasting (IF) allows you to go very low carb,
Exercise is great for our health in many ways, but very inefficient for losing weight. you burn less than 500 calories on a 1 hour strenuous workout,
which makes you hungry and that chocolate bar or muffin plus something else will usually (more than) compensate.
Consider "easy wins" (they were for me): no fizzy drinks, includes fruit juice, no snacking.
Apologies if this is still overwhelming.

My own story is far from straight forward: I went on metformin for 4 years, which reduced my HbA1c, but not enough. Only five years ago, I decided that changing diet is required. With intermittent fasting (5+2) I lost 10 kg of weight, which put my HbA1c back into the 40s (see in my signature below).

Best wishes on your journey.

itsnotme said:

especially on DiabetesUK which my doctor recommends is cautious about low carb and states that it isn't for everyone

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Hi

I'd second all the posts above.

And a great point from @JoKalsbeek .

I was on diabetesuk, found it less then helpful personally.

Searched a bit more, found here ..never went back.

Sure it's got great merit, but when I read it's sponsored by coca cola, I lost all interest.

Here's a thought ..
Given nearly everyone agrees it's progressive if not treated.

And the advice has always been to treat it using the 'Eatwell' way of sorts, since circa the 1970/80s’

Maybe THAT way of treating it IS why it's progressive ?

Good luck getting a handle on all this.

Diet doctor was a big help in my early days, this most particularly.

Welcome to the forum @itsnotme .
It sounds as if you have a great attitude for managing your diabetes.
Although I have Type 1 diabetes, I read a lot about type 2 and find the comment on the top of every page on the Diabetes UK Forum a wonderful reminder: "Please be respectful of other peoples' opinions about diabetes. Everyone manages their health differently. Please be mindful of this."
Many people (on both fora) find low carb a valuable approach but, as you say, it has to be something you can maintain. So you need to find what works for your lifestyle, your body and your goals.
For example, many find that exercise after eating helps to reduce the spike from their food.

Good luck with your journey.