Interesting stuff.
After 18 months with the Libre 2 continuous glucose monitor, I believe I've thoroughly tested what I can get away with in terms of conventional carb-consumption.
I'm now persuaded that all foods which are based on processed starches are effectively laden with nearly-instant sugars once swallowed. They encompass virtually anything containing grains or potatoes, including the countless products based on them...so anything sold at a bakery, plus a shocking proportion of foods rarely identified as carb-heavy (like soups thickened with flour) are now off my menu.
It's dreadful how reliant we have become upon stable long shelf-life processed starches. They're everywhere, and it takes determination to avoid items we may have grown up mistakenly assuming were essentially healthy.
I say 'mistakenly' because while non-diabetics enjoy them without immediate problems (and the whole western world's agriculture and food-distribution economy is dominated by sustained over-consumption of them), the insulin spikes which even an entirely healthy person experiences, show that processed carbs aren't what
anybody ought to be eating. They're bad news, but only diabetes patients are obliged to hear the message.
However, the incredible efficiency of supermarket supply has made it surprisingly easy for me to adjust to things that don't cause me much blood-glucose imbalance. These are mostly fresh vegetables.
Some helpful advice on a recent TV show: the doctor said
eat vegetables before other items on the plate or other parts of the meal.
I don't know why, but that really helped me. My diet (which may seem radical until it is tried) involves starting the day with a bowl of small-chopped raw celery and carrot mixed with a handful of peanuts and chunks of good vintage Cheddar...plus a bowl of diced cucumber and cherry tomatoes with a can of mackerel in olive oil...hopefully the photo opens, here...
...those are large bowls, so it's quite a lot of satisfying physical bulk, and having crunched it up and savoured the flavours, I'm really
not hungry.
Later in the day, an omelette with broccoli, onion, red pepper and sliced courgette...plus large bowls of Romaine salad with radishes and olives, feta and nuts; carrot slices for scooping up home-made guacamole (I never ate avocado till I was over fifty...now I am happily addicted) and occasional slabs of 85% cocoa chocolate with walnuts and coffee, with the occasional orange or strawberry.
I am amazed how much I enjoy a diet that has largely ditched all the factory-foods I used to put away with insatiable gusto.
Last weekend my girlfriend and I spent three nights in a tent. Low-budget camping deserves a thread to itself, as a time which encourages catastrophically unhealthy eating. As a result of our profound discomfort at night, we allowed ourselves to eat anything at all in the daytimes. My blood-glucose (which is usually over 95% in range, and mainly within the much tighter 4.6 to 7.6mmols/L at which I set my alarms) went completely out of control. I hadn't been very greedy or unhealthy - I'd just eaten all the things I used to, every day of my life.
I reckon most of us grew up with a lot of terrible dietary habits that not even our doctors understand or work hard enough to dispel...
...but it can be done, and it's a delicious option.