Lost bloods Control

[chrispem]

Has anyone any advice for quickly reducing blood sugar values. My last HBa1C was 59.

 

[Pipp]

Hi @chrispem,
Only thing I can think of is to reduce carbs in diet, though would be helpful if you could let us know about your current diet, and what medication you have for your T2. Some meds can cause hypos if you reduce carbs toomuch, or too soon.

 

[chrispem]

Hi Pipp,
Many thanks. Diet has been poor but I’m on it now, my main difficulty is with bread. Meds are Metformin 500mg twice a day, plus 5mg Linagliptin in the evening. I also have to take 100mg day Azathioprine and 5mg prednisone for an eye condition. I go to the gym 90mins 4/5 times a week resistance and cardio 50/50. I had a protein shake with water at the gym, 10.8 BG on arriving home, no breakfast beforehand as normal. I have a review at the doctors tomorrow so I’m hoping a discussion with them might be something more than a slapped wrist, any pointers would be good.

 

[Pipp]

Hi Pipp,
Many thanks. Diet has been poor but I’m on it now, my main difficulty is with bread. Meds are Metformin 500mg twice a day, plus 5mg Linagliptin in the evening. I also have to take 100mg day Azathioprine and 5mg prednisone for an eye condition. I go to the gym 90mins 4/5 times a week resistance and cardio 50/50. I had a protein shake with water at the gym, 10.8 BG on arriving home, no breakfast beforehand as normal. I have a review at the doctors tomorrow so I’m hoping a discussion with them might be something more than a slapped wrist, any pointers would be good.

Ah, The prednisone, a steroid, could cause raised blood glucose. I find it does for me, though only have to take it periodically, in short courses. Perhaps you could discuss that with your doctor, for a start.

When you say diet is poor, I think you need to explain further, what this means. Sorry to persist in questioning, but realistic, and full disclosure would help. What are you eating that you consider to be poor?

 

[chrispem]

Stews and pies as main evening meals. So it’s the taters and pastry that I’m guessing are the issue, I usually have bread too as I’m constantly hungry at the moment. Salad and vegetables don’t seem to fill me up. I usually have a sandwich for lunch but it’s always with protein like chicken or bacon or ham sometimes cheese and pickle. Last night we had lamb steaks gravy mixed vegetables and baked sweet potato, 8.5 before 10.9 2h after. Plain crisps around 9:30 with 2 glasses of wine watching the snooker. My morning fasting is around 7.5 at the moment. I hate winter this year and think it’s driving my eating habits, nothing seems to leave me satiated. That’s as open as I can be.

 

[Resurgam]

@chrispem I have stews regularly, but I use swede rather than potato of any kind - including crisps. Lots of meat, or any other protein is likely to cut down on the hunger.
There are quite a few recipes for low carb breads - though they are rather fragile before baking so a bread machine often knocks all the puff out of them so gentle mixing by hand is a better option, I found.

 

[chrispem]

Many thanks Resurgam , have you ever used sweet potato in stews?

 

[lovinglife]

Sweet potato is just as high in carbs as ordinary potato- I use celeriac. The massive hunger you are feeling could be down to the high carbs you are eating. It’s a vicious circle, your body can’t handle the carbs so it throws out more insulin that doesn’t get used properly so it asks for more and more food to use up the insulin, which doesn’t happen so you just go round in circles.

As @Pipp says the best way to reduce your BG and help with your hunger is to reduce carbs. Most of us with T2 on the forum use a low carb or keto diet to control our BG, you don’t need to go hungry, lots of lovely things to fill up on. Fatty meats, cheeses, cream & full fat Greek yogurt. Lots of above ground veggies, bacon, eggs, avocado, butter, cream, good quality sausages

If you have to have bread then there are lots of options online to buy though they can be expensive and may be cost prohibitive, I get bread, rolls, bagels & pizza bases from either seriously low carb or the low carb food Co. But there are others Heylo I think is one of them
Have a look at the what have you eaten today low carb thread for some tasty ideas, click on the link below

What have you eaten today? (Low carb forum)

Such a freezing cold morning I plumped for breakfast of coconut porridge. Lunch was avocado, leaves,h/b egg mixed with cottage cheese and mustard, ginger and turmeric sauerkraut. Choc chia pud to follow. Dinner- DD Keto Asian cabbage stir fry. A quick simple and very tasty meal.

www.diabetes.co.uk

 

[chrispem]

Many thanks loving life, I was unaware of the possible insulin vicious circle, makes sense with how i feel at the moment. And thank you for the meal suggestions, I only had one go-to low BG option at the moment which was cauliflower cheese and butchers sausages

 

[lovinglife]

The main site has a low carb programme that is I think £14.99 a month (not totally sure in price so don’t quote me in that one) but there is a 7 day sample cookbook here, may give you a kick start

https://res.cloudinary.com/grohealth/image/upload/v1591207142/Low%20Carb%20Program/LCP-UK/Meal%20Plans/Budget/UK_Budget_Meal_Plan_WK1_LCP-UKBUGMW1.pdf

Also google DietDoctor, that is also subscription if you want to do it, but there’s no need, it has hundreds of low carb & keto recipes and a good few free meal plans.

It’s quite a learning curve and you are changing a way of thinking that’s been drummed into us for years that fats are bad for us, read through the success story thread to see how many of our members have successfully lowered there BG & weight loss and all round health with low carb or keto lifestyle

 

[chrispem]

Thank you

 

[Lupf]

Hi @chrispem welcome.

Reducing carbs is what many people here do, but in my view this is not the full story.
If you reduce carbs only you will go hungry and this is not sustainable.
This leads to what @lovinglife termed "vicious cycle".
For the same reason, diets based on reducing calories are bound to fail, which then leads to yo-yo dieting.
This is a great business model for diet companies, but causes so much misery.

I would rather say, replacing carbs with fat and protein is what works.
So depending on your taste, dairy products, such as cheese, eggs, cream, full fat yogurt
as well as meats, including bacon, lamb shoulder, roasts, a whole chicken,
olive oil, nuts are great. Lots of vegetables are ok, too, but your mileage may vary.
Fatty food has the advantage that it is more satiating, so will not make you hungry again after 2 hours.
Despite being told for decades that fat is bad for you, the evidence does not support this, @KennyA can link to a recent study.
I've banned all low-fat foods from my fridge. I also eat lots of vegetables, salads (with olive oil and vinegar dressing) and soup,
Best wishes.

 

[Resurgam]

Many thanks Resurgam , have you ever used sweet potato in stews?

Never - it is far too high carb - I stick to a maximum of 10% carbs for everything except chocolate.
I have a pressure cooker of stew at the moment - I add more stock, more veges, clear out the fridge, for several days - onion and swede to start with, celery on the second day, tomato on the third, if there's anything left after that I sieve out the solid stuff and add it to stir fry, then the stock will be saved for the next lot of stew, frozen.

 

[KennyA]

Hi - thanks for the tag @Lupf

here's the link mentioned:
This is a 2019 paper from the American College of Cardiology, which up to then had been completely pro-low-fat in its dietary recommendations. That has changed.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/scien...tm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=the-arrow-188

Journal of the American College of Cardiology:
•Several foods relatively rich in SFAs, such as whole-fat dairy, dark chocolate, and unprocessed meat, are not associated with increased CVD or diabetes risk.
•There is no robust evidence that current population-wide arbitrary upper limits on saturated fat consumption in the United States will prevent CVD or reduce mortality.

For what it's worth, I've done over five years on around 20g carb/day. I was diagnosed December 2019, and by April 2020 was back with normal blood glucose. Since then I've lost about 90lbs. After most of it went, I restarted exercise (exercise played no part in my weight loss or bg correction, I do it because I like it). Now playing football three times a week, which is OK for 67.

Never been hungry and eaten mainly meat/fish/dairy plus green veg. No pastry, bread, pasta, potato, root veg (other than swede) sugar, fruit, cereals etc. I don't eat packaged/ instant foods at all and cook everything from fresh.

 

[chrispem]

Hi - thanks for the tag @Lupf

here's the link mentioned:
This is a 2019 paper from the American College of Cardiology, which up to then had been completely pro-low-fat in its dietary recommendations. That has changed.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735109720356874?via=ihub=&utm_source=arrow.proteinpower.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=the-arrow-188

Journal of the American College of Cardiology:
•Several foods relatively rich in SFAs, such as whole-fat dairy, dark chocolate, and unprocessed meat, are not associated with increased CVD or diabetes risk.
•There is no robust evidence that current population-wide arbitrary upper limits on saturated fat consumption in the United States will prevent CVD or reduce mortality.

For what it's worth, I've done over five years on around 20g carb/day. I was diagnosed December 2019, and by April 2020 was back with normal blood glucose. Since then I've lost about 90lbs. After most of it went, I restarted exercise (exercise played no part in my weight loss or bg correction, I do it because I like it). Now playing football three times a week, which is OK for 67.

Never been hungry and eaten mainly meat/fish/dairy plus green veg. No pastry, bread, pasta, potato, root veg (other than swede) sugar, fruit, cereals etc. I don't eat packaged/ instant foods at all and cook everything from fresh.

Thank you very much for the link

 

[Chris24Main]

Just to back up what's already been said - I suspect about a year ago I would have fallen into the "you'll never take bread away from me" camp.

@chrispem - so I totally relate. Bread was the thing I thought I would have the biggest issue with leaving off my plate, but I haven't had a single slice of any kind of bread in about a year, and feel great; though I have taken to folding some paté into slices of Emmenthal cheese, so there's that.

We focus on glucose, because that's what gets measured, but it's really the insulin in the background, getting higher and higher, leaving you feeling more and more hungry, because your body is never really allowed to get to that "satisfied" point, because insulin is always in control.

For what it's worth - I spent three years doing the strict diet and exercise thing - lost a lot of weight, but also got an inguinal hernia from muscle loss, and at the end of it I was diagnosed diabetic. This last year I've gone the other way; low carb and higher fat - the belly fat just drops away, and I've never felt hungry.

Good luck, whatever you decide..

 

[chrispem]

@Chris24Main - Many thanks for your message. I've ordered some Lo Carb bread from Low Carb Food Co which is not a million miles from the gym I use, so this is my final attempt (along with the other tips I'll adopt received from members) to keep some form of bread in my diet. If I can't get my blood back in control I will follow you're lead and bread will be toast - if you'll forgive my pun.

 

[Pipp]

@Chris24Main - Many thanks for your message. I've ordered some Lo Carb bread from Low Carb Food Co which is not a million miles from the gym I use, so this is my final attempt (along with the other tips I'll adopt received from members) to keep some form of bread in my diet. If I can't get my blood back in control I will follow you're lead and bread will be toast - if you'll forgive my pun.

Low Carb Food Co bread has been a saving grace for me.
Toast is my go to comfort food when ill. I have been unable to eat much a few times lately, but the bread from there is a good substitute for the more commercial stuff. Expensive, but eating less of it anyway. It doesn’t raise blood glucose for me.

 

[Lupf]

I also love bread. I've learned to deal with it in the following way. When buying good bread, I slice and freeze it. Then I can defrost one piece at a time, if I make a sandwich at home, thus limiting the amount of carbs to around 10 to 15 g. I never imagined that I woulnd't eat bread on a regular basis any more, but here I am. I try to avoid bread when eating out or buying lunch.

 

[Outlier]

I gave up bread upon diagnosis, and can now smell the scent from husband's daily toast without wanting any. I never thought this would happen because - y'know - that smell of toast....

But it just happened and I hope will be the same for you.