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Missing Fruit

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bunty

Well-Known Member
Messages
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Hi, i'm new to this board but not new to diabetes. I was diagnosed as Type 2 last August '07 and so far have managed OK using a mixture of diet (low carbs), exercise and Metformin. The Met is mainly 'cos i have really annoying DP which wasnt responding even though my first HbA1c was 5.6 and my second, 5.4.

Anyway, apart from the horrid diabetes i have a life-threatening food allergy to most fruits and all nuts and nut traces and to soya. This severely limits my choices and now i have to also be aware of the high carb content in fruits, i feel utterly deprived and more so of late, strangely.

The only fruits i can eat are, would you credit it, those with the highest sugar content! Bananas, grapes, mangos, pineapples and citrus fruits are the only ones i can eat. And i dont eat them, now and miss them like crazy.

I've been dieting successfully for the past 13 months and have lost in excess of 4 and a half stone but now i am struggling hugely. If i stick rigidly to my low carb, low fat diet, so i lose weight, then i now suffer from what feels like a 'low' as soon as i drop below 5 - 4.5.

This isnt just annoying, it's debilitating as i feel very tired for the rest of the day and i have also been waking from a low a few times lately - waking up disorientated, sweated and needing a wee.

I have my next FBT and review in two weeks so will discuss all this with the diabetic nurse. She is very sweet and initially was promoting the NHS 'eat a normal healthy diet with plenty of slow-release carbs with each meal' but has since come to accept that low-carbs is the most effective regime. She even allowed me extra test strips, as i am her 'star patient' and dont waste the things!

But i miss fruit SO much. Before diagnosis when i saw my immunologist consultant, i would lament that i missed strawberries and apples, pears, white bread etc etc. Now i feel positively desperate for a banana and a mango! Isnt that daft? I have had the very occasional banana but my diet seems in a rut of late. I cant allow myself a tiny treat of chocolate, for example, because there is no choccy available without that **** soya, which seems to be shoved in everything on sale, these days. So i want fruit!

Ok, enough from me, eh? Just thought i'd wade right in and get this lot off my chest by way as an introduction!

bunty
 
A banana(medium) is 20 carbs.A mango is 15.8.Why don't you chop up a banana or mango and just have a bit at the end of your meals.That way you will get the fruit ,stop the craving and not put up your BS too much.Worth a try?

Oh BTW welcome to the forum!! :lol:
 
I'm with Sue on this
If you miss something dreadfully, have a TINY bit and spin it out.
Do you like dark chocolate?
You could have a square with your portion of fruit to spread it out a bit.
remember if your portion is tiny, even a high carb food becomes low carb.
If you have a GOOD kitchen scale and are good at sums, you can work out the carbs in a piece of your fruit and say you have 12 carbs with lunch, have it ALL in about 45g of banana, Bananas are about 24% carbohydrate.
I wouldn't worry about the carbs in your green veggies in that meal
 
Having discussed this with the nurse at the clinic, what i currently do is have what i absolutely crave (other than that which, quite literally, will kill me!) and move on from there. That's doable, and i am disciplined enough that i differentiate between a desperate desire and a whim. But i still miss fruit as a part of my daily diet.

And whereas i am strong enough not to have a food, i am not strong enough to have a tiny bit of a food i want! So, to me, having a piece of banana is worse than not having it - contrary, eh?

Incidently, there is no chocolate i have found thus far that doesnt contain either or both of nut traces and soya, so having one or two squares isnt an option, sadly.

Now and then i throw caution to the wind and live dangerously. I'm living proof that the 'may contain traces of nuts' in a Green and Black's organic white chocolate bar is only a 'may'. So far, anyway, LOL! I allowed myself one tiny bar in May, for my birthday. I ate it in company of my friend at work, with my epipen at my side. Gosh, it was yummy!
 
Some people find that if they bury the fruit in enough fat and eat it at the end of a high fat/protein meal or with acidic things they can minimise the blood sugar spike.

Eg strawberries and double cream.
banana, nuts, full fat greek yogurt.
mango, lemon juice, with chicken korma.

You will need to experiment.
 
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