Mixed up

Oh dear. Blackberries are ok. Fish and any meat is great. Eggs broccoli and greek full fat yoghurt.

Carrots can be problematic, you would need to taste and test. I make gravy but without using flour. Can you make scouse without potatoes?

Pizza if you make your own, look up fat head dough. It's very filling. I also portion off a piece and use purple garlic butter. It makes fab garlic bread.

Gricep said:

So these are my fav foods, but which are good and which are the devil....apples, blackberries,shredded wheat,brown toast,baked beans

Scouse,fish,peas,mince,steak,chicken,pizza,mash,any meat,eggs,broccoli,carrots,gravy,greek yog,tomatoes,the good old sunday roast

Pepsi max

Help

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Do's: Blackberries, fish, steak, chicken, meat, eggs, broccoli, greek yohurt (but only if full fat!). Tomatoes are alright in moderation.
Don't's: Apples, wheat of any kind, though some do alright with shredded wheat, most don't. Another thing to check with your meter! Bread/toast of any kind. Baked beans you'll have to test for too, some can have them, some can't, and the amount.... Up to you. Your meter'll tell you. I don't quite know what scouse is, but if it's a liverpudlian dish (Thanks, google) with underground veggies like carrots, onions and spuds, it's a no-go. Pizza is actually so bad it has a blood glucose curve named after it: The Pizza Effect. It can last for quite a few hours, so no, not good. That said, google fathead pizza. (Or just make a base with eggs). Mash, if you mean the potato kind, is no good. But you could make mash with celeriac or cauliflower. Put real butter in. Grave wholly depends. If it's got a thickener in like corn flour or regular flour, steer clear. And being Dutch, I keep having to look up the sunday roast... Gimme a sec. yeah... The meat's fine, the yorkshire pud isn't, the veggies depend on whether they're above ground or not, and the spuds are out. So if you can replace the veggies with cauliflower, broccoli, celeriac etc, you can still come a long way. https://www.carbmanager.com/recipe/keto-yorkshire-puddings might help....

xfieldok said:

Oh dear. Blackberries are ok. Fish and any meat is great. Eggs broccoli and greek full fat yoghurt.

Carrots can be problematic, you would need to taste and test. I make gravy but without using flour. Can you make scouse without potatoes?

Pizza if you make your own, look up fat head dough. It's very filling. I also portion off a piece and use purple garlic butter. It makes fab garlic bread.

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Beat me by half a minute.

Forgot mash. Anything that is mashed will hit our bloodstream fast. I use roughly mashed cauliflower or celeriac as a topping for cottage or shepherd's pie.

Gricep said:

Hello again, very useful that thank you, I love potatoes so would I be ok just having them on my sunday roast once a week, I had a rare chips and sausage last night and my sugars this morning are 7.8 which are up from my average of 7.3......I'm going to kick potatoes and bread for a while and see if I can get in the 6's.....I'm just struggling to find that food that I'd filling and is good for us

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Every time you have potatoes, or bread, your blood sugars will react. And it is wholly up to you whether that is acceptable. For me, it isn't, as I am following a ketogenic diet and my resistance is still "urgh" to put it in medical terms. I'd not just get high blood sugars and feel miserable, I'd also get kicked out of ketosis, have carb cravings for days and headaches for the duration too. But that's me. I find I have no problems going without bread or potatoes, but I do understand some might have a harder time with it, and if you don't have the rather high blood sugar spike I used to have (I'd hit twenties, having been an undiagnosed diabetic for years by the time it was found), you might "get away" with the once-a-week-oh-go-ahead-then, you know? Your meter'll tell you. I'm an all-or-nothing type, others have to have one cheat meal a week to be able to adhere to the diet. Find a way to make it doable for you. I can't tell you anything in absolutes, because everyone's needs are different. You can't have this, you can't have that, and in the meantime you're miserable? That's not healthy either.

It took me a while to find alternatives. I had bread (or rather, white buns) often. Haven't had bread in ages, until i started making keto mug bread, and I don't have that often either. Maybe twice a month. Anyway... If you can swap out the spuds for celeriac or cauliflower rice, or just add in more vegetables and meat... You don't have to eat less, just change the composition of the meal. Half meat, half veggies, rather than a quarter of meat, quarter veg, quarter spuds, and a quarter of pud. I have eggs often, every which way, and salads, fish... Can't do yohurt because it is a migraine trigger, but loved that stuff. If there's food you'd miss, google it with keto added in the search bar. you could find feasable alternatives.

I'll give you the Nutritional Thingy again, https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html , have another read, maybe it'll help more now that you've gotten a bit more of a grasp of the low carb thing.

And one more thing.... Diet is just one way to tackle T2. Yeah, it's the best way to avoid progression of the condition and stave off complications. But you could try moderately low carb with medication. Or medication-only, but that has a whole lot of drawbacks, medically speaking. You do have options, and the choice is yours to make. But you don't have to make it today. or next week. just try and figure out what works for you.

Have a read through this guide too for loads of simple info and ideas including food lists https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb

Try celeriac as a low-carb potato substitute. Nice. I usually have it mashed with or without butter, but have read you can have it boiled or chipped too.
You buy in Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury and maybe at some street markets too.
When raw it is hard/tough so you will need a strong knife to cut it.

Here is a fairly old thread about using celeriac:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/lower-carb-potatoes-celeriac.12307/

@Gricep I’m going to put my head above the parapet here! Everybody reacts differently to carbs and the only way to find out is to test. I have managed to maintain my hba1c at normal levels for approx 7 years on between 100 - 130 carbs per day. As well as the usual low carb foods such as eggs, cheese, meat, Greek yoghurt, fish etc I eat bread, albeit 1 slice with between 10 - 13g carbs depending on variety, small portions of potatoes, fruit - mainly berries but the occasional apple, cherry or grape, vegetables, both above and below ground, and reheated pasta. I admit that, as a T2, I am fortunate that I can still eat these foods in moderation but I know that I can tolerate them because I have tested on numerous occasions. You too will eventually find out what suits you.

Get your meter. Cut your carbs as much as you can. Once your numbers are under control then you can reintroduce carbs, slowly and one at a time. Your meter will let you know, one way or the other.

Gricep said:

Hello again, very useful that thank you, I love potatoes so would I be ok just having them on my sunday roast once a week, I had a rare chips and sausage last night and my sugars this morning are 7.8 which are up from my average of 7.3......I'm going to kick potatoes and bread for a while and see if I can get in the 6's.....I'm just struggling to find that food that I'd filling and is good for us

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When testing, think in whole numbers and watch pre and post meal figures, which will tell you much more about what you can or can't eat than your fasting levels which tend to be dictated by your liver. Meters are never 100% accurate so look for larger variations and over time watch for patterns/trends .

If you're hungry then eat more fatty and oily food - the aim being to replace all your high carbohydrate foods (which raise glucose levels), with more fatty and oily ones (which don't) as your main source of fuel.

And if you want to eat the occasional "doubtful" foods, try eating very small portions which is what I and I believe @Daphne917 said she does.

@Gricep @Robbity is correct and by testing small portions of foods that were more ‘carby’ than usual I have learnt what I can and should not eat.

Gricep said:

I was silly and had a large yorkshire pudding last night with mince and potatoes and was 8.6 this morning....did i deserve that ?

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Did you thoroughly enjoy it? To me, if I am going to fall off the wagon in a big way, it'd better be worth it! It's not like you'll get whipped and chased by a pitch-fork or bacon wielding bunch of villagers/forum members if you have something you know isn't actually good for you, every now and again. A lot of us make exceptions around Christmas for instance, or are a little more relaxed about diet when on holiday. Some aren't. It's entirely up to you. Do you feel it is worth it? A one off doesn't do all that much damage (though it can kick start carb cravings, make you feel ill for a bit, and if you're doing keto, it could start carb flu all over again.), it's when it's an every-day-of-the-week thing that would drag you down. All in all... There are no cheat meals that don't come at a price, which you already know. Everything'll cost you something. If you are aware of that and make decisions on when to pay for something and when not to.... Your choice.

It's not about whether or not you deserve punishment in the form of higher blood sugars. Your body doesn't chastise, it just responds to what you've put in it the best way it knows how. Did you deserve it? Non-issue. Could you expect it? Yeah. So what? Today's a new day! Start over and hope you'll get better results tomorrow morning.

I found that once I got to under 8mmol/l after meals and kept to the same foods, my levels gradually dropped down and down, presumably as my metabolism got back into balance. As long as your levels are heading in a good direction an occasional blip is not too bad, as long as it doesn't become more regular. There are a lot of swaps you can make which give you proper meals which aren't going to heap on the carbs.