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Need advice on diet please

jomar_uk

Well-Known Member
Messages
109
I have both T2 and severe Crohns (with 5 structures).

Im in hospital now and have 2 diet sheets:
1 for crohns (low residual fibre)
1 for T2

Ive asked for help here & where i am as the 2 diets seem to contradict each other.

Strictures means pulses, seeds, honey, pasta etc all no nos.

Temporary genuine, professional advice appreciated very much

Thank you, john
 
They have not told me what i can eat yet, i was given 2 seemingly at odds diet sheets.

Meds:
Metformin MR 500mg BD
Gliclazide? 40mg cms(must be after food)

Last sugar was 15.7 and only had cup of tea with 1 sweetner.

Admittedly only fully diagnosed & 2nd day of treatment but was hoping i had perhaps overlooked something.

Ty for your response, john
 
To eat with crohns due to tge strictures (bad narrowing in small bowel) is limited as it has to be low residual fibre plus nithing that would block or “gunge up” any if the strictures if that makes sense.
 
What did the T2 diet sheet suggest? Some hospitals are still recommending a diet with things like wholemeal bread and pasta which many of us on here find raises blood sugar.

ifollow a diet low in carbs to help control my blood sugar. That includes eating things like cheese, cream, eggs, Greek yoghurt, butter, nuts, olives, meat, fish, some above ground veg. I eat only minimal amounts of new potatoes, no rice, pasta, very little bread. Would any of that work with your Crohns?
 
Im informed i have
Steroid induced Diabetes
They were vital to reduce the crohns inflammation.
Im on a reducing dose over 3 months now.
Entecort
9mg 4 weeks
6mg 4 weeks
3mg 4 weeks
Hopefully stop
 

It recommended wholemeal bread and pasta (the crohns diet sheet says i should not have them.

Tbh I've emailed both while still in patient as i honestly have no idea what i should & should not eat which seems ridiculous.

Im only eating half if what i am served in here but they are still very high.

Honest opinion and i expecting too much too soon? Am i being too impatient? (I can take honest opinions its unproven dietary advice i seem to have problems with as i fully understand there are real people in here trying to lead productive lives as i still desire to do.

Thank you, john
 

I will put your kind suggestions to the RD when i next see her. It seems to make sense.

Ty again, john
 
If I were you I would start by getting your diet right for the Crohns as That's the more immediate and serious problem. Steroids are well known for increasing blood sugar so you will see what reducing them is able to achieve.

then come here with the list of suitable Crohns foods and people can suggest which will likely be OK for diabetes.

finally ask If they will prescribe you a blood sugar meter to help you monitor the diabetes. If they won’t they are not expensive to buy. You can then test foods as you eat and see which might be ok and which cause problems with blood sugar.
 



Good suggestion was provided with spares & repeat prescription for GP.

My crohns major problem are the strictures (narrowing of the “tubes” in my small Bowel where the food is processed & “moved in”)

Your help/advice appreciated, ty
John
 

Also the steroids are fixed for at least 3 months my gastrointestinal consultant said.

Its all so new and a bit apprehensive. Tbh last time i was in here, my beloved wife was newly diagnosed with cancer and we were “temporarily separated” 27th May, 2022 so i was pretty raw then (now also tbh).

I have the full crohns diet sheets here thanks, its just where the 2 sets of diets “contradict” each other what i can & cannot eat added to the further complications of the strictures.

Kind regards, john
 
In my experience of 12 years of diabetes I have only had one diabetic professional who was up to date with the most recent research on diet. Most were still pushing the NHS eatwell plate with complex carbs. Like many people here all following that advice did was raise my blood sugar more and more, and make me put on weight. All I can say is once I found this site, started ignoring those NHS “diabetes” diet sheets and adjusted my diet to low carb that was when I managed to get blood sugar under control.

it’s great that you have a meter. So now you don’t have to believe what I or any other stranger here tells you. You can use the meter to test before you eat and two hours after, and see what your blood sugar does. Ideally you are aiming for less than a two point rise.
 
I have no knowledge about Crohn's, and as others have said, it would be ever so helpful if you were to tell us what you are allowed on the Crohn's and then we can tweak it to be diabetic-friendly, and then you can adjust so you are eating things you enjoy. However, if it's important to minimise "roughage" then meat, fish, eggs, seafood, cream and cheese, with butter or olive oil where it would enhance, plus a little cider vinegar for flavour and herbs/spices ditto, is probably okay for both conditions. However I am NOT medically qualified, so please make allowances for this.
 
Any chance of giving us the Crohns sheet? If it's too much to type out, just shoot a few pics and share those. It really would help as we can tell you for hours about what can be good for a diabetic, dietary-wise, but the Crohns the bulk of us are lost on. Plus, what a hospital thinks would be good for diabetics, often comes from the dark ages and most decidedly isn't. Glad I was released from the hospital after a night a few years ago, but my mom developed steroid induced diabetes while she was laid up for over a month. Not a single meal option was diabetes-friendly, and she was on insulin from there on in. I remember what a friend of mine ate with his Crohns, but he had barely any bowels left at that point. (He had a baggy). Like Outlier suggested: "meat, fish, eggs, seafood, cream and cheese, with butter or olive oil" should be all good without irritating the intestinal walls/ulcers and are very low to no carb. For the rest of it we're just guessing so long as you don't share the Crohns sheet, sorry.
 



I hope these come out ok.
There are other minor changes due to the fact I have strictures so i hope you see the “problems”.

Appreciate all advice recently, thank you so much. I feel a complete novice (which I am

Kind regards & thanks, john

Ps i can see the benefit of the meter now, ty
 
At a glance, but mind you, I am NOT British and some things I just don’t know because we don’t serve them here.

Okay for a diabetic who wants to low carb:

Full fat milk or cream

Water

Tea (decaf?)

Coffee (decaf?)

Herbal tea

Extra dark chocolate

Pepper/salt/herbs and spices (careful with the spices, but that’s for the crohns, not the diabetes. I figure, if it upsets my IBS, it’ll do you no favours either)

Coconut milk (potentially watered down. Could be made into hot chocolate if you put a teaspoon of straight cocao in)

Lettuce

Asparagus

Aubergine

Broccoli

Cauliflower (which is good when it’s riced, with cheese and herbs!)

Tomatoes (unskinned and deseeded for your gut)

Strained veg juice (maybe watered down for carbs? I do 50% juice, 50% water, and heat it up with some salt added, so it’s more like a thin soup)

Full fat milk

Cream

Sour cream

Crème fraiche

Soy milk (watered down for carbs)

Full fat Greek yoghurt

Hard cheeses

Cottage cheese

Ricotta cheese

Beef

Veal

Lamb

Mutton

Pork

Bacon

Ham

Chicken

Turkey

Fish without bones (Salmon, cod, haddock, tuna, plaice)

Eggs

Tofu


Of course, eating less frequently is better for a T2, but your bowels take precedence here. Slow and steady wins the race. If you’re stuck for snacks or breakfast, just go for something you might not associate with breakfast, like full fat Greek yoghurt, or a semi-full English, with eggs, bacon, sausagemeat (not sure if the casing’ll be okay). Snacks could be babybel cheeses and the like. Maybe olives? Didn’t spot those come to think of it… Others'll have more to add, I'm sure. I'm beginning to wonder whether a carnivore diet'd be up your alley... But that'd just be meat, fish, poultry,, eggs and dairy, nothing else. It's practically zero carb and the bulk of it wouldn't do anything with the crohns... It's extremely restrictive though, so certainly not for everyone. I kept it up for a while until I discovered I make a certain, relatively rare kind of kidney stone on that diet. So that nixed that plan, half a year or so in.

It'll get better than it is now, really.
Hugs,
Jo
 
Looks like you are getting plenty of help @jomar_uk but just wanted to add that you are on Gliclizide which can cause hypos, I’m aware of your high numbers and the steroids but if you do cut carbs completely this still could result in a big drop in numbers, it’s good that you’ve got a meter so keep an eye on your BG for any lows, below 4 is a hypo, you may not get near that at the moment considering your circumstances but you still need to be aware.

If you do start to see too low numbers maybe add a small amount of the carby foods from your Crohns diet sheet, or you could ask your HCP team to maybe consider a reduction in your medication if it becomes a regular thing.

The other alternative whilst you are sorting out your Crohns is to eat more of the things that are beneficial for the Crohns and maybe speak to your team about a temporary increase in your meds

You are juggling 2 very different conditions and sometimes it’s hard to look at them separately. You can only do your best
 
My RD against keto as i mentioned that to her after reading about it.

For me, I am old school i only go with qualified professionals abd that has been good for my 76 years on this earth so far

If others choose others ways and it helps them, as long as it is safe that is their choice.

Kind regards, john

mod edit to remove quote of deleted post.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
@jomar_uk I have been able to have normal numbers even though a type 2 diabetic since diagnosis in 2016 - except for one 'blip' which was gone by the time I was told about it.
I do not eat grain or high starch or sugar foods, I do have up to 40 gm of carbs a day, but nothing 'high residue' in any quantity, it seems, to judge by all the years since diagnosis, that fibre is not necessary in my diet.
I felt very let down by advice on what to eat from my GPs as it always made me feel so unwell to eat 'healthy' carbs and struggle to stick to the diet sheets and then end up vastly overweight and a type 2 diabetic. I was told to take a statin and Metformin and was utterly miserable and even having suicidal thoughts in around a month.
I now feel so much better on low carb - as per Dr Atkins, and I have recently found some paperwork showing that - unknown to me, there were warnings in the tests done over ten years earlier.

mod edit : forum rule regarding ignoring medical professional.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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