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Need advice on diet please

jomar_uk said:
How can i edit my profile please so i can enter relevant details?
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Hello, @jomar_uk
If you click on your user name on screen, you will get the image in the screenshot attached.
If you then click on ‘About’ you can edit that.
 
Did she explain why?

There are plenty of nhs qualified professional medical drs, diabetic nurses and dieticians that do recommend the low carb approach for diabetes. The nhs even prescribe a low carb course in some areas. However some are not educated in it and haven’t studied it and continue to go with historic advice about eating plenty of carbs (usually brown, wholemeal etc). The latter group tend to have a lot more poorly controlled patients on more meds than the former group. It’s a bit of potluck which ones you get to meet face to face but online searching will easily produce numerous examples of the latter. Dr David Unwin is an nhs GP that is easily found online. The Freshwell Practice (also nhs) have numerous online resources if you want to reassure yourself that it’s not made up by us in here. And as said previously your meter will show you which foods are ”bad” for your diabetes in terms of raising glucose more and which are better. No opinions required.
 
OP is not just contending with diabetes. There is also Crohns to consider.
 
I think the final image in this post is relevant advice, @jomar_uk .
Hopefully your medical professionals will work together using holistic methods to determine tailored dietary advice to meet needs of both medical conditions.
 
The diet the hospital put me on would've killed me a couple of years ago, so... While keto and such sounded absolutely insane, my meter told me it kept my blood sugars in range, where the massive amounts of sandwiches and potatoes I was prescribed put my blood sugars up in the 20's. My liver wasn't going to make it, and I was told there was nothing they could do, save for give me painkillers/palliative care when I got to the end stages. I was in my mid-30's and devastated. I went low carb, my blood sugars went back to non-diabetic levels, my liver recovered... And I'm now in my 7th year of normal blood sugars due to low carb. I'm healthy-ish, no complications, just the rheumatism and hypothyroidism etc, which I already had. Though I have to say, not weighing over 105 kilo's anymore made my joints a heck of a lot happier.

All that said because this is something I really, really want to impress upon you: if at any point in time, you're feeling decidedly worse than you think you should, with fatigue, eye issues, nerve damage, whatever... And your blood sugars remain high.... Just try it for a week or so, and see whether it makes a difference. Nothing to lose, everything to gain. You have options, okay? Again, I thought low carb was bonkers, but my meter told me it worked, and my not being stone cold dead at the moment pretty much says the same. You don't have to trust whackjobs on the internet like me. If you find something's not working for you, no matter who told you it would be good for you, just give something else a go for a little while, and trust what your meter tells you. If your meter tells you I'm full of it, so be it. But if it doesn't, it just might make your quality of life that much better. That is all, and do with that what you like.

In any case, good luck, and I sincerely hope you'll feel better soon!
Jo
 
Just a gentle reminder guys bear in mind OP is dealing with 2 very different conditions and is an inpatient so may have limited access to low carb foods that are suitable for a Crohns diet, they are also on meds that could cause a hypo

cheers lovinglife on behalf of the mod team
 
Oh, yes, quite... My mind's all over the place... I just remembered the steroids'd be tapering down. Not sure if I caught the medication that might cause hypo's though.

I have to juggle several food triggerd or influenced conditions (diabetes, hypothyroid, IBS, rheumatism, migraines, kidney stones etc), so I do know taking everything into account is a hard thing sometimes, and ridiculously restrictive. I couldn't do straight keto, I have to take everything else into account too which makes my food options even fewer... Hence the going over the food list.

To the original poster and our dear mod team: I just got another probable diagnosis this week which was a bit of an eye-opener, I'm still in the process of grieving my mum, (plus two extra recent funerals) there's a whole lot going on and I may botch things sometimes. If I do, I really am deeply sorry. Mods, thanks for stepping in, original poster, just, you know... Take whatever you can use, ignore what you can't. That usually works for me.
 
Very true but this is a diabetes forum. We can, likely, only talk to our experiences with diabetes. I’m not arguing but I’m genuinely not sure what you’re alluding to or feel we’re doing wrong here to warrant repeated warnings.

To me the OP has made it very clear he is more than aware of the potential conflicts between the two conditions- indeed that is the entire point of the thread. I’ve not seen anyone contradict that need. More a case of “this is what’s worked for me with the diabetes, if it doesn’t conflict with the crohns advice then it might also help you”.

Also it has already been said that low carb is such a powerful tool medications might need adjusting as a result to avoid hypos and vigilant testing is advised to monitor this. Same as for anyone on diabetes medications starting low carb.
 

Im so sorry you experienced this.
My 2 teams (Gastro & diabetes) are working great together both consultants with their teams thrash it out as everyone is different. For me the strictures caused by the crohns are potentially life threatening and i am fortunate to trust them to help me.

If it helps and works for you great!
The blood tests (not just blood sugar) gives an excellent amount of data fir them to see the overall picture.

As old school i could not go against professional advice as they have literally saved my life in the past.

I truly wish you well, john
 

So sorry to hear of your loss! Thank you for helping me and others.

Prayers and a gentle hug
‍
 
There seems to be a bit of a wrong end of the stick going on - I was inferring that eating the diet you've advised for diabetes, the wholemeal bread and brown starches was not the way to go for many of us, and you'd be better off without them anyway (even without the crohn's).
I was not advising aggravating the Crohn's by ignoring the advice for that.
From long experience now, I know the low carb diet I follow and many others use to control diabetes happens to be low residue and could be further reduced, which could help your case.
 
It’s not so much the diabetes or the Crohns but the strictures that completely make diet so difficult to set even by my 2 teams. I have 5 strictures in my small bowel of 20cm from the TI in.

Very simply put, if your diet helps others, great. I choose to follow my teams advice explicitly especially as I have major surgery within 1 year. I feel I would be foolish not to follow what my teams have said to the letter.

Trust me the agonising pain from a twisted small Bowel where I have 5 strictures is such you would not want to risk anything.
Thank you for your suggestions but I have already committed to the heavily amended diet they have suggested for me.

Both teams have stated my priority are the stricture problems of my Crohn’s.

No hard feelings, i simply trust & do whatever they say.

Kind regards, john
 
Hi John,
I hope that your HCP team get treatment for your conditions sorted out.
I understand why the Crohn's strictures are the greatest priority.
I also agree that in general it's best to trust your medical team, and since you have a BG meter that should confirm whether a food helps or harms so far as your diabetes is concerned.
A BG meter is free from constraints of dogma or policy and so is truly impartial.

I wish you a good recovery,
Ian
 
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I guess the takeaway here - and the intention of most of the advice given - is to eat from the list provided by yours drs for the crohns/strictures first and foremost as your priority. Only then if that list has enough options then as a secondary choice choose out of those the ones that elevate your glucose the least, that are also on the diabetes list. Your meter will confirm which they are. It’s likely to be the meat, fish, dairy and non starchy veg rather than any grain based items. Good luck. I hope you find a way to make it as enjoyable as possible.
 
You are totally spot on what I am trying to do!
The meter I am finding very handy tbh.
All pulses, beans etc forbidden which is frustrating, however my prime task is to stay healthy as possible for when my Crohn’s team sets a date for surgery.
Tbh it was out the blue and the dietary changes I’m finding challenging but not impossible.
Appreciate your support, thank you, john
 
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