Hello MrsPortion
It's a pity that you've got one of "those" GPs that won't provide test strips. You can't possibly adjust your diet to suit your particular needs without testing before you eat and then 2 hours later. I'm sure you'll find it empowering to be able to test your BG and see the effects that different foods have on you. No-one can tell you how many grams of carbs to eat - you need to come to your own conclusions, based on testing. The pharmaceutical companies will provide meters free of charge if you ask (try the web sites of Bayer and Accu-Chek; if there is no obvious offer, try telephoning); but you'll have to buy your own test strips - if you insist, as a diabetic on medication, you'll get them VAT-free, but they are still expensive. Quite a few people on this forum use the CodeFree meter from Amazon; it's inexpensive and the strips are cheap, but many report that it reads 1 unit higher than other meters - not a problem if you allow for it.
Once you know how different foods affect you, you won't need to test so often. The test that your GP does, based on a syringe-taken blood sample (rather than a finger-prick) is the HbA1c, which effectively provides an average view of your BG levels over the previous 3 months - this is very useful, but can't tell you whether a slice of wholemeal toast will give you a BG spike. You're about to start a really fascinating journey and we on the forum will do our best to help you along the way.
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