New Diagnosis Confusion

A more significant reduction might be in potato, grain, high carb fruit - they are all carbohydrates.

Bennettwoman said:

My 48 year old daughter has just been diagnosed pre-diabetic. She likes 2 sugars in her tea and coffee and I suggested she uses sweeteners, but her Diabetic nurse has told her she can cut it down to 1.5 teaspoons of sugar. I think she really needs to cut it out completely! She has also been advised she won’t need a follow up blood test for a year. Is this right? I reversed my pre diabetes diagnosis after 3 months on the low carb, high fat diet (and lowered my cholesterol) and my doc does a blood test every 3 months. Confused! Help and any advice would be welcome. Thank you.

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Your daughter needs to do as you did, and her nurse need to either drag herself into the 2020s or be put out to grass where she can’t do any more damage.

A couple of things sprang to my mind. As a lawyer I have often found that people sometimes hear what they want to hear. If she is still in a state of denial that may affect how she heard things. I did this myself. A doctor did suggest that my HbA1C was getting bit higher. I didn't understand exactly what it meant but with both parents type 2 diabetics I didn't think it sounded good. I ignored it for a while. Having said that I had no idea that type 2 diabetes could be managed by diet and possibly put into remission so I didn't think there was anything I could really do to delay the inevitable. Hopefully my children are much better informed.
So there may be a misunderstanding but it is also possible (hate to think probable) that the nurse doesn't understand that there are alternatives to type 2 being a progressive illness for everyone. If you are pre diabetic is is certainly worth cutting carbs to try to stop even going over that line. The possible side effects of uncontrolled diabetes is not pretty.

In relation to the blood test hopefully will be a lot earlier than a year but as an Aussie I have no real idea how things happen over there and everywhere Covid has not helped.

You may wish to suggest she reads around this forum and maybe post. We really aren't scary

2nd the notion that people only hear what they want to hear. Working with people day in day out for over 20 years has taught me there is a huge difference between hearing something and comprehending it especially if you already have negative thoughts about it.

“ I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant”

― Alan Greenspan

I wonder if what the nurse was advising was a gradual reduction - as in having 1/2 a teaspoon less at first, then reducing down another 1/2 and then another - which for someone with a sweet tooth might be far more achievable.

Hi. Do stop the sugar and use sweeteners if needed. There is a lot of negative talk about sweeteners but very little evidence of harm to us. I've been using them for 20+ years in my tea/coffee.

Resurgam said:

I wonder if what the nurse was advising was a gradual reduction - as in having 1/2 a teaspoon less at first, then reducing down another 1/2 and then another - which for someone with a sweet tooth might be far more achievable.

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That was my first thought too!