Hi guys, I have been diagnosed as type 2 about 5 years ago. Was started on metformin but could not tolerate it due to nausea and diorrhoea. I was advised by Doctor to try the SR and these too presented the same symptoms. With blood glucose still uncontrolled GP advised I start on insulin. I was and still is hesitant as other HCP informed me that they were other orals for me to try. I insisted and also was referred to a Diabetic Nurse Specialist who started me on Canagliflozin 100mg 1x daily. Still having highs. This morning was 22.7mmol just about 30 minutes after breakfast and 10 mins after taking medication. Last urine test to chek kidneys was fine but I am so scared of BGLs not being controlled. I may need to start some thorough exercises like Zumba.
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sally and james
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The sugar in your blood all (almost all??) comes directly from what you eat. If you want to control your blood sugars, you need to make serious alterations to diet. You may have been told to avoid sugar, but diabetic nurses rarely tell you where most of the sugar comes from. Yes, there is the obvious stuff, sweeties, biscuits, colas and sodas, cake, jam and so on. But then there are also all the starches and cereals, i.e. the carbohydrates. Within minutes of eating bread, potatoes, pastry, pasta, rice, breakfast cereals, porridge, the carbohydrates break down into simple sugars which raise your blood sugar. These foods need to be avoided by most type two diabetics.
Have a look at http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf and search this forum for 'low carb", then ask any questions you need to. Do note, as "Diet Doctor" says, you may need to modify your meds if you start on a low carb diet.
Sally
Have a look at http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf and search this forum for 'low carb", then ask any questions you need to. Do note, as "Diet Doctor" says, you may need to modify your meds if you start on a low carb diet.
Sally
Bluetit1802
Legend
With the foods you mentioned being avoided, there is not much left to eat. Thanks for my first reply by the way
Plenty of foods left to eat! You have to make a choice. Do you want to spiral further out of control, with all the complications that can cause, do you want more and more medication with potential side effects, or do you want to reduce your levels and live a normal life? Carbs are the culprits, but you can eat some of them in moderation. How about bacon and egg for breakfast? I personally save my bacon and egg for lunch times and have it with a tomato, a high meat sausage and buttered mushrooms. I also toast half a Lidl High Protein roll with loads of butter (yummy)
Use your meter to tell you how much of them you can eat. If you test before a meal then again at 2 hours, the aim is not to raise your levels by more than 2mmol/l. less if possible. Any more than this and something in that meal is wrong for your body, which will either need avoiding or reducing in portion size. Levels in double figures over a period of time are doing you harm.
You can eat any meat, any fish, any dairy foods, as many eggs as you like, salad leaves, tomatoes, mushrooms, most but not all vegetables. There are some very low carb breads available in supermarkets. A couple of new potatoes may be fine (but not mashed or baked). You can test out how much rice you can cope with, similar with pasta. Your meter will tell you.
Have a good read round the forums, there are loads of ideas. Low carb really does work wonders.
sally and james
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Err, try meat, fish, eggs, cheese, most vegetables, less sugary fruits (e.g. berries), olives, nuts. There are a wealth of low carb ideas and recipes on this forum and on line generally.With the foods you mentioned being avoided, there is not much left to eat. Thanks for my first reply by the way
As Bluetit has just said, you have a choice to make. You could end up, as my husband has done, on no meds, with perfectly normal blood sugars or it could all go the other way. Only you can make the decision, but many of us will be willing to give help and advice.
Giving up most carbs does seem near to impossible at first, but, I can assure you, once you are used to it and your health has improved, it's almost impossible to imagine wanting to eat the stuff.
Sally
Daibell
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Hi. Sounds like you are like many of us when first diagnosed and were so used to everything being made of carbs. Proteins, veg, fats and some fruits are fine. If you are overweight then do reduce the carbs to get both weight and blood sugar down. If you are slim and possibly young'ish then your diagnosis could possibly be Late onset T1 rather than T2; a common mistake made by GPs. If so then there are other popular meds such as Gliclazide and Sitaglitpin that could be prescribed. If these don't help then insulin may be needed. I'm surprised your GP rushed to insulin; I had to almost force my GP for it despite failing with all the tablets.
4ratbags
Well-Known Member
Have a good look at LCHF and have a good look through the low carb forum as there is plenty to eat when you go LC and it doesn't have to be boring, there's a LC alternative for most foods. Medication is great when you need it but its not the best idea to solely rely on it as a permanent solution when changing your diet can have much more of an impact on your BS and quality of life.
ButtterflyLady
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Diabetesnotgreat
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I've cut out a lot of sugar I use to eat. This morning I had egg on granary bread toasted ,lunch 2 plums and a orange dinner breaded chicken white rice and peas
Mike d
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God .... no wonder. Bad foods for most of us and apparently for you .... the toast, the plums, the breaded chicken and the rice. Wheat is really bad. Plums full of fructose. Rice is cr*p .... Get rid of them. They would spike most of us. Fire us the questions you'll no doubt have. Gotta be blunt (I always am when I see numbers like that) so we can get you back to good levels so forgive me.
Great you have a meter. You need to eat to it with lots of above ground veg. Your numbers should be around the 6s or 7s regardless of the time you test. 5s even better.
Mike
Great you have a meter. You need to eat to it with lots of above ground veg. Your numbers should be around the 6s or 7s regardless of the time you test. 5s even better.
Mike
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daisy1
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@Lee P
Hello Lee and welcome to the forum
Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. I expect you will receive even more good ideas from members on what to eat. Ask more questions and you will get some useful answers.
BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS
Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.
A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 150,000 people who are demonstrating this.
On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.
The role of carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.
If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.
The bad news
Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.
The good news
People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.
Controlling your carbs
The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
Reduce your carbohydrates
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.
The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.
Choosing better carbohydrates
Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html
The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.
Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes
Eating what works for you
Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.
To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.
The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:
Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.
You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic
Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Hello Lee and welcome to the forum
Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. I expect you will receive even more good ideas from members on what to eat. Ask more questions and you will get some useful answers.BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS
Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.
A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 150,000 people who are demonstrating this.
On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.
The role of carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.
If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.
The bad news
Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.
The good news
People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.
Controlling your carbs
The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
- Reduce your carbohydrate intake
- Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates
Reduce your carbohydrates
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.
The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.
Choosing better carbohydrates
Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html
The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.
Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes
Eating what works for you
Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.
To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.
The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:
Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
- Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
- structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
- self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education
Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.
You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic
Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Could you ask your doctor/diabetic nurse for a talk with a dietician? I was told to take main meals with one third carbohydrate, one third protein and one third vegetable, and, if hungry, to eat more vegetables. I find increasing protein rather than vegetables fills me up more though this can increase food bills. Even so, it is important to take plenty of exercise. I belonged to a walking group for years and, even though now elderly, I make myself walk for an hour or so most days in most weathers. It is very satisfying to know I can rid myself of a little indulgence in this way! Good luck.
