New to all this

G'day from Oz (Australia) and welcome.

We all have to make the best of what we have to work with so treat it as a new adventure and it can be a lot of fun if you go down the lo-carb diet track.

Carbs is what puts our BS high and very low carbing helps and also helps weight loss Reduced carbing and low GI does not do much.

My lo-carb is supervised by a diabetes specialist and when my weight gets down he wants me to increase carbs when I can.

Our household (3 adults at the moment) has one main meal per day as a lo-carb meal and lo-carb cakes. I scrounge up a salad for lunch and something lo-carb for breakfast. We have all lost excess weight and we are all enthusiastic about finding and adapting new lo-carb recipes.

To make life easier in the kitchen, and cook every day, we have bought a slow cooker and cook 6 or 8 serves at one time and reheat or freeze and reheat the leftovers. For the cakes I use an electric pie maker and the microwave for the chocolate cake below.

The rest of our cooking is stirfry on a camp stove outside, (saves the steam and mess inside) BBQ or microwave and we seldom use the stove. I have an electric deep fryer outside with the BBQ and occasionally we cook prawns rolled in flour.

We use our flat sandwich press toaster a lot (it cooks from the top and the bottom at the same time) and I cook flat bread in it and low fat sausages and crumbed chicken and fish. ( I can get away with limited crumbed).

So we treat it as a great FOODIE ADVENTURE there is heaps of lo-carb recipes and advice on the net.

Start with a delicious chocolate cake and you can eat cream too. The cake cooks in 3 minutes.

• Chocolate lovers can enjoy low carb desserts, too! If chocolate is your thing, you can make a low carb, three-minute chocolate cake. In a large glass measuring cup, mix together ¼ cup almond flour, one tablespoon cocoa, ¼ teaspoon baking powder, three tablespoons Splenda, two tablespoons melted butter, one tablespoon water, and one egg. Cover the measuring cup with plastic wrap, cut a small slit in it, and microwave on high for one to two minutes or until the cake looks set but still moist. If you enjoyed this, try out our other low carb cake options or our advice on low carb brownies!

Enjoy

Hi Theresa, welcome, ask anything you want.

Hi Theresa and welcome, it is quite normal to feel a combination of emotions initially, it does take a while to sink in. However, you have taken the first steps to success in finding this Forum. Have a good read of the site and other people's post and you will be amazed how much information you will pick up. If you don't have a meter, I would strongly advise that you get one. I doubt whether you will get one from your GP as they don't prescribe meters or strips for T2 diabetice, so you will have to purchase your own, the meter most people on here use is the SD Code Free from Amazon as they are the most cost effective.

We are a very friendly and helpful bunch, so as ask many questions as you like.

I expect @daisy1 will be along shortly to give you the information given to all newly diagnosed diabetics.

Good luck!

Marilyn x

Welcome Theresa!

New to this myself, but already found excellent advice and support .

Hi Theresa and welcome to the forum

As you have seen, there are plenty of members here to help you. Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful.

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 100,000 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

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

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.

Hello Theresa and welcome.

Theresa65 said:

Hi,
I was diagnosed with type 2 about a month ago but it has only just sunk in, I am trying to be sensible and research how I can help myself but I actually feel like crying and don't know why
This looks like a nice friendly, helpful forum so I've made a giant step in the right direction by finding you
Thanks for reading my ramblings
Theresa x

Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum Teresa, it's a fabulous source of information, so ask away. I'm still asking loads of questions from the "pros".

Hi Theresa and welcome, ive been diagnosed the same length of time as you and I agree its all a bit confusing especially when the DN tells you to eat carbs with everything, I mean you should be able to trust the nhs info right? Everyone hss been freindly on here and im one of the lucky ones who got a meter and strips on prescription although she did tell me not to test beyond couple of times a week! How can that be helpful to anyone. The test kit wasn't offered I asked for it so dont be shy, she can only say no. I am experimenting with the lchf eating plan, was a bit wary at first because nowhere else tells you to eat cheese, cream etc but as well as lowering my bs from where it was I have also lost half stone, I have a long way to go but its a way of life now isnt it.its great to have people at your fingertips who will support you and answer questions no matter how daft you think they are.hope you enjoy browsing some of the posts, I find they help a lot and ive learned a lot, I feel much more at ease about the whole thing now.

Good news about the meter. You can now use it to learn which foods you can or can't cope with.