New to diabetes

Hello and welcome!

It doesn't sound like you've had the best introduction. I'm guessing that what's happened might be that you've had a blood test which is why you've been diagnosed. Did they tell you what the actual result was? It will have been (probably) an HbA1c test. You'll automatically be diagnosed as diabetic with a result above 48mmol/mol.

There's a lot to get adjusted to, and a lot of what you might do depends on decisions you'll have to think about. I'll say straight away that many of us here (I'm one) have had great success with a low carb diet which can reduce blood glucose levels and can put Type 2 diabetes into remission. I was back in normal BG range four months after my T2 diagnosis, and have stayed there for five years now. Basically that involves reducing or removing starches and sugars from what you eat. You might have seen Dr Unwin on the ITV news the other day - that's the lifestyle he recommends for his T2 patients. ITV should not say "cure" as it is NOT a cure - but it does manage the condition very well. Link here:


I'd suggest a couple of things.

The first is to try to forget all you know or think you know about what "healthy eating" is, including all the stuff the media talks about in terms of "healthy food". I wouldn't actually recommend eating crackers, bread, or most sausages - there are lots of starches and sugars in all of that.

The second is to read around a bit on this forum, especially the "Success stories" bit. That will show you what can be done.

The third is to ask as many questions as you like. You'll find that as you learn, you'll have more questions, not fewer.


best of luck

Weezeylou74 said:

Hi thanks for your reply yes it was the HBA1C test I had one last year which was 45 and this last one is 50 so no discussion just a prescription. I have looked into buying a monitor because it's hard to get on from the NHS yes told to lose weight my problem is finding a menu that I like lol I'm not great at Veg or fruit love chicken, pork not great at red meat once in a while and that spaghetti which is now of the menu. So confused

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That was my level on diagnosis too. No-one had mentioned my BG was rising, at all. I refused medication.

I would strongly recommend getting and using a glucose monitor. You will start to build up a picture of which foods to do to your blood glucose levels, and that way you can reduce or eliminate the things you don't want. The hidden cost with meters is the cost of the strips - manufacturers will sometimes give you the meter, because then you're tied into using their strips, and these can be quite different in cost.

Things that will increase blood glucose are things that are digested to glucose, so all the starches and sugars. There are sugars in things you won't expect - milk has a sugar called lactose, for example. I basically eliminated cereals, pasta, anything flour based like bread or pastry, sweets, anything sugary, rice, almost all fruit, beer, and almost all root vegetables. I wasn't eating much stuff out of packets and jars anyway, but it's now next to zero. Bear in mind that my daily carb level is around 20g/day - which is roughly the equivalent of one apple or a thick slice of bread (neither of which I eat).

I do eat all meats, fish, cheeses, butter, above ground veg, that sort of thing. Most of the time it's traditional "meat and two veg" except the two veg are eg broccolli and cauliflower - no potato. I've found that pulses and beans don't have much impact on my BG so I eat them sometimes (washing canned stuff to remove as much starch as possible). There are OK non-carby "breads" available, so a bacon sandwich is still possible. There are also some pretty good low/zero carb beers as well, while spirits are zero carb items and wine is a low carb option.