Newbie advice please.

[tns]

Hi, I was diagnosed as prediabetic before lockdown, but can't see my doctor now because of it... they have even told my husband to buy his own blood pressure monitor to check his blood pressure and to phone the results in!
I have done a couple of morning fasting blood tests, and am getting 8.4-8.7.
I understand this means that I am actually diabetic?
I've cut my carbs down, especially in the evening .. had no pasta, halved my rice consumption and plumped it up with loads of veg, cut out alcohol .. I've always cooked from scratch, don't eat cakes etc, but do like bread, so an trying to cut down and stick to wholemean.
I'm really hoping that you'll be able to tell me if I'm right about being diabetic, and be able to give me ideas .. am I doing what's right? What else would you suggest?

 

[xfieldok]

Welcome to the forum. Only the hba1c test will give you a diagnosis. Fasting numbers are affected by the dawn phenomenon. You are better off testing before you eat and again 2 hours after the first bite. If the rise is more than 2mmol then your meal was too high in carbs.

You would be doing yourself a favour if you could drop the bread.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hi, I was diagnosed as prediabetic before lockdown, but can't see my doctor now because of it... they have even told my husband to buy his own blood pressure monitor to check his blood pressure and to phone the results in!
I have done a couple of morning fasting blood tests, and am getting 8.4-8.7.
I understand this means that I am actually diabetic?
I've cut my carbs down, especially in the evening .. had no pasta, halved my rice consumption and plumped it up with loads of veg, cut out alcohol .. I've always cooked from scratch, don't eat cakes etc, but do like bread, so an trying to cut down and stick to wholemean.
I'm really hoping that you'll be able to tell me if I'm right about being diabetic, and be able to give me ideas .. am I doing what's right? What else would you suggest?

Hello @tns , and welcome,

@xfieldok makes a good point; Your fasting blood sugars are likely affected by Dawn Phenomenon. That's when your liver dumps glucose into your bloodstream so you have energy to start the day. So while your fasting sugars are high, they don't say all that much about what they're doing the rest of the day, and that's important: Test before a meal and 2 hours after the first bite. You want to know what goes on with that, as well as asking your doctor for the exact HbA1c number you were diagnosed prediabetic with. You want to know what you're starting from, so you can see progress. (And there will be progress. The good kind!).

If you're a cook-and-bake-from-scratch kind of person, you might be interested in Keto Mug Bread and similar items, like keto cookies and what have you. See a trend there? If you want to make something, type "keto" (it's a form of low carb) in the searchbar alongside what you're looking for, and you'll find a bunch of alternatives which'll help you find a substitute for bread, pasta, cerial, corn, rice and spuds, because all of those, I'm afraid, are not doing you any favours. Sorry. https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html might help a little get you started, and I can wholeheartedly advise you to go over to dietdoctor.com for more recipes, as well as this forum's website, diabetes.co.uk (not .org!). And you might want to learn more about diabetes from Dr. Jason Fung's the Diabetes Code... Not because you are 100% certainly a diabetic, but because you want to avoid becoming one.

You're on the right track. Oh, and you can still have alcohol, just stick with the low carb stuff. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/alcohol


You'll be fine. Honest.
Jo

 

[EllieM]

And remember that different people have different carbohydrate tolerances. Some people have to drop down to almost zero carbs to get the results they want, others manage just by cutting down a bit. Your meter is your friend, it'll soon tell you what you can get away with.

Unfortunately carbs are carbs, as regards T2, so it doesn't necessarily help to go low gi, wholemeal bread isn't necessarily any better than white bread

 

[Mr_Pot]

they have even told my husband to buy his own blood pressure monitor to check his blood pressure and to phone the results in!

Off your main topic but this is actually a good idea. I always measure my own blood pressure and give them the result at my review, which they prefer to the unreliable result taken just after I have walked to the surgery. I have an Omron M2 Basic which is cheap but very good.

 

[tns]

Welcome to the forum. Only the hba1c test will give you a diagnosis. Fasting numbers are affected by the dawn phenomenon. You are better off testing before you eat and again 2 hours after the first bite. If the rise is more than 2mmol then your meal was too high in carbs.

You would be doing yourself a favour if you could drop the bread.

Welcome to the forum. Only the hba1c test will give you a diagnosis. Fasting numbers are affected by the dawn phenomenon. You are better off testing before you eat and again 2 hours after the first bite. If the rise is more than 2mmol then your meal was too high in carbs.

You would be doing yourself a favour if you could drop the bread.

Thank you ... bread is the biggie for me, I crave it in the way others do chocolate. I have cut it down significantly .. will keep trying.
Thank you for the advice on 2 hour testing .. I am now having a lot of meals without the usual carb part, so it will be interesting to see what difference it makes.

 

[xfieldok]

Your meter should dictate what you eat. It's your new best friend

 

[tns]

Thanks Jo, I have been looking at the keto recipes on line ... there seems to be avocado with everything. Both my parents were type 2 even though they were both slim and fit, so I suppose I feel I am more at risk. I will have a look at the links you've given me, thank you.
I have been drinking alcohol free beer as it only has 66 calories a can and no alcohol .. does that count as low carb?
I do want to do whatever I can to ensure when I go back to the doctor she says my blood glucose levels are better than before.

 

[tns]

And remember that different people have different carbohydrate tolerances. Some people have to drop down to almost zero carbs to get the results they want, others manage just by cutting down a bit. Your meter is your friend, it'll soon tell you what you can get away with.

Unfortunately carbs are carbs, as regards T2, so it doesn't necessarily help to go low gi, wholemeal bread isn't necessarily any better than white bread

Thank you .. I've tried not to test too much, but I will start doing that 2 hour test. Disappointed about wholemeal bread, I thought that was a good swap

 

[tns]

Off your main topic but this is actually a good idea. I always measure my own blood pressure and give them the result at my review, which they prefer to the unreliable result taken just after I have walked to the surgery. I have an Omron M2 Basic which is cheap but very good.

Thanks, I suppose in this environment it's got to be better than sitting in a waiting room with sick people ... ... it did seem odd when he was first told that. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

 

[tns]

Your meter should dictate what you eat. It's your new best friend

I'm beginning to realise that.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Thanks Jo, I have been looking at the keto recipes on line ... there seems to be avocado with everything. Both my parents were type 2 even though they were both slim and fit, so I suppose I feel I am more at risk. I will have a look at the links you've given me, thank you.
I have been drinking alcohol free beer as it only has 66 calories a can and no alcohol .. does that count as low carb?
I do want to do whatever I can to ensure when I go back to the doctor she says my blood glucose levels are better than before.

Haha, yeah, avocado does seem to be in everything when you start looking eh.... I rarely have it, just in a salad or beside my eggs sometimes, because for some reason I can't get the timing of those things right. I know there's avocado hacks so they're just ripe, not rock hard or mushy brown, but I just really suck. (And when I have the frozen variety in cubes, I can never defrost them quite right either. Does well in the summer heatwaves tho'. ).

As for alcohol free beer, that depends entirely on the brand.... That there's little calories in there doesn't mean there's little carbs. Sorry. Depends wholly on the brand then. I know my husband likes his 0,0 percent, but I can't drink it, as it's practically lemonade. https://steadydrinker.com/articles/calories-in-alcohol-free-beer/ lists a whole lot of different alcohol free beers including their carb content, but it should also be in the nutritional information in the bottle/can. Carbs and calories are not interchangeable, so yeah.... They're not going to make it easy on you. And keep in mind it's usually listed per 100ml. There's 330 in the average bottle, so multiply by 3,3 before you think something's perfectly okay. (Mind you, alcohol free doesn't mean low carb either. Low carb drinks can be vodka, martini's and what have you, and those are quite hard liquor. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/alcohol )

 

[tns]

Haha, yeah, avocado does seem to be in everything when you start looking eh....

I don't even like the smell of avocado, which is why I think it jumps out at me every recipe it's in. I realise I've got a lot of checking to do, in relation to carbs .. Like most people I've always aimed for low fat things, and been aware of how many calories were in things, I'd never paid much attention to the carbs. With the 2 hour testing it will be interesting to have that window into how my body is responding to what I eat ..

 

[JoKalsbeek]

I don't even like the smell of avocado, which is why I think it jumps out at me every recipe it's in. I realise I've got a lot of checking to do, in relation to carbs .. Like most people I've always aimed for low fat things, and been aware of how many calories were in things, I'd never paid much attention to the carbs. With the 2 hour testing it will be interesting to have that window into how my body is responding to what I eat ..

Well, like I said, i rarely have the stuff, and when i do it's usually given to me by a restaurant, or I'll have some because I found a box in the freezer and I need to defrost that thing this weekend... Ahem. Anyway, there's still loads of things that don't require the dreaded fruit. Or veg. I have no idea what it is. Anyway. I do a keto diet and I don't need avocado, but when i do use it, it's never on its own. Just drown it out in a salad with other strong tasting flavors, if you feel you can't avoid it, but really, there's no reason why you'd have to eat anything you hate. I mean, there's avocado chocolate mousse on the web.... And I don't know why. Just make it with whipped cream, no need for anything green in there! So just go with what you like and is good for your blood sugars. Makes it easier to follow a diet, loving what you eat. And yeah.... Your meter's going to be a revelation to you.

 

[tns]

Well, like I said, i rarely have the stuff, and when i do it's usually given to me by a restaurant, or I'll have some because I found a box in the freezer and I need to defrost that thing this weekend... Ahem. Anyway, there's still loads of things that don't require the dreaded fruit. Or veg. I have no idea what it is. Anyway. I do a keto diet and I don't need avocado, but when i do use it, it's never on its own. Just drown it out in a salad with other strong tasting flavors, if you feel you can't avoid it, but really, there's no reason why you'd have to eat anything you hate. I mean, there's avocado chocolate mousse on the web.... And I don't know why. Just make it with whipped cream, no need for anything green in there! So just go with what you like and is good for your blood sugars. Makes it easier to follow a diet, loving what you eat. And yeah.... Your meter's going to be a revelation to you.

The thought of making chocolate moose with avocado did make me laugh .. as you say ... why would you.
I do like the idea of a diet that allows cream though. I feel quite excited at the prospect of taking control of this .. Thank you

 

[JoKalsbeek]

The thought of making chocolate moose with avocado did make me laugh .. as you say ... why would you.
I do like the idea of a diet that allows cream though. I feel quite excited at the prospect of taking control of this .. Thank you

So many foods we were always told were bad, boom, back on the menu...! And another thing: as you use less/no sugar, your palette changes over the course of a few weeks/months. Flavours will be richer, food'll take on a whole new dimension. And cream, yay.