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Newbie here seeking help, please

A

Aylajondy

Member
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Hello everybody,

I have just been diagnosed. My first blood test results were 48. They asked me to do more exercise and cut down sugars and carbs and redo another test after 3 months. I stopped eating cakes, biscuits, jams, fruit juices or anything with obvious sugars in them and started switching to brown pasta and bread. I also now eat sweet potatoes instead of normal potatoes. I have started exercising nearly every day with brisk walks, yoga or cardio exercises. I have never been overweight. My brother, my aunt and my cousin are diabetics but they have always been overweight and have always definitely been eating more cakes than me.
My second blood test after 3 months was at 48 again. I was really disappointed.

I have read of people who manage to reverse the condition and get their blood sugar levels back to normal. I am really determined to do this, so I would welcome all your wisdom on this. Also, I find that most of the diets for diabetics are for losing weight and I do not need to do this. I might be eating more carbs that I should so I was hoping you could direct me towards recipes that can help me with this. I have read that you should eat a certain percentage of carbs and fats and sugars etc per day but this is just overwhelming and confusing. I would just like to find meal plans that I can follow easily. I do not eat meat but I do eat everything else including fish.

I would be extremely grateful if you could help me with the above. Many thanks
 
Welcome @Aylajondy
As you have already found out it's not all about cake's and sugar ,the main culprit is the carbohydrates in your diet. Sweet potato has pretty much the same amount of carbs as ordinary potatoes and as for brown bread/pasta/rice, your body can't see what colour they are. A carb is a carb no matter what colour and when digested will cause your blood sugar levels to rise.
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto/recipes this link should help with recipe ideas
 
Hi, the glitch in your diet might be switching to brown bread and pasta. There is little difference in the carbohydrate content of brown starch sources and white. Sweet potatoes are an improvement on ordinary potatoes but are still a substantial sources of carbohydrate all of which will turn to sugars when digested. If you are still basing meals round carbohydrate then your HbA1c is unlikely to change.
It is really disappointing when you have tried so hard but not made progress. What are you currently eating on an average day?
 
Hi. Don't worry about the recommendations to have a certain % of the three food groups each day as the numbers are purely guesswork and not based on any good science. Have mainly proteins and fats and some carbs. Keep the carbs at around 150gm/day and less if you can.
 

As other have said brown rice, brown bread still have large amount of Carbs.

Get yourself a copy of Carbs and Cals
it will be best £14 you can invest in yourself.

I am a type 1 and we need to be very accurate with ours Carbs and this resource is just amazing

They also have a App but now it is only on subscription.

https://www.carbsandcals.com/books/carb-calorie-counter

link to some free PDF downloads
https://www.carbsandcals.com/resources/register

Good luck
 
You've answered your own question. You stopped eating things with "obvious carbs" - you also need to stop eating the things that aren't obviously carbs. Many of these are labelled as being "healthy", when for T2s, they are no such thing. If you are regularly eating pasta, bread, and sweet potatoes, you've done very well to hold your A1c at 48.
 
Hi.


I am new to diabetes too. Type 2 is hard to get a grip on when you are first diagnosed.

I was diagnosed 4 months ago HbA1c 73 now down to 40 with diet only.

I am no expert but I found counting the carbs and keeping to 60g of carbs per meal worked for me.

I check the carb contents of every thing and weigh what I eat.

I don’t need to lose much weight and struggle to keep my weight from dropping.

I also do about 8k a day on the exercise bike.

There is lots of info and help on this site.

Good luck and don’t be too disappointed.
 
You also have to remember that everyone is different but a big thin like everyone says it's the carbs to watch
 
Hi @Aylajondy Perhaps you haven't heard that up to 10% of Type 2 diabetics are slim (TOFI = thin outside Fat Inside) like I am/was. Though I was actually officially 2lbs into the overweight BMI when diagnosed - so I too had an aversion to reduced calorie diets.
So I followed Dr David Unwin's patients and started eating Low Carb, High Protein and Medium traditional Fats. I ate as much as I wanted and possibly at times even more calories than before my diagnosis, whoever since it's carbohydrates that make us fat (rather than fat alone as we have been told) I still lost a fair bit of weight before it stabilised. At last blood test I had a non-diabetic HbA1C of 37 and now have a a BMI of 23.

I found the easiest way to do Low Carb was to self -fund a Blood Glucose meter and test before each meal and then 2hrs after first bite. I aimed for a BG spike of 2mmol/l or less from each meal.
I use a TEE2+ meter, but the SD Gluco Navii also has a decent reputation and cheap test strips (which is important since overall these will cost more than the BG meter because of all the meals you will need to test).
 

It's not a disaster, you're just at the top end.
My daughter was T1 from 18 months (she also has CP), we use the free Carbs and Cals app on her iPhone when calculating carbs and try and keep her away from all breads - hard for a kid who loves burgers and wants to be like "normal kids"! - and sweet drinks etc.
Def found that exercise is the thing...

 
Great advice!
 
:You sound well motivated and I am sorry you didn't get a bit more support not just to cut down on the obvious stuff but also the 'healthy wholegrains'.
Here is a good book for Christmas low carb style (don't wait til January):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caldesi-Lo...2&hvtargid=pla-1074730108053&psc=1&th=1&psc=1
Dr David Unwin - a low carb GP - had a hand in this and they ve written another one with 'weight loss' in the title but don't let that put you off although in going low carb you may naturally lose any excess fat around the middle or water weight.
Secondly the Freshwell Low Carb GP Practice has done a really good app and web site with ideas and recipes too:
https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
Diet Doctor is great but isn't free.

Remember that if you are going to eat less brown carbs you will need to replace them with yummy fat and protein foods to keep hunger at bay and energy levels consistent. Try one meal at a time and keep track of your blood sugars to see how they are (2 and 4 hours after a meal) and on waking but do this once a week rather than getting too obsessive. You've got time to sort this out and be a great example to the other diabetics in your family.
 

Hi Ian, thank you for your kind reply. Do you have any links I could follow to find info, recipes and diets from Dr David Unwin?
 
The difficulty about recipes is that we all have different thresholds of total carbs that we need to get down to and we all react slightly differently to the exact same carbs. Sometimes the same person may be able to eat something like Oats or a mango without spiking their Blood Glucose in the evening, but not in the morning (because most of us are more sensitive to carbs in the morning).

I didn't buy any recipe books. just looked online to see the lowest carb fruit, veg, nuts etc. and built my meals around meat, fish, eggs, cheese, full fat yogurt, nuts with those. Makin substitutions such as Celeriac instead of Potato, Cauliflower mash instead of Potato mash, Cauliflower or Broccoli 'rice' instead of brown or white rice, Bean based Pasta instead of flour based pasta etc.

My Blood Glucose monitor soon confirmed that I was on the right track.
 
Hi Aylajondy

I’m exactly like you it seems, have the family curse but don’t need to loose any weight. The above advice is all great.

I had gestational diabetes twice and quickly learnt to ignore all NHS advice regarding diet. Once you have a meter you can pinpoint precisely which foods affect you.

I’m a vegetarian so I find eggs, cheese, cream and above ground veg feature heavily, which is fine with me. My family all eat ‘normally’ and I have found the following helpful and don’t/ affect my bg less, to eat similar meals:

Meat= Quorn
Chips= Swede chopped and roasted / 5 new pots roasted
Rice= frozen cauliflower rice
Mash= celeriac
Puddings= Deliciously Guilt Free pre bought cakes, frozen and used as and when
Custard= Cream
Bread= homemade Spelt/Rye bread
Fruit yoghurts= Full Fat Greek yoghurt
Cheddars\pringles = walkers crisps
Pasta = 3 x Aldi bean pastas
Breakfast cereal = Eat natural low sugar granola
Cornflour = arrowroot flour
Pizza = lo-dough bases

I’m not saying it’s easy but these swaps have helped enormously for me. I regularly have melt downs since I’m the chef and my family aren’t that willing to change their ways and who can blame them they are children! I’d welcome anyone else’s suggestions!
 
I’ve always had low cholesterol levels and these haven’t changed but my hba1c has lowered. From what I understand your cholesterol levels are largely due to genetics and not what you eat, somebody correct me if I am wrong! I guess you should check with your Dr or research.

I ate this diet when I was pregnant 10 and 7 years ago and my children were 7lbs and 7.4lbs. I exercise more now, which I couldn’t when I was pregnant due to nerve pain. I lost my way after pregnancy and my hba1c crept up every year until it jumped to 53, which I was too shattered to do anything about. My Dr prescribed a meter and strips and told me to do as I did when I was pregnant, I’m aware not all drs prescribe meters.

Deliciously Guilt Free is mail order, and just helps me feel like I’m having a treat when the rest of the family does.

Or if you like baking Diet Doctor has great low carb dessert recipes for free, my children and I adore the plain cheesecake. You just have to click on the D on the left at the top of the page asking you to prescribe and it gives you lots of recipes for free.

The half Spelt/ Rye bread is homemade, I personally react to Wheatflour dramatically, this always seems to be added to shop bought bread.

This is a great Keto mug bread I use for egg McMuffins

https://kirbiecravings.com/keto-low-carb-mug-bread/

Let me know if you discover any more ideas!
 
I have tried a few recipes from Sugar Free Londoner (on Facebook or her website). I love her muffins for breakfast and do cheesy scones instead of bread. I will try other recipes as well. I have now gathered some info from all the kind people here and in other places, so I guess now I need to try things. It is a steep learning curve. A good challenge and I hope to become a better cook too xx
 

This isn't true, Dave Feldman has done hundreds of 6 day demonstration of how he can make his LDL cycle from low to high and back again just by (dramatically) changing the ratio of carbs to fats in his food - it only takes him 3 days to get a 30% difference.
 
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