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Newbie here!!

sandy.b

Member
Messages
16
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi, I am new to this forum. I was diagnosed last week after going to the doctor for pre-op tests, so you can guess it was a big shock. I am eventually getting my head round it and have started recording my blood sugars etc. There is so much to learn and this site looks really helpful!
Will probably bombard the site with loads of questions
 
Ask away. We are all diabetic bores at heart and love talking about our disease to anyone who shows the slightest interest

@daisy1 will be along soon with some introductory material for you.

Welcome to the forum

Pavlos
 
Ay up Sandy.b and welcome to the site. You just ask away with any questions you may have and I'm sure someone will be along with the answer. You're in the right place.
 
Welcome Sandy
 
Thanks guys - it is the diet part that I am trying to understand. I am going to miss bread so much, and my baked beans
Thankfully I am not a big fan of potatoes but I do adore sweet potatoes! Are they ok to keep in my diet as my fave meal would be sweet potato, leeks and cabbage. Not a meat lover but love eggs, mushrooms, beans and sausages for a cooked breakfast. I take it that I should drop the beans and sausages?
I thought porridge would be fine for breakfast but sadly I took reading this morning (was 16.5) the two hours after having some porridge, my reading was 16.8......is that normal to raise like that?
Sorry for all the questions
 
hello and welcome
ask away and we will help you
 
sorry the porridge has to go too
this is what I did..I cut grain=rice etc and grain product=bread pasta etc and starchy veg=potato, corn etc and sugary stuff including fruit and juice
you can eat everything else, as much till you are satisfied
 
Welcome to the forum.
 
Hi and welcome. Go for small portions of low added-sugar baked beans. Although they are carb they have good fibre as well. I believe sweet potataoes are very good. Leeks and cabbage are excellent. Sausages need to be quality ones with meat rather than carby filler. Eggs, mushrooms and bacon are fine, but as you have found porridge isn't but as a compromise have oats cold as part of no sugar-added muesli. Cooked stuff such as carrots can be much higher GI than the raw version due to the cells breaking down. Do ask more questions if you have them.
 
You say you are testing so that is how you will find out what foods spike you, If you do love bread then try having Bergen Linseed and Soya bread you may find you can eat that many here have it. If you live near a Sainsburys they do a loaf called HiLo it is lower in carbs small slices and more expensive than normal bread it is quite nice toasted. Some people wash the tomato sauce off baked beans after all that is where the sugar is. I am prediabetic and my husband is T2 and we do eat a large variety of fruit and vegetables but we don't count carbs we have just cut out all sugar stuff rice and pasta and don't eat so much bread and potatoes now just have smaller portions and that seems to work for us but we are all different so trial and error
 
@sandy.b

Hello Sandy and welcome to the forum

Here is the information which we give to new members and I hope you will find this useful. Carry on asking questions and, as you will have seen, there are plenty of people who want to help.

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.
 
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