Newbie type 2

@daisy1
Hello Don welcome.
daisy1 will be along soon with her info pack for new members.
To replace your high carb breakfast you could try Bacon, sausage (make shure it has a high meat content )
Eggs (boiled, scrambled, fried ) or you could try some full fat yogurt with berries

@donruhel

Hello Don and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. The information on diet will help you. Ask as many questions you want and someone will be able 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 150,000 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.

You can also have cheese and cold meats like ham and chicken
Make sure they are more meat than anything else.
Unfortunately you would have to get used to checking the labels on the food, which we all ignore before being diabetic.
What i have found is at times the value hams and chicken slices have a lot more carbs than the slightly expensive one's so please take care of that. You could be thinking you are eating chicken and eat as much slices as you want but it might not be.
I normally get chicken and either boil it or grill it and keep it in the fridge.
Try and have full fat stuff, milk cheese, they are a lot lower carb then the high fat.
Snack on nuts and cheese.
It takes time to change the diet but it will happen.
Since you like meat all you would need to find is how to make it even better and what to mix it with (certainly low carb) to make it taste nicer.
Pastas, pizzas breads are out and have to be replaced with low carb things like cooked breakfast, meat etc.

Hello and welcome to the forum

You can replace your Crunchy Nut Cereal with Crunchy Nut Cereal, only homemade and healthy. Take equal amounts of chopped nuts and seeds, mix with some flaxseeds and dessicated coconut and drizzle with melted coconut oil. Toast for 30 mins in a moderate oven and you have a crunchy nut and seed granola which will be less than 10g of carbs for a portion.

Hi and welcome
All above is good advice , carbs are everywhere and the body needs some so try to cut down on them but I don't think you will get as far as no carb , you love meat so that's a great start bacon and egg is a good start to the day . I have porridge with full cream and a few berries it works for me . Without testing its hard to tell what food and portion size your body will take so please consider self testing as it will help.
Keep well stay safe JJ

Scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms and spinach ... takes about 10 minutes to cook

Mike D said:

Scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms and spinach ... takes about 10 minutes to cook

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I do a varient of that. One onion chopped, 1 slice of bacon cut into small pieces. Fry off, add a load of kale and wilt down, top with a poached egg. Takes as long as it takes to poach an egg. Great for breakfast, lunch, snacks or side dish to accompany meat if you leave the egg off.

Hi Don. I didn't realise until recently that protein can also turn to glucose so I've backed off low-fat chicken breast as a staple and go for high-fat belly pork. Chicken legs/thighs with skin flavoured and crisped are ok. Also after a year of increased methane production, sorry, increased veg diet, I still love my steak but a quarter-pounder is enough now.
I'm into fish too

Croc said:

I do a varient of that. One onion chopped, 1 slice of bacon cut into small pieces. Fry off, add a load of kale and wilt down, top with a poached egg. Takes as long as it takes to poach an egg. Great for breakfast, lunch, snacks or side dish to accompany meat if you leave the egg off.

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Yep, and if you're starving, start with a 85% plus meat sausage(s) and just do the mushrooms onions and eggs (and if needed, bacon) but I do agree .... it is important to have an accompanying veg.

Also consider a big pot stew for dinner (curry, beef mince, rapeseed oil and heaps of cabbage on a bed of cauli mash) and heat it up (leftovers) for breakfast

donruhel said:

Hi everyone,
My name is Don Ruhel.
Just been told My last blood test showed I was diabetic. Ive been advised to take 500mg metformin once a day.
I have a family history of diabetes. Im slightly overweight at 77kg when my ideal is about 70kg.
I cant stand the blood testing at home, so Im sort of hoping my diet of low carbs will do the trick.
Im a natural carnivore so the things I'm allowed to eat are my faves anyway.

BTW, Can anyone suggest a good breakfast please?

I can't think of anything to replace my crunchy nut cereal...!!

Im happy there are many others in a similar position to offer advice and support.

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Hi Don, I was told in February 2015 after being pre-diabetic that i was now diabetic and gp wanted to prescribe metformin.
I am 54, was very overweight at 17st and it was a kick up the backside i needed to make some big changes.
I made a deal with my gp to let me give my diet change a go for 3 months and if it didnt work then i would go on the metformin.
i had a hba1c reading of 51 mmol/mol at the start and after 4 months i am now down to 13st 8. My hba1c reading yesterday was 36 mmol/mol which is a normal non diabetics glucose level. So obviously well happy.
My diet has been low carbs that has drastically helped me get my results down and lose weight.

My breakfast each day varied from Onken Yoghurt with small portion of frozen bluberries/raspberries or red grapes, chopped green apple,which are better as less natural sugar(which can satisfy you, as you have the sweetness of the berries/fruit but i dont have them everyday.
Piece of Burgen bread toasted with butter.
Poached eggs on piece of Burgen,
Small bowl of All Bran, which are high in carbs but classed as complex carbs so slower to digest and reduce the spikes.
Sunday is treat day with poached eggs, grilled rindless bacon, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms. (BUT NO BREAD).
White bread, rice, pasta, and potatoes i dont eat anymore.
I have substituted them with brown rice, burgen bread and small sweet potato.
Vegetables are great but look at the low starchy vegetables on this website that all help in keeping the carbs down.
There appears to be a large following of testing at home pre-post meals but i didnt as i said to myself ive got 3 months to change my eating habits and the results have been great.
I still eat well, just cut out the bad carbs and just have a little bit.
I still have a few pints and g&t 's and to be honest i have not found it too hard.

Hang on in there don, plenty of food options out there. Give yourself 3 months of dedicated low carbs and hopefully you will get the results you hope for.

Cheers

Just wanted to say hi and welcome. Loads of good tips already and thank you @britishpub sounds delicious and I am definitely giving this recipe a try. Can be worth trying not to think of breakfast as breakfast but as a mealtime where you can eat whatever you like as long as it is good for you so you don't restrict yourself to 'breakfast food'.

Hello and welcome.