• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Newly diagnosed, 82 HbA1c 82 MMOL/MOL

Wine is a much better option than beer. They call beer liquid bread for a reason.

Not that you had a silly amount but the body treats alcohol as poison and deals with it as a priority so ignores carbs for a while which can make blood glucose look a little lower than you’re used to for a short while and then you see them later. Something to be aware of in the future.
 
0110 said:
what other things can I eat?
Click to expand...
I think this is something every single one of us has asked ourselves, especially when first diagnosed.
For me the trick was to not focus on the things I couldn't have like bread, pasta, rice, and concentrate on the things I can have, which is pretty much everything else.
If you had the time to sit and make some lists of all the different foods.
The list of the things you can eat would be massive, the list of things you can have smaller portions of, or less frequent, would also be quite large.
The smallest list of all would be the one with foods to avoid
 
Sounds like I was diagnosed around the same time, in my case with a 108 hb1ac about 10 days ago - starting on Metformin (just 1 500mg tablet per day at the moment, but going up to 2 in a few days time) at the same time. After research (including on here) I switched to low-carb a few days ago after a few initial mistakes based on the general NHS guidance (e.g. I switched from crisps etc. as snacks to fruit, but the morning after having 2 oranges, an apple and a banana one evening I woke next morning to an 18.8 blood sugar reading).

The things I've changed so far include:
- No more sugar in my coffee, just some cream
- No more latte's
- Almost eliminated snacking but when I do it's on stuff like peanuts or greek yoghurt and berries
- Replaced normal rice with cauliflower rice
- Replaced pasta with one of the low carb options (which don't taste as nice but at last I can eat them) and increase the amount of cheese with the pasta
- Cut out potatoes
- Heavily reduced how much bread I'm eating and when I do eat bread it's the low-carb (5g per slice) Hi-Lo bread
- Eating more eggs (e.g. scrambled eggs for breakfast)

My morning blood sugar readings are still high (and I've seen the advice that they'll take time to drop) - in the 12.2 to 12.8 range for the last few days, however I'm seeing much lower readings at other parts of the day - for example when I first started testing my readings at mid-day were in the 24.5 to 25.5 range, where as yesterday I was 9.8 before lunch and 11.8 2 hours after lunch.
 
Hi - so an update, 6.9 morning fast today, lunch one toast (standard brown bread), 3 scrambled eggs. 1 hr 45 minutes latter 8.5.

Am I doing the right things here? little shaking now but maybe because its a false hypo, usually crisps and choclates for lunch as well. Are these shakes because my body getting used to normal type levels in 12 days? Tonight no bread or carbs, tuna, steak and veg
 
In Response said:
In my German lessons I was taught "Bier ist Brot" because they have the same ingredients - water, yeast and grain. And nothing else.
Click to expand...
Forgot to mention that beer is something else I've completely cut out for now - switched to drinking red wine instead (not that I'm drinking very much alcohol at all at the moment).
 
Yep you on on the right track, but you don’t seem to be replacing the carbs with much in the way of fats. Add some butter/cream, avocado or cheese to the eggs maybe. Did you eat any breakfast? Just make sure you don’t go hungry. This isn’t about reducing calories either no matter how brainwashed we are about them in the last generation That’s not the goal. Later once settled and established on this way of eating and you can see what’s happening with your weight you can think about them IF you need to. You probably won’t need to as many don’t.

The shakes are not hypos. False ones? possibly. Not enough food overall possibly depending on your needs, activity etc.
 
T
niblue, welcome to here, let me tell you these guys are so knowledge and have given me fantastic advice. Ever since I have been diagnosed about 12 days ago I have bene distressed and keeping thinking why me and the impact this is going to have in my life, working in the City we do a lot of socialising and it can be a non active lifestyle physically sitting behind a desk. I recon I have lost around half a stone in 10 days and I am taking heaps of advice from these people, they are ever so knowledgeable and its giving me hope I can turn this around like them. I have been subscribed Metformin and this other drug. At this moment of time I am going to see if I can do this naturally, My HB1ac was 82, I weighed around 104 KG and aged 45. My life involved cakes, chocolates, crisps daily without fail for years. Now 12 days on none of this stuff has entered my body, sometimes I think I get the occasional shake or a feeling of weakness because of the huge transition. Low Carbs is what everyone is saying, they cant be wrong as they have reversed their condition. Me today one brown bread with scrambled eggs 4 hours ago and my level is 7. Dinner in another hour but negliable carbs in the veg and some salmon for me.

niblue if you don't mind explain your lifestyle, your work and your age, how did you get to a HB1ac of 108? Mine was simple to see now, sweet things all the time with heavy carbs over the years took its toll.
 
0110 said:
niblue if you don't mind explain your lifestyle, your work and your age, how did you get to a HB1ac of 108? Mine was simple to see now, sweet things all the time with heavy carbs over the years took its toll.
Click to expand...
I'm 55, current BMI of 27.6 (so could do with losing about a stone or so in weight to get into the "healthy" BMI range) and work in IT. I do a fair bit of exercise, mostly walking 2 largish dogs although I'm also planning to start running and cycling again soon (I used to be in a cycling club when I lived in London and also did a half-marathon a few years ago).

I had no symptoms relating to diabetes (and still don't) but was in getting a bit of an MOT from my doctor (my last doctors visit was about a decade ago) which included a blood test and that was how I got the HB1AC result. I'd definitely had lots of carbs in my diet and was also doing a fair bit of snacking which, in conjunction with a family history of diabetes, was probably where the issue comes from (plus I used to be a lot more overweight until I decided to do something about it about 9 or so years ago and managed to lose around 4 or 5 stone). In one respect the family history of diabetes has meant it wasn't that big a surprise to be diagnosed which I think has made it easier to cope with.

I'm currently 11 days into my diagnosis and 4 days into going low-carb so it's very early stages yet!
 
Last edited:
Hi, you're well underway. It can take time adjusting to a lower carb intake, particularly if you top up from time to time - I preferred to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Just a thought - you're eating bread which is inevitably high in carbs. There are possibilities here. Have you considered any of the low carb breads around?

I have used Srsly Low Carb bread for a few years now. It's not as cheap as standard bread but the sizeable rolls come in at about 2g carbs each, and they do "not cross buns" at about 5g each. Standard loaves as well plus any amount of other stuff I haven't tried.

The rolls last for weeks in the fridge.

Link below.

All the Keto, Low carb and diabetes friendly foods full of flavour

SRSLYLowCarb is a home for healthy, Keto and Low Carb friendly foods. Perfect for diabetic-friendly diets. Elevate your health journey with us!
seriouslylowcarb.com
 
Excellent advice. Awaiting the weekend to go to the super market to get low carb bread. I will definitely try that hopefully it's available in the local shops here.
 
0110 said:
Excellent advice. Awaiting the weekend to go to the super market to get low carb bread. I will definitely try that hopefully it's available in the local shops here.
Click to expand...
Low carb bread in supermarkets is limited. Most are online only but I've found
Hilo low carb bread in Sainsbury's and
Livlife in waitrose.
I'd also recommend the low carb wraps and especially the roti from the low carb bakery
www.deliciouslyguiltfree.com
 
I just ate Salmon fillets and I brought a creamy coleslaw from the supermarket, the one which contains cheese. Is Coleslaw bad?
 
0110 said:
I just ate Salmon fillets and I brought a creamy coleslaw from the supermarket, the one which contains cheese. Is Coleslaw bad?
Click to expand...
Learning to read the labels is so worthwhile. You need to look at the carbs (not the “of which sugars” bit). Then decided how much of the product you’ll eat.

You can either decide to eat the serving size (usually tiny) and take the number from that and see how it fits in a daily allowance. Or you can weigh your food and calculate how many carbs in your portion.

Or the method I tend to employ as I loathe weight food and counting it all up is a tiny amount means I can be more relaxed about how many carbs per 100 it is (or %). A large portion means I want the % to be much smaller. Typically unless it’s a very very small amount I aim to choose under 10%. Most foods I want under 5% and the lower the better. combined with blood testing before and after eating this worked well to get me into drug free remission and losing lots of weight when diagnosed And for the following 4 yrs. (Full disclosure: I’ve fallen off the wagon lately but that’s because of various life factors and not sticking to my own rules and advice)

in general I’d check the labels on all available options and pick the lowest carb one per 100g. There’s quite a variation. Then I’d enjoy it.

The other issue you may or may not want to consider is how “clean” the ingredients. In coleslaw that’s usually the issue of what type of oil is used. Purists won’t have it because of the rapeseed oil usually used. And in principle I agree. Seed, grain and vegetable oils are rammed full of inflammatory omega 6’s and do a huge amount of harm imo. (They should be in balance with omega 3 but in western diets are massively in predominance). But it’s life and I can’t be ***** to make make own from avocado oil etc. I avoid those oils where I can but a little here and there I’ll live with.
 
0110 said:
I just ate Salmon fillets and I brought a creamy coleslaw from the supermarket, the one which contains cheese. Is Coleslaw bad?
Click to expand...
Cabbage, cheese and cream is all very low carb, so a creamy coleslaw with cheese should be fine.

But, it all depends on what else the manufacturer put in, so turn that tub over and see how many carbs it has.
If it turns out there is lots of sugar/carby thickeners/other nasty surprises in it, you can check different brands, things may vary a lot per brand, or just make your own coleslaw, it's very easy and likely tastier too!

But regardless of the ingredients, it's almost certainly a big improvement on your previous food choices, so good choice!
 
That was a lot easy to grasp than my waffle
 
I've started using the Hi-Lo from Sainsbury and it's pretty good, however I'm also definitely going to try some of the even lower-carb options available online. It's definitely nice to be able to have a slice or two of toast with my scrambled eggs in the morning.
 
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…