Newly diagnosed food lover!!

Hi Tracey.

You hit the nail on the head when you said lifestyle change. You are going to be overwhelmed with the diet choices open to you - you have to choose what suits you best.
I loved my food but now know to control things there has to be change. With your family to cater for it's not going to be easy. You will work out a plan to benefit you all.

Best of luck ( duck when the info starts flying in )

Ken

Hi Tracy and welcome to the forum

Most of us but not all are on low carb or low GI diets. you'll find more info and and recipes in the low carb diet forum. It is important that you keep your blood sugar levels down in the normal range - the only way you can do this is to test yourself before a meal at 1 hour after and two hours after.

There is no reason why the food you prepare for your diabetes shouldn't be suitable for everyone else you cook for.

hya and welcome,
as already said a diabetic diet is an healthy diet and all of u should benefit, any questions just ask..

Chicken breasts are a good bet. Whack six of them in the oven or under the grill, stick a big bowl of frozen veg in the microwave and then make a few different sauces to suit everyone; gravy, cheese, curry etc. Quick, easy and inexpensive.

Otherwise, have a look through the recipe thread in the food section for some good ideas.

A friend on a pretty low carb diet used to make carby stuff for her husband and kids to eat alongside the low carb main meal.

However after a while they were stealing more of "her" food instead of eating their own. Try making relatively low carb main meals with stuff like potatoes principally for them as a side dish and have extra low-carb veggies or salads yourself, that might work

tracy7573 said:

. . . as well as the medication I need to keep to a low fat diet, this is such a lifestyle change.

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Hi Tracy and welcome to the forum.

I am intrigued by your remark about needing to switch to a low fat diet now that you have been diagnosed as having diabetes. Was that part of the dietary advice given by your medical team by any chance?

Hi Tracy
Welcome to the forum. As the others have said, look at the low carb thread as it might give some insight into diet, etc, especially the success stories thread... lots of us here low carb...

I too hallucinate cake, also chocolate, bread & tinned tomatoes :lol: I have no idea if it's normal, but for me it's better than eating them :lol:

Good luck with feeding the brood - like Thirsty's idea of chicken, veg & range of sauces - so easy too!

Curvy P

Hi Tracy,

I can understand exactly what your nurse was trying to tell you, but unfortunately she doesn't seem to have made it very clear.

When you are overweight, the fat layer, particularly round the middle of the body, makes it difficult for the body's insulin to metabolise (i.e. process) blood sugar. This results in high blood sugars, an over-production of insulin, and even more fat accumulating. By reducing your own body fat (not fat that you eat) you reduce this insulin resistance and your insulin can process the sugar easier.

Where does body fat come from? All carbohydrate that you eat is converted to blood sugar. Your body produces insulin to process this by storing the sugar in your body's cells. It first tries the muscle cells and if these are full, it tries the fat cells. If these are also full then the insulin creates new fat cells to store the sugar in. This is how body fat is made. If you think about it, how do farmers fatten cattle up for market? The feed them on a high grain (carbohydrate) diet! So the way to stop more body fat from being created is to eat less carbohydrates. By eating a lot less carbohydrates not only will your body not build new fat cells, but it will burn off the existing ones and you will lose weight.

So where does low-fat come into this? Simple answer is it doesn't. Fat doesn't make you fat and nor does it have any effect on your blood sugar. What fat does do, but only when eaten with high amounts of carbs, is to become stored in your blood as triglycerides, which can block your arteries and lead to heart disease. Fat eaten with low levels of carbs has been shown not to cause heart damage.

So the answer to both losing weight and reducing your blood sugar is to reduce the amount of carbs in your diet. This doesn't mean you have to give up good food. Like many of us on the forum I eat a reduced carb diet, and I would say I have never eaten better or more healthily, or felt fitter. The easiest way to start the process is to reduce the types of foods that do the worst damage. These are the starches - bread, cereals, pasta, rice and potatoes are the worst culprits. If you start by cutting out 50% of these then you will see an enormous difference. Make up the shortfall with larger portions of meat and other vegetables (i.e. the tastier parts of the meal!).

Tracey, I seem to have lost almost a stone on the low carb diet - and I never noticed!! (God bless elastic...) So low carb doesn't mean piling weight on. (In fact, a book I read says that weight gain is a symptom of diabetes, bot a cause.) I'm a new T2 but was struggling with BSugar levels - still am, but better since I went low carb.

Dennis has is spot on. Body fat is bad, excess blood fats (lipids) are bad. What your nurse has failed to understand (as many do) is that these are created not from dietary fat but dietary carbs.

If you follow her low fat diet, especially if you eat lots of healthy Omega 6 vegetable oils and lots of healthy fruit (containing fructose) alongside all your healthy carbs you will actually generate more body fat than if you'd eaten fat in the first place.

Hi Tracy
Dennis and Trink have the right of it, Fat doesn't make you fat carbs do.
I eat loads of fat, butter on veggies, cheese, sausages etc. and have lost 2 1/2 stone. and kept it off.

Hi Tracy, I am fairly new here and I have to say I have taken everyone's advice on here and started a low carb diet. I bought the collins little gem carb counter [as recommended on here] and have never looked back.
It was a struggle at first and even up to last week I was moaning that my blood sugar appeared to be erratic. I stuck to the low carb and am amazed at the difference in my BS levels. They are down under 7 for the first time since I became a T2 and the rise after I eat has also reduced greatly. I love to cook too and I have to admit it has been great fun trying out some of the recipes on here and adapting ones I have in exsisting cookery books. The kids are joining in too and they both look a lot healthier. Oh yes and edited because I forgot to say, i have returned to using 'proper' butter and had a touch of cream on some fruit the other night and I am still losing weight so all is not bad
Good luck with it and welcome, Sam x

tracy7573 said:

I am taking 2x500mg of metformin a day and even though i am sticking religiously to how i should be eating my levels still stay between 10 and 18, how long before I can expect my levels to come down, i'm getting very frustrated that i'm not seeing any results~ or am i being too impatient.

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Hi Tracy,
If you have switched to a low carb diet you should see a change in your BS levels fairly quickly - mine dropped in under a day.

Hi Tracy, my levels were between 10 and 13 and I was on 1 metformin, my specialist said I could up to 2 and then 3 if I wanted. I went to 2 and got them down to between 9 and 11 but still wasn't happy. I wanted to conquer this without tablets but I realised that for the moment that is not going to happen. I am now on 3 and my levels are between 5 and 7.5 so it might be worth asking if you can take more. p.s when I was complaining about my levels on one of the threads I think someone said that it doesn't really have full effect until you are taking about 1500 mg a day.

Hi Tracy,

Atkins can be used by diabetics, but it is not ideal because it is very high in protein and very low in carbs (30g per day). It also discourages leafy veg, which can not only provide all the carbs your body needs but are an excellent source of vitamins, minerals and fibre. The other big problem with Atkings is that, because it is at the more extreme end of diets, many people seem to find it very hard to stick with. If you want to try a diet that is as low as Atkins, but better suited to a diabetic, have a look at Dr Richard Bernstein's books.

You would probably be better with a lowish carb diet of around 50-70g carbs, and see what effect that has. If the BS comes down too fast then up the carbs a little, if it doesn't come down enough then drop a few more carbs. We are all different and you will need to experiment to find a level that you feel comfortable with, that can be maintained without a lot of effort, and gives you the right level of control over your BS.