Newly diagnosed & what to eat?

skit94

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
Gestational
Treatment type
Diet only
I am currently 32 weeks pregnant, and after much persuasion I was able to get my midwife to send me for an OGTT at 31 weeks. (Am south asian - so not quite sure why I hadn't been referred before).
It came back positive- which surprised me a little as we have always been healthy and I don't have relatives with it. I had my first appt with the midwives 2 days ago and since then have been checking my BMs 6x a day. My morning sugar after breakfast seems to be higher than recommended and this is with porridge made with water! I feel pretty awful as guilt comes over me when I get a high reading. I don't want to starve myself but am finding it hard to make changes to our diet - I mean we were already using skimmed milk, low fat spread and eating plenty of fruit and veg etc.
Am medical so am used to giving this advice out, but when it comes back to you it can be quite scary - really puts it into perspective of what patients go through.
The biggest thing I am having difficulty with is finding recipes in GDM - any suggestions? or words of wisdom?!
 

carraway

Well-Known Member
Messages
977
Type of diabetes
Prefer not to say
Treatment type
Other
Hello

I'll bump your thread up so others may answer

Congratulations!

But watch out for carbohydrates. They turn into sugar and porridge is notorious for raising sugar.

Rice, pasta, bread and potatoes are also guilty of this.

Dont worry too much about fat

Cara
 

plopper

Member
Messages
15
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hello

I'll bump your thread up so others may answer

Congratulations!

But watch out for carbohydrates. They turn into sugar and porridge is notorious for raising sugar.

Rice, pasta, bread and potatoes are also guilty of this.

Dont worry too much about fat

Cara
my nurse told me that porridge was good to have :facepalm: confused .com
 

douglas99

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,572
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Other
Some are ok with porridge, some aren't.

Eat to your meter is the best advice, and you'll find what suits you personally for not raising bs.
 

Totto

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,831
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
If you turn the advise you got upside down, and go for full fat but low carb, you may get your bg down. Fat is fat and can never be made to glucose, while porridge will, along with all grains.
 

douglas99

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,572
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Other
I know absolutely nothing at all about foetal development.
I have no idea at all at 32 weeks, if ketones cross the placenta in the same way as glucose, if a developing baby is fine with ketones, if a high fat diet is fine for a mother, or if slightly higher glucose figures are more damaging long term to both mother and baby than the above.

Does anyone recommending the high fat low carb route have any links?

Otherwise, if it's just an opinion, maybe that should be advised in view of the fact you're offering advice to both mother and baby, and further medical supervision is required if you recommend going low carb in the third trimester.
 
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mo1905

BANNED
Messages
4,334
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Rude people !
Think I agree with Douglas, you need specialist advice when pregnant. I would chat to your consultant or a DSN specifically educated in this field. I'd hate to give you any wrong or misleading advice. Good luck !
Mo
 

skit94

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
Gestational
Treatment type
Diet only
Thanks, after some more reading my husband and I tried to come up with a rough meal plan for the next few days to figure out what works for me. s. Will be trying much more protein in the morning and see how it goes using carbs later in the day. Had a better reading this morning with egg and veggies this morning. Feel a little more positive! Have a meeting with the DSN end of the week so hopefully this will help.
Thanks for all of the input - it's really helpful.
 

Sid Bonkers

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,976
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Customer helplines that use recorded menus that promise to put me through to the right person but never do - and being ill. Oh, and did I mention customer helplines :)
Hi skit94 and welcome to the forum.

As you are pregnant it is of the utmost importance that your baby gets the nutrition he/she requires I would think to that end your best course of action would be to ask your doctor/midwife to refer you to a specialist in gestational diabetes as they will be best placed to advice you on diet.

In the meantime here are some links that you might find useful.

http://www.rcog.org.uk/womens-health/clinical-guidance/gestational-diabetes-information-you

http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/gestational-diabetes

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/gestational-diabetes/Pages/Introduction.aspx

http://www.babycenter.com/0_gestational-diabetes_2058.bc
 

Yorksman

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,445
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
If you turn the advise you got upside down, and go for full fat but low carb, you may get your bg down. Fat is fat and can never be made to glucose, while porridge will, along with all grains.

That's somewhat misleading because both glucose and fat are processed by the body both from and into other molecules. The production of glucose from the body's existing chemistry, as opposed to digested food sources, is called Gluconeogenesis, literally, the creation of new glucose. The brain is primarily fuelled by glucose from carbohydrate sources but will function in the absence of carbohydrates in food. How it does this is not fully understood and there are differing hypotheses on the role of the long chain fatty acids involved. Some advocate that the production is from lactate derived from lactic acids.
 

Yorksman

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,445
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
My morning sugar after breakfast seems to be higher than recommended and this is with porridge made with water!

If you have gestational diabetes, you need advice from people who know about diets for people with gestational diabetes, not type 2 diabetes.

Porridge can cause some people problems because it is the most easily digested of the complex carbohydrates. It is not as slow as the pulses for example. That is why it was often served as a gruel to sick people. Another consideration is cooking. Long cooking times, softening and mashing mechanically starts the process of saccharification, the releasing of simple sugars. Müsli for example is often much more difficult to digest.
 

plopper

Member
Messages
15
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
If you have gestational diabetes, you need advice from people who know about diets for people with gestational diabetes, not type 2 diabetes.

Porridge can cause some people problems because it is the most easily digested of the complex carbohydrates. It is not as slow as the pulses for example. That is why it was often served as a gruel to sick people. Another consideration is cooking. Long cooking times, softening and mashing mechanically starts the process of saccharification, the releasing of simple sugars. Müsli for example is often much more difficult to digest.
thank you that helps a lot.. Müsli it is from now on
 

Yorksman

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,445
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
thank you that helps a lot.. Müsli it is from now on

If you want to improve even further, use oatmeal or steel cut oats but steer clear of instant oatmeal.

There is a useful explanation of the different terms, oatmeal, steel cut oats, rolled oats etc here.

Generally, food processors create end products which are convenient for their target markets. Mostly this means things like quick to cook or bake. The more this done, the bigger the impact on the blood. People tend not to use steel cut oats or oatmeal because it takes too long to cook but since müsli is an uncooked product, you may as well use the steel cut oats. It'll be chewy but you can alleviate that by soaking a bit longer. If you want a warm breakfast, try an oatmeal porridge, but it takes quite a long time to cook.

http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/OatmealPorridge.html
 
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KatieCat

Active Member
Messages
27
I had GD in my last pregnancy and have just been diagnosed with GD in my current pregnancy. Last time, I controlled my sugars well by eating to my metre. I discovered that carbs sent my sugars up (two weetabix, a jacket potato or a bowl of porridge would result in a reading between 8 and 10) so I ate a low carb diet for about a month, my sugars were fine and controlled but I started getting ketones in my urine. I was told that ketones on a regular basis are not healthy for the fetus so I upped my carbs again and opted to have insulin before meals to handle the carbs and keep my sugars within the recommended limits. Although I personally think a low to moderate carb diet is great for type 2 diabetics or prediabetics (and haven't a clue why the NHS recommend a high carb diet!), I think in pregnancy moderate carbs are important for the growing baby. I found boiled new potatoes and egg noodles were a good way of having carbs in main meals. Unlike me, many gd women can control with diet alone or decide to have metformin instead of insulin. I hope this helps in some way. Congratulations and have a happy, healthy pregnancy :).