Newly diagnosed & what to eat?

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

carraway said:

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

All the best!

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

Totto said:

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.

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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.

skit94 said:

My morning sugar after breakfast seems to be higher than recommended and this is with porridge made with water!

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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.

Yorksman said:

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.

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thank you that helps a lot.. Müsli it is from now on

plopper said:

thank you that helps a lot.. Müsli it is from now on

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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

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 .

Sorry, just seen the date of your message :-o!