Newly diagnosed with pre diabetes

I wouldn't get too panicky at the moment since 45 when untreated is not a bad number and is more of a heads up than anything. Regarding food, for the time being, try to eat less of the following. Flour, sugar, rice, potatoes. Just cut down on them until you make the decision whether or not to buy a meter and get technical.

Hi @lprobinson welcome to the forum. It's great to have diabetes caught early and have the chance to avoid medications but that also means it is totally down to us with diet and exercise.

I am tagging @daisy1 for new member information for you.

Please read around the forum and you will see so many sucess stories of how people are beating diabetes. Don't be afraid to get involved and ask questions as we are a friendly welcoming lot.

Iprobinson said:

Hi,

I've already posted in the greetings section, but thought I'd post here too. I was diagnosed yesterday with pre diabetes, completely unexpected and only discovered because my GP ordered a range of blood tests in relation to another complaint! Anyway, it was a complete shock. A couple of years ago we lost a friend to diabetes, so obviously it's quite a scary piece of news. The nurse said my reading was 45 but I'm not too sure what that means. She said 48 was the figure for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. She has arranged for me to see a dietician but until that comes about, I am getting confused regarding what I can eat. I need to lose about 14 pounds (currently aged 67, 5'8" and 12 stones with a middle aged spread) and I've always followed a reasonably good diet, but having just discovered my cholesterol is 7.6 I'm supposed to steer clear of too many fats!

Any advice would be most welcome.

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Can I point you to the dietdoctor.com website (free and you don't have to sign up to anything) which has a lot of information about the role of cholesterol and why it can be the amount of carbs/sugar that raise it and how eating a high good fats diet can actually improve cholesterol levels. It certainly helped mine but you need to get a profile to see how it is made up. My total cholesterol rose slightly from 5.5 to 6.0 after following a LCHF diet for a year but the 'bad' cholesterol and triglycerides had reduced while the 'good' HDL cholesterol had increased ( so you can see why a 'total' cholesterol level is misleading).

There is also a lot of info on how LCHF diets can improve your blood glucose readings and help you lose weight effortlessly. After my diagnosis of pre-diabetes I was in 'food shock' for a while why no idea of what to eat until I found this site and the dietdoctor.com website and began eating the low carb high good fats way. Dietdoctor.com has a low carb 10 day challenge which is an easy way to start since he gives meals and shopping lists and helpful tips.

For myself I am now grateful for my diagnosis as my overall health has now improved so much and I am fitter and healthier and lighter that I have been in many many years thanks to LCHF way of eating. I have so much more energy and many minor ailments just disappeared.

NHS dieticians are likely to push the Eatwell plate as they seem to believe that that is good for everyone. Personally I don't think it is good for anyone let alone a diabetic or pre-diabetic who can be thought of as a 'carb-intolerant' person. So we are carb intolerant but they try to push 'more' carbs on us. Had I followed their advice I would have been eating way more carbs than I had been previously and no doubt would now live up to the belief that diabetes is a progressive illness and everyone ends up on insulin. It does not have to be that way at all. You may not be able to reverse it but you can certainly control it and the food is great (OK so it takes a a few weeks to get used to it and I do have the odd time when I stare lovingly at a piece of bread but on the whole i don't miss carbs - most of them are just 'filler' anyway)

Hi,
I also was recently diagnosed with Prediabetes ( Nov last year). At first I cut out white bread, potatoes, white rice and pasta. I changed my lunch to salad, no bread, (at least never white bread), for dinner, lots of vegies, low fat meat and small amount of brown rice, sweet potato or just a stirfry without rice at all. And no sugar, of course. As my husband was keen on losing some weight as well this worked out really well. Then I got a meter and started testing my BG. It was always too high in the morning, till I learned to check it before meals as well as 2 hours after. This helped me a lot with sticking to the diet, as well as finding out what I could eat without getting spikes. By now I know what I can eat, my taste buds has changed as well. I don't need extra salt on everything and can enjoy only one square of 70% cocoa chocolate, eat nuts instead of potato chips, and find the most amazing low carb recipes on the net. As I've lost enough weight now, I've added more healthy fats. I don't count calories or carbs, I let the BG numbers guide me, and like most people here, a low carb, high fat diet (LCFH) seems like the best choice.

Iprobinson said:

The nurse said my reading was 45 but I'm not too sure what that means. She said 48 was the figure for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

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Hi @Iprobinson and welcome to the forum. Below 42 is non-diabetic, 42-47 is pre-diabetic, and 48 and above is diabetic.
At 45 you are in the middle of the pre-diabetic range, but by adapting your diet you should be able to get down into the non-diabetic range.