Thank you. I took the advice of switching to wholegrain, increasing fruit/veg intake and going for low fat. I clearly need to look at this again.
Yes; there is a lot of different information out there, but wholegrain and fruit are not good. The basic gist is that T2 or prediabetics can't process sugar- so sugar is bad for us, and fruit is full of sugar. Carbohydrates are converted into sugar in our bodies, so we get the same bad effect, just later in the day. It's best to just look at carbohydrate and forget sugar as being a separate thing- sugar is simply a carb. The reason I'm putting it like this is that a lot of people (myself included at first) would look at something like the traffic light labels on UK food and see something as being 'green- low sugar, therefore good'. Often, this couldn't be further from the truth; something listed as low-sugar could be very high carb indeed.
Luckily it's not that complicated if you simply look at carbs per 100g and avoid high carb options to the best of your ability.
If you get a blood glucose monitor and test before and after you eat, you will soon see what raises your levels and what doesn't.
Generally, green leafy vegetables, meat, cheese, fish, eggs, cauliflower, broccoli are all very good.
Root vegetables can be more carby. Beans and pulses tend to be quite carby.
Grains and anything made of grains tends to be quite bad.
Fruit isn't great- berries being ok and bananas being terrible.
Butter is fine, cream is good, milk is quite bad, skimmed milk is terrible.
Your numbers make it look like your diabetes is mild, early and controllable, if not reversible. If you take control of this, you could actually find yourself feeling healthier than you have for years.
There are some good 'starter packs' here that I'll link for you below:
A good blog from one of our well-respected forum members
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog/jokalsbeek.401801/
This is information that I found very useful when first diagnosed some years ago, posted by Daisy
BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS
Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of
different types of diabetes exist.
A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 600,000 people who are demonstrating this.
On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.
The role of carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.
If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.
The bad news
Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as
diabetic complications.
The good news
People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.
Controlling your carbs
The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
- Reduce your carbohydrate intake
- Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates
Reduce your carbohydrates
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.
The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.
Choosing better carbohydrates
The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.
Read more on
carbohydrates and diabetes.
Over 145,000 people have taken part in the
Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.
Eating what works for you
Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.
To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.
The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:
Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)
- Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
- structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
- self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education
Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to
blood glucose testing supplies.
You may also be interested to read
questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.
Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/basic-information-for-newly-diagnosed-diabetics.17088/
Low Carb Program - http://www.diabetes.co.uk/lowcarb/ for Type 2 diabetics/