Newly diagnosed

Step5 said:

Hi I was diagnosed on Friday with type 2, saw Dr today who gave me Metformin, not seeing diabetic nurse till next week
I need to know what to look out for on nutrition info on food packaging please, as I have no clue?

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Hi @Step5 , welcome to the forum.

There are 3 major food groups: proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.
It's the carbs that turn to glucose in your body, so those are the ones to look out for.

Don't be afraid of fats: if you reduce your carbs you'll need to compensate by eating more fats and/or proteins, because you'll still need the calories to sustain you.

I think you'll like this informative piece written by one of our members to start with: https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html

Good luck, and way to go for reaching out and looking for information before your appointment with the diabetes nurse!

Step5 said:

So in the meantime is it best to look out for the sugars on food labels and choose lower ones (green) ?

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Nope. Ignore the traffic light system, it's highly geared to make you eat less fats and more 'healthy' carbs.
Instead, turn the package over and check the back.
On the back is the full nutritional information, I wouldn't bother with the whole list but just zoom in on the amount of carbohydrate per 100 gram.

Typical low carb foods that won't raise your blood glucose (much) are meats, eggs, tofu, fats like butter, cream, olive oil, and most veggies (not potatoes).
Typical high carb foods are anything based on flour, potatoes, rice, grains.

If you'd like to get an idea on what we're eating on a low carb lifestyle, you might like this thread where we share our meals: https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-have-you-eaten-today-low-carb-forum.75781/page-2859

Most of the foods that will help you won't have nutrition labels because they are simple unprocessed foods such as chicken and other meats, prawns and fish, cheese and dairy such as plain yoghurt, salad and green vegetables.

When you get used it (and it does take a while) then shopping becomes really quick as you skip most of the supermarket aisles
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