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Not Really Managing with Low Carbing

F

Fencer

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Aberdeen
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Tomatoes. Mayo.
I have made huge changes in my diet since being diagnosed a couple of weeks ago. I have completely cut out chocolate and all other sweets. Puddings after a meal have been scrapped. I've changed from full cream milk to semi-skimmed. White bread to wholemeal. I make sure that my breakfast cereal is wholegrain. I am making changes to evening meals, such as a stir fry instead of chicken kievs. Lunch has been changed from burger van/bakers/sandwich shop to a sandwich made with wholemeal bread and a Muller light fat free yoghurt. I've also stopped the bag of crisps with my lunch.

My BG has been good for a week now with very few readings outwith 4-7, so I figure that I must be doing something right (or the drugs are doing all of the work for me)?

What I don't get though, is that in the information I have received from the hospital tell me to have carbs, but this forum seems dead against them. If I am not eating carbs, what do you have with your meals? I just can't imagine a main meal with no bread, tatties, rice or similar. I read somewhere that wholemeal bread (for example) is fine, because it is low GI and therefore slow release. This makes sense along with my BG levels when I've been eating it. Does this mean that these carbs are OK?

I have an appointment with the dietitian tomorrow, so hopefully they can shed some light on things. Any advice here would be appreciated.
 
It sounds like the changes you've made have got things heading in the right direction :D Lots of HCPs still advocate eating starchy carbs with every meal but, a lot of us have problems with this amount of carbs. The only way you can really find out about how foods effect your BG levels is by testing, testing and testing again! Test before your meals and then two hours afterwards to see if your BG has returned to its pre meal reading.
I have found i can eat small amounts of pasta and basmati rice and the odd new spud or two. We are all diffrent and can all tolerate diffrent things.
 
Fencer,

By the look of those bg readings I would say you are eating the right amount of carbs now, this forum doesn't advocate cutting out carbs altogether but merely suggests you reduce them to a level that keeps your bg within range, so you eat to your meter to find the right level and when you find it this is the amount of the daily carbs that you can tolerate safely. Try toting up your carbs for a day and report back.

Nigel
 
Unfortunately diet advice is quite varied, the "official" NHS diet is, in mine and a lot of other T2s opinion, too high in carbs. If i eat the recommended diet I cannot control my BGs, they go up to 12 and beyond. Watching the carbs and eating "good food" my BGs are fine ( A1c 5.2).

So if you want to keep your Bgs down watch the carbs, one day the NHS will catch up and change the official diet, my DSN used to push the official diet quite hard but now accepts that it doesn't work for most people and still hands out the official diet sheet but talks of counting the carbs!

I think they are told what diet to use and find it difficult to go outside this.

H
 
The simple truth is that no one in the NHS or anyone here can tell YOU what to eat to control your diabetes, only YOU can find that out through testing your bg before and after every meal and adjusting the carbohydrate portions till YOU work out what YOU can safely eat.

Example = I find no difference between white bread and wholemeal bread but I can eat a slice wholegrain bread without any major increase in bg level, Burgen I can manage two slices without trouble. Others avoid bread all the time yet some others bake their own white bread. So, test, test, test and oh, did I mention test :D
 
Make sure you take your readings with you when you go to see the dietician, and point how how much your BGs have improved. Or you might get a lecture on 'eat more carbs'. Your new diet seems to be working for you, so stick to it! and - well done! :D

Viv
 
Thanks guys. The dietitian seems happy with the changes that I have made so far. The advice is to keep doing more of the same and add more veg to my main meals.
 
Good for you, Fencer! I eat at least one salad a day (lettuce, cucumber, baby toms, radishes, slices of pepper, celery) - doesn't have to be very big, but good for you. Also (mainly) cauliflower and broccoli with hot meals, 'cos they can be sprinkled with grated cheese!

Keep up the good work :D

Viv
 
Thanks Viv.

I've got this really bad habit of thinking that I'm doing a lot worse than I really am.
 
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