• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Not sure what food and drink is okay

R

Randolf Carter

Member
Messages
7
Greetings ladies and gentlemen,

I have just received my blood tests back and have been told I am pre-diabetic. Obviously I immediately stopped eating biscuits and crisps. I'm not a heavy alcohol drinker, maybe one can a week, but I've stopped that now. Unfortunately I don't know what is safe and what is not. I used to consume two coffees a day, non skimmed milk with three teaspoonfuls of sugar but obviously I have to stop with the coffee drinking now.

I'm worried one bad food choice will make me full on diabetic, so I've just been eating fruit and drinking water. We have Robinsons no added sugar Vimto drink which I used to like but I assume I can't drink that. I'm feeling dehydrated now as I don't know what to eat and drink.

Is coffee with skimmed milk and no sugar safe? Can I still drink Robinson's?

Any help appreciated.
 

Coffee with thick cream and no sweeteners. And NO fruit. One can of beer is nothing to worry about
 
Scroll down in my signature (past the covid 19 stuff) and find links at the bottom from myself and another type 2 sharing what most of us in here have done to get good control. It’s nor fruit nor is it low fat advice. Have a read ( there’s lots there) and come back and ask questions

Following these guidelines will have a great chance at getting back into normal figures.
 
Randolf Carter said:
Thanks for the advice guys! I'll check those links out HSSS.
Click to expand...

I have the same link below as does @HSSS in red, appears on all my posts. It's great info.

I would also never even think of giving up coffee, this is madness on a astronomical scale. Go with what has been said, use cream or have it black, but don't go with out. I do put powdered stevia in mine though, some people use erythritol. Depends on what your taste buds say.
 
Dr. Bernstein has a good list of food and drink to avoid: it's very comprehensive and may be a little too extreme for some, but at least you know what is best avoided for diabetes. I'll quote it from Wikipedia below.

AVOID-all foods with added sugar or honey such as desserts, candies, and pastries; all foods made from grains and grain flours such as breads, cereals, pasta, and rice; all starchy vegetables such as potatoes, corn, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and beans; all fresh or preserved fruits and fruit juices; all dairy products except for butter, cream, and fermented cheeses, as well as full fat yogurt(for dairy products the more the fat content the less carbohydrate content)

It looks like quite a lot, until you realise that almost everything not on the list is ok. Meat is fine, eggs, fish, leafy vegetables, cauliflower, broccoli, red wine, spirits. Beer is made of grain, and it's a bit carby, but as Mike said above, one is nothing to worry about. Fruit is bad because it's packed with sugar. Doesn't matter if it's natural, doesn't matter if it's organic, sugar is terrible for diabetics. Skimmed milk is bad. Milk isn't good in general, but skimmed is the worst- stripped of fat, it's just all sugar. Don't touch it- get some cream if you can instead. Oatmeal is terrible. Rice is terrible. Bananas are terrible. It's confusing because you get told glucose rich foods are healthy: it's nonsense, especially for you.

The simple fact is that glucose is terrible for pre-diabetics, and the less glucose you can eat, the better.
 
Just to temper this with the alternative. I Personally dont think you need to cut "everything" (Unless you do - more of that below)

That is one option, and is the only option for some people who cant process any carbs. However some people can manage it perfectly well by reducing those things. The key thing is to get a blood glucose meter which are cheap and check your bloods 2 hours after eating meals and see what they look like. From that you will get the best idea what you can and cannot eat.

For example, eating a whole wheat cereal and milk for breakfast might give you a good glucose response

Eating the same cereal with a glass of orange juice might spike you, or eating a higher sugar cereal without the juice might

So you can have one but not both.

Eating a lunch of beans on two slices of toast might spike you

Eating Beans with one slice of toast may not, or half a toast and add an egg.

A small portion of pasta may not spike you, but a large bowl of pasta might, so smaller portion with a side salad works.

For me for example, i can have a whole fruits, apples, pears, oranges etc, but not tropical fruits like pineapple - i also have one piece rather then chasing 2 or 3 at lunch like i used to do and i dont have juice.

All im saying, is that you can go full Keto and cut everything out and that works, but if you test your blood and see where you sit in the scale you might find you can manage it by being careful.

Also i cannot under empherise the benefit of exercise. Building up by being more active does help you process carbs.
 
Espresso con panna, love it. (Basically really strong coffee with whipped cream, but in Italian it sounds more luxurious. ) I make my own with unsweetened cream I whip myself, and sometimes I'll put an erythritol/stevia mix in the cream. Not in the espresso. It's a treat because I don't respond well to cow dairy, but ooh, when I do have it... Yum. If you have no such issues, you could drink coffee as much as you like... Black, with cream (never go for skimmed, always go full fat!!!! It'll slow down any spikes and is lower carb), or you might want to google bulletproof coffee. That stuff's a revelation. So coffee's not out, not at all. I think Robinson's is okay, don't have that brand here, but from what I see on their website, their range is fine.

What's not fine is loading up on fruit. They're not called nature's candy for the heck of it. Loads of sugar in there. And whether a sugar is natural or processed, doesn't really matter. (Same goes for things sweetened with honey or dates, in case you were wondering). By now you've already read the Nutritional Thingy, so I won't whack you over the head with it, but all in all... If you are reluctant to cut out carbs drastically, eat to your meter. It'll let you know what you can handle and what you can't.

Good luck!
Jo
 

This approach works for some. It maintains bgl for them to reasonable levels. It doesnt for me.

Also I don’t see the point in continually pushing my metabolism almost but not quite to the point of failure. It’s not going to reduce background insulin or improve sensitivity as much as reducing the carbs as much as I personally can manage. With a change of mindset that reduction can be a surprising amount. Doing the bare minimum possible in carb reduction whilst poking the carb bear just makes me feel deprived and achieves less.

Personal choice but that’s my rational for doing as much as I can (variable for everyone) rather than the minimum required.
 
Thanks for all the advice people!

Unfortunately I can't remember the results of my blood test as they were given to me by the doctor via telephone. I do remember she mentioned the number 46, which she said is prediabetes level.

What I'm particularly concerned about is that before I received the results of this test I would have these strange light headed, feeling faint experiences and I foolishly thought it was low blood glucose so I purchased a pack of glucose Dextro orange tablets, which I ate, not all at the same time. I'm worried this might have been sufficient to push be beyond ring-pass-not so to speak.
 
Although eating a low carb diet can reverse diabetes and get you back into normal or near normal numbers, it is the inability to deal with carbohydrate which is the problem - something genetic or metabolic is amiss it is nothing you have done which caused diabetes - not with the pushing to eat 'healthy' carbs there has been for decades.
 

If they actually said stopping coffee would cure type 1 I would have to think twice before giving it up...and even then!!!! x
 
I've been getting these "feel like ****" episodes that come and stay for a few days then disappear again for lack of a better term for the past few years. The closest I can come to describing the feeling is if you've ever tripped and fallen down as a child and you've instinctively put your hands out to take the shock and your hands feel like they're vibrating. Even while I'm sat here writing this I have this constant tingling vibration in my arms, hands, legs and feet. My doctor said I had way below normal levels of Vitamin D and I possibly have hyperthyroidism. Whether this a causing these sensations I don't know. She prescribed tablets to help with that but I'm still waiting for them to arrive.
 

Hi HSSS, I've read that link you provided. I've always been a blue top milk full fat drinker and was thinking of switching to red top skimmed milk because of prediabetes but looking at the information tables I was surprised that skimmed seems higher in carbs and sugar. Maybe I should stick to full fat.

I apologise for all these questions that are probably annoying people but as I haven't been shopping yet I haven't had the chance to adapt my purchases to a more friendly diet so I've have had to rely on the existing food in my house. I've been eating Light and Free greek yoghurt 0% fat but in your link you mention a full fat greek yoghurt is okay.

The info on Dark chocolate Lindt was interesting. I always thought all chocolate had to be expunged from diabetics diet.

Is the occasional glass of red wine okay?

I have admittedly been eating an apple a day. As someone who never exercises I have now started a routine of jogging around the back garden.

They are sending a specialised dietician to give me tips on diet but that will be a while because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Hope everyone is keeping well.
 
Not a problem keep asking. Fundamentally we swap carbs for fat. Avoid the low fat stuff as it’s often got more carbs to replace the fat. If you are pushed or using up stocks add some cream into it. A few squares of very dark chocolate are surprisingly low carb. But keep it to a few, easily when it’s dark. I’ve maintained a few glasses of wine here and there. Serious warning -go careful. Going low carb also makes you an alcohol lightweight!!! Apples aren’t the worst fruit but there are better, berries for sure.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for the dietician. Some are getting with the times but a scary number just keep spouting the low fat mantra they were taught and they ignore the fact it does little to turn things around. Stick around and you may have turned things around before they even get to you.
 

Thanks HSSS!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…