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Old diagnosis, new awareness

Concerning booze, I forgot to say the obvious. Notwithstanding the prohibitionists, think about the following:

One can of (non-diet) Coke has 39 grams of carbs. A glass of dry wine, about 3 grams.

So if you want to point fingers at what's destroying our health ... it's not booze.
 
Beers vary wildly too. It depends a lot on the style of beer but even then similar types can be massively different. For example a 440ml can of Holsten Pils is (if I remember) 11 grams of carbs, where the same of Stella is close to 20. The hardest thing is finding reliable figures because much information is contradictory, if available at all. Carlsberg Export is also quite low according to the bottle I read in Lidl.
 
lowedb said:
Beers vary wildly too. It depends a lot on the style of beer but even then similar types can be massively different. For example a 440ml can of Holsten Pils is (if I remember) 11 grams of carbs, where the same of Stella is close to 20. The hardest thing is finding reliable figures because much information is contradictory, if available at all. Carlsberg Export is also quite low according to the bottle I read in Lidl.
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Yes I agree. Also, I don't have much trust in the figures provided by the manufacturers or on the comparison websites. I think of beer as "liquid bread" and only drink it once every few weeks, as a special treat. I may relax that rule if the BG control continues to be good.

The only way to be pretty sure of a "low-carb" beer is to drink what here in America is called "lite" beer. Personally, I would rather drink horse-p***.
 
Rachox said:
Here’s a link on this site about the machine you are looking at.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose-meters/sanofi-aventis-mystar-extra.html
It doesn’t actually measure your HbA1c, it estimates it from the readings you in put, as I understand it. I just have the cheap SD Code Free and enter my readings into the MySugr app, which does a similar thing. The accuracy of the HbA1c will depend on how many readings you take per day. My last HbA1c taken at the Drs was 36, that day MySugr was saying 34.4 so not too far off.
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Thank you for that - and if i may say 22kilos may to september - brilliant, well done you.
 
lowedb said:
Beers vary wildly too. It depends a lot on the style of beer but even then similar types can be massively different. For example a 440ml can of Holsten Pils is (if I remember) 11 grams of carbs, where the same of Stella is close to 20. The hardest thing is finding reliable figures because much information is contradictory, if available at all. Carlsberg Export is also quite low according to the bottle I read in Lidl.
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funny you should mention that - it occurred to me earlier about food labels - i honestly don't think i have ever read one in my life - one more change to get used to :-) we have a real ale organic brewery at the end of our road as luck would have it. i've a feeling something in their range will be as healthy as something that still deserves the name beer can be.
 
Grateful said:
Yes I agree. Also, I don't have much trust in the figures provided by the manufacturers or on the comparison websites. I think of beer as "liquid bread" and only drink it once every few weeks, as a special treat. I may relax that rule if the BG control continues to be good.

The only way to be pretty sure of a "low-carb" beer is to drink what here in America is called "lite" beer. Personally, I would rather drink horse-p***.
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my only knowledge of lite beer is people using it as an unconvincing defence to not being drunk on judge judy
 
gibbsyns3 said:
my only knowledge of lite beer is people using it as an unconvincing defence to not being drunk on judge judy
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I live in a college town in America. Every Friday evening I see legions of college students at the local liquor store buying enormous quantities of Miller Lite. I mean, several 24-packs per party. Or even, entire kegs of the stuff. What an amazing thing to do to one's body.

I did the same thing at their age but the beer was better:banghead:.
 
Grateful said:
Concerning booze, I forgot to say the obvious. Notwithstanding the prohibitionists, think about the following:

One can of (non-diet) Coke has 39 grams of carbs. A glass of dry wine, about 3 grams.

So if you want to point fingers at what's destroying our health ... it's not booze.
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very disappointed to have just discovered that diet (lite) ginger beer has almost as many cals as full fat coca cola. i always thought the diet/lite version was no cal/no sugar.
 
Welcome to the forum. It won't take you going to get used to the change to low carb - my husband doesn't have diabetes but has chosen also eat low carb because the loves the food.

I get a noticeable blood glucose reaction from rum so go easy on it until you know how your body reacts. I also have problems with flavoured JD or Jim Beam but not the original versions.... and as for Southern Comfort... I might as well be drinking full sugar coke.
 
Grateful said:
@gibbsyns3: When diagnosed nine months ago I had the luck to stumble across this information:

https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb#advice

Highly recommended. This forum (diabetes.co.uk) is also excellent of course.
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it seems a bit rash to say this right away - but i have a feeling that may be the best link i've ever been sent about anything ever. what have i been missing? that all makes a lot of sense - but perhaps more importantly sounds completely do-able.
thank you so much grateful - is that why you are called grateful? people keep saying it to you? :-)
 
Lite / low cal can have so many different meanings. So far I haven't seen any diet / low cal drink mixers (bitter lemon, tonic water) that have any carbs. On the other hand I once picked up the wrong bottle (spotted when testing later that evening and wondering what had gone wrong) and I've heard of others who ordered diet when eating out but for various reasons have been given the full sugar version.

Regarding real ale: it tends to be higher in carbs than other things. Lite is no guarantee of anything except less alcohol. And alcohol is not equivalent to carbs either. Marstons do a beer called resolution which is lower carb by far than other stuff, but in spite of being normal alcohol levels tastes like some of the alcohol free rubbish, but twice the price. As an ex 'beer monster' it's one thing I did have to give up apart from the odd can of Holsten, but its helping my BG and weight no end. Plenty of other choices though.
 
gibbsyns3 said:
is that why you are called grateful? people keep saying it to you? :)
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I chose that user name because I'm one of the lucky ones. A diagnosis of diabetes is a sobering thing. To be honest, when it happened to me in February I thought my life had come to an end. I read all the stuff about T2s having their life expectancy reduced by 10 years. Going blind, having limbs amputated, and dying an early death of cardio-vascular disease.

Yes of course these things still happen. But my story, and that of hundreds of others on this forum, turned out to be quite different.

By random luck, my regular GP here in America turned out to be a (reasoned, moderate) believer in the low-carb diet as the initial treatment of choice for T2D. So, having given me the bad news, he just suggested a low-carb, increased-exercise lifestyle and let me get on with it.

The first lightning-bolt was being told I had diabetes. But the second lightning-bolt, no less shocking (but in a good way) is that I brought my BG to below diabetic levels just with diet and exercise (no drugs) within two months!!!

Never, in any of my extensive and obsessive Googling and book-reading, had I been given any cause for optimism to believe that the "diet only" option would work, in my case. I had got the firm impression that low-carb was a "fringe" treatment that only worked for a tiny minority of diabetics.

Boy, was I wrong. This forum is the best place to find copious evidence of that.

It doesn't work for everyone, and there are some clever drug treatments out there if it doesn't work. Plus, there's insulin as a last resort, thank goodness.

But that's why I chose the user name Grateful. Because that's what I am. I even feel that the diabetes diagnosis might turn out to have been (in a ridiculous, perverse way) a blessing -- because I cleaned up my act and may end up with a better, perhaps even longer, life Despite My Diabetes.

(I have been posting a lot in this forum partly just to "give back" to those that help me. But also, to be honest, as a rather brazen evangelist for the low-carb, no-diet option. As you will find out from perusing this forum, it is the focus of a surprising amount of opposition from the medical community.)
 
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please stay in this forum, here you can discuss ask a question and get mental support when you are fighting your battles with yourself.

I really have learnt so much from people in this forum, not always follow peoples advice but still find this forum the best place to be if one has a diabetic condition / disease
 
A brief primer on carb-counting. This is based on the nutrition labels in America; the Spanish ones probably follow EU rules and may be different.

What matters is the weight, in grams, of the carbs. This will usually be "per portion" and somewhere on the packet, it will tell you what a "portion" consists of.

There may also be a percentage number. In America, this is the percentage of the Recommended Daily Allowance of carbohydrates. This is dependent on how many calories you eat in a particular day, but typically it would be between 225 and 325 grams of carbs per day. This is for non-diabetics of course (and some people would claim it is way too high even for them, but that is for another thread!!!).

As for us "people with diabetes," opinions vary. I consider anything below about 100 grams per day to be "low carb" and anything below about 50 grams to be "very low carb." Once you get to 30g or lower, you enter a possible "ketogenic" range. Long story short: normally, the brain cannot function without carbs. So if the carbs in your body drop below a certain level, you enter "ketosis" which is a sort of emergency mechanism producing energy that your brain can use, in the absence of carbs in your food.

"Ketosis" is even more controversial than plain "low carb" but it is likely that quite a few of the low-carbers on this forum, including myself, have been in ketosis at least some of the time. Some of us are even in ketosis on a semi-permanent basis.

You should also be aware that there is a similar-sounding term, "diabetic ketoacidosis" (DKA). This is a dangerous, and potentially life-threatening, complication of diabetes. It does not seem to be related to the "ketosis" that I discussed above. But there is a lot of confusion out there, even (occasionally) among doctors and nurses, if this forum is to be believed.
 
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I imagine Spain has to follow the EU rules regarding nutrition details on packaged foods. Manufacturers are required by law to state the amount of each nutrient per 100g. Look for the total carbohydrate amount, ignore anything it says about sugar. If it says it contains, for example 5g carbs per 100g, which means 5% of that food is carbohydrate, no matter what portion size you eat. Some packages also state the amount per portion, or the amount per item in addition to the amount per 100g.
 
@Bluetit1802 @Grateful interesting that you both refer to packet advice/labels - this is one respect i will have it easier in spain.

of course we do still have processed foods, and i know that even a tin of tomatoes has god know what added - but the industrial foods are nothing like the level you find them in the uk/us.

packaged meals do not really exist, and we even still have local greengrocers. spain, or at least ibiza, is akin to the UK in the 1970s as far as supermarkets product range is concerned. what limited prepared food is available - meatballs or lasagna etc, are so expensive you don't tend to bother with them.

i'll have a job giving up the biscuits or cake with the coffee after dinner, but i guess 80% of our meals at home are cooked from scratch/fresh ingredients - so perhaps not as much adjustment there as there might be for many people.

there was a list of the carb content in fresh produce on the site you recommended grateful, so that seems a good starting point. i really liked your comment about it being a 'blessing in disguise' - really positive way of approaching it.

thanks again to you both, and everybody else commenting.
 
gibbsyns3 said:
i really liked your comment about it being a 'blessing in disguise' - really positive way of approaching it.
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A partial etymology, from the Oxford English Dictionary:

"The apparent misfortune may turn out to be a blessing in disguise and the seeming stroke of luck the very stuff of tragedy."

"However as life unfolds we go from opportunity to opportunity and begin to understand that the cruel blow was really a blessing in disguise."

G'night.
 
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