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Overwhelmed....can't think...husband now diabetic

S

scoobysue

Member
Messages
13
Hello Everyone,

I thought I would join this forum in the hope that I might get some ideas. I'm not diabetic myself but my husband has been diagnosed type 2 about 8 weeks ago.

Basically it is driving me nuts! When I walk into the kitchen my heads in a spin and I've no idea what to make. He's doing a no carb diet too which is making it really difficult for me. I am totally stressed out thinking about what we can have to eat as family and he's getting bored of salad! I'm used to going into the kitchen and being able to rustle something up, which I can no longer do.

What I'm after is some ideas, some easy and quick recipes for making food for all of us rather than trying to make 2 meals at one time. I can't start eating eggs and cheese every day otherwise my cholesterol level is going to go out the roof.... I'm lost for things to make as I've also been told to ignore what is on this website about having a healthy balanced diet, which doesn't make sense to me.

Anyone else in the same situation?
Can anyone give me some tips on what you eat day in day out, without having to cook long complicated recipes?
I don't have time to bake bread and pasta and such like from scratch..that's something I can do when I have lots of time.

Any help gratefully received.
:?: :?: :?:
 
Hi. My wife has complained from time to time about what to cook for me but we've now got some standard approaches that help with my sugars and helps keep her weight stable. First we have small portions of any potatoes or pasta and avoid mash. We have a reasonable amount of vegetables and salad. Any protein is fine and fish is an obvious choice. So part of the solution is to just keep carb portion sizes down and low-GI where possible. Desserts can be a real problem and we tend to have no-added sugar yoghurt or fruit. The reality is that a good diabetic diet is also a healthy diet for non-diabetics. The point about avoiding a 'healthy balanced diet' is that the typical healthy diet isn't because of the high proportion of carbs within it. This is partly the result of pressure from the food industry for us to keep eating too many very profitable carbs. Don't forget that fats aren't a big problem for diabetics in sensible quantities and preferably unsaturated
 
Is he going NO carb or Low carb?

Chicken is always good. I'll cook a roaster and then toss in the roasting tin some potatoes, corgettes, tomatoes, and carrots. Husband (the non diabetic) will have all the veg along with a frozen yorkshire pud and I'll have mine with the corgettes only and a side salad.

I've made chicken parmesean where I don't put any coating on the chicken (just top with cheese and sauce). I serve it with pasta for my husband, but I had mine with a salad (though you said he was tired of salad....)

I eat Low carb, so this is my daily usual intake:

Breakfast: hard boiled egg or scrambled egg. A rasher of bacon with the rind and tail cut off. sometimes a single weetabix or an Atkins bar if I'm in a hurry
Lunch: usually a salad. Sometimes I'll have some ryvita topped with cream cheese & smoked salmon. if I have a salad, I usually will have a babybel cheese on the side and a few strawberries. plain yogurt (I put a half tsp of Splenda to sweeten it, or fresh berries)
Dinner: usually a lean meat - chicken or pork. Burgers without the bun (wrapped in lettuce leaves or wholegrain tortillias), meatloaf with turkey mince, pork medalions with broccoli and cauliflower (Sauceless for me)

But that's what I eat. Your husband needs to decide what will work for him and what he wants. I will say that with my diet and exercise, I've lost 1.5 stone since March, so it's working for me!

I use google a lot to find low-carb blogs to read!
 
scoobysue - welcome to the forum, please dont despair, its easier than you think it is.
Here is an example of what I had to eat today

Breakfast:
Low carb granola, 50g mixed berries, cream, 1pt mug of green tea
(My children - 19, 17 and 8 add oats to theirs)

Mid-morning: 6 Macadamia nuts (my children snack on nuts and fruit)

Lunch: today was soup (was frozen, I cook ahead), low carb bread sticks (I bake ahead and freeze). 1 Nectarine
(my children ate soup, with cheese toasties, they enjoy low carb breads), they finished off with rhubarb ice cream

Not hungry in the afternoon, otherwise I might have made some salmon & creamcheese parcels, or nibbled cubed cucumber, onion and feta or a slice of the low carb cake that my colleague brought in to work today

Dinner: Cooked the Quick Fish (recipe in the low carb recipes section), served with a huge colourful salad (leaves, diced red and yellow pepper, radish, spring onion, tomato, garlic sprouts) and homemade blue cheese dressing
(children ate the fish and veg that came with it, they had tomatoes and boiled buttered new potatoes)
Low carb coconut custard pots with cream for dessert for all of us.

I never cook any extra meals, my family eat low carb with additions, mostly with new potatoes, basmati rice, they dont eat much pasta, but enjoy the low carb pasta recipe and cook macaroni cheese with it.

Look through the low carb recipes folder for ideas, you could make a shepherds pie, top your husbands portions with cheesy, buttery mashed cauliflower, and you and the kids have mashed potato on yours, eat the cauli and other veg as side dish.

I think the more you learn about diabetes the more confident you will become, does your husband have a bg monitor?? He needs to find out what food does to him, keep a diary and test before and after meals, he will soon see which of the foods he needs to cut down on or cut out altogether.

Daisy and xyzzy will be along soon I hope and will give you some valueable information on how to deal with diabetes. You can also google 'blood sugar 101' its one of the best educational websites on diabetes there is (my humble opinion).
 
Hi scoobysue and welcome to the forum :)
Here is the information which we give to new members which I hope will be helpful to you. Ask all the questions you like and someone will be able to answer you.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS


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 30,000 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

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes ... rains.html

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

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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please sign our e-petition for free testing for all type 2's; here's the link:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/petition/

Do get your friends and colleagues to sign as well.
 
Hello Scoobysue, please dont despair. There are loads of friendly and helpful people here with suggestions.

I have a husband and son. I cook the same meals for all of us, but I have either no carbs (bread, rice,pasta) or just a tiny bit with my meals. I make extra green vegetables for me to fill me up instead.

Please dont be afraid of cheese and eggs. The evidence that what we eat raises cholesterol levels is very shaky. I havent had any raise in my cholesterol levels eating eggs and cheese. I have cheese every day (full fat cheese) and butter and 2 eggs for my breakfast.

Someone else will be along to explain more fully, but really, it is not hard. And there is always help at hand on here :D
 
Hello ScoobySue, welcome to the forum.

No light at the end of the tunnel, it's all just to much, how the he** am I going to cope - despair! Sound like you? I was exactly the same, only I am the diabetic and also chief cook and bottle washer. :D

Hubby is never going to manage a no carb diet! Low carb? Absolutely I do it, as do a few others. It's all very simple really, like Lucy has said, make the meal as you would have done, but make slight adjustments to his plate. He can eat meat, fish, seafood, poultry, game, dairy, veg (if it grows above ground it's less carby) fruits - test and see, most of us can't manage banana's, grapes and melons, but any fruit ending in berry seems to be fine, so strawberry, raspberry, blueberry etc.

There are loads of recipe idea's on the food forum here, check it out and you will see, that it's only small adjustments to make a carby meal a much less carby meal. I promise you will get the hang of this really quite quickly, it's not nearly as bad as it feels right about now, and soon the despair will be gone. Hubby will be eating a wide variety of healthy and tasty meals, and you will be able to walk into your kitchen and throw a meal together for all the family in no time.

Keep asking questions, and let us who have been through the stage you are at now, guide and support you through it.

Take care.
 
Hello Daibell,
Thanks for responding and the information on what you do. My trouble is I don't like fish so it's not often in my weeks menu. I'll have to buy some fish fingers for me! lol
I understand the low carb, its no carb that's difficult, but thanks.
:)
 
Hi BeccaJane,

Yes he's currently going NO CARB as much as possible. Although he has found some cereal that is low in carbs so he can have that in a morning.

I notice that you have added carbs into your diet - do you have a weetabix on the same day that you would have a wholewheat tortilla, or would you make the weetabix the only thing for the day?

Congratulations on the weightloss by the way. He is trying to lose weight too. He's already lost 10 kilos which is great.
I think it would be better for me to create a menu that I can stick to with him and then I know what I'm doing. I was thinking of a dessert in the way of Mary Berry's chocolate roulade (I made it at Xmas time) although this has no flour it is full of sugar but I have some candarel that I can supplement instead so I might give that a whirl. If anyone wants the recipe you can find it on her website.

Your daily eating sounds good. My worry is what does mine do, how does lots of cheese and egg affect a non-diabetic?
I'll give some of this a go, thanks for the help.
:D
 
Also I suppose I had better add that I am in Italy. Therefore some of the foods you are mentioning are not available to me. Also at 40 degrees I can't cook! Meat is very expensive and to get berries like blackberries, raspberries etc are at least 3 euros a small pot - bring me Asda here any day!!!
:lol: :lol:
 
Scoobysue - all the family, including hubby can have fish fingers, home made, I posted a recipe in the low carb recipe section, I am copying it out for you.

FISH FINGERS

Use tilapia if you can get them, they look a little bit like fish fingers, but you can use any white fish, cut them to size, similar to fish fingers.

For 4 persons:

1 egg
1/2 - 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan
4 tilapia fillets (or other white fish)
plenty of butter
4 lemon wedges
parsley, fresh

Beat the egg with the lemon pepper and garlic powder in a bowl.

Mix the ground almonds and grated parmesan in another bowl.

Cut fish into bite-sized pieces. Turn them in the egg mixture first and then into the almond mixture, make sure fish is coated on all sides.

Heat the butter in a frying pan and fry the fish on medium to high heat until golden. Place fish on kitchen paper to drain off excess fat.

Serve with lemon wedges, a cucumber salad (thinly slice cucumber, season with lemon juice, olive oil, pinch of sweetener, salt, pepper and chopped parsley) and a remoulade dip (mayonnaise mixed with a little lemon juice, finely chopped capers and cornichons/gherkins)

Photo: http://lchf-bloggen.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... lapia.html

If you are low carbing you dont need to worry about cheese or any fats so long as you use the good fats only, eg butter, lard, cream, olive oil, macadamia oil, ghee.....

Search the low carb recipe forum and the Chocolate Paradise thread for ideas and recipes from soups to desserts, cakes and breads, and more besides.
 
Hi,
For recipes that require flour, substitute ground almonds - makes a useful thickener.

I make a bread-cake with a mixture of low carb flours, baking powder, olive oil & eggs. It can be sweetened with non-sugar sweeteners.

For b'fast I have a mix of ground almonds, coconut powder (not de-fatted), oat bran, milled flax seed - mixed in a cup with boiling water. It's very sustaining as it has plenty of protein & fat. It makes an easy snack at other times.
 
scoobysue said:
Hi BeccaJane,

Yes he's currently going NO CARB as much as possible. Although he has found some cereal that is low in carbs so he can have that in a morning.

I notice that you have added carbs into your diet - do you have a weetabix on the same day that you would have a wholewheat tortilla, or would you make the weetabix the only thing for the day?
Click to expand...

It depends on what I'm doing during the day, to be honest. I try to stick to no more than 50-60 carbs/day, but I know people who go much lower than that, too. My husband can't be convinced that I should go lower than that and he freaks out if I don't have at least some carbs each day!



Your daily eating sounds good. My worry is what does mine do, how does lots of cheese and egg affect a non-diabetic?
I'll give some of this a go, thanks for the help.
:D
Click to expand...

My husband thinks he gained weight from going low carb with me, so now I just try to make carby food for him, and I sub in salads for me (like Lunch today was pork chops and broccoli. He had mashed potatoes, I had salad.)
 
Wow Daisy1 that's a lot of info. I'm understanding and we already eat brown wholemeal bread, not moved over to wholemeal pasta as don't really like it as much. He's not eating any of it anyway yet, so I'll eat all the white first!

thanks
:D
 
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