So my partner has just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
She's 31.
The nurse said that usually they'd wait until a second blood test to confirm, but her results were very high so she's very confident it's type 2 , especially as there's a lot of diabetes in her family
(Mother, Aunt & Gradnparents on both sides)
We've got two weeks to wait for a second appointment, (Busy GPs) where she'll have a second blood test and be put on Metformin.
In the meantime, we're sort of floundering.
We know she has to cut out sugar, and that's most important thing
So far we have thought of Sugar Free Pop, Sugar free baked beans & sugar free ketchup and sweetners in tea
We know there's a lot of hidden sugars, like in processed foods and ready meals.
What things do we need to avoid straight away ?
We've been told to swap white bread, white rice and white pasta to the brown/wheat alternatives ?
Any startup advice would be great ... we also read to have oily fish twice a week, but she HATES it, is there an alternative, like cod liver oil ?
Okay, take a deep breath: Nothing has to happen overnight, she's not going to keel over tomorrow. Really. It might feel like that to the both of you, and I know it did to me 2 years ago, but... You have time to figure this T2 thing out.
First off, it's not just hidden sugars. Practically all carbs turn to glucose once ingested. So even swapping out white for brown items, well... It's still starches, and they still turn to glucose. So a couple of things: Get a meter. Have her test before a meal and 2 hours after the first bite. That tells you whether or not that meal is worth repeating or needs adjusting: if it goes up more than 2 mmol/l in that time, it was too carby for her to be able to process out again. Secondly, you two might want to hit the books (Dr. Jason Fung is an excellent explainer of all things diabetes) and check dietdoctor.com for mealsuggestions. You don't have to pay to join, loads of recepies and info is free on there. (I don't have to point you to diabetes.co.uk I assume, as you're already here).
Foods that cause spikes: Bread, rice, pasta, potatoes cereal (wheetabix, shredded wheat, muesli, all of it, not just the obvious like chocopops and cornflakes), corn, fruit... Except for berries, a couple of cherry tomatoes and avocado, they're fine. That sounds like there's nothing left to eat, but really.. There's still loads. Meat, poultry, (yeah, fish too...), eggs, above-ground veggies and leafy greens (except for beans), cheese, butter/ghee, double cream, full-fat greek yoghurt, nuts, olives, pork scratchings, (bacon, bacon, bacon!!!), extra dark chocolate...
Meals could look like this:
Eggs with bacon and cheese, mushrooms and maybe a handfull of cherry-tomatoes.
Full fat greek yoghurt with a few berries and some walnuts and/or coconut shavings.
Green salad with lukewarm goat's cheese, cherry tomatoes, avocado and a little vinaigrette.
Evening's you could go for meat, pountry, with vegetables, something like cauliflower rice or broccoli rice, both of which are quite versatile. My go-to is adding bacon and cheese and a bunch of herbs. Stir fry some gyros through it, for instance. All good.
Fat, as it turns out, isn't the culprit, as we've been told for decades... (Leading to a global T2 epidemic). It's the glucose that gets stored in fat cells that makes people fat, so... Dietary fat doesn't stick to hips, while we've all been going low-fat and high carb. Oops. What dietary fat does do, and that's important for your lady: it slows down potential sugar spikes, besides helping her feel satiated in spite of the lack of carbs. Keeping things on an as even keel as possible. Which is why, if she does go for some strawberries and cream, the cream is actually helping her, not just decadence.
There's time to sort this out, learn what's what and there's even room to make a few mistakes. It does help, I must admit, when you do it together. I skip breakfast, usually, and still make my husband's sandwiches, (I just have a Nespresso), and at work he's still eating his toasties and whatnot, but in the evening I only have to cook one meal, not two different ones. Otherwise I could just toss some potatoes in the airfryer for him, but he's full on what I serve for us both, so that's all good.
Hope this helps!
Jo
