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Pre-diabetic questions

SJC

SJC

Well-Known Member
Messages
683
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
Diets!
Hi
I was told two weeks ago that my blood sugar is on the high end of normal and that I am pre-diabetic. I was also told to be careful with my diet from now on. I have always had a healthy diet with lots of veg and wholemeal products and haven't got a sweet tooth. No one in my family has diabetes so it's all come as a bit of a shock to me.

I am having problems understanding what I should or should not eat. I have read online that carbs are okay and yet on other sites I have read that I must curb them greatly. I have already switched to sweetener away from granulated sugar in my drinks and on cereal. I am also on a low protein, low salt, low fat diet as I have kidney disease after having kidney cancer two years ago ( offending kidney now removed). It's getting where I am not sure what to eat any more apart from veg and to be honest I am getting sick of veg veg veg. I am not keen on fruit but can eat berries in small doses if I push myself or maybe a peeled apple now and again.

Can anyone give me any up to date advice about how I can eat now I have this blood sugar problem. If I can ward off getting full blown diabetes I want to. I know it's likely I will become diabetic but I can maybe delay this for a long time if I eat sensibly. Any advice greatly appereciated.

Many thanks to you all. :)
 
The best way to keep diabetes at bay for yourself would be regular exercise ( even walking is good ), try to lose any excess weight if you need to, most important, reduce carbs. Carbs include bread, pasta, rice, potatoes etc. No need to cut them out completely but reduce where possible as carbs elevate blood glucose levels. There are various alternatives if you Google them. You can eat plenty of meat, fish, eggs, bacon and veg. If you can afford it, get yourself a BG meter. Lots of manufacturers give them away free as they make their money selling the strips. you are in a good position now to make changes. Test your BG levels before eating and 2 hrs after. If the difference after eating is more than 2 or 3 mmol, that particular food or meal doesn't suit or needs varying. You can post your numbers here if you like and we can advise further. Good luck ! Mo
 
Welcome SJC. My sister was told just before she died that she had been pre-diabetic for 5 years, "they" didn't tell her. She died of unrelated problems I need to add.

I was told a couple of years ago I was pre diabetic and cut out foods that I thought were the culprits, and even though wholewheat products used to bloat me badly, I was advised to get more fibre in my diet. I tollerated this for 4 months or so. I didn't loose any weight, felt quite ill with eating the foods I thought would improve my health, and a routine blood test in January this year resulted in my diagnosis I was diabetic!!!!

I felt quite bitter at the time, I felt I had helped along my condition with eating the very same foods I had been advised to eat. CARBS, certainly in my case, were the enemies in my diet, and now, avoiding carbs as much as possible, the bloating has gone, the indigestion has gone, and I'm starting to loose weight, slowly but surely.

Carbs in my experience are the damaging foods, and I am so grateful to this site for pointing that out to me, as I had purchased diabetes cook books, where carbs were recommended at every meal. They've gone in the bin, they are wrong.

Look at the LCHF diet thread, also others like what have you eaten today, you'll see that some people produce the most fantastic, tasty looking food.

Good Luck. The best thing you have done, is join this site. :D x
 
Hi! It is confusing, isn't it, with all the contradicting advice regarding diet, and kidney problems too.

Mo as given you some good advice above. I want to add that fat is fine and is probably what you should eat instead of carbs. I eat LCHF, Low Carb High Fat as do quite a lot of on here while some others low carbers prefer to up their protein intake too. I have had some strange kidney tests so prefer to keep my protein intake low-normal.

Fat is fine! Go for the good stuff, like butter, lard, duck fat, goose fat but go easy on most vegetable oils, olive oil and coconut oil are fine though.
 
That's interesting Linda so thanks for sharing. It seems to me that diabetes can be a very personal thing. I expect we are different in the metabolic sense too. I have reduced potatoes to half the amount I usually have or have a baked potato now and again. I only eat a maximum of two slices of wholemeal bread a day, some days only one. I love pasta so that's going to bite! You ate healthy though and yet still got diabetes relatively quickly. Keep in touch and thanks for replying :)
 
I am not sure I should be eating high fats though Totto as I have a cholesterol that's creeping up and that was one thing I was warned about when I was told I had kidney disease. I have acid reflux and IBS too so spend most of my time bloated whatever I eat. I should check out that diet. You would think my doctor would send me to a dietician for advice. Actually, on that note, Wiltshire Farm Foods have a dietician and she claims that there is good news for diabetics ...current advice states that you no longer have to eat specific foods to manage diabetes and sugar is okay as long as it's with a balanced healthy diet!!
 
You're welcome, I'm sure you'll be receiving more replies as people come in from work. Everyone on here is so helpful, and they feel like true friends.
Yes, carbs are everywhere, but that is why I think human beings are becoming obese and getting all these ailments we have thesedays in contrast to what people looked like in the 1960 before the world went mad on instant food.

It's hard, but testing helps you know what your body will tollerate and what spikes your blood too high and therefore should be off the menu. Soz, but for me, I found out that pasta was one of those foods that I had to give up. And, I believe that you have to check your blood 3 and 4 and possibly 5 hours after eating pasta, 'cos that is possibly the time that the spike occurs. x
 
My reflux is much improved off the carbs, and I think cholesterol is linked in some diabetics. Mine was very high so was put on statins, I took myself off them a couple of years ago, but I was diagnosed with heart problems recently and the specialist called me a silly little girl for coming off them with my readings, so I've allowed "them" to put me back on them. I've not been checked since so I don't know how I'm doing.

Just know, I didn't envisage ending up my life with illnesses and disease. Thanks to this site, there is hope........ xx
 
Thanks Linda.
I am in a bit of a mess because vegetables actually make me very bloated which I find strange. When I get bloated I get pain. I am seeing a gastroenterologist in two weeks so I have a few questions for him! I have had nausea for the last seven weeks so eating has been a nightmare anyway. I have so much going on health wise and it sucks!
 
SJC said:
I am not sure I should be eating high fats though Totto as I have a cholesterol that's creeping up and that was one thing I was warned about when I was told I had kidney disease. I have acid reflux and IBS too so spend most of my time bloated whatever I eat. I should check out that diet. You would think my doctor would send me to a dietician for advice. Actually, on that note, Wiltshire Farm Foods have a dietician and she claims that there is good news for diabetics ...current advice states that you no longer have to eat specific foods to manage diabetes and sugar is okay as long as it's with a balanced healthy diet!!
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LCHF often normalises cholesterol. It is carbs that is the main culprit. Many with IBS find they are much better if they avoid grains of all kinds.

You may find yourself in a situation where you don't know whom to trust. Do some reading.
 
I think the holistic view is needed. It's ALL linked to your diet. When I originally had the high cholestrol reading I ate home made veg soup for 6 weeks, felt utterly miserable, didn't loose any weight and when I went back for further blood results in those "healthy" 6 weeks, my reading went from 6.7 to 8.2!!! I felt like a faliure as a human being. Theories about what is a healthy food and a bad one does not apply to people like us. If you're fed up of veg, you're not enjoying it and it's not agreeing with your body, stop eating it. That's my philosophy now, I am a bit of a rebel sometimes, but take it from me, you be in charge of what you eat, don't listen to "experts", they don't live in your body. xx
 
Wow the plot thickens lol. I admire your honesty Linda. I am 54 and feel about 70 at the moment. My husband eats fatty meat, tons of sugar fast food etc and though he is a bit overweight, his cholesterol is lower than mine! He has higher blood pressure than me though. He also gets gout!
Oh to be young again ha ha. I was always a skinny thing who could eat anything and everything...and piles of it. Weirdly I never put on weight and always had low blood pressure. It's since I have had my kidney removed and been through a hell of a lot of stress all this bad health has really took off.
 
Totto said:
LCHF often normalises cholesterol. It is carbs that is the main culprit. Many with IBS find they are much better if they avoid grains of all kinds.

You may find yourself in a situation where you don't know whom to trust. Do some reading.
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I think you are probably very right! :)
 
That just goes to prove we are all genetically different and you have to find what works for you. I struggled for years with food and what it was doing to me, cut out what I thought were obvious culprits and I was wrong. I'm 58. There was a chippie at the end of the street, that was IT as far as fast food was concerned. You'll remember the same time no doubt. The LCHF diet does go against modern day theory, but it's a bit like the Atkins diet, so it has been tried out as a possible diet in the past. Tweaked a bit for diabetics, the principles are the same. Eat what you fancy, listen to your body. Read up on the diet, try things out. You say you feel 70 now, well after a few days on LCHF you will go through what they call brain fog. It's just your body adapting. But you will feel better if you put the right fuel in your engine, that's how I look at it. There weren't any obese people living in my area when I was growing up, so if you go back to the principles that your Mum used with regards to feeding the family, I don't think you'll go far wrong. You've been eating what you thought was the right food for you and whilst you're not over weight, you have now and a predicted disease for the future to endure. Try nip it in the bud now, you may also get some pleasure from food again, which is how it should be. xx
 
lunarlinda said:
That just goes to prove we are all genetically different and you have to find what works for you. I struggled for years with food and what it was doing to me, cut out what I thought were obvious culprits and I was wrong. I'm 58. There was a chippie at the end of the street, that was IT as far as fast food was concerned. You'll remember the same time no doubt. The LCHF diet does go against modern day theory, but it's a bit like the Atkins diet, so it has been tried out as a possible diet in the past. Tweaked a bit for diabetics, the principles are the same. Eat what you fancy, listen to your body. Read up on the diet, try things out. You say you feel 70 now, well after a few days on LCHF you will go through what they call brain fog. It's just your body adapting. But you will feel better if you put the right fuel in your engine, that's how I look at it. There weren't any obese people living in my area when I was growing up, so if you go back to the principles that your Mum used with regards to feeding the family, I don't think you'll go far wrong. You've been eating what you thought was the right food for you and whilst you're not over weight, you have now and a predicted disease for the future to endure. Try nip it in the bud now, you may also get some pleasure from food again, which is how it should be. xx
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Thanks so much Linda. I will go with the flow but will do a bit more reading up. Sadly so far I have been reading conflicting advice on the internet. My grandmother used lard in all her baking, ate belly pork, smokedand didn't know the meaning of the word exercise as she was a couch potato for years...she died aged 92 and it was the first time she had ever been in hospital!
 
I rest my case. Thank you so much for saying that, because I think it definately proves my point about where "we're" going wrong today. Good Luck, post on my wall if you want to private message me. xx
 
lunarlinda said:
I rest my case. Thank you so much for saying that, because I think it definately proves my point about where "we're" going wrong today. Good Luck, post on my wall if you want to private message me. xx
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Thanks...I will :) x
 
I'm sorry SJC, I thought it was easy to post privately on someones profile. Scandichick did it with me so I've not done it to someone else. What I've done just now is click on your handle (SJC) and I think that may be the way to private message pepes. Other than that, just like you've done today, start your own thread. That way you get several answers, I'm relatively new on here myself, so there are people on here that are more knowledgeable about things than me, mine's just my opinions on what affects me personally. For example, I never read threads to do with Type 1, 'cos thats very different to T2 and I don't have medication myself. If you got as fed up with food as I did, I sympathise, and I'm newly separated after a 40 year marriage, so I can't be bothered. Tin of mackerel for tea tonight. I've got a cauliflower sat in my kitchen looking at me saying, go on then, why did you buy me? I can't answer him, I can only apologise to him and say people following the LCHF diet can do a million things with one, I can only think tomorrow, I'll do a cauli cheese! LOL xxx
 
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