Pre diabetic where do I start?

EastHammer said:

bran flakes,

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I hope they were on the not to eat side of the equation?
Hello and welcome.. your actual number would be useful but no matter it should have been between 42 and 47 mmol/m (other units are sometime used)
I'll tag @daisy1 for her useful intro to the way a lot of us have controlled our blood sugars.
I woudl suggest visiting a site like www.dietdoctor.com for some helpful meal ideas.
The main thrust is to avoid starchy foods like bread, cereals, rice, pasta, root veg, fruit and instead base our diets on meat, fish, cream, butter, green veg to not cause rises in blood sugars. With pre-d you can probably be less drastic than others in dietary changes but avoiding sweet thing and starchy things will certainly be of great help. If you have a few spare pounds to go you may find it helps with that too.

EastHammer said:

I have just been diagnosed pre diabetic. The GP has issued a 'diet sheet' consisting of a single side sheet of paper with a list of items not to eat a list of things to eat. Basically bran flakes, light soups and fish and chicken. Having trawled the NHS website I can find only one recipe. I have not been given any results of the blood test. Other that this site is there somewhere else I should be looking? I note the NHS recommend 130 carbs daily intake.

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Meal options aplenty at www.dietdoctor.com, and may I suggest, even though you're not diabetic, you invest in a meter? If the doc's not giving you a lot of useful information, you might want to figure things out for yourself. And Dr. Jason Fung's books are useful, not just for diabetics, but also for people who want to dodge the bullet. The Diabetes Code is a really good one to start with! If you're pre, there's still a really good chance you can avoid becoming a full-fledged T2, as long as you don't cross the threshold, so it is worth it to know what foods you react badly to. (You can ask your doc for a print-out of your results. You want to know how you're doing.) As for the recommended daily intake... Personally, I don't go over 20 grams a day, and usually stay under, hovering around 10, 15 grams. Yeah, total, a day, not per meal. But then, I am a T2, and you're not, yet, and if it can be avoided completely, that'd be wonderful. So it depends on you, what you feel good with, and what your meter tells you. All in all, carbs turn to glucose, and you're already having a little trouble processing that back out, so cutting carbs is a good thing. Things you can scratch or reduce: Bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, cereal (Bran, Muesli, wheetabix, Kelloggs etc are all carb-heavy. All grains are.) underground veggies, corn, fruit (save for berries, especially when consumed with cream, as fat reduces/mitigates a sugar spike. And if you're worried about vitamins, there's plenty of C etc in above-ground vegetables/leafy greens to compensate), so everything starchy and sugary, basically. Foods that won't give problems are, amongst other things: Eggs, avocado, meat, fish, cheese, full fat greek yoghurt, butter, double cream, nuts (esp. walnuts and pecans <3 ), above-ground vegetables, olives... That sort of thing. Meals could look like this: Eggs with bacon and cheese, mushrooms, sausages, maybe a few cherry tomatoes? Lunch could be a green salad with a can of tuna tossed in, avocado, some olives, capers and mayo. Dinner, meat or fish with veggies. I've found cauliflower rice remarcably versatile, and in our home it replaces spuds, rice and pasta just fine. My default is throwing some bacon and cheese in, and whatever herbs tickle my fancy. Snacks? Usually olives, cheese, or extra dark chocolate (Like Lindt's 85%). I realise there's a lot of fat in there, but since I've started eating this way, my cholesterol has actually gone down, aside from putting my bloodsugars in the non-diabetic range. Yeah. With bacon once or twice a day. Never would've believed it either, but it worked. And lost 25+ kilo's in the process.

It's a lot to take in, but think of it this way: You caught it early. You have time to figure out what works for you, and a chance to not become a T2. You've got an oppertunity here. You'll be okay. And if you have questions, there's loads of people here with a variety of answers.
Good luck!
Jo

Hi and welcome @EastHammer

I suggest you start by doing two things

1. Ask your surgery for a print out of your test results so you know exactly where you stand. You are entitled to these. The receptionist will most likely help with this. If you are in England your surgery should be putting test results on line. Ask about this and how to register. We can help you if you don't understand the levels.

2. Buy yourself a blood glucose meter. Without one you are working blind. It will become your best friend and will guide you as to which foods your body can cope with. We can help you use it to your best advantage if you get one.

@EastHammer

Hello and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will try to help.


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 235,000 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

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.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

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.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
  
  
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
  

Welcome! The good news is that you don’t have to eat the things you don’t like! I have two children who would be horrified if I put the ingredients you just listed in their plates (well, I think cucumber would be okay!).

So aside from the fact that I seem to be feeding them more steak and roast chicken than I used to, and we’re having cooked breakfasts more often (they get the baked beans - I get a different veg), life is not radically different in our household than it used to be. I just get a bigger portion of bacon ... why didn’t I think of this before?! And I have to not eat cereal or bread.

I think you’ll find that some of the GP’s suggestions are not the best choices. Quite a lot of us have discovered that.

There is absolutely no physiological need for 130g of carbs per day. Sometimes even the so called experts will say this 130g is needed for brain function but this is just not correct. We can as non Diabetics metabolise these carbs but as people with metabolic dysfunction we really struggle.

By the way, sugar is just another carbohydrate so when looking at labels you can ignore the 'of which sugars' part as this sugar is included in the carb content.

EastHammer said:

Strange that the GP suggests Bran Flakes as the Kelloggs variety has 65g of carbs and 14g of sugar per 100 gms whereas Nestles Shredded Wheat Original Biscuits has 67g carbs 0.7g sugar.

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They both have similar amounts of carbs - 65g and 67g so both are unsuitable for anyone struggling to cope with carbohydrate (ie, diabetics) The rule of thumb is no more than 10g carbs per 100g. although that depends on the actual portion size you eat.