Question about snacks

Hello @angustia welcome to the forum
There are no essential carbohydrates so you can go as low carb as you are comfortable with.
Get yourself a glucose meter it will help you discover the meals that suit you and the ones to avoid.
This explains how to use a meter https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose/how-to-test-blood-glucose-levels.html
It's easy you'll soon get the hang of it.

 

Medically there is no minimum amount of carbs your body needs. To be low carb you need to have less than about 120g per day, how you divide it up is what suits you. You need to get a meter to determine how meals affect your blood sugar and adjust the amount of carbs accordingly. Some on here are on a total of 20g a day or even less.

 

Yes.. and will probably bring the most benefits.. maybe throw in a bit of fasting too.. skip breakfast for example.
As for carbs as few as possible is the way I started.. now down to fewer than 10g per day usually.

 

Oh yes try to avoid "snacks" eat proper food 2 or 3 times a day.
"Snacks" are completely unnecessary.

 

Hi there, are you on any medication?

 

First of all - if you are not taking medication to lower your blood glucose then - well - I would expect that advice is going to cause problems in the long run.
I am right on the very top edge of normal Hba1c levels, and I eat less than 40 gm of carbs a day.
They come from salad stuff and low carb veges, and the rest of my diet is protein and fats. I eat twice a day, early and late, and don't get hungry.
Now I am approaching three years from diagnosis I can eat more carbs - they show up next morning when I step on the scales and I need to cut back for three or four days to lose them again. I have always been able to put of weight very easily and am told that I defy several laws of Physics - well me being Biology probably explains that, and a bit broken Biology too.

 

Hi angustia,
It is very good that you have a doctor who didn't immediately put you on medication, because with some unfortunates they are told to eat a minimum amount of carbs 3 times per day, just so the medication doesn't give them a 'Hypo'! This stupid advice makes Type 2 Diabetes control almost impossible, since the more carbs they eat the more medication they need - so they then need to eat more cars to avoid Hypos etc. etc. in a vicious circle!

I was officially diagnosed in late April/early May (2nd tHba1c in diabetic range) but had already started to cut out high GI carbs (bananas, bread etc) upon the first diabetic result in March/April. But is was still quite a shock when I got my BG meter ( Tee2+) and started testing before and after meals. There were so very many foods which boosted my reading to over 8, so I went Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) and basically eating to the meter (without starving) plus some 16x8 fasting (also called IF - Intermittent Fasting) .

Fortunately I can handle short-term fasts (up to 2 or 3 days OK - lots of practice because of regular colonoscopies for a genetic condition.

I have just got my 3 month re-test results and have gone from Hba1c of 53 (7% in the old measurement) to 45 (= 6.2%) which is nicely into the 'Pre-Diabetic' range. I have also lost 22lbs which is more than 10% of my original body weight. This is with no planned Calorie restriction and no additional exercise. I'm not a typical Type 2 because I am what is known as a TOFI (Thin Outside, Fat Inside) so I was only 2lbs into the 'overweight BMI' region at my heaviest.