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Ready meals

Evelemon

Member
Messages
7
Location
Suffolk
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
recently diagnosed(October) have lost 25 pounds and levels down from 18 to 9 and hopefully falling. Next test due Feb. because of other health issues I am often unable to cook and need to depend on ready meals. Anyone else have this problem and any ideas which ones are suitable
 
Hi Evelemon,

I tend to use M&S - as they don't put the bad fat in their ready meals. Now that I follow a LCHF type of diet I have to be more careful what I eat, and don't by the ready meals for one which I used to love, however I still buy meals but I tend to buy the ones with only meat in (say a beef or chicken casserole) and some veg... they do a creamy cabbage dish which you microwave which is excellent.

Good luck and well done on your weightloss so far
 

This is what they are saying on Wiltshire Foods about diabetic meals

Here at Wiltshire Farm Foods, we are working closely with experts to ensure we give our diabetic customers the best possible guidance on maintaining a healthy and enjoyable diet. The good news is people with diabetes are now advised to follow the same healthy eating guidelines recommended to everyone. This means that you do not need to cut all sugar out of your diet. As a result of this guidance we have removed the diabetic dietary coding from our brochures as it is no longer deemed necessary by diabetes experts.
We would like to reassure you that we have not changed our recipes or increased the sugar we use, and that our meals continue to be the same meals our customers have enjoyed for many years. You may be interested to know that we now have a range of Reduced and Low Sugar desserts
If you want to find out more, please call us on 0800 773 773 or request your free copy of our Guide to Nutrition & Special Diets here.
Please consult your GP or dietitian if you have any concerns, or before suddenly changing your diet.
 
Thanks for your advice, I have used M and S meals in the past and will look at them more closely now. Perhaps Wiltshire farms at a later date.
 
Well done @Evelemon on reducing you BG levels.

I too have difficulty cooking most days. When I am well enough, and have someone here to help, we batch cook our own healthy meals and freeze them in individual portions. Cheaper than frozen ready meals, and we know exactly what goes in them.
 

Sounds like the healthy eating plate to me.
 
Ready meals I would choose are mainly curries or some takeaway dishes that contain as few carbs as possible, especially those of which are sugar. Ones that I go for are chicken balti, chicken in cashew nuts and goan spiced curry. Spicy dishes are best as they contain fewer preservatives to keep them fresh. A great standby is also quiche (be sure to leave the crust), you can also get crustless quiche (but beware they still have a pastry base)
 
Tried to use them in past: Unable to comply, too carb rich!
 
Some of the pan-fries from here are good and sufficiently low-carb

http://www.bighams.com/

You can get them in Waitrose and also online apparently. The Thai Green Chicken and Breton Chicken are the best for low-carb.

Waitrose's 'Easy to Cook' range are also good - salmon, cod, chicken fillets with minimal sauces and no inconvenient rice, pasta, potatoes. Just add veg and/or salad to suit. Usually on a 3 for £10 offer.
 
Well I did manage to make two lots of soup yesterday which are in the freezer, at least I know what's in them. I think the range of foods I can eat is great but when it comes down to it I just don't seem to know what to eat. I was out today and ate a blue cheese sandwich and a few chips and my levels were 15 when I got home. I despair. I started on a version of the newcastle diet and thought I could gradually add things to it, it's a very harsh diet to follow for long, but I am swinging between levels of 5 and 12. I know it's early days for me but when will it settle down. I tested so many times yesterday (and probably will again today) that my fingers are sore. I was using my exercise bike at midnight last night because I read that this was a good idea and I have been on it again today.
 
I have been buying these recently

http://www.natural-low-carb-store.co.uk/collections/all

seems to be up front with the "carbs in serving" info, tastes really nice to.
packageing is quite impessive and the weirdest thing is they have use by dates of "2016" eeek :¬)

Also they just send me info of a 15£ off voucher and at these prices its important heheh

Spend over £75 and get £15 off your order with code NEW7515 in January!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi Evelemon it was most likely the bread and chips that raised your blood sugars to 15... I can't eat bread as it really spikes me. I am okay with a few Chips though.
 
I freely admit to eating ready meals, not for any reason other than feeling tired and lazy after a day at work and not wanting to cook a meal myself. They are also very good for maintaining portion size control.

Normally we shop at Asda as it's closest and I have found that some of the ready meals don't spike me as much as i would expect, and others send me far higher than the carbs listed would indicate. So the best advise I can give is trial and error. Check the carbs total on the package I normally go for ones that are less than 50g total carbs per pack for a main meal. Then do a glucose test before, and then 1,2 and 3 hours afterwards to find out how much they spike you, (if its still going up at 3 hours you might want to keep testing or if the rise is already too high write it off as a non option). Note down how much each meal increases your blood sugar by rather than the actual level you reach as if you start low then a mid level spike might still put you in the acceptable range. I normally try for a 2 mmol spike but accept a 2.5 mmol as a bit of a treat.

Ones I have found suit me (but don't assume they will suit you, always test) are:
Chicken Tagliatelle
Chicken Lasagne
Ham and mushroom tagliatelle
Chicken hotpot
Chicken Chowmein
(Most here stay away from pasta, I unfortunately love it too much so have decided to limit it to amount that give an acceptable spike)

Ones I know I can't manage
Chicken and bacon pasta bake (penne pasta sends me really high)
Sausage pasta bake (penne again)
Sweet and sour chicken (even the unbattered variety, the sauce is really high in sugars)
Chicken and leek bake (too many potato pieces)

We recently tried Sainsburys as they had opened a new store nearby but I am having far more problem finding suitable ones there, one thing i have noticed is that Asda's meals are 400g and Sainsburys were 430g (I think) so slight increase in portion size as well.
 
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