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Scared To Eat

Ah yes @Addyb, I understand such experiments! . I recently tried out upping the amount of treat-foods (ie high in sugar) at family feast days over a six month period (followed by periods of no-food fasting to see if that compensated) (it didn't!) - and the outcome was similar to you! Not at all good. My HBA1c raised 5 points (in the double digit measuring system, not the % one). . I have very stubborn insulin resistance though, so what I think happened is that excess glucose that turned into fat, or immediately in the sugar, went straight to my liver. Which is very bad in the diabetes body. Egads.

And you are right - by doing this we can actually say - "Hey! Look what happens!". But I wish I hadn't done this experiment now. Or did it in a much shorter time frame, because now I have to work really hard to bring my blood glucose levels back down again. . To where they were before. .
 
I've had T1 for 50 years and can completely relate to your fear. I often say that if I could never eat again, I'd do it.
One thing to remember is your fear is just that - fear. It's an exaggeration of a rational concern. By now, I'm sure you've read the posts that tell you that there are foods that won't spike your blood sugar and that there are ways to counteract spikes (exercise or insulin, for example).
One thing that will help you manage spikes more than anything you eat is forgiveness. There are NO perfect diabetics, though many may come close. We all face temptation and exhaustion from counting calories and measuring and taking meds and facing it all over again. Don't beat yourself up if you have a moment of weakness, just remember there are ways to treat it. This is/was a hard lesson for me to learn - and I'm still practicing!
I'm glad you're here, facing your condition with the rest of us trying to do the same. That's a great first step.
 
Sit down and relax. Start changing your diet, go for low carb meals, more veg(spuds don't count), fish, chicken ie protein, even the veggi stuff. Think of your old plate of food, it was probably a 1/3 meat(etc), a little veg and nearly 2/3rd carbs(spuds, rice, etc).
Your new plate should be a little carbs, with 45 % veg and 45% protein . Yes have some carbs, even have some sweet stuff , just try a reduce your carbs and portion sizes, walk a little more, take small steps as they all add up. Enjoy the journey, and take care. Best of luck.
 
Hi @maitai relax with a cuppa (no sugar or milk) and have a look at the forum thread "Low Carb Diet" there is a section in there called "What have you eaten today?" That will help. Also check out https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/foods. this will also help. You will be fine just takes time. Your in the right place for help, advice and support.
 

Thanks for the advice @AloeSvea I keep getting the urge to ‘test’ my body but I think I’ll heed your warning and stick to the nigh on zero carbs. Maybe I’ll up it sensibly like yesterday when I had an avocado with lettuce and mayo which has a few carbs but nothing much and was followed by flatline BG of 7 to 8 for several hours.
 
there are people who are always willing to help you. I can only say to be regularly eaten it is important that you oxygenate your body and irrigate it properly. We are glad that you are with us "
 

There is hope, and I’ve found this forum is absolutely brilliant.

I was diagnosed three months ago at 48.6, so only just diabetic type 2 - I appreciate being caught so early. I’ve stuck to Carb counting, around 60g-90g a day which is easy to get used to. My reading is now 40 so “normal” and lower than pre-diabetic. It can be done.

Concentrate on the vegetables, cutting out the rubbish and don’t try to substitute sweet stuff with chemicals. I’ve found that if I have two types of veg in every meal and make that take up half the plate, I don’t have to worry too much what I have as the protein. I limit the potatoes to two small new potatoes. Think of sugar as toxic in your blood, and vegetables as the good guys.
 
As this thread is wonderfully called 'Scared to Eat', I thought I might add my own food-stint here on what not to be afraid of.

I would add - don't be afraid of what I think of as the ultimate whole food - meat, poultry, fish, seafood. Wonderfully nutrient dense. No carbs! or just a tiny amount? Very filling. It seems that the same reason some folks respond very well to whole food plant based diets, or at least a concentration on veg, is the same reason that some folks respond very well to meat - to do with gut biomes probably more than genes is my understanding from current research.

And as for sugar substitutes - my personal thoughts are if you are having a tough time getting over a sugar addiction going lower carb, or at the very least - lower sugar! Go for it with sugar substitutes. It's a very difficult addiction to kick, considering how much sugar is consumed around us, advertised constantly, hidden in processed food, and in most likelihood - consumed in large quantities by oneself before diagnosis, (This is true for myself. Licorice allsorts! Schweppes ginger ale! Sigh.) So perhaps we need all the help we can get with safe substitutes. Stevia is a fantastic alternative sweetener, and is a safe herb, and seems even to have blood glucose regulating aiding compounds in it, ie good for those of us with T2D also. I used the traditional sugar substitutes, as in chemical sweeteners that were very readily available, soon after diagnosis, and I consider them to have been a life saver. Literally! But I do understand that they could muck up a nice healthy whole food gut biome if continued. That's where stevia can come in.
 
Hi Addyb. First off, I think most people who are diagnosed with this little blighter of a disease becomes scared to put food into their mouths. It's a normal reaction so don't worry yourself unduly about it. Secondly, food can be your best friend or it can be your enemy, as we have seen with the almost epidemic increase in obesity in the past few decades. So what to do? My suggestion is to eat normally and keep records of your BG numbers. Your aim is to get them as close to normal as possible. Over the past year I started to keep daily records of my BG count, analyzing the foods I ate compared to the numbers showing. I test only twice a day - morning on waking and last thing at night but I would suggest you test 20 minutes before a meal and again 20 minutes after a meal. If you approach the results in a forensic manner you will soon realise what foods are spiking you most and you can eradicate them from your diet or cut them back to a minimum. For me, it was potatoes in all their forms, rice (brown or white) and pasta. Bread was also a major factor in my high numbers. It will take a month or two to work out what you can eat and what you need to be careful of, but once you get some idea of what foods are spiking you, then you can adjust what you eat and when you eat it. Low carb is the answer for most of us I think. Not all carbs are bad though, so do some research on them. Thankfully I hate pasta and eat it only at a push. If I have a pizza for a meal then I eat it at lunchtime which gives me the rest of the day to burn it off. I have rice but have one tablespoon of it only maybe once a week with fish. Potatoes are a "now-and-again" treat these days and were the hardest for me to give up. Funnily, I don't miss them that much. I make my own bread and eat it only at lunchtime and no carbs after that. It's about balance and timing. Good luck with it. You will settle into a regime that is good for you, and if you work at it in a logical way you will soon find you are not missing out on much at all. Keeping a close watch on your BG numbers is the key.
Edit. PS try and count your carbs, especially with breakfast cereals. I look at sugar content on the package and always stick to portion control. Sweeten with fruit if you need to and not with sugar. I weigh mine to make sure I have the correct portion.
 
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Alexandra100 said:
The more usual advice is to test immediately before a meal and 2 hours after. This flyer might be useful to the OP: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/32a606_a67d349ebe874b4489dfe389e6d9172f.pdf
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Like you, I'm in my mid 70s. I had some dealings with diabetes back in the 1960s because my stepfather was type 1 and indeed died from it in his early 50s whilst sitting in his chair. I know that treatment and attitudes have moved on somewhat since then but on the whole it is a very personal disease; inasmuch as it affects everyone differently, which is to be expected I suppose. With foodstuff in mind, one carb can be bad for one diabetic and safe for another, so when trying to sort the good and the bad, testing earlier than the recommended times can help to determine what food is causing the level of spikes. Testing 2 hours after a meal would, hopefully, show a return to near normal numbers, whilst 20 minutes after a meal would show the real effect of that certain foods have. From then on it's all a matter of analyzing the plate to see what foods are safest to eat amongst those you have just eaten. For instance, strawberries send my numbers rocketing, so I can't indulge as often as I would like. Oranges have a mild effect. This may be the reverse for someone else. On the other hand chocolate eclairs have little effect on my blood sugars so for me it's a safe food to indulge in now and then. This is why I take the advice of dieticians with a pinch of salt. Everyone has different reactions. At the end of the day there isn't a one fix for that suits all diabetics. Oh that there were!
 
KeithT 2 said:
20 minutes after a meal would show the real effect of that certain foods have
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Testing 20 minutes after a meal would for me be a complete waste of a strip, as my bg would infallibly be either the same or lower than before. Given that delayed stomach emptying is said to be common in diabetics due to damage to the vagal nerve (a problem from which I suffer) many will not see a rise at the traditional 1 hour or even at 2. This is the first time I ever saw testing at 20 minutes suggested. Does this work for you? If so, I think you must be a minority, but perhaps others will comment.
 
If I tested at 20 minutes I too would see skyrocket results for strawberries, but using the 2 hour tests I get a more accurate assessment of blood glucose for the rest of the day or night, so I go with that. Heavy carbs are still showing as high at 2 hours, and they still show before the next meal, but low carb foods are dealt with and BG is dropping so there is no argument as to which is the best option long term.
 
Never mind 20 minutes, I'm still trying to get over oranges and chocolate eclairs.
 
Guzzler said:
Never mind 20 minutes, I'm still trying to get over oranges and chocolate eclairs.
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I hope you don't doubt me about eclairs, Guzzler, because for me it is as much a fact as eating oranges: they don't seem to effect my numbers for some reason. http://ezinearticles.com/?Diabetic-Friendly-Chocolate-Eclairs&id=4347905 My numbers have dropped from double figures to prediabetic figures and lower in the past 12 months. Like I say, an eclair now has to be a treat and and not a regular thing to pig out on. Here are my numbers over the past few days - mmo/l:

Morning 16/08/2018 4.9
Evening 16/08/2018 4.4
Morning 17/08/2018 5.2
Evening 17/08/2018 6.0
Morning 18/08/2018 4.4
Evening 18/08/2018 5.3
Morning 19/08/2018 4.8
Evening 19/08/2018 5.0
Morning 20/08/2018 4.7
Evening 20/08/2018 5.9
Morning 2108/2018 3.5
 
I have the occasional chocolate eclair (or two). They are only about 11 gms of carbs per eclair, and perhaps the cream offsets some of that, but they don't seem to effect me too much.
 
It seems I got the 20 minutes testing wrong and I apologise for throwing a spanner in the works. However, spikes can happen much earlier if eating a meal with carbohydrates included. Clearly, I have gone against what has long been considered best practice but my suggestion was just that - a suggestion and certainly not advice. You may be interested in this article. https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/soon-after-ingestion-food-blood-sugar-rise-1399.html
 
Very nice low numbers, but low post prandial readings are more important than fasting ones.
 
Alexandra100 said:
The more usual advice is to test immediately before a meal and 2 hours after. This flyer might be useful to the OP: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/32a606_a67d349ebe874b4489dfe389e6d9172f.pdf
Click to expand...
I suggested 20 minutes based on this article. https://healthyeating.sfgate.com/soon-after-ingestion-food-blood-sugar-rise-1399.html It was not meant as advice because I am in no position to advise, not being a doctor or medical practioner. It was merely a take or leave it suggestion.
 
Alexandra100 said:
Very nice low numbers, but low post prandial readings are more important than fasting ones.
Click to expand...
Everybody spikes whether they have diabetes or not. That's the nature of food. Clearly, diabetic numbers will be higher. I take metformin in the morning before breakfast and metformin and Gliclazide before my evening meal and my spikes have all but settled down within 2 hours of eating my carb free evening meal. Carbs are important to everyone's diet but diabetics have to control their intake. I eat carbs up till after lunch and then none for the rest of the day. This suits me, as I am more inclined to burn of the carbs during the early part of the day than I am towards the evening. However, for the sake of experiment I will test the prescribed 2 hours after my evening meal and see how different they are to the numbers I get at bedtime. For curiosity sake, here are a few of the numbers I was getting before taking control of this disease.

Evening 18/11/2017 14.1
Morning 19/11/2017 7.2
Evening 19/11/2017 9.0
Morning 20/112017 7.8
Evening 20/112017 5.8
Morning 21/11/2017 5.8
Evening 21/11/2017 13.8
Morning 22/11/2017 6.2
Evening 22/11/2017 10.6
Morning 23/11/2017 7.6
Evening 23/11/2017 11.4
 
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