Slimfast

Have you checked how many carbs there are in the Slimfast drink?

morlena said:

Do you know if it's ok to replace lunch with a slimfast shake when you have type 2? I am trying to cut carbs and lunch has always been sandwiches.

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Can't you replace the sandwich with some low carb food instead?
Just eat the filling without the stodgy bread maybe?
I'd rather do that than have some nasty concoction..

Thinking of the long term, could you face a shake for lunch every working week day for the forseeable future?

Variety is the spice of life. Try a portion of roast chicken with a favourite salad mix followed by a creamed coffee. Other lunches are available

morlena said:

Do you know if it's ok to replace lunch with a slimfast shake when you have type 2? I am trying to cut carbs and lunch has always been sandwiches.

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I am ok with the very occasional slimfast when I am somewhere where I cant eat the food on offer (I have some food issues) and need something to have. But in the main I avoid them as its around a 30g hit of carbs in one go.

A glass of whole milk and a vitamin tablet is probably just as filling and nutritious : )

morlena said:

Thank you for your feedback everyone. I'll try the chicken salad - sounds good. I'm struggling with knowing what I can and can't eat and thought I'd try a low carb diet by just eating shredded wheat for breakfast and a low carb, high protein dinner in the evening. I need to lose weight so I don't want to do anything that will make me put on weight so I thought a meal replacement might be the way to go.

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I'd rather have a shake than the shredded wheat, remember than grains are carbs too, it's not just sugar. Breakfast for me is a fry up without the bread or a bullet proof coffee or keto coconut porridge. There are lots of ideas and recipes on Dietdoctor.com, have a browse around the recipe section over there.

morlena said:

just eating shredded wheat for breakfast and a low carb, high protein dinner in the evening.

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Shredded wheat is 69% carbohydrate so not an especially low carb thing to start the day with.
Eggs, bacon yoghurt far more "low carb" as well as not tasting like regurgitated cardboard.

Hi @morlena Have a look at the what have you eaten today in the low carb thread for some menu ideas

https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-have-you-eaten-today.75781/

Have you got a meter, the only way to know which foods raise your blood glucose and what doesnt is to test, test test. It does take a while and is trail and error, everyone is different so some on the forums can eat higher carbs without raising BG levels others cant even have a sniff before their levels shoot through the roof

There are lower carb options for traditional high carb foods, such as:

mashed potatoes: mashed cauliflower or mashed celeriac work very well, add butter or splash of cream if doing LCHF. I like to add garlic and herbs.

Chips: celeriac works well instead of oven chips, or cut courgette into a fat chip shape and coat in egg and almond flour ‘batter’ and bake into a courgette fritter/chip

Dauphinoise potatoes: Celeriac works really well in place of potatoes, add plenty of cream, butter and garlic for a LCHF version.

Pasta: "pasta" quills - use courgettes slices into sort of chunks instead, steam or cook briefly in boiling water – don’t overcook or like pasta it will go mushy, serve with low carb sauce.
Small patty pan squash cut into quarters also work well, cook until just tender.
for fettuccini or tagliatelle – can use courgettes cut into thicker strips
for spaghetti - spaghetti squash is great when I can find it or can use courgette ( I use a julienne peeler much cheaper than a spiraliser ) but needs to be cooked gently or it will fall apart, I normally add to sauce to be warmed up
for cannelloni pasta tubes - I use aubergine slices rolled around the filling or leeks carefully sliced to open them into a sheet and then rolled around the filling .
for lasagne sheets - aubergine or courgette sliced lengthways or leeks folded all work well, don’t need precooking.

Bread - use nut flours instead of wheat flour, lots of recipes on forums such as oopsie bread or almond flour breads, I add a spoonful of ground flaxseeds to add fibre to the ‘bread’

Wraps – large lettuce leaves make great sandwich filling or burger holders

Crisps - melted cheese blobs is yummy

Nachos – use thick strips of raw pepper to serve guacamole or chilli beef etc

Gratin/breadcrumb topping - Almond or coconut flour instead of bread works great, add savoury seasoning such as herbs or garlic for gratin toppings etc as the nut flours can be a little sweet.

Crumble topping – use ground almonds instead of wheat flour for sweet crumble topping, fruits don’t need any extra sweeteners or sugar, add cinnamon and mixed spice for added sweet taste without needing sugar, serve with double cream for extra sweet taste.

morlena said:

Thank you. I'll have a look at Dietdoctor.com. I'm finding it all very confusing.

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Just keep at it, lass. Every one of us has been in your position. The shock of diagnosis then all of this information to take in (and some of it seemingly to be conflicting) can be very disorienting. Take it steadily, just one day at a time. The first thing and the most important thing in my opinion to learn is that our condition means we can't metabolise carbohydrates in the same way as a non T2. So, we learn, by trial and error, which foods are just too high in carbs for our bodys to comfortably cope with.

We are all different so there is a learning curve to all of this. Keep testing!

morlena said:

Do you know if it's ok to replace lunch with a slimfast shake when you have type 2? I am trying to cut carbs and lunch has always been sandwiches.

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I've been doing things like a homemade chicken salad for packed lunches at work recently. Very simple, no dressing or anything, just chicken breast fillet with skin on (so there's a bit of fat underneath), salad leaves, celery, some baby plum tomatoes. Sometimes I'll add a small cube of cheese to that, say 30g. All in all a good amount of protein and fat to keep me full.

I have to admit though I've often added one small pakora / falafel to it, as I've been finding it hard to concentrate at work in the afternoons unless I have some carbs. I haven't worked it out but I'm probably having up to 10g carbs at lunch. I'd like to get that lower but I don't feel good on it at the moment.

Re breakfast, if you want something as quick and simple as Shredded Wheat but that is much lower carb and doesn't taste like regurgitated cardboard, then what I often do is just put 30g of mixed nuts in a ramekin and add 50ml of semi-skimmed milk. It's a bit like muesli, but doesn't have the high-carb oats, and needs much less milk than Shredded Wheat, milk of course being quite carby. Sometimes I'll add 3g raisins chopped up to make it even more like muesli, but still much lower carb. Last time I checked was a while ago, but I was surprised that even with the raisins, my 2 hour postprandial reading was the same as before I ate it. You do need to be careful with quantities however - the volume is tiny, you just need to trust that it will stop you getting hungry throughout the morning, and so far it always has for me.

morlena said:

Do you know if it's ok to replace lunch with a slimfast shake when you have type 2? I am trying to cut carbs and lunch has always been sandwiches.

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I bought Slimfast chocolate chunk shake recently and threw it out as I hadn't read the ingredients properly first and each serving had 16g sugar in it.

morlena said:

I've been browsing Diet doctor and it sounds wonderful. Thank you for sending me in that direction. I'll start the keto diet as soon as I've gone shopping, lol.

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Enjoy!

paging @daisy1 for her excellent advice for beginners.

@morlena

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


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

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
  
  
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