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So confused over food

T

Trekbabe1

Newbie
Messages
1
Type of diabetes
Type 2
I was recently diagnosed with type II diabetes. I am still, after 3 months, waiting for a dietician appointment. As most of us do I got onto the web and searched for answers. I have found a dozen different ideas on the right way to eat and they all contradict each other. I have been told I should have about 12g carbohydrate a day by my diabetes nurse, but even the 'official' cook books would have me on about 60g a day and in a constant state of starvation - a sure diet killer. HELP
 
Hello and welcome.

It is very confusing, but it will all fall into place eventually, especially if you stick to this forum, read threads and ask questions.

The most important thing as regards diet is to cut the carbs, but by how much is entirely up to you. If you have cut out all the obvious sweet stuff and reduce your starchy carbs you will be on the right track. The main culprits are potatoes, rice, pasta and bread. Reduce or avoid these first. I don't know where your nurse gets 12g carbs a day from. Did you mis-hear her? This is a very hardcore and unsustainable diet.

Have you got a blood glucose meter? If not, you really need one. You can use it to test out your meals by testing before you eat then again 2 hours after your first bite. The difference in the readings will show you how that meal affected your levels. You may have some shocks, and you may have some nice surprises, but it is the only way to learn. Our bodies are all different. We are all on different (or no) meds, at different stages of the disease, so what is right for one may not be right for another.

@daisy1 should be along soon with the guide for newly diagnosed. Meanwhile, consider a meter, read, and ask questions.
 
Hello and welcome! I'm sure if you have a good read around you will soon find a way that suits you- like bluetit says, 12gm per day is extremely low, I started out on 50gm max, usually only ever got to 30gm but with full fat items (not excessive) I can honestly say have never felt deprived and rarely hungry!!
 
@Trekbabe1

Hello Trekbabe and welcome to the forum

Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. In particular it gives some information about carbohydrates which should help you. Ask all the questions you need to and someone will be able to answer you.


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 over 130,000 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

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

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

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 bloodglucose 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.
 
Hi and welcome!

As @Bluetit1802 says, a meter is your best friend.

It is the best (poss the only) way for you to work out exactly what is best for YOUR body.

Basically, you eat foods that appeal to you, and test before eating, then 2 hrs later. If your blood glucose rises too much, you reduce or avoid those foods, until you find a nutritious, enjoyable range of foods, fruit, veg, fats, meat, fish, quorn, tofu... and carbs, that keep you within your target blood glucose range. There are vast numbers of delicious foods that don't impact on blood glucose. You can eat them according to your appetite.

Then that is the perfect diet for you.



That 12g carbs/day figure is ludicrous, by the way. Definitely not sustainable. Even Dr Bernstein's diabetes solution which is pretty hardcore, allows 12g carbs per meal.
 
If your diabetes nurse suggested 12g of carbs a day, did she not offer suggestions on how to manage the diet?

It would seem unlikely the dietician you will eventually see would agree with her, based on others experience.
 
As Douglas hints, you may be wasting your time having a dietician appointment. It seems that many of these people haven't a clue particularly for diabetics. AS you will find looking around the forums on this website most of us have found that by controlling portion sizes and carbs we can achieve a better BMI and blood sugar. The meter will guide you on the amount of carbs you need to keep down to. In theory you don't need to eat any carbs as the body can derive glucose from proteins and fat but in practice most stay above 50gm/day but below, say, 150 gm/day. It depends on the state of your diabetes, BMI and so on. You don't need to worry about proteins or fats.
 
To be fair, I also low fat, as well as low GI and calorie count and portion control.
But this was the diet I planned with my dietician.
 
I disagree with Daibell at his comment... l would say most are under 50grm/day it is growing with the more people understand their bloods and the evidence out there is hitting the net more sites like like dietdoctor.com and Southport dr who posts here and in 2014 came second in the lancet competition for his paper on lchf and the odd pocket of enlightened nhs dr/nurse/dietician learns how to give good advice the number is rising.

I also feel 150grm/day is way to high but your meter will tell you.

I do about 30grm a day +/- esp + over xmas but that xmas cake was heaven

Do not forget that some foods will late spike you after the 2hrs so roast spuds (as an example of high carb but lots of fat) may be fine at 2hrs and suddenly go wayyy high view up here isnt it at 3 or 4 hours.
 
We all tolerate different amounts of carbs, and the trick is to learn what our own tolerance is. I know mine is up to 60g a day, but no more than 25 of those at any one meal.
 

It would be interesting if you did a survey.
 
Hi @Trekbabe1 , welcome.

As well as the above you might find the thread linked in my sig to be helpful. Like the others I'm a bit perplexed by your DN's '12g carb per day'. Carb control is the key though, but you need a meter to test what foods you can best accommodate and what you can't.
 
i saw a dietician, and was told to carry on eating carbs, sugar, bread etc
i asked lots of questions here about diet and what i should eat, my readings have gone down from 32 to around 5.5
iknow i,ve lost weight because my clothes are looser but not weighed myself since may last year
 
12g is low, 20g is about the minimum and depending on how much weight yoiu need to lose, you can eat carb till your meter says 8 mmol
the reason you are starving is because you haven't replaced the lost energy with healthy fats
 
You are bound to be confused @Trekbabe1 as there is a lot of conflicting advice around and dealing with the diagnosis is enough to send you in panic mode.

Take your time, things take a while to improve and you will become more at ease as your read through the forum You are feeling like a lot of us did at diagnosis and it is perfectly normal, a natural reaction to an unnatural event. This booklet may be a help to you. it gives lots of advice.
http://www.diabetes-without-borders.org/FreeTiger.pdf

As others have said your best tool is a meter and also include a food diary so that you can see which foods you need to cut back on or possible eliminate.

Some forum members have to limit their carbs to a small amount, other fall into a medium category and there are others who can eat more than either of the other groups. Your response will be individual to you.

Digest all that is being said here, take your time and then come back and ask questions. You may get different answers but we are different people so expect some conflicting advice here too. We can make suggestions but it is difficult to manage things for you as we are not with you 24/7

Do you take any medication for other conditions? I ask as sometimes these can raise blood sugars but need to be taken as other conditions have to be resolved as well

I remember when I was in the same place as you are now and I am sure others do too.

Take care,

CC.
 
She sounds quite enlightened. Usually they tell you to stuff your face with starchy carbs. Wish she was my dn! What you can do is supplement the carbs with fat. Sounds counterintuitive but it really works! This is what I did. Get rid of sugary food and drinks. Get rid of starchy carbs. Now eat bacon and eggs for brekkie, leftovers for lunch and meat or fish and lots of green veggies cooked in butter and several things will happen. You will feel better after 3 days to a week when the sugar addiction is gone. Your bs will go down quite drastically and stabilise and any surplus weight will go. You will never be hungry! Look at www.dietdoctor.com this website was a revelation to me!
Please don't wri me off as a crazy. This advice was given to me when I came on here last year. I was dubious. I checked everything out including the doc who writes the site and even emailed him. Please look at my stats. I always try and reply to newbies as I know how I felt when first diagnosed. Good luck and let us know how you get on!
 
Great advice, Scandichic!I was in the same boat of lowfat/lowcal or low carb and in the end low carb is more in sync with T2....(less carbs = less spikes!!) By the way, soon you will have to change your signature of" I'm not fat - just easy to see!" to something else as no one will be able to see you!!!!!
 
Great results on those numbers
 
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