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The food of life, or, Brother, Can You Spare a Pancreas?

touchett said:
Y I was moderately active before diagnosis (cycling, and walking my dog daily), I have a BMI in the normal range, and primarily cook for myself, so I'm still nonplussed as to how this happened. .
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If you're relatively young and normal weight but have a T2 diagnosis, ask your GP or diabetes consultant to consider testing you for monogenic diabetes http://www.diabetesgenes.org/content/making-diagnosis-mody, especially MODY. My consultant says you should suspect MODY or one of the rarer forms of monogenic diabetes in any normal-BMI T2. They used to think you had to be under age 26, but MODY has now been found in diabetics diagnosed in their fifties.

Of course, even with that diagnosis it's still your genes that have screwed you up. But it can affect treatment, so do try to get tested.

Kate
 

Popularity isn't a priority with me either, though I don't go out of my way to alienate anybody, if I can help it. Life is hard enough, and I wouldn't want to add to anyone's misery, or what Doctor Who once described as their "pile of bad things".

I was certainly not pushing any particular lifestyle, nor criticizing any else's adopted diet, only suggesting that for some of us, carbohydrates don't necessarily equate to bad food or evil, and that we'll miss dishes like a homemade lasagna. I wasn't suggesting everyone go out and buy a large pizza and indulge, only that for me, I still love good food, though I realise sadly that I won't be able to eat very much of what I enjoyed anymore. I guess that point got lost in translation in my longing descriptions of pastry and chocolates, and being openly sad about the dishes I'll miss.

Thanks for the link.
 
You are not alone in being confused about diet. It is indeed a very controversial subject on which people may hold conflicting but very firmly defended views.

You may like to read up on my personal view on the subject here

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/ind...to-constantly-feel-hungry?.53760/#post-492264

If you are not sick and tired of hearing from me that is





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i liked pavs post, not because of what he said to you i just like the way he writes stuff

i am very popular because everyone likes the

There are two types of people in the world
1. people who low carb and
2. people who are wrong!

comments i make

oh and im always right

....and good looking

edit: and i never antagonise
 
..... and modest


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
lol im not really, i was hoping someone would shout at me, tough crowd in tonight
 


Fair enough. Pavlos is a very cogent writer, and understood about always right and good looking part. I'm homely, and wrong most of the time, so not MI6 material, I'm afraid.

On a more serious note, I did have a question for you about low carbing. As I mentioned to Scandichic, I've been slicing a 14g slice of whole grain bread into fourths and fifths, and eating the one slice over 4-5 days. I am mainly having a glass of unsweetened almond milk (1 gram of carbohydrate) for breakfast. When you say low carb, do you mean just from starches and grains (no rice, potatoes, or bread)? Or does a low carb diet exclude a lot of vegetables as well? What would a typical meal look like for you? What about glucoeogenesis? Am I harming myself by forcing my body to convert protein into glucose? What about proteinuria? I don't want to exhaust my kidneys with too much protein either.
 
pavlosn said:
Aubergines
Mushrooms
Couchettes
Onion
Garlic

Also small portions of pulses such as
Lentils
Beans
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Never managed more than a small foot stool or cushion, myself.

I stand in awe of your appetite ;-)

Cheers

LGC
 
i wouldnt have liked what he said as your level of writing goes right over my head, i dont understand most of it, so i have no idea if it was deserved lol

ok from my point of view cutting up a slice of bread 4-5 is nuts, throw the bread away and eat a huge steak, lchf to me means eating when im hungry and eating plenty, eating lovely foods and not depriving myself of portions either, i do stop eating when i feel ive had enough though, im no longer a gluten, but dividing a slice of bread? pffft why? .....ok tonights meal as an exmple, i had X3 homemade beef burgers with cheese, aparagus fried, lettuce, and X2 little tomatoes, im still full 2 and a half hours later, soon ill be eating a huge bowl of sugar free jelly and lashings of double cream, later on with a cup of green tea ill probly suck a couple or three pieces of dark 85% chocolate, so tonight ive pigged out compared to dividing up a slice of bread if that makes sense? i never eat bread (except livlife), potatoes, rice or pasta, i just replace the foods i cant have with foods i can, its jut the way i live now, i dont really crave ny of them, its become second nature, but on saying all that i came from an enviroment where a deep fat chip frying and packged junk food was at least food and that was good enough, in fact better than lots of people had, i know what curly wurlys taste like (they are terrific btw)

vegetables that grow above ground are the ones i eat, not because i understand the science but because thats what people i trust have said is better
 
please forgive my missing letters my 10 yr old decided to stick the letter z back in with glue or her laptop (this computer) and now the whole left side of the keyboard is sticking
 

I don't go with the "eat a cookie lose a toe" but I must say that I do find carbs horribly addictive.

I am going cold turkey again at the moment after back sliding on a long holiday.

Once I start having just a slice of bread, just one potato, just a bit of pasta........I'm mugging old ladies for their pension to get my fix.

Well, almost.

Carbohydrates bloat me and I can put on four pounds almost over night.
Stopping eating 'bad stuff' quickly reverses the process, though.
However I have half a stone to lose now.
It was a very good holiday.

Cheers

LGC
 
Andy12345 said:
<snip>

vegetables that grow above ground are the ones i eat, not because i understand the science but because thats what people i trust have said is better
Click to expand...

That's an easy one - the roots (or tubers) are food stores for the plant, so generally have loads of starch which is very close to sugar.

Although not all root vegetables are starchy, I think.

Hmmm..
spuds (bad)
carrots (badish? not as bad as spuds. In moderation?)
parsnips (bad - and way too nice roasted)
beetroot (not so bad, I think? Shame I don't like it.)
swede and turnip (badish?)
Onions and garlic (starting to struggle with this theory now...)

Oh, well, I'll just avoid anything that is white.

Cheers

LGC
 
Thanks Andy and LittleGreyCat. Do you ever worry about the protein load on your kidneys? That's my primary concern about a protein-heavy diet, with not enough vegetable carbohydrate sources to offset it.

A shame about the carrots and parsnips, but onions and garlic as well? I don't know if I could do without the flavours imparted by the latter two.

As for curly wurlys, I regret not trying more foods prior to diagnosis. And I definitely wish I'd gone to Rome for gelato, and Italy for pizza margherita and handmade ravioli stuffed with pumpkin, before they became banned substances.
 
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Hi again touchett,

Although I have eliminated sugar and most grains from my diet, I think I get enough carbs from dairy and vegs. A typical day's food would be:

Breakfast: 100g of full fat Greek yoghurt with 1/4 cup of raspberries and 1 tsp of flax seed (thanks to Andy)

Lunch: 1 beef hamburger (from last night's dinner) or some cold ham or chicken -
-with a largish salad of combined iceberg lettuce & rocket or baby spinach leaves, 1/4 sliced red onion, slices of red capsicum, cucumber, tomatoes. avocado and fresh basil & oregano topped with a dressing of combined olive oil, red (or white) wine vinegar and a tsp of Dijon mustard, salt and black pepper.

Dinner: Omelette of 2 eggs mixed with a tbsp of creme fraiche.
In a little olive oil, I fry a 1/4 red onion, 1/2 hot jalapeno pepper, red capsicum slices, a handful of chopped baby spinach, a few slices of pepperoni salami or chorizo topped with cheese and sprinkled with dried oregano, then placed under the grill to cook the top and melt the cheese.
(I bought a small non-stick pan especially for omelettes)

Sometimes I have omelette for lunch and meat meal with salad or veg for dinner.

The other night I cooked loads of crushed garlic in olive oil, then added some sliced chicken, dried oregano, capsicum and jalapeno slices, tomatoes and loads of choy sum. It was a bit of an improvisation on what was in the fridge, but I had been missing garlic, so it filled that need.

I also love curries, so I need to work on those. I have cooked Thai red beef curry with coconut milk from Charmaine Solomon's Southeast Asian cookbook, which is an easy recipe. I just ate a small serve without rice and it didn't send my bs sky high.

I still feel sufficiently mentally alert, though after walking for an hour each day I do feel a bit tired, but better if I don't eat too much for lunch. Portion control is not my strong point.

It must be much more of a blow to be as young as 31 ( it seems very young to me) and to not have had a lifetime of eating beautiful foods as I have, but I try to focus on what to do with what I can eat. (I must check out some of those gourmet diabetic cookbooks too.)
Perhaps learning to cook with limited ingredients can be viewed as an adventure into the unknown, like the literary hero, or the Tarot card Fool, setting out on the journey which will reshape his or her life.
 
You might also like to look at our Low Carb Diet forum particularly Viv's modified Atkins diet thread, and low carb recipes and the What have you eaten today? threads for ideas on what good low carb diets can be. There are plenty of great foods that are in no way off limits to you on this kind of diet!

I feel much better on this type of diet than previously and my brain is functioning much better - I no longer feel "brain dead"!! I have my dreaded diabetes to thank for bringing me alive again...

Also do some reading up on low carb ketogenic diets: your body can use fats in the form of ketones just as well as as it can carbohydrates to provide both physical and mental energy.

Robbity

PS And definitely get yourself a meter so that you can test for yourself what carbohydrates you can tolerate or not. We are all different.
 
Well I found the initial post offensive. Type2 is not necessarily a result of a screwed pancreas, but a consequence of your body rejecting the insulin that your perfectly good pancreas is producing and therefore your sugars are not being absorbed. We choose not to consume carbs because we think we know better. We choose not to eat carbs because it makes us feel better. I didn't get type 2 from eating junk. The food industry has screwed up everything we eat even down to the vegetables which now contain just a fraction of the vitamins and minerals that they should have. Valuable nutrients that would normally maintain a healthy immune system that would protect us from cancer, heart disease and diabetes. I don't know about anyone else with type 2 on this forum, but I intend to do my best to optimise my glucose levels to the point that I may eat appropriate quantities of the nice carbs that I am temporarily depriving myself of. Good food, supplements to make up for the garbage produce we have to put up with these days and lots of exercise are the key pieces of valuable information that I have picked up from these forums.


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I was not making any generalizations that every Type 2 has a defective pancreas, and phrased it as such: "for me, the problem is simply that my pancreas is broken." Nor was I trying to insinuate that Types 2s get their condition from consuming junk food. My list of good quality and homemade foods was my ham-handed way of defending Type 2s against the common charge that we somehow induced the disease in ourselves by consuming junk--it wasn't an attack on anyone, or their dieting habits. I was only trying, and apparently failing, to say, that it isn't easy to dismiss all carbohydrates as deleterious or "junk", as some of it, as you say, is nice.

I don't find it personally helpful for myself to direct anger towards the food industry, or even genetics. To me, it is simply a metabolic disorder, a condition where the body is failing to metabolize sugars and starch. You are at liberty to disagree.
 
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Thank you for sharing your meal plan, Karbstruck. The Thai curry beef sounds wonderful. I actually had a chicken curry prepared kindly by my mum the other evening--she was kind enough to choose a low carbohydrate coconut milk, omitted the starches, and minimized the amount of garlic used. It's primarily her cooking that I'm quite grieved about. I do love the ethnic dishes she prepares, and they do tend to be heartier meat and potatoes fare.

I actually have a Tarot deck set that uses figures from Greek mythology, which I procured as a novelty when I was in grade school. I thought it was terribly esoteric/occult at the time, but I was surprised at the practical advise the accompanying book had to give, every time I've consulted the cards over the years. I sort of wonder what my Hopes and Fears are these days.
 
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