This is LittleBlueGremlin

[LittleBlueGremlin]

Hi everyone!

I don't have diabetes myself but my husband has type 2. He is on Metformin and Sitagliptin at the moment but he's having trouble stabilising his sugars and I'm looking for ways to help him. I deal with the food for the house but I'm a little clueless as what to feed him! He needs to lose weight so I'm looking for recipes and food ideas that will help him with that too. He has a quite sedentary job which doesn't help.

Anyway if anyone thinks they can help please give me a shout

Thanks

 

[satindoll]

Hi LittleBlueGremlin and welcome to the forum there are plenty of really scrummy recipes on here, depending on what your Husband and family can tolerate, have a look in the diets section, any questions post in the general discussion or diets sections, sure someone else will be along shortly to help

 

[Bluetit1802]

Hello and welcome from me. Lovely to see a supportive wife. Men can be hopeless at times (except our male forum members that is )

Many type 2's on here have managed to control their blood sugars, or are well on their way to doing so. Have a good read round.

Perhaps you could give us some idea of a typical day's food (and drinks) and his current blood sugar levels. Has he got his own home testing kit?

 

[LittleBlueGremlin]

Hey

He has a few testing kits, seems cheaper to get a new kit than new strip thingies when he runs out! lol

He is terrible with food to be honest, doesn't have breakfast (I posted a thread asking for smoothie recipes) quite often works through lunch or has a flapjack or something, although more often than not he doesn't tell me what he has or hasn't had to eat cos I shout at him!! Then I make evening meal. We have two kids who eat early then I make dinner for me and hubby when he finishes work so something like spag bol, curry or fish piece and oven chips depending on how much time I've had! He can be quite picky with food but I think he's coming round to the idea of needing to eat different things. I try to get him to eat veg when I can and I am planning to make him breakfasts and packed lunches once I get my head round what he needs!!

Sorry for rambling! lol

 

[semiphonic]

Hi LittleBlueGremlin and welcome to the forum

First of all the most important weapon in the fight against diabetes, apart from a switched on wife , is a blood glucose monitor, I would suggest buying the SD Codefree (the test strips are much cheaper than all of the others) and it's available either from Amazon or from homehealth-uk.com.
To be able to get BG under control you need to know what you're starting with, so at first test at waking up (fasting test) then 2 hours after breakfast, then immediately before eating and 2 hours after the first mouthful, and finally before going to bed. It's a lot at first but what you're looking for is spikes in the readings, this way you'll spot which foods cause problems and eliminate or reduce them. This seems like a lot of testing (and it is!), but once you get a handle on things you can test less.

Different diets work for different people and there are many different diets. I can tell you what I do and what works for me, I started by greatly reducing my carbohydrate intake, the body converts carbohydrates into glucose to be used for energy and this obviously causes us diabetics problems! So I cut out bread, pasta, rice and potatoes and obviously anything with sugar in it, including fruit and fruit juice. Weight loss is pretty steady, and I've now been able to start re-introducing some carbs back into my diet.

Take a good look around the forum and ask any questions you need to, we're a friendly bunch and someone will always be able to help.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Breakfast is important, and a healthy packed lunch is ideal. It isn't good to skip meals, and preferably it works better if all meals are as evenly spaced as possible. I personally find it hard to space out my meals because we don't tend to eat till gone 7pm in the evenings, and this has an effect on my fasting levels the following morning, but not much I can do about it.

There are several different forms of diet for Type 2's, but all of them have one thing in common - reduced carbs.

Packed lunches - eggs, tinned salmon, cold meats, cheese, cherry toms, chicken, mayonnaise or an olive oil dressing, salad stuff. Anything along those lines. Maybe a yogurt (plain) with a few strawberries added to it. No bread if it can be avoided, and if it can't, then a low-carb bread with butter on and only 1 slice.

As for your evening meal, you need to seriously cut down on or avoid the spag bol and oven chips. These are too heavy in carbohydrates.

For diabetics, carbs = sugar. All carbs turn to sugar once inside the system. Some are worse than others. For example, rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry and batter need to be greatly reduced portion-wise. What I suggest is that he eats a meal, having tested his levels immediately before eating. Then test again 2 hours after the first bite (with nothing eaten or drunk in between). Look at the difference between the before and after, and work at getting this rise down. If you keep a strict food diary of everything eaten and drunk, with portion sizes, then records the blood levels alongside, you will soon get a picture of what is suitable for him. You can then try the same meal again with reduced portions of the carbs, and keep doing this until you reach a carb amount he can cope with. He may find he has to completely avoid some carbs but might manage others in smaller quantities.

Only by testing will he (and you) learn what he can and can't eat to control his levels. We are all different, and we all react in different ways to different carbs.