Trying to help my wife

Hello Martin.. You're going to be a great help to your wife as eating the low carb way has to be a way of life rather than a diet. I have Type 2 and although can't manage to get into remission I cut my HbA1c from 62 to 47 in 6 months by cutting carbs. I like my fruit too much to go really low carb but berries are fine for me so this time of year is great. I make a low carb granola which is good with Greek yoghurt and berries for breakfast which gives me the crunch that things like muesli used to do. I'll attach a recipe if you like.
My other go to as well as the information about monitoring sugars were two books: one is produced in association with Diabetes uk called Carbs and cals and which shows you the carb content of different foods visually so you can see portion size. I found that much easier to follow than thinking about weighing things and adding them up. The other is Reverse Your Diabetes by Dr David Cavan which gave me sensible, down to earth advice. Lots of luck to both of you but as Lupf said please don't fret about it; it takes time and could be a slow steady process to get it down.

Martin_ said:

Thank you, that would be a great help! As someone above has said, by changing her cereal breakfast for a low carb alternative could be enough to turn around this situation. But her breakfast is the one thing she is most reluctant to change.

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Do you know why? I mean, if it's a matter of fibre, full fat yog with a spoon or two with Purition, some nuts and what have you would do the trick too. https://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/keto-porridge is a bit more work, but it's a possibility if she wants porridge... If you know what the problem is, maybe we can help find a solution?

Martin_ said:

Thank you, that would be a great help! As someone above has said, by changing her cereal breakfast for a low carb alternative could be enough to turn around this situation. But her breakfast is the one thing she is most reluctant to change.

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Cereals have usually added sugar, so I stopped eating any cereal with a brand name.
I still eat müesli for breakfast, so oats with yoghurt and added chopped up fruit.
Mrs M could test before and 2h after breakfast to find out what food she tolerates.
Given her HbA1c of 47, which is still in pre-diabetic range, maybe only small adjustments are needed to Mrs M.'s diet

Martin_ said:

Oats and yoghurt reminds very much of the overnight oats I used to take to work with me before I retired, I used to enjoy that!
When you say cereal without a brand name, do you mean the stuff you can get from Aldi, or from health food shops?

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I meant oats from any supermarket as opposed to cereal from Kellogs, ...
Check the labels, it should say something like "Contains Whole Grains, High in Fibre, No artificial colours or flavours" usually also "Fortified with Vitamins and Iron". To me "health" food is often just food, which is overpriced, apologies for generalising

Martin_ said:

Where to start? Yes, fibre is an issue for her. She believes that health professionals know best, so for example the keto porridge recipe, chia and sesame seeds are fine, but more than two eggs a week is not healthy. Heavy whipping cream and butter, that's a big no no on health grounds, and she doesn't like anything with coconut. Another problem is that she hates modern technology; I've only just persuaded her to get a mobile phone and carry it with her since I had a medical emergency last year. The internet is full of quacks, and the fact that I'm discussing things on a public forum isn't going down well.
She knows I mean well, but it's like treading on eggshells at the moment.

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I'm so sorry to hear all that.... A low fat, high carb diet is what got me to be as wide as I was tall, and it wasn't until I turned that around that I suddenly lost weight and got excellent blood sugar control. (It happened to take care of my non-alcoholic fatty liver disease as well, and that was supposed to off me years ago!). My health professionals would've literally killed me, I do believe I can say without exaggerating. But then, I was in a bad way. Hey, if you need a specialist to say so, just give her The Diabetes Code by Dr. Jason Fung. It's a proper book so no internet mumbo-jumbo, and it makes everything crystal clear even for the layman.

As for eggs, if she worries about cholesterol, brains are mainly made up out of the stuff... Women a certain age and up would actually do well to not keep it too low, and eat more eggs. Even so, most of the cholesterol in our bodies, we don't eat, but we make ourselves.

Then again, I'm just a stranger on the internet, and nothing I say is going to make her believe anything I come up with. (And considering the nutcases out there, I actually think that's quite reasonable).

So, those two things: Get a meter so she sees what her breakfast is doing to her blood sugars. That's her own body doing measurable stuff, not something some internet wackjob says. And get that book. By a medical professional. Who's gotten people off insulin and out of their wheelchairs. Good luck with everything... I have, by now, several people in my family who are diabetic, and they all laugh at me and my silly diet.... Then come home devastated from the hospital, because they have diabetic complications, yet still refuse to see sense... I'm the nut. The nut with non-diabetic numbers for the past 7 years since diagnosis, and no complications. I've tried, but while you can lead a horse to water... I know it can break a heart, and strain a marriage, but in the end, the only thing you can do is to be there. It's her body, her choice.

All my best,
Jo

Martin_ said:

Here is another reason I'm struggling to change Mr Ms diet; She has just bought a diabetic cook book which is endorsed by a major UK diabetes charity. Chapter 1 lays out eating guidelines for people with diabetes, "Eat regularly throughout the day and base your meals on starchy carbohydrate foods such as bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and cereals." And, "Eat fewer foods that are rich in saturated fat such as fatty meats, butter,cheese, cream and all full-fat dairy foods."

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OMG!

Martin_ said:

Here is another reason I'm struggling to change Mr Ms diet; She has just bought a diabetic cook book which is endorsed by a major UK diabetes charity. Chapter 1 lays out eating guidelines for people with diabetes, "Eat regularly throughout the day and base your meals on starchy carbohydrate foods such as bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and cereals." And, "Eat fewer foods that are rich in saturated fat such as fatty meats, butter,cheese, cream and all full-fat dairy foods."

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That just makes me want to cry. So sorry you're dealing with all this.

So so sorry to hear about your predicament. As everyone has said above, the dietician's advice was worse than poor. The food your wife is eating has far too many carbs. You say that she is not overweight so she possibly does not need to cut out all carbs completely and can slip a little. Drinks with any sugar in them are a big no no. Processed foods often have loads of hidden sugars and carbs which you do not notice unless you have a problem. Cereal for example is Kryptonite for diabetics!
I got my HBA1C down from 43 to 32 in 6 months, and then started introducing a meal with 100g of starches once per week. Each person's reaction is different to different starches. For example i have a much lower spike with pasta than i do with bread or rice???. It is almost a year and my HBA1C is staying stable around 31.
The trick is avoid carbs and sugar. Easier said than done, but you get used to it and fortunately your palate changes. I used to use sweeteners but now prefer without, so lost a lot of my taste for sweet stuff. Don't leave treats in the house!!! They are too tempting for a slip. Sadly same with most fruit.All berries are safe though, some have a bit more sugar, but nothing like that of an apple! Careful with nuts, some are low but a few are high. I mistakenly ate a lot of cashews at first thinking they were low carb. They are not!
The finger prick testers are more accurate than the constant monitors and don't give worrying false alarms. I use a new needle each time and set the pricking device at 1, you can barely feel it. At first check her levels 2 hours after a meal to give you an idea of what that meal is doing.
Lastly, use this forum a lot. It is brilliant and the people on here are very knowledgeable and very helpful. Chin up!

ianf0ster said:

I frequently post on their Diabetes Forum And in the past 3 yrs there has been a huge turn-around in the attitude to Low Carb on there.
The Charity itself has even recently admitted that T2D remission exists and that Low Carb can create that remission, although they also plug the very low calorie (800cals) the same as they have done for the last 5yrs or more.

If you go over to their forum you will see that hardly any of the T2 members actually believe in that dangerous garbage you have just quoted - probably neither does the Charity, but it's hard to withdraw from since they are sponsored by the food industry and by pharms who make money out of T2Diabetics, and wouldn't if they were no longer Diabetic.

Sad, but similar situation exists in the USA where American Diabetes charity CEO was T2D and used Low Carb for Remission but was then in conflict with sponsors - guess who won!

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Someone should sue these people for giving out information like that! Eat loads of carbs!!!!!!

Martin_ said:

I'm overwhelmed by the support I've received on this forum, truly and honestly! A big thank you to everyone who has posted on this thread and encouraged myself and my wife.
I read Ian Foster's post to her (4 posts or so above this one) when she came back from her walk. She went quiet for a while but I think she's beginning to see that it's not just me being cynical or anti-medical profession,

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@Martin48 It's understandable that your wife is unsure since we all want to put full faith in our medical team. I have friends, and the husband has Type 2 the same as myself and so many problems keep happening with his health. I have consistently tried to get his wife to believe the advise out there but she just says that their GP knows best Latest from her is that her husband is needing a Kidney transplant and I really feel helpless since they completely trust their doctors

Martin_ said:

Here is another reason I'm struggling to change Mr Ms diet; She has just bought a diabetic cook book which is endorsed by a major UK diabetes charity. Chapter 1 lays out eating guidelines for people with diabetes, "Eat regularly throughout the day and base your meals on starchy carbohydrate foods such as bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and cereals." And, "Eat fewer foods that are rich in saturated fat such as fatty meats, butter,cheese, cream and all full-fat dairy foods."

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When I was at the same stage as you and MrsM, I was doing lots and lots of research and finding, like you, all the gloriously conflicting information out there. I recall, vividly, one evening, sitting in out cockpit, just off Guadeloupe, discussing dinner for that evening with MrB, who happens to be the main cook in this household. He was as exasperated as I was frustrated with what we were both discovering.

In the end, he told me to make my mind up, and stick with it, in terms of what I was willing (or able, based on blood glucose monitoring) to eat on a day to day basis. It went along the lines of,...."You need to decide if you trust the medical professionals, or a load of strangers (actually, he referred to them as nutters, but hey ho!) on the internet."

My response to him was that the advice from the NHS pretty much described our diet and lifestyle leading to my diagnosis, whereas these strangers were actually living with diabetes, not just spouting the mantra. I chose strangers.

Pretty soon, the personal feedback from my blood glucose testing showed me the impacts of both the NHS recommended foodstufs (carbs raised my blood sugars, to a greater or lesser extent), whereas the proteins and fats didn't.

You guys are in a tricky period, but hearing describe your wife weeping over her breakfast doesn't sound like a sustainable plan. I feel for you both.

ianf0ster said:

We have all been in that horrible position of having to decide who to put our faith in.
I had just enough in the experienced members in this forum to invest in a Blood Glucose Meter in order to find out !
It took just 2 BG readings, one before Breakfast and one 2 hrs after first bite. That breakfast was one advised by my GP it was whole oat porridge with a portion of Blueberries and a Banana.
My BG took off like a rocket.
Tried next day with just boiled eggs (no bread), up by less by than 1mmol.

The amount of faith required to do what I did is minimal - just takes 1 or 2 days and the cost of a BG meter starter set.

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So true @ianf0ster and so sad when you know people who are worsening with symptoms when perhaps they could be well on the path to better health