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Type 1: Breakfast Suggestions?

L

latvianchick

Member
Messages
13
Location
Rugby, Warwickshire
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Being told "you are diabetic, what do you expect?" or "You are stupid or you would be able to control your bloods perfectly!" Hypo unawareness and its consequences!
I am looking for breakfast suggestiins. I generally eat around 40g carbs.
So how many carbs do other people have then? I have no idea what is normal, but I was told I should have carbs for breakfast, lunch and dinner - I rarely eat 3 meals a day because of my small appetite. 40gm (I THINK that is what is in 2 slices of bread according to the label). Lunch is a sandwich when I can eat it, otherwise nothing. Supper, I might have brown pasta, rice, potato, buckwheat ... with some form of meat, chicken or fish and vegetables and always a salad. I try to change it around regularly to prevent boredom. I am curious to know, what do you eat with your eggs, meat or fish or cheese? Do you just eat it plain every day or do you add flavouring? Galja, what nationality are you? Your diet seems similar to the Latvian one. And your name means "meat" in Latvian!
 
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Hey, well done you! You are indeed right, Latvian is an Indo-European language second oldest next to Sanskrit. Very interesting. I am always fascinated by languages. Your Baltic Smelts are more than likely to come from Latvia - herring, sprats (that is what we call them in England) and other fish being one of our biggest exports - I have even been to the factory where they are prepared and canned and shipped for export!

Thank you for all the ideas, certainly far more interesting than anything on toast - and just what I need, though I would need to add some form of carbohydrate, personally. I would be hypo within an hour of taking insulin - but we are all different. So, thank you very much! Wish more people would give me that sort of idea rather than give me lectures on how I should eat the same thing day in, day out. Perhaps you could submit some of your recipes to DUK as savoury breakfasts!

Best wishes.
 
@latvianchick Type 1s here all eat varying amounts of carbs. I personally eat approx 180g a day. You may find it helpful to look at some threads in the Type 1 section or start your own thread.

I eat cereal for breakfast most days. I also have croissants sometimes, or cheese, fruit and rye bread.

It's often easier to get dietary suggestions from people with the same type of diabetes, as Type 2s (and others) may have different needs.
 
I was wondering the same thing. We have a lot of diabetics on insulin who eat lower carb too - if it's just instruction from a diabetic nurse, that's the standard advice, which doesn't really have much grounding in reality.

Should you choose to go lower carb, scrambled eggs done in the microwave, cold meats, cheeses..simple, quick and low carb.
Also eggs and bacon, or mushrooms.. The list is extensive.

Edit - sorry, I didn't spot you were type 1. I'm sure they can give you more appropriate advice, but I do know that quite a lot on the forum also lower their carbs.
 
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Is this the standard NHS advice i.e. from your Nurse ? Do you have a pen that allows 1/2 units , that helped me when I was underweight and was seriously low carbing , resulting in me being very sensitive to insulin.
 
Please can posters here respect others' dietary choices. Low carb is an option but it is not compulsory.

Also, as we can see all over the forum 'low carb' means different things for different people. It can mean 100g or more carbs a day.

Each person needs to find what works for them. Please also bear in mind that different people react differently to different foods, to different insulins, to exercise, to DP, and also have different lifestyles.
 
I have tried going on type 1 forums and breakfast ones. Did not realise that there were different ones. I was told to eat about 40 grams slow release carbs at each meal to keep the levels steady - though because of my tiny appetite I rarely achieve that over a day. I have tried low carb and end up hypo several times a day which rather defeats the object of the exercise. The cold meats/cheeses I have for lunch in my sandwiches - and these are always pure meats or fish, not your Spam, or Bernard Matthews type stuff. I buy several types from the deli counter in Polish food shops and if they are meat, they are pure meat, and lean - no fat and not made with fillers such as bread, pulp etc.

I think what I am trying to express is my desire/need for variety of flavours while being healthy - ie non processed. Some people can get by with same things day in, day out, but I need variety and it gets very depressing (for me) that suggestions on DUK and other diabetes sites which go with muffins, dried fruits, fresh fruits, chocolate etc for breakfast, or breakfast casseroles which on average take 1 - 1 1/2 hours to cook - who has the time or patience for that? They might be good for families, but for a single person? Oh, I give up. Might as well not eat anything. The whole reason why I never ate breakfast before diagnosis was because it was always the same, toast and egg, toast and marmite, toast and Bovril, or cereal - like Allbran or wheatabix - all no flavour again!
 
I am sorry if I gave the impression that I have no respect for other peoples' dietary choices. It was not intentional. I have only been stating that I have to eat carbs due to my reaction to insulin without them. I am looking for alternative carbs to bread and cereals (which in my experience you can never improve the flavour of except with sweet additions! I have never seen a recipe or suggestion to make cereals taste any better in a savoury flavour!
 
Hi @latvianchick

Can I ask what your insulin regime is? Basal and bolus, or mixed insulin? And do you carb count or inject the same amount daily?

I don't use insulin myself, but there are many different insulin regimes, some flexible, some inflexible, and that is going to affect what you need in the way of carbs, and whether you can adjust or not.

Sorry if you have described your insulin regime elsewhere, but I have missed it if you have...
 

No - quite the opposite @latvianchick ! My comment was aimed at the general tone the thread had taken, which was starting to suggest a pushing of low carb. So it was NOT aimed at you : )
 
I am on pork insulin (thank God I am not a Muslim or a Jew! They would find that abhorrent!). I do not know the ratio - think it is 1 unit insulin for every 10 grammes carbohydrate). I test my sugars before eating, the machine is set by the diabetes nurse as I have numerical dyslexia and all kinds of things go wrong if I try to write them down, a 3 can turn into an 8 on paper, a 1 can become a 7 or I can see a number, know what it is, but write it down as one above or below! It is all greeek to me! Thee machine then asks for how many carbs I intend to eat (or have eaten, depending on whether I test before or after a meal, or if I am fasting), so for two slices of whole meal bread I put in 40 - based on what the package label says). Then it asks whether I am fasting, if I have exercised or intend to, whether I am under stress or whether I am ill - unfortunately it does not give me TWO options - ie STRESSED and ILL! It then tells me how much insulin it is giving for that and then you press another button and it comes up with the amount of fast acting insulin I need to take. I CAN override it at that point and either put the amount up or down. Then I have to confirm it and inject that amount of fast acting. Then I have 16 units of slow acting in the morning and 8 at night. I often skip the lunch time insulin because I know that whatever my level - unless it is high or I am intending to eat something out of the ordinary - a piece of cake, say - that the fast acting is still working and I will go even to hypo by mid afternoon. For supper it is another guessing game re carbs - I never know how much I can eat or have eaten as I have such a small appetite that I can prepare something nice (always including a lot of veg, some meat or fish and a lot of flavour in the form of herbs and spices - and yet I might only be able to eat little more than a couple of spoons full of the whole meal! I HAVE to snack before I go to bed - that could be a yoghurt, a fruit salad, ANOTHER piece of toast - to prevent a night time hypo. I am also hypo unaware so can appear to function until I notice something is wrong, test and it is often 2.1 or lower. I live alone and the night time hypos are the absolute worst and I am a danger to myself and do some really weird things like put my PJs in the fridge, feed the birds (at 3 am !) etc. I am also taking heavy pain meds at night, so avoiding a hypo is best.
 
azure said:
No - quite the opposite @latvianchick ! My comment was aimed at the general tone the thread had taken, which was starting to suggest a pushing of low carb. So it was NOT aimed at you : )
Click to expand...
Ah, okay, thank you.
 
Just to be clear - Latvianchick has asked for breakfast suggestiins containing carbs. This is NOT inappropriate.

The poster has not asked for criticism of her diet or carb choices (which sound like pretty low carb anyway over the course of a day)

I ask again - please be respectful of others dietary choices.
 
@latvianchick Youve given good details of your insulin regime above. I'm on porcine insulin too : )

I have moved your posts to a new thread in Type 1 where you will not only get breakfast suggestions but comments and advice on your insulin regime, if you wish to have those too : )
 
azure said:
No - quite the opposite @latvianchick ! My comment was aimed at the general tone the thread had taken, which was starting to suggest a pushing of low carb. So it was NOT aimed at you : )
Click to expand...

I think that's rather unfair @azure. I think the responses were not "pushing" anything, rather trying to come up with tasty alternative. I know that my post said "if you choose to go lower carb" - note the word choose. The suggestions given so far are obviously thinking of alternative to the "toast" options, they just happen to be lower carb. I think variety was what we were aiming for, rather than low carb - people were trying to help.
 

@ladybird64 Please let me stress that my post wasn't aimed at you - I did indeed see your careful,phrasing My post was to ward off a potential LC push. Unfortunately, my post came after yours and I apologise if that made it look like I was having a dig at you.

We have had a number of complaints and comments where people have felt bullied into low carbing, either directly or indirectly. I personally have received PMs from members that choose not to,post any more because of this. Therefore, I am in the lookout for any signs that a member might feel pressure on them in such a way. I do, of course, also look for pressure the other way - as you say, all our dietary choices should be respected.

I hope that clarifies that my comment was genuinely a general one with no specific person it was aimed at, and it wasn't in any way aimed at you as you had taken care to word your comment carefully

And for anyone else reading that and thinking I might have been aiming it at them - no, my concern was to prevent pressure on the member asking for suggestions not to criticise particular posters. If I had needed to do that, I'd have made that clear and quoted posts. I didn't because no particular poster was 'at fault'.
 
@latvianchick are you sure your 2 slices of whole meal bread work out at 40g of carbs? Do you have a spread or anything on it? It's just, that sounds a lot higher than what I normally see on package labels (normally around 12-15g per slice), you have said you struggle with numbers and nutritional labels are difficult to navigate for everyone. Would you mind confirming the brand of bread so that we could double check for you?

So you are looking for a 40g carb breakfast?

I was going to suggest cereal - 40g all bran + 125ml skimmed milk = 26g carbs (it sounds horrible, but stick it in the microwave for a minute or two it turns into porridge). Then slice a small banana (~20g carbs) on top and it becomes a tasty, healthy 46g carb breakfast. It makes for a quick, controlled peak and a nice flat line, I think it's something to do with th high fibre content...

Or, if you are bored of cereal & toast and want something savoury how about something like a Spanish omelet - boiled potatoes, chorizo, onion, sweetcorn, spinach, cheese and egg - could easily amount to 40g of carbs - you could chop and pre-portion the night before so that the veg came to 40g and in the morning all you have to do is pop in frying pan and pour beaten egg over the top to make the Spanish omelet.
 
@latvianchick It sounds like you have an ideal meter if it helps with your number issues.

Do you ever have cereal for breakfast? I have a mix of cereals but if you find carb counting tricky when it involves too much Maths then that might not be an option. I weigh my cereals to make sue I get the carbs right.

I know some posters like @noblehead have porridge for breakfast.

I've also had poached egg on toast. I guess it depends how much time you have in the morning.
 
Thanks for the clarification @azure
 
latvianchick said:
I am on pork insulin
Click to expand...

So your on fixed doses set by your diabetes nurse.

I eat porridge most morning except on a weekend where I'll have boiled eggs & toast, if you do opt for porridge don't go for the instant variety and instead choose the rough-cut oats if possible, I add seeds to my porridge (linseeds, pumpkin & sunflower) and also add a generous spoonful of Greek natural yogurt and a small handful of blueberries, the total carb content for the meal is 50g........ although you could adapt the portions to bring it down to 40g.

If you want to stick with the toast have some scrambled/ poached eggs on top, both are delicious meals.
 
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