Type 2 & hello...

freshlybrewed said:

Hi everyone, here's my first post.

They've been watching my HbA1c for some years, I've seen a dietician before but this time my HbA1c has been 51 so they're officially now sending me off to the clinic. I feel like I'm going to the office for punishment

I've been careful with my diet and I admit I could do more exercise so that's going to be the priority now. The sad thing is I've struggled to keep my weight down with this, where as before when I was younger I was always a slim build.

I'll eventually have time to read through other people's posts as I can see there is a lot of information to digest. However may I ask your thoughts on today's example, just to help me on my way to understanding things better.
I had a salad lunch today and I'm 8.8 mmol/l after 2 hrs. It doesn't make much sense to me; lettuce, tomato, bean sprouts, bell pepper, crispy bacon bits, 2 sliced up vegetarian sausages, 1 egg, 1 tsp dressing. 1 small whole wheat roll with "can't believe it's not butter" spread.
I was expecting a lower reading than that, I've seen lower after eating pasta!! I'm very stressed about something else at the moment, to the point where I can feel the adrenalin in my chest. I wonder if that could skew the results? Has anyone had experience of that?

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A lot of things like stress can skew blood glucose levels.
Most of the posters on here have been through that!
Have you been told to eat the spread? Do you always eat bread rolls? Even the sausages could contain too many carbs for you!
Have a read around the low carb forum, some great recipes and information.
I've tagged @daisy1 to give you the newcomers welcome information!
Welcome to the forum!

Hello and welcome.

You don't say what your levels were before you had your salad. This matters, because if you were 7.8, then the rise to 8.8 is to be expected. I must also add that were I to eat a small wholemeal roll I would also hit an 8, or even more. There are a lot of carbs in rolls, and carbs are what we need to be very careful with.

Yes, stress doesn't do our levels any good at all, so that may have had a bearing, but the roll will not have helped I'm afraid.

Hello, welcome to the forum
Anxiety, stress, lack of sleep, infections any number of things can have an impact on your levels.
What was your pre meal reading? Without that number its impossible to say if it was the meal or your emotional state that caused the high readings. A bread roll no matter how small would probably send me over 8mmol/l

Bread is made by the devil - in my first week I had a sarnie from M&S and hit 13

hi everyone..i was just diagnosed with pregnancy diabetes last wk and must test my sugar 7 times a day...im going to the cinema tonight and wondering about cinema popcorn just salted and a small box..would that be too much.tanx

tow said:

Bread is made by the devil - in my first week I had a sarnie from M&S and hit 13

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was it white bread

@freshlybrewed

Hello and welcome to the forum Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask questions if you need to and someone will help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

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 150,000 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.

gigglesgrace said:

hi everyone..i was just diagnosed with pregnancy diabetes last wk and must test my sugar 7 times a day...im going to the cinema tonight and wondering about cinema popcorn just salted and a small box..would that be too much.tanx

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I wouldn't, especially not if bought in the cinema if you can't check the carb level. Also it's usually ridiculously expensive. I believe brands vary. You might find a low-ish carb one in Tesco and smuggle it in with you.

gigglesgrace said:

was it white bread

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Any grains will spike your blood glucose levels!
Have a read around the low carb forum.

gigglesgrace said:

was it white bread

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Haha...no! The wholegrain brown stuff. I have tried a few different breads and I spike on all of them

DeejayR said:

I wouldn't, especially not if bought in the cinema if you can't check the carb level. Also it's usually ridiculously expensive. I believe brands vary. You might find a low-ish carb one in Tesco and smuggle it in with you.

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ended up 3 cups of popcorn is ok i checked it on line and my bloods were perfect this morning..cinema popcorn is better than shop bought as its not processed. lol im in Ireland and we can bring outside food to the cinema lol

tow said:

Haha...no! The wholegrain brown stuff. I have tried a few different breads and I spike on all of them

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oh no again i suppose packet sandwiches are still processed..and butter and mayo and so on..wemight as well just eat cardboard lol

Have a look on here at the Lidls rolls that they bake in house, they are low carb, high protein, they appear to have a god like status on here as they seem so popular . I am off to Lidls to source some of these beauties

freshlybrewed said:

Where is the locarb forum? sorry to be so dumb but I can't see it, or is it on another url?
And could someone explain or point me in the direction of information about mml/L units. I have a bayer Contour and it reads in mml/L numbers like 6.5 and I understand those. Then my GP starts talking in numbers like 51 what are those? I'm living in the UK and I've only ever seen single digit numbers to one decimal place referred to as millimoles per litre.

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http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/low-carb-diet-forum.18/
The 51 that your GP referred to was probably your HbA1c test result. It is the amount of glucose stuck to your blood cells, your blood cells last about 12 weeks so that result gives average glucose levels for the last few months
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/hba1c-test.html