Type 2

Hey Edram, don't feel hopeless. Are you newly diagnosed? What have you tried yet? I can take a while to get your head around the whole thing but it IS something you can live with and still enjoy life. I'm tagging @daisy1 who will post some advice that she gives to all first-time forum users. Take a good look at it and let me know if I can help in any way (I'm no expert but I'm 7 months in and feeling loads more confident and positive about it all). Chin up xxx

@edram

Hello Edram and welcome to the forum Maybe in this information we give to new members you will find something which will help you. A change of diet to low carb/high fat maybe. Have a look at the Low Carb Program. Other members will be along soon with their ideas. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to 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 well over 147,000 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

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.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a free 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

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 blood glucose 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.

edram said:

Thank you for taking time to reply. It has been a couple of months and I only eat chicken and turkey because I have gout and type 2 along with high blood pressure high cholesterol and my blood pressure is under control my cholesterol is someone okay but my uric acid is high and my diabetes is affecting my kidneys I've tried eating right I don't know what else to do

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I'm really no expert but it does sound like Low Carb High Fat might be just the thing for you. You can eat chicken and turkey with low carb veg and salad. I eat a lot of eggs and cheese, nuts in moderation, mushrooms, spinach, courgettes. I use cauliflower to make mash or to make rice or pizza bases. I can get away with piece of fruit a day, usually an apple or a pear, sometimes an orange or strawberries. I fry mushrooms and eggs in butter, never trim the fat from bacon, and eat loads of cream, usually with my fruit, sometimes with 85% dark chocolate melted and drizzled over.
Since I started in February I find I'm very rarely hungry, with no impulse to snack between meals and my energy levels have improved massively. Like you I have other complications but I feel more healthy than I ever have in my adult life. I certainly recommend you give it a go if you can! xxx

Have you got your own glucose meter?

We use these to test before we eat and 2 hours after our first bite. The rise in levels tells us what that meal has done to us. We can learn from this by testing regularly and using a food diary (including portion sizes) to record our levels alongside the food. Too big a rise (2mmol/l is the max we should try to keep underneath) then we can reduce the portion sizes of the carbs in that meal and try again until we reach the right portions. It may be you can only have, say, 1 slice of bread. It may be you can't have any at all. (most of us can't but some can). It is very likely you can't have grapes.

Don't concentrate on what you can't eat. That will just upset you. Concentrate on what you can eat. Any meat, any fish especially oily fish like salmon, leafy green vegetables, mushrooms, tomatoes, salads, eggs, cheese, dairy, berries or a small apple. Just avoid or cut down on starchy carbs, potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, breakfast cereals and most fruits.

The advice is "eat to your meter" and you won't go wrong.

Hi and welcome. There are many things you can eat but carbs definitely need to be kept down. Have enough proteins and fats to keep you feeling full.

edram said:

Feeling hopeless nothing I am doing works. If one I do helps something, it makes something else wrong.

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Welcome to the forum, I have often likened the whole thing to this:-


You're in a good place though, plenty of good advice to help you.

Please read daisy1's post above. It explains how to set up a low carb diet, it explains proper blood sugar levels and a whole lot more. Follow the links as well. This really is very important info, that is why newcomers receive it.

That is the system of measurement that americans use. Your meter is fine, it just needs to be set for mmol/l which is what most of the rest of the world uses. Here is a link to a converter http://www.joslin.org/info/conversion_table_for_blood_glucose_monitoring.html 90 is about 5.0 in our measurement and is a very nice number. If you have the instruction booklet it should tell you how to change it to the appropriate measurement system. If you can't get it figured out a pharmacist can help you, or druggist? Not sure what you call them I am in Canada lol. Keep asking questions, you will get it all figured out, just give yourself some time and don't be to hard on yourself if it doesn't all fall into place immediately.

I take a bitter cherry capsule daily to help keep my gout away. A lot of my foods can increase gout, but I am a vegetarian following the low carb high fat way of eating

Welcome edram. I can't say I know about gout, but I do like to trawl the net
A few links that you maybe could cross match to your own taste.
http://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/60-seconds
https://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/purine-and-uric-acid/purines-food-and-gout.php

edram said:

Thank you for taking time to reply. It has been a couple of months and I only eat chicken and turkey because I have gout and type 2 along with high blood pressure high cholesterol and my blood pressure is under control my cholesterol is someone okay but my uric acid is high and my diabetes is affecting my kidneys I've tried eating right I don't know what else to do

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Edram, I was also really frustrated with my UA result was really high. Cholesterol was also sky high.
I took some meds from my doc to lower down UA while working on reducing food that can cause it to be worse.
As for cholesterol, I do the same. Now they're still not ideal, but getting there.
To help my kidneys, I drink a lot of water. By a lot, I seriously mean A LOT.
So far, when my kidney function is tested, it looks alright and healthy.

Good luck.
You're not alone!

Aini