That's very resourceful information. Yeah, I hear you. lack of exercise and stress are also the factors that can make it hard to control BG. I am on the skinny side though. T2. Diagnosed 3 years ago. My HBAIC was 9%. I used to take Met500mg twice a day. gradually reduced the dosage to once a day when it went down to 5.6% It continued to drop down until it's stable at 5.2%. Am off meds now without exercise(I used to run on an elliptical trainer 3-5X a week the first year after my diagnosis). I want to gain weight and eat nuts and avocado on the daily basis but not helping much.Neither is 'better' than the other, they are both integral aspects of the same thing and in order to get the best from your food choices you need to use/understand both if you plan on using a GI system.
Glycemic Index, is the rate at which carbohydrates essentially burn up and enter the blood stream as 'fuel', some call this the 'quality' of the carbohydrate and Glycemic Load is the amount of carbohydrates in the item, essentially you can view it as the workload your body/blood is put under by consuming the item or alternatively you can view it as the amount of fuel it provides, so the lower the load the less fuel it provides and vice versa.
So for example you can have a food, which is high GI but Low GL...Such as watermelon and if you were only concerned with the GI you may be avoiding it (as many diabetics seem to avoid many fruit but happily eat bread, pasta, beans etc.) because you believe it is bad due to its high GI, when in fact, the GL is so low that it is considered minimal, in other words, yes it ‘burns’ fast but the load is so tiny that you are unlikely to experience any large fluctuations in BG and if you do, they will likely be very short lived.
So in short, to keep spikin to a minimum, you are looking for foods with moderate to low GI and a moderate to low GL for best control if plan on using GI/GL as part of your regime and plan to include various carbohydrate in your diet (as I do) as opposed to attempting to avoid them all together.
Choice of diet of course often depends on what medication you (or someone you know if you are just investigating for someone else) are taking, for example I know T2s who take oral meds only or oral meds and incretin mimetics who swear by LCHF and will not budge and would have all diabetics on this regime if there were some way to enforce such a thing.
I know others who (like myself) because we take insulin, have a bit more freedom over what carbs go into our diets because we have a method (to some degree anyway) of direct control over how those carbs are treated, i.e., we can (though I tend not to myself) if we choose to do so, take an extra unit or two of insulin.
The best and most useful advice I believe anyone can give or get regarding food, you can try all manner of things and diets, and I tried the GI/GL thing, but the most useful thing I have taken on board once I finally stopped being in denial, is learn how to manage portion sizes, calorific intake and eat normally, I hear people say ohh yeah that’s how we got to be this way in the first place eating that ‘normal’ food, but in truth, we got this way (most of us at least though I accept not all) because we were greedy and made poor food choices.
I often find your average T2 eats too much of most things in truth, and though many of us don’t like to admit this fact, it is unfortunately, largely true, you can see this with the fact most T2s are overweight but many of us just don’t like to hear it.
Myself, when I used to listen to the nurse say this, I used to try to convince myself I was doing my best and she didn’t quite understand me blah blah…when I knew really I could do better and she knew it too…
So now I do my best to stick to less than 2500 cals, average about 1900 cals a day, no more than (yes some will freak out) 200g carbs in one day average about 130g (and note these are not targets they are limits) and I eat a variety of food from fruits to pies to biscuits here and there, the only difference is now, I understand what a proper portion is and generally have a meal of between 400-650 cals and a couple of snacks or treats, depending on what I have and when in the day it is.
I now understand how food affects me, it has become second nature now, I rarely overeat, I eat what I like (to a large extent) and just accept it needs to be accounted for, and I have also learned to be much calmer about it all, and I have lost over 3 stone since accepting my own part in my condition about 2 years ago, I was diagnosed back in 2005 so it’s taken a little while.
I often have BG in the 5-7 range, I don’t use extra insulin as an easy way out, I generally find i have no need to anyway as long I eat sensibly, and I take minimum amount of novo-rapid, usually no more than 1 time a day, because I don’t want to increase my potential for added weight, I take Levemir once a day at night, and I have metformin and though to my shame, I do little physical activity (I work as a PC Tech so often sat infront of a PC), though I have recently began to walk more..
Whatever path you decide to tread, I wish you luck and hope that you find something that works for you and fits in with your lifestyle, and you will have half the battle won…
That's very resourceful information. Yeah, I hear you. Lack of exercise and stress are also the factors that can make it hard to control BG. I am on the skinny side though. T2. Diagnosed 3 years ago. My HBAIC was 9%. I used to take Met500mg twice a day. Gradually reduced the dosage to once a day when it went down to 5.6% It continued to drop down until it's stable at 5.2%. Am off meds now without exercise (I used to run on an elliptical trainer 3-5X a week the first year after my diagnosis). I want to gain weight and eat nuts and avocado on the daily basis but not helping much.
Erm... That's not how I would have described watermelon!you can have a food, which is high GI but Low GL...Such as watermelon
According to the ADA, they found the stats they had showed that under the age of 35 it was about 25% of LADA were misdiagnosed as T2 and 10% of those aged over 35. My money would be on it being higher than that!I spoke to my Doc about this and the poss of being a T1.5/LADA as they reckon about 20% of all T2 could have been misdiagnosed,
I have found a food diary invaluable, and it works both ways, i.e. if you are looking to lose OR gain...the basis of this is initially to discover not so much what you eat, though of course this is useful and helpful over time, but really to actually see how much you eat...This could help you figure out how many cals you are ingesting on average and then you can adjust up to increase your daily calorific intake as required.
Also nuts and avocado are great (I love Brazils (though not too many as they are really high in Selenium) and Walnuts) but you could also (if not already) include more good fats such as virgin oils (though not too much i guess) and do things like keep the skin on your chicken (if you eat chicken of course) and keep the fat on your bacon (again if you eat bacon) all these thing will add additional calories for next to no effort...you could also get yourself a weight gain powder from the health store (if you can afford it) which will give you a ton of extra calories...but I would these days always try to get the most mileage from real food where possible, and only include the powder if you are in 'training' and need to get the bulk without fail or at a quick pace and/or cant or don’t want to put the effort in to a regime with real food...
Also agree, stress is a sod, one of my own issues has been lack of sleep, another problem I have struggled with for ages as my fasting BG were always high, and it was a really frustrating time for me as I could go to bed reading 7.8 and wake up with BG of 13.5 * I was on metformin and Victoza at that time.
I spoke to my Doc about this and the poss of being a T1.5/LADA as they reckon about 20% of all T2 could have been misdiagnosed, and despite me improving my diet, losing weight and various other things, my BG was just creeping up and anything I ate would send me through the roof, so was wondering just how much insulin I was actually producing, and finally the Doc decided I needed insulin as the Victoza obviously was not working and I had shown that I had been eating better, and to be honest it’s been a blessing for me as my BG came down over weeks and has stayed there. Doc refused to test me anyway as he said the treatment was pretty much the same and at that stage there seemed little point to testing me for LADA. So I said fair enough and just got on with learning how to administer my insulin...
I have read some stuff too about how stress hormones, both awake and sleeping, when released in to the blood stream increase insulin resistance too, which makes life a bit more tricky when trying to control BG. I do notice if I sleep 'nicer' i.e. I have had a nice easy day, and I slept well, my fasting BG tend to be lower...again, I was keeping a BG diary and making notes so this all became rather useful over the longer period.
Best wishes...
Erm... That's not how I would have described watermelon!
According to the ADA, they found the stats they had showed that under the age of 35 it was about 25% of LADA were misdiagnosed as T2 and 10% of those aged over 35. My money would be on it being higher than that!
Wow. a lot to learn from you. Thanks again. Once I realized my fasting is between 80-90 off med, I stopped regularly monitoring my BG. I mostly managed my diabetes through change of diet. Since there are stressful moments at work and can’t do anything about it, I should start exercising soon. One thing I noted from you is, how you spent the day, your mood and sleep pattern could affect the fasting BG. Makes sense.
I find Diabetes depressing. I don’t enjoy food as much as I used to before my diagnosis. When it’s too cold or too hot it spikes you anyway even if you eat right. You can’t eat anything without feeling guilty. Can’t be sure which restaurant food is right for you. I miss those days I didn’t have to worry about what I ate. But am hanging in there.
I agree, to some extent, it is important to eat healthy foods whenever you can and try not to exacerbate your condition, however this is not always possible for some folks, thus I cannot and do not agree with '...means nothing...', it all means something...every step in the right direction,every little victory, no matter how seemingly small, or no matter how pointless it seems to other people who have a slightly different condition or slightly different lifestyle, is useful and it can and does have a postive effect on the bigger picture...almost everything in life has some value, wether we see it or not...is another matter...sometimes the best you can do is achieve balance and not fall over for a while...and that in itself is sometimes good enough...Counting calories, carbs, food, weight, means nothing if you are eating the foods that make you ill.
I agree, to some extent, it is important to eat healthy foods whenever you can and try not to exacerbate your condition, however this is not always possible for some folks, thus I cannot and do not agree with '...means nothing...', it all means something...every step in the right direction,every little victory, no matter how seemingly small, or no matter how pointless it seems to other people who have a slightly different condition or slightly different lifestyle, is useful and it can and does have a postive effect on the bigger picture...almost everything in life has some value, wether we see it or not...is another matter...sometimes the best you can do is achieve balance and not fall over for a while...and that in itself is sometimes good enough...
Best wishes...
I don't find Gi or GL at all helpful to me.
The majority of T2s who seem to post here don't get funding for their meters.
Obviously, not everyone can find a £1 a day, but most of us can. In fact, anyone who buys sandwiches or coffee instead of making their own, or who smokes, or drinks, or buys branded groceries...
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