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Who’s to blame ?

Fast forward to early adulthood, and busy working lives. Were we brainwashed that breakfast cereals fortified with vitamins and minerals and ‘roughage’, as fibre was then known, were the best start to the day. Also busy working lives, and convenience foods were there to help us get through life. Vesta dried meals, anybody? o_O.
I've been looking for Vesta dried curries. In fact I remember when I last had one (during a South Bank Show about Andy Warhol).

We didn't have a lot of money, but Mum always cooked from scratch. Meat and two veg, mostly. On Sunday her roast potatoes were to die for.

I don't know where it all started to go wrong for me. Maybe it was the endless Mars Bars, the oodles of pasta, or maybe the crumpets dripping with butter (oh, how I miss those).

Who do I blame? Well, we're the product of our environment. We can blame the food industry. But that's what was around. Or we can blame ourselves. But we didn't know. It's our problem now, and we have the solutions and power to change it. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Anyway, I've "enjoyed" reading this thread immensely.
 
Well I’m sorry you seem to have taken my comments so badly. They are MY thoughts I’m not promoting anything. As for running into fires that’s how I nearly lost my life, as a Firefighter. I guess how I feel & deal with MY health issue isn’t really welcome on here so the best thing I can do is leave this site because I can’t and won’t change how I feel but before I go I will apologise to anyone who I’ve offended and to anyone that struggles with control. If anyone is comfortable with they have a chronic disease and are likely to die early & have bits cut off if they eat and drink the wrong stuff then you go for it but that’s not for me. To use what you stated to me, yes I did run into fires and yes like all the other brave firefighters I could have lost my life but I didn’t think “right, it’s hot and I might get hurt so best I don’t do it” my way was “I have a yellow hat on and it’s what I do” and that’s where I’ll leave that analogy. As for me personally and friends like me who think exactly the same as I do I’ll bid this forum goodbye. If you want to reply telling others how irresponsible and inconsiderate I am that’s fine but I’m off and won’t see it because I cannot bear to watch people being put under dreadful mental stress because of doom & gloom merchants. We all know about diabetes but I’m trying to bring hope and a smile rather than fear and misery.
I hope you don't leave @Spirit01, I've enjoyed the thread here very much.

You and I are very different in our approaches, but I've only been at this diabetes lark for 4 months. I'm fairly strict with my diet so far, which has partly come about due to the pre-diagnosis symptoms that were making my quality of life pretty poor. The relief of those symptoms disappearing, all thanks to my new diet, makes it easy for me to stick to. I also enjoy so much of the food I now eat that it doesn't even feel like I'm being strict. However, that's my approach and mine alone.

I see a lot of sense in much of what you say. If it matters, I don't think anything you've said has "promoted" or "encouraged" anyone else to adopt your approach. You haven't posted irresponsible recommendations, or links to websites pushing mad schemes for a fee. You've simply put your thoughts out there, shared your experience and method of dealing with life, and it's there for people to read and make their own decision.

I'd missed the posts on this thread since we originally spoke here. I returned to this thread tonight because it was my son's birthday recently, where it was important to him that I had some of his birthday cake. I'd already planned to have a small slice. I ended up having a normal size slice of cake - my son smiled and was happy I was part of the occasion. My dinner on his birthday was high fat, high protein and a large meal, after which I ate the cake for dessert. I tested my blood glucose before the meal - 5.2. I tested 1 hour after eating - 5.7. I tested 2 hours after - 5.7 again. In slight disbelief, due to the high carb count in the cake, I tested again 4 hours later - 5.2. I actually spent time stressing about the decision to have the cake and I was stressing about nothing. It made me think of you and this thread, along with all the points you've made about the importance of living life well.

I hope you don't leave. Your experiences and thoughts are as important and valid as anyone else's, and I would personally say that goes double for threads where your views provide a broader perspective. It might not be for everyone, all of the time, but it might be right for someone, or for certain situations. That's important too.
 
I returned to this thread tonight because it was my son's birthday recently, where it was important to him that I had some of his birthday cake. I'd already planned to have a small slice. I ended up having a normal size slice of cake - my son smiled and was happy I was part of the occasion. My dinner on his birthday was high fat, high protein and a large meal, after which I ate the cake for dessert. I tested my blood glucose before the meal - 5.2. I tested 1 hour after eating - 5.7. I tested 2 hours after - 5.7 again. In slight disbelief, due to the high carb count in the cake, I tested again 4 hours later - 5.2. I actually spent time stressing about the decision to have the cake and I was stressing about nothing. It made me think of you and this thread, along with all the points you've made about the importance of living life well.
We sometimes forget the effect the little things like that have in people around us. I'm glad your blood glucose behaved.

I, for example, have a tradition of going out with a mate for a "Christmas" lunch. I did that today. The meal wasn't great, nor too carby, and I haven't tested, either before or after. I just wanted to be "normal" for a few hours. I think I've been good enough to be "bad" for a short while. Anyway, back to the new normal for me now. Which is fine.

I may even risk a mince pie. Actually, they're really overly sweet, so I may not. I really fancy some almost cremated crumpets, dripping with butter, though. I may have those.

We all have choices. Nobody is forcing us to eat a certain way. Some of us would rather curb the carbs than take the risk.
 
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