Your a diabetic you can't have sugar

Hi all: At my T2D diagnosis in December 2015 I was told that “diet and exercise” were the two things most important to my health. I believed my dear old Doc and dove headfirst into research and joined a gym. Research found the lifesaving DCUK site, Dr. Jason Fung along with Diet Doctor. The gym – well that's another story (3 months in we parted company). I do my exercise at home now. I avoid sugar especially added sugars whenever possible.

As implied above, Big Food and Big Pharma are IMO major problems for many of us. So are the Bureaucrats who won't stand up for humanity when they publish their usually misleading food guides.

In North America at least, I sense there may be a minuscule changing of attitude among the Big Food companies due, IMO to slightly falling sales and profits. Anyway a few of the biggies seem to be breaking away from their industry/government lobby, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). A quote from the news story:

“GMA says it has opened up a new chapter in recent years in which it is committed to transparency and building consumer trust, according to Lowe. He pointed to the development of SmartLabel, an online database that GMA rolled out last year with the Food Marketing Institute, which represents grocery retailers. As of Friday, SmartLabel had information on more than 16,000 products made by 40 companies, such as Nestlé, Hershey’s, General Mills, Kellogg's, ConAgra and Kraft Heinz. The goal is to have 34,000 products enrolled by the end of the year. “

Now I love soup and have consumed many many cans of Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup over my many years. Imagine my jaw dropping response when I discovered that HALF A CUP contains 20 g of carbs (OK) but 12 g sugar (not just sugar but old reliable HFCS ???), and GMO tomatoes, based on a 2000 cal diet. I leave you with a couple of links.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/26/food-lobby-consumer-tastes-washington-190528
www.smartlabel.org/productstlabel.org

Granted there are natural sugars in all types of food, but imo refined sugar is a toxic poison and we should avoid it as diabetics, this is easier said than done as refined processed sugar is in pretty much everything on the supermarket shelves. The history of sugar is quite interesting, once considered a spice, in its refined form it is a man made addictive commodity and does us no good at all. Perhaps when they say 'you're diabetic, you can't have sugar' pricks us so much is because there is some truth in it.

Heretic1 said:

Clearly I am completely off kilter here!! .... I am soooooo reassured that my diagnosis had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact I ate too much - of the wrong things, drank too much of the wrong stuff and took my health for granted and did hardly any exercise! .... it is frustrating to know that all the effort I have put in, and the healthy and fit existence I now lead is a waste of time .... it’s all on the genes, and being overweight and unfit had nothing to do with it.

I will remind my HCP of all this next time I see her, clearly her and the entire medical fraternity are talking out of their hat! - what do they know!

Off to remove my tongue from my cheek!

Click to expand...

Yep I di£ 5ha5 too - I ate, amongst other things, healthy low fat foods, whole meal bread, rice and pasta, 5 portions of fruit and jacket potatoes and still got diabetes - could it be something to do with the fact that my mother, maternal g/father and brother had it?

I’m also deeply ashamed of the ‘label’ . Still awaiting formal diagnosis Hba1c originally 50, down to 46 after 4 weeks of low carbs. Take full responsibility but currently quite low about it all.

I think its unhelpful to blame anyone for their disease, it makes people have a them and us attitude, when we are all us and apart from the very lucky, we are all susceptible to something.
If we think about tolerance to things, I have known people drink relatively little alcohol and end up with liver disease and had the stigma of being thought a alcoholic, or the families like mine that heart disease is the cause of most of the illness and death. Working down the pit and smoking didn't help, but everyone did it then,like snacking and eating carbs to excess has become the norm now.
I used to do some catering and carbohydrate is cheap and makes up the largest proportion the most of the meals. Its easy to store, an idiot can prepare it and has a high profit margin. Take away the fries/chips/pasta/bread from a meal, look at it on the plate and it would be very hard for most food outlets to justify their prices, but all of those ingredients cost pennies. So carbohydrate is pushed at people at every opportunity, we tend to eat on the go now and it really hard to go into a food outlet and not eat carbs.
I will be honest I never realised how difficult it was to find the carb content of something, its usually in the smallest letters ever on the back of the packet, but gluten free is usually in big letters across the front. I agree that there is a really poor understanding of 'sugar' in the diet. In the old days urine used to be tasted to test for sugar, we dipstick for glucose, so |I suppose it was a simplification that sugar was the problem when really the excess sugar was an end product of the carbohydrate that was eaten.
So a bit like smoking we think we may have a better understanding why people get Type 2, just remember is took decades for the cigarette companies to admit that smoking caused health problems and death, and you can still buy cigs. There is so much money involved that health promoters, governments, want to be sure, so they do not get sued, so things will not change quickly and they are less likely to get sued by us, than the big multinationals.
I would suggest that if you feel uncomfortable telling people you have diabetes just tell them you have decided to lose weight and have chosen this diet. Your health really is not their business, unless they need to know. Say your allergic to cereals, that's fashionable.
I just get really cross when people are made to feel helpless about what ever illness they have, in my experience self management is often far better the HCP management.

Spencer67 said:

Granted there are natural sugars in all types of food, but imo refined sugar is a toxic poison and we should avoid it as diabetics, this is easier said than done as refined processed sugar is in pretty much everything on the supermarket shelves. The history of sugar is quite interesting, once considered a spice, in its refined form it is a man made addictive commodity and does us no good at all. Perhaps when they say 'you're diabetic, you can't have sugar' pricks us so much is because there is some truth in it.

Click to expand...

You describe the real cause "The history of sugar is quite interesting, once considered a spice, in its refined form it is a man made addictive. . . " I often tell people that sugar is the most dangerous addictive drug in the world!

leahkian said:

This is one of my biggest problems with people who do not understand diabetes, When you tell tell them you are a diabetic and they say so you can't have sugar then, at times i have to walk away before i say some thing. Would these people say to someone in the army who had lost a leg, so you only need one shoe. NO they would not or if they seen someone with cancer who's hair had fallen out, so you won't need any shampoo NO. So why do they think we cannot have sugar have we a big sign that says no sugar allowed. I am not trying to upset anyone who knows someone who has lost leg or has cancer, i am just using it as a example( my father has had polio since he was 3 and my mother had cancer in which most of her belly was taken away so i would not want to upset anyone)

Click to expand...

Most people just ignore the obvious. Even if they say they will not eat sugar, they do not read the ingredients in the package they eat from.

In the afterlife...

I would love to live in a castle surrounded with meadows, flowers, fruit trees, birds, mountains, waterfalls all made with pure 100% sugar, honey, maple syrup!!!

I also dream about being surrounded with cakes, ice cream, chocolate fountains etc where everything is edible and sweet...exactly just like in the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory...but 1000 x better!

Heaven!!!!!

NewTD2 said:

In the afterlife...

I would love to live in a castle surrounded with meadows, flowers, fruit trees, birds, mountains, waterfalls all made with pure 100% sugar!

I also dream about being surrounded with cakes, ice cream, chocolate fountains etc where everything is edible and sweet...exactly just like in the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory!

What a paradise!

Click to expand...

Sounds like heaven! K

Granny_grump_ said:

Sounds like heaven! K

Click to expand...

Hahahahaha!

Mbaker said:

What is going on, I keep hearing of persons getting Type 2 via steroids (this happened to my friend) and in the last year this is the 4th time I have heard of this link - does anyone know the incidence ratio of using steroids and getting Type 2.

Click to expand...

I'm a type 1 and had a course of steroids for Crohn's disease. It made my blood sugar go bonkers and I had to dose like a type 2 while I was using them. I went from using around 30 units of insulin a day to using more like 120. Also I was too ill to do any exercise, so it was a double whammy. I also lost my hypo awareness temporarily, which was really scary.

Mbaker said:

Thanks, I would hope (but don't hold much faith) that those prescribed steroids are warned of this potential massive side affect; I was not warned about the possible side affect of Metformin on kidney function and saw my number on Metformin go to the low end of normal, when off it, went back up. Clearly steroids work, but I would want to know the risks to make an informed choice, I think this would also help the gym buffs who use this drug in a not so healthy way to generally know what can happen.

Click to expand...

Anabolic steroids (that some gym buffs use) are a different class of drugs to corticosteroids.

mytype1.life said:

@leahkian, yep totally agree with you. I seem to get one extreme or the other... perception that I can't eat anything nice or perception that if 'it won't hurt, have a treat'

There's also the scenario where non diabetic people think they've got it right... this week made me laugh a little.

My manager tends to buy Krispy Kreme donuts for the monthly team meeting which I do no way. He knows I'm diabetic as I we talk about it a fair bit. This month he brought donuts and grapes and bananas thinking I'd be fun. Again I avoided them because I know the spikes both grapes and bananas cause me.

Click to expand...

Well at least he thought of you and tried bless him. Give him a list of what you can eat for a snack - if you snack that is.

pleinster said:

Hi. I was certainly warned that long term use of the steroid Prednisolone could result in "new onset/steroid induced diabetes (Type 2)" before taking it, but as it was/is one of the drugs used to help prevent graft rejection following renal transplantation, there wasn't much choice... and I accepted the risk (and would do so again) rather than risk rejection and long term dialysis. There is no real clear incidence rate worth factoring in in my opinion as nothing is by any means predictable. Many people take steroids for short courses with little or no ill effect...those already diabetic are sure to have spikes...some may experience increased blood sugars which will return to normal when the course stops or soon after...some can take the drugs for a few months even and not develop diabetes...but others do. I think anyone taking corticosteroids should be advised of the risk (but it is not one that can really easily be given an number). Certainly anyone taking these drugs in any form for any more than 30 days. I need to take it for life but as it was evident to me it was causing spikes in my levels for up to 5 hours, I persuaded my doctors to cut it to an absolute minimum. As for the "gym buffs" who take it...to be honest...idiots looking for shortcuts to impress people with their physiques would be well advised to have their heads and and egos tested or to just do the graft to get the muscles. Great abs are less cool with lots of spots and a dodgy pancreas. Sorry...not a whole lot of sympathy there. Bottom line CORTICOSTEROIDS CAN LEAD TO DIABETES.

Click to expand...

Hi I was interested to read the chat about prednisone and its effects on onset Type 2 diabetes.in 1990 I was physical education teacher who did lots of exercise, I am 5' 7' and I weighed about 10 stones. Then I developed Crohn's disease and after many months without a diagnosis I was rushed into hospital as I was bleeding heavily. I was immediately put on a steroid drip and after a month in hospital I was discharged taking 10 prednisone a day. My consultant said he expected me to stay on this for life, but I had other ideas and together with a return to excercise and a change in diet I eventually came off the steroids. Roll on twenty years and after a routine test I was suddenly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. I was shocked to say the least as I was still the same weight and height and was playing tennis three times a week. Despite trying to discuss the fact that I could have steroid induced diabetes no one at hospital was prepared to talk about it. Does anyone else have an experience similar to mine?

NewTD2 said:

In the afterlife...

I would love to live in a castle surrounded with meadows, flowers, fruit trees, birds, mountains, waterfalls all made with pure 100% sugar, honey, maple syrup!!!

I also dream about being surrounded with cakes, ice cream, chocolate fountains etc where everything is edible and sweet...exactly just like in the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory...but 1000 x better!

Heaven!!!!!

Click to expand...

Can I join you when it's time ?

Well of course, some of us can't, or rather shouldn't, consume too much. So why do you walk away and leave these people in ignorance? Unless you inform them, they'll never know. Nor will they understand LCHF - 'cos high fat foods are killers, aren't they!? After all, we're told that all the time by the TV 'experts' on such things and a whole lot of other dietary related issues. Then there are pedants like me, that have a problem with the title of this thread.

People also think Type 2 diabetes is caused by the pancreas not making enough insulin. However many people with type 2 make MORE insulin than a non sufferer. It’s the insulin RESISTANCE of the other parts of your body that’s the problem and the pancreas tries to compensate by making more.

Hello every one hope you all enjoy xmas holidays and a new year, l always read everyone’s comments and always get my answers from others questions. Iam type 2 for the past 6 years and my dr told me my hbc1 levels were on Normal range and this was over 18months . I requested to be taken of mertfom 850 mg which l take twice my dr refused said my age of 52 l must carry on taking it . My problem is lam having cramps in my hands every night around 4 am . Is this the side effects of mertfomin

Redbegonia said:

Hi I was interested to read the chat about prednisone and its effects on onset Type 2 diabetes.in 1990 I was physical education teacher who did lots of exercise, I am 5' 7' and I weighed about 10 stones. Then I developed Crohn's disease and after many months without a diagnosis I was rushed into hospital as I was bleeding heavily. I was immediately put on a steroid drip and after a month in hospital I was discharged taking 10 prednisone a day. My consultant said he expected me to stay on this for life, but I had other ideas and together with a return to excercise and a change in diet I eventually came off the steroids. Roll on twenty years and after a routine test I was suddenly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. I was shocked to say the least as I was still the same weight and height and was playing tennis three times a week. Despite trying to discuss the fact that I could have steroid induced diabetes no one at hospital was prepared to talk about it. Does anyone else have an experience similar to mine?

Click to expand...

Steroid induced T2 diabetes is common. It happens when steroids are being taken. However, once the patient stops taking the steroids and they are out of his system, blood sugar levels should return to normal. (Unless of course they have developed T2 anyway, irrespective of the steroids). My friend is on life-long high dose steroids. She has an HbA1c every 3 months to keep an eye on her levels - so far she is not diabetic but she is creeping ever upwards. She was told by her doctor that the steroids would put her at risk.

As a PS. It isn't just steroids. Certain brands of beta blockers also put people at risk of T2 (as much as 20%) and of course, most of us know that statins also cause raised levels.

kevinfitzgerald said:

Ha I've had 36 years of this..

Now I just respond by saying "no, but sometimes I have to otherwise I could die!" and then walk away. The confusion on their face is priceless!..

Click to expand...

I've had it 56, nearly 57, years now and find I can no longer be ***** to explain it all......Find worst incorrect comments about type 1 come from GP, consultant and 1 meeting with a dietician who didn't even know how much cho was in a slice of bread (can no longer be bothered to go into long explanations with health professionals either &, of course, I need them on my side so better not to be too bossy.......)!!!!!!!!!! Find the less said the better......