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newby type2
- Thread starter Vee
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trophywench
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- Type 1
So the doc arranged for some blood tests ? What results did you get and what's the knee problem about?
hi.. the only number I got was ..48.. and I got water tablet for foot swelling .. that's worked a treat.. and now knee is fine... I have only seen practice nurse up to now.. she had instructions from doctor.. just got told to eat sensibly.. she gave me a list of foods to eat and avoid.. and a form for blood test in February.. and said we'd discuss a glucose monitor then... so at the minute I'm flying blind...
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Sorry to hear about your diagnosis @Vee
The 48 is likely to be your HbA1c. This is a blood check that measures how much glucose has stuck to red blood cells over the last 2-3 months and gives an idea of general blood glucose concentration over that time.
48mmol/mol is just at the cut-off point for a diagnosis with diabetes, which suggests that if you cut out sweet and sugary things, and also moderate your starchy carbohydrate intake you should do well.
Which foods were on the ‘avoid’ list? Sometimes the lists from GP surgeries are quite old fashioned and don’t always focus on the blood glucose implications of foods.
hi .. thanks for responding.. avoid list pretty basic..chips..meat pies.. sausage..whole milk.. margarine.. anything not low fat.. coconut.. mayonnaise..... I have ischemic heart disease as well.. so have low fat foods anyway... I don't eat very much red meat.. but do eat chicken.. and lots of fruit and veg anyway... I think I just need to get my head around ..carbs.. I've found myself feeling tired at different times thru the day... but don't know if I should eat something ... or if it's because of something I've eaten.. if that makes sense... sorry ..this has turned into an essay...
rebrascora
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Don't apologise for writing too much. More information is always better than less!
The tiredness might be because of what you have eaten as carb rich foods like bread and pasta and rice and potatoes can make your Blood Glucose levels go high and that can make you weary and sleepy. It might be worth keeping a food diary and making a note of portion sizes as well as the actual type of carbs.... so 3 potatoes or 2 Yorkshire puddings or 2 serving spoons of rice etc along with notes on when you feel fatigued. If it is consistently an hour or two after a meal that had quite a lot of carbohydrate then look at reducing the amount of carbs in that meal next time, so 2 potatoes instead of 3 or just one Yorkshire pudding etc. Or have cheese instead of a dessert if it was after eating a pudding.
Hopefully over time that will help you to figure out which meals or particular carbs or portion size are causing you problems and adjust it.
Do be aware that fruit is quite carb rich and is usually best rationed or limited to a portion of berries on a daily basis or just one piece of fruit and keep the exotic fruits like bananas and pineapples and mangoes etc for special occasions only or cut in half and have half one day and half the next, with the likes of bananas.
The tiredness might be because of what you have eaten as carb rich foods like bread and pasta and rice and potatoes can make your Blood Glucose levels go high and that can make you weary and sleepy. It might be worth keeping a food diary and making a note of portion sizes as well as the actual type of carbs.... so 3 potatoes or 2 Yorkshire puddings or 2 serving spoons of rice etc along with notes on when you feel fatigued. If it is consistently an hour or two after a meal that had quite a lot of carbohydrate then look at reducing the amount of carbs in that meal next time, so 2 potatoes instead of 3 or just one Yorkshire pudding etc. Or have cheese instead of a dessert if it was after eating a pudding.
Hopefully over time that will help you to figure out which meals or particular carbs or portion size are causing you problems and adjust it.
Do be aware that fruit is quite carb rich and is usually best rationed or limited to a portion of berries on a daily basis or just one piece of fruit and keep the exotic fruits like bananas and pineapples and mangoes etc for special occasions only or cut in half and have half one day and half the next, with the likes of bananas.
Pine Marten
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- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi @Vee, welcome to the forum. I'm a bit surprised that your doc prescribed Metformin when your level appears to be 48 - was this result from a blood test taken from your arm (an HbA1c test) or what? If so, then it's only just bordering diabetic as everydayupsanddowns said, and with some tweaking of meals you should be able to get the number down.
I'm also surprised at talk of a meter - most type 2s on here don't get the offer! Have a look around the forum, and ask any questions you like, and someone here is bound to know the answer 🙂
I'm also surprised at talk of a meter - most type 2s on here don't get the offer! Have a look around the forum, and ask any questions you like, and someone here is bound to know the answer 🙂
Drummer
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- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Ah - fat is an essential nutrient, and diabetes is all about carbohydrate.
Lots of fruit and high carb veges will raise your blood glucose, so not a good idea.
I'm not advising high fat - but there is more and more evidence of it being the carbohydrate which is the villain when it comes to damaging the cardio vascular system.
As your Hba1c is just a bit elevated it should only take a few alterations to reverse it.
Reducing high carb foods, anything made from grains and potatoes might well do the trick.
As you have been advised to avoid things which ordinary type twos use as part of their menu to control blood glucose it might be a matter of making compromises and small changes to see how they affect you.
Many people have found that stopping the reduced fat foods with high carb content has improved their cholesterol ratios.
thank you all for taking the time to reply.. the food diary sounds like a good idea...thanks.. blood test was taken from my arm... it was 3rd one that came back with that reading.. 2 others 3 months apart were pre diabetic... and not looking for low fat foods will be another change... thanks again for your help...
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Nice festive avatar @Pine Marten 🙂
Hopefully a few minor changes to moderate your carbohydrate intake will really help your blood glucose levels @Vee
There is some mixed evidence around the heart-health implications of dietary fat, and it’s a topic which seems to cause regular confusion, discussion and debate. I don’t feel qualified to take a strong position either way, so tend to sit somewhere in the middle suggesting that fat has probably had a bit too much of a bad rap over recent years and isn’t an instant death sentence, but also that keeping fats down to a reasonable level and choosing ’good’ fats where possible is probably a wise move, especially if you already have existing heart disease 🙂
Your ‘don’t’ list from your nurse seems to focus far more on saturated fats than on carbohydrates - and you will probably see from posts on the forum that many members here are happy to eat a little more fat, while focusing on moderating their carb intake for improved BG levels.
Hopefully a few minor changes to moderate your carbohydrate intake will really help your blood glucose levels @Vee
There is some mixed evidence around the heart-health implications of dietary fat, and it’s a topic which seems to cause regular confusion, discussion and debate. I don’t feel qualified to take a strong position either way, so tend to sit somewhere in the middle suggesting that fat has probably had a bit too much of a bad rap over recent years and isn’t an instant death sentence, but also that keeping fats down to a reasonable level and choosing ’good’ fats where possible is probably a wise move, especially if you already have existing heart disease 🙂
Your ‘don’t’ list from your nurse seems to focus far more on saturated fats than on carbohydrates - and you will probably see from posts on the forum that many members here are happy to eat a little more fat, while focusing on moderating their carb intake for improved BG levels.
trophywench
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- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
I can only say that with my chol being higher than my GP or Diabetes consultant liked a good many years ago I started taking statins and changed to semi skimmed milk and Olivio as a healthier fat alternative (we did try skimmed but found we needed twice as much in tea and coffee, so that was counter productive) but had dreadful mental side effects from the statins. Absolutely the ONLY thing that has EVER reduced my blood chol, is reducing the amount of carbs I eat.
So now I eat butter - spread thinly on bread and literally one knob of it eg in cooked white cabbage with the pepper just before dishing it up, and have blue top milk again and my chol is the lowest it's ever been in 20 years. Probably 25. If not longer but nobody ever panicked about it further back, as far as I knew.
So now I eat butter - spread thinly on bread and literally one knob of it eg in cooked white cabbage with the pepper just before dishing it up, and have blue top milk again and my chol is the lowest it's ever been in 20 years. Probably 25. If not longer but nobody ever panicked about it further back, as far as I knew.
hi.. I've had heart problems for the last 30 years.. I'm 68 and have had 2 heart attacks and have 2 stents fitted.. for all that time I was told everything needed to be low fat.. I take statins and a chemists shelf of other tablets... so at the moment my diet and shopping list is being turned upside down... and the only helpful suggestions about carbs has been on here.. I'm not due to speak to anyone at my doctors until February.. when I have my next blood test...
Drummer
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- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I don't limit fats at all, I don't add all that much - a bit of butter to the scrambled eggs, a little oil to a stirfry if I don't have anything left from cooking meat - but I don't do low carb and I have cream in my coffee. I get the solid stuff, extra put a spoonful in the mug and add some coffee and then whisk it with the Bamix. I do like my kitchen toys, so handy.
Since giving up the low fat diet I have seen my cholesterol go down, and the ratios are excellent, apparently.
I am still waiting to see an announcement of how low fat has reduced heart disease though - if it was working you'd think it would be headline news.
Since giving up the low fat diet I have seen my cholesterol go down, and the ratios are excellent, apparently.
I am still waiting to see an announcement of how low fat has reduced heart disease though - if it was working you'd think it would be headline news.
For me, butter is a creation of the gods! Hail um Butterato, hail. I won't eat marg and would rather dry bread than liquified plastic. However my cholesterol isnt great at 6. However my HDL: LDL ratio is 2 🙂 . i may have to give up butter and fats for a year to clean out the arteries, :,,,,,-( blub blub blub. Yet this year i've havent eaten much bread so perhaps the cholesterol with have fallen botg from thexredyction in bread and the associated reduction in butter. Its a pity as. I love fresh bread. Who doesnt eh? God what a life. No bread, no butter, no cake. Drat! Puh puh puh and that sort of thing. Well back to celery and nut cutlet mmmm
still., against all that, i lurve apples and oranges, yum . But whole oranges, never squeezed except in Spain. Not exactly convenient though. But their bottled orange juice actually tastes fresh. Ours is that nasty homogenized pasteurized stuff. Blech. I decided years ago ours isnt not worth the glycaemic rollercoaster. Whereas in Spain a small freshly squeezed or bottled unpasteurized juice with breaker is a sin i'll permit myself.
trophywench
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- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
I just wouldn't have the bread LOL but of course if it's real bread - which neither of my husbands (consecutive not concurrent I stress) have favoured except occasionally, have wanted to eat - that's different!
We were brought up eating butter and still do. Olivio was alright to begin with when first on the market, really put us in mind of 'olive groves we have skirted on motorbikes, hired scooters and cars' - but later literally paled in colour, became hard as iron and looked more like rock solid lard. Back to slightly salted beurre/mantequilla etc.
Not a thing we'd ever thought about previously really but one year we decided to drive our Motorhome to Portugal over Xmas and didn't return til Feb/March. We had a campsite booked during the festivities but were both taken aback seeing mounds of oranges for sale along the roadside - a net bag of 10 of em for €1. Ooooh! - but yes, of course - when we were both little (in the 1950s) and everything was sold in its natural season, we ONLY had oranges from approx. November - lovely purple tissue paper round them to help protect them on their journey from Israel and other far flung places - and then one bag of tangerines Xmas week. This IS exactly when oranges are ripe enough to eat! Bloomin lovely, being so fresh. Hang the extra insulin - we always walked miles and miles on holiday wherever we went anyway. Well - and at home dammit. Neither of us are able to by now, sadly. Hey ho,
We were brought up eating butter and still do. Olivio was alright to begin with when first on the market, really put us in mind of 'olive groves we have skirted on motorbikes, hired scooters and cars' - but later literally paled in colour, became hard as iron and looked more like rock solid lard. Back to slightly salted beurre/mantequilla etc.
Not a thing we'd ever thought about previously really but one year we decided to drive our Motorhome to Portugal over Xmas and didn't return til Feb/March. We had a campsite booked during the festivities but were both taken aback seeing mounds of oranges for sale along the roadside - a net bag of 10 of em for €1. Ooooh! - but yes, of course - when we were both little (in the 1950s) and everything was sold in its natural season, we ONLY had oranges from approx. November - lovely purple tissue paper round them to help protect them on their journey from Israel and other far flung places - and then one bag of tangerines Xmas week. This IS exactly when oranges are ripe enough to eat! Bloomin lovely, being so fresh. Hang the extra insulin - we always walked miles and miles on holiday wherever we went anyway. Well - and at home dammit. Neither of us are able to by now, sadly. Hey ho,
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