Newbie and confused with info on the internet

[Ginaanne]

Hi thank you for letting me join. It’s my husband that has been diagnosed with prediabetes no information given on what to do next just got a letter in the post. So much confusion on the best diet, which foods he can have/can’t have. He has to see the dr in 3 months. Any advice would be really appreciated. Thank you

 

[Sally71]

Basically his body is struggling to process carbohydrates, so it’s those you have to look for and try to cut down on. So anything sugary such as cakes, biscuits, sweets and so on should be avoided as much as possible. But also starchy carbs such as rice, potatoes, pasta, cereals, bread etc should be treated with extreme caution. Try to cut down on these foods and replace them with more unprocessed meat, fish, eggs, cheese and green veg. Fruits also contain sugar, berries are the lowest carb fruits so try to eat these instead of things like bananas and grapes which contain much more sugar. Natural sugar in fruits is just the same as added sugar as far as diabetes is concerned. Also if he is able to increase his exercise levels then that would be a good idea, just going for a walk each day or something like that would help, he doesn’t have to join a gym and go crazy!

Try to deal with it one step at a time, maybe do one meal at a time and see how you can cut down the carbs and then when you’ve got that sorted then try the next meal too. Some people go very low carb (less than 50g a day) but that doesn’t suit everyone, just try to eat less of them at first and then take it from there. Don’t try to change everything at once because you won’t be able to stick to it, you have to make changes that you can sustain for the rest of your life. Good luck 🙂

 

[Ginaanne]

Hi, Ginaanne. Welcome to the Forum.

Pre-diabetes is a wake-up call, or a yellow card if you like. Do nothing and the likelihood is that a diagnosis of diabetes will follow, so you're right - looking at your husband's diet is a good place to start. Also his weight if he's overweight.

You need to look at the amount of carbohydrate in his diet, in particular the carbs in bread, pasta, cereal, corn and other grains, starchy vegetables like potatoes, fruit other than berries, fruit juice and soft drinks, desserts, baked goods, sweets, ice cream, etc.

The key is to reduce his intake of carbs, either by cutting things out altogether or reducing portion sizes. Many of us manage our diabetes through a low-carb diet, which is considered to be less than 130g per day (for comparison a 'normal' diet is often quoted as being between 225g and 325g per day). There's no one-size-fits-all diet for diabetes as we all differ in our bodies' tolerance to carbs, so diet tends to be very personalised.

Weight loss (if needed) and exercise are also big players in reducing blood sugar levels.

Martin

Hi Martin thank you very much for this information it’s very helpful! Yes we both need to lose weight especially since the lockdown started. Definitely change diet and start moving more thank you

 

[Ginaanne]

Basically his body is struggling to process carbohydrates, so it’s those you have to look for and try to cut down on. So anything sugary such as cakes, biscuits, sweets and so on should be avoided as much as possible. But also starchy carbs such as rice, potatoes, pasta, cereals, bread etc should be treated with extreme caution. Try to cut down on these foods and replace them with more unprocessed meat, fish, eggs, cheese and green veg. Fruits also contain sugar, berries are the lowest carb fruits so try to eat these instead of things like bananas and grapes which contain much more sugar. Natural sugar in fruits is just the same as added sugar as far as diabetes is concerned. Also if he is able to increase his exercise levels then that would be a good idea, just going for a walk each day or something like that would help, he doesn’t have to join a gym and go crazy!

Try to deal with it one step at a time, maybe do one meal at a time and see how you can cut down the carbs and then when you’ve got that sorted then try the next meal too. Some people go very low carb (less than 50g a day) but that doesn’t suit everyone, just try to eat less of them at first and then take it from there. Don’t try to change everything at once because you won’t be able to stick to it, you have to make changes that you can sustain for the rest of your life. Good luck 🙂

Hi I thank you very much fir your advice! I read that you can eat any red meat at all is this true? Thank you

 

[Drummer]

Hi I thank you very much fir your advice! I read that you can eat any red meat at all is this true? Thank you

Meat, fish, eggs, cheese, full fat yoghurt are all good as they are low carb staples.

 

[Sally71]

Hi I thank you very much fir your advice! I read that you can eat any red meat at all is this true? Thank you

Things like burgers and sausages are less good because they might have breadcrumbs or other stuff in, higher quality (and probably more expensive) ones generally have a higher percentage of actual meat. But in terms of unprocessed steaks/chops/Sunday roast etc then yes you can eat beef, lamb, pork, chicken etc etc whatever takes your fancy.
If you are looking at the nutritional information on food packets, you want the TOTAL CARBOHYDRATES number to be as small as possible (not the “of which sugars”, that's only half the story), ignore fat content and only look at calories if you are trying to lose weight. Although many people find that if they reduce carb intake significantly then they lose weight anyway.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Sorry to hear that you didn’t get much help or advice from your GP

Were you given an HbA1c result in the letter? This would have been a number between 42 and 48, and might help you understand how close to a diagnosis of diabetes your husband currently is. The HbA1c measures the general levels of glucose that have been in the blood over the preceding 3-4 months, and can give a good overview of how things are going, but not much specific detail about the impact of any foods in particular.

Often where someone is at risk of diabetes, only fairly modest changes can be sufficient, but it is often helpful to respond as of a diagnosis of T2 had already happened, so that the body has the best chance of avoiding tipping over the threshold.