Are these healthy for a T2?

[diatribe]

I am totally new to being T2, I was diagnosed almost one week ago after going into hospital for something else. While in hospital, I received some basic diet advice which was basically that 50% of the plate should be veg, 25% starch and 25% protein. The meals I received once diagnosed also received meals which reflected this. Anyway, I have some general questions as I go through my existing freezer and cupboard supplies. Basically, are the items below ok to eat and in what sort of quantities? I have seen mixed messages online in terms of carb in take and posts here seem quite varied.

(1) I make loads of soups, so is Lentil and Sweet potato? Also Broccoli and potato?
(2) Roast pork made with canned tomatoes and apples?
(3) Coffee? Someone passed some doubt on this that I spoke to in the last week.
(4) Brown pasta and rice? (I think brown rice is from what I can see)

If not, then I guess I need to clear out the freezer and cupboards.

 

[Leadinglights]

I am totally new to being T2, I was diagnosed almost one week ago after going into hospital for something else. While in hospital, I received some basic diet advice which was basically that 50% of the plate should be veg, 25% starch and 25% protein. The meals I received once diagnosed also received meals which reflected this. Anyway, I have some general questions as I go through my existing freezer and cupboard supplies. Basically, are the items below ok to eat and in what sort of quantities? I have seen mixed messages online in terms of carb in take and posts here seem quite varied.

(1) I make loads of soups, so is Lentil and Sweet potato? Also Broccoli and potato?
(2) Roast pork made with canned tomatoes and apples?
(3) Coffee? Someone passed some doubt on this that I spoke to in the last week.
(4) Brown pasta and rice? (I think brown rice is from what I can see)

If not, then I guess I need to clear out the freezer and cupboards.

It all rather depends on the quantities of each you have as a portion. Lentils, sweet potatoes and potatoes are all quite high carb so until you use up what you have then just have half the amount you would have had before.
Roast Pork, good but again depends on the amount of apples and tomatoes you used.
Coffee should be no problem
Rice and pasta, both high carb doesn't matter if brown or not so again comes down to portion size, so maybe only a half of what you had before but bulk out with low carb veg, courgette, broccoli or cabbage.
Getting a blood glucose monitor and testing will tell you if there are OK for you and what portion size you can tolerate.
For home made soups, courgette and brie, broccoli and stilton, celery and mangetout, red pepper and butternut squash are all good for soups.

 

[diatribe]

Thanks for your quick reply. I have a glucose monitor, so I will see how that comes out later.

As for 1 portion is roughly:
- 200-250g pork (1 serving, when cooking it makes four servings, with 1 apple and 1 can of tomatoes) (1/4 plate)
- 1 cup of cooked brown rice (1/4 plate)
- 1/2 plate green beans

For soups, it's one cereal bowl, so perhaps I can half that. I noticed in hospital that the bowl was smaller than that, so I have cut back a bit, so it's probably nearer 2/3 of a cereal bowl now. I may go further.

 

[Drummer]

A cup of cooked brown rice is 45 gm of carbs, that would be more than one days carbs for me. They are a high carb food and it might be easiest to avoid such until you are seeing normal numbers, and then eat sparingly. Your meter will show you what amount you can tolerate, but to my mind it is better to eat fresh veges rather than grain, as you have so many options flavours colours and textures to chose from.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Thanks for your quick reply. I have a glucose monitor, so I will see how that comes out later.

As for 1 portion is roughly:
- 200-250g pork (1 serving, when cooking it makes four servings, with 1 apple and 1 can of tomatoes) (1/4 plate)
- 1 cup of cooked brown rice (1/4 plate)
- 1/2 plate green beans

For soups, it's one cereal bowl, so perhaps I can half that. I noticed in hospital that the bowl was smaller than that, so I have cut back a bit, so it's probably nearer 2/3 of a cereal bowl now. I may go further.

Ah that’s great that you have a BG meter @diatribe

Because rather annoyingly diabetes resolutely refuses to behave itself and provide a proper set of rules that will work for everyone.

Differences in the gut biome and metabolism can mean that what is fine and fairly gently absorbed for one person, can be like rocket-fuel for another!

So the best bet is to use your meter to check the meals for yourself. Take a reading immediately before eating and then again 2hrs later. To begin with, eat the portions you would have before (but weigh the primary carb ingredients), and see what sort of rise you get at 2hrs. If it’s 2-3mmol/L or less, then that meal has suited your diabetes well. If it’s higher than that, then consider reducing portion size by maybe 25%. And then if that still produces a big rise, take down 25% of the new smaller portion (so a smaller reduction). In a sense, in the beginning, controlling the rises is arguably more important than the numbers themselves, so try not to be too stressed if the numbers are not quite as you’d like - they will come down in time.

By a process of experimentation you can quickly build up a picture of which sources of carb are easiest on your BG levels, which you can only have a small portion of, and which just seem too much hassle.

That’s not to say you can’t ever have any of those ‘spiky’ foods again, but some may need to be saved for special occasions and occasional treats 🙂

Good luck and let us know what you discover!

 

[pm133]

I am totally new to being T2, I was diagnosed almost one week ago after going into hospital for something else. While in hospital, I received some basic diet advice which was basically that 50% of the plate should be veg, 25% starch and 25% protein. The meals I received once diagnosed also received meals which reflected this. Anyway, I have some general questions as I go through my existing freezer and cupboard supplies. Basically, are the items below ok to eat and in what sort of quantities? I have seen mixed messages online in terms of carb in take and posts here seem quite varied.

(1) I make loads of soups, so is Lentil and Sweet potato? Also Broccoli and potato?
(2) Roast pork made with canned tomatoes and apples?
(3) Coffee? Someone passed some doubt on this that I spoke to in the last week.
(4) Brown pasta and rice? (I think brown rice is from what I can see)

If not, then I guess I need to clear out the freezer and cupboards.

Because you have a meter, I honestly wouldn't start cutting back or cutting out anything until you see what effect they have on your glucose readings.
You don't want to start hacking away at food you like until you can see the evidence for needing to do so.

Play around with portion sizes for things like rice to see if you can a quantity which works for you.
Please don't feel pressured into ditching things just because other people struggle to cope with them. People mean well but they forget how stressful their advice can be sometimes.

 

[Ljc]

TBTH I am a firm believer in eating to your meter. If your meter tells you by only going up by no more than 3 points than that meal was fine . Don’t worry if your pre meal level was say 13.0 making your 2 hour post meal level 16.0 that meal was fine, it’s just your starting level was high and your Starting levels will start to come down as you learn which and how many of the different carbohydrates can tolerate, you see we are all very different in this respect.
We have a few folks on here who are very carb sensitive, so they have to go very low carbohydrate, but most folks do not have to.

I suggest for say a week, don’t make any changes to your diet, but keep a brutally honest food diary and test pre and two hours post meal and record those results . You will have some suprises both good and bad. Then based on what you have learned you can start to make changes.

We all follow different approaches on here, no approach is right or wrong , the one that works for you is the best one.

The most important things to remember are .
Diabetes is a marathon not a sprint, it’s best to bring your BG levels down gradually else you can get some unpleasant symptoms .

Any changes you make must be doable long term.

Don’t beat yourself up when you occasionally fall off the wagon , just haul yourself back up on it again, we all fall off from time to time ok.

 

[Drummer]

Well - if you see high numbers after every meal - that really should be enough information to start to make changes after the first half a dozen readings I'd have thought.

 

[Ljc]

Well - if you see high numbers after every meal - that really should be enough information to start to make changes after the first half a dozen readings I'd have thought.

Not necessarily. High pre prandial levels come down so long as you keep your post prandial levels rise at or below 3.0 , with most T2s this will not happen in the beginning, but as they make the necessary changes they will come down . Remember it best to bring bgs down gradually also a period of learning is needed,

 

[Drummer]

Not necessarily. High pre prandial levels come down so long as you keep your post prandial levels rise at or below 3.0 , with most T2s this will not happen in the beginning, but as they make the necessary changes they will come down . Remember it best to bring bgs down gradually also a period of learning is needed,

That's what I mean - if every meal results in high spikes, it indicates that changes would be a good idea rather than going on doing the same thing day after day.

 

[Ljc]

It is not day after day, it’s for a week , to accumulate some data and to discover what carbs they can and can’t tolerate so they can start to make informed choices rather than throwing out carbs they may well be able to tolerate well .
As you know we are all different in this respect

 

[diatribe]

Thanks for the tips. I am just discovering all this. I was doing quite well until yesterday when I had the first real drop in mg/dl, falling from about 140 to 74. It is still in the safe range, but I was quite worried at the drop. A friend cooked a nice low carb meal, and I guess that was the result. Normally my own cooking results in ranges of 100-140 mg/dl.

 

[diatribe]

It is not day after day, it’s for a week , to accumulate some data and to discover what carbs they can and can’t tolerate so they can start to make informed choices rather than throwing out carbs they may well be able to tolerate well .
As you know we are all different in this respect

Not necessarily. High pre prandial levels come down so long as you keep your post prandial levels rise at or below 3.0 , with most T2s this will not happen in the beginning, but as they make the necessary changes they will come down . Remember it best to bring bgs down gradually also a period of learning is needed,

Ljc, the last post was made clear to me again when I just visited the eye doctor here. My meds have brought me down from about 400 mg/dl to about 100-140 mg/dl most of the time. So i guess I should moderate the cut back a little and do it more slowly. That said my diet is not that much different to before, the only change is the lack of croissant or similar a few days a week.

 

[Ljc]

Wow that’s a huge drop, how quickly did it happen . You mentioned the eye doctor , has it affected your eyes then, sorry I can’t remember from your previous posts

 

[Leadinglights]

Ljc, the last post was made clear to me again when I just visited the eye doctor here. My meds have brought me down from about 400 mg/dl to about 100-140 mg/dl most of the time. So i guess I should moderate the cut back a little and do it more slowly. That said my diet is not that much different to before, the only change is the lack of croissant or similar a few days a week.

In the UK we use mmol/l for readings from a blood glucose monitor so as you are quoting your levels in mg/dl it takes a bit of conversion to get ones head around where you are at. So people mentioning not seeing a rise of more than 3 after meals would be referring to 3mmol/l so I'm not sure what that converts to in mg/dl.

 

[Ljc]

In the UK we use mmol/l for readings from a blood glucose monitor so as you are quoting your levels in mg/dl it takes a bit of conversion to get ones head around where you are at. So people mentioning not seeing a rise of more than 3 after meals would be referring to 3mmol/l so I'm not sure what that converts to in mg/dl.

Thank you I totally forgot that

 

[diatribe]

Wow that’s a huge drop, how quickly did it happen . You mentioned the eye doctor , has it affected your eyes then, sorry I can’t remember from your previous posts

I had some strange vision issues, which seem to be intermittent. I had an appointment yesterday and will have another one in less than a week.

 

[diatribe]

Thank you I totally forgot that

In the UK we use mmol/l for readings from a blood glucose monitor so as you are quoting your levels in mg/dl it takes a bit of conversion to get ones head around where you are at. So people mentioning not seeing a rise of more than 3 after meals would be referring to 3mmol/l so I'm not sure what that converts to in mg/dl.

True, I can start to convert. Now that I understand that mmol is 1/18th of the mg/dl rate.

That would mean roughly my mmol fell from about 22 to between 5.5 and 7.7 since being on medication.

 

[Leadinglights]

True, I can start to convert. Now that I understand that mmol is 1/18th of the mg/dl rate.

That would mean roughly my mmol fell from about 22 to between 5.5 and 7.7 since being on medication.

That is quite a substantial drop and could be the cause of your erratic vision. I had something similar, distance was fine but my near vision was all over the place, not consistent. I resisted the temptation of an optician visit as I didn't want to buy new specs as my prescription being varifocals are expensive. It has taken the best part of 7 months to be more normal.
Nobody had warned me it could be an issue but I had not thought that I had reduced my HbA1C that quickly 50mmol/mol to 42mmol/mol in 3 months and down to 36 after another 6 months.

 

[diatribe]

That is quite a substantial drop and could be the cause of your erratic vision. I had something similar, distance was fine but my near vision was all over the place, not consistent. I resisted the temptation of an optician visit as I didn't want to buy new specs as my prescription being varifocals are expensive. It has taken the best part of 7 months to be more normal.
Nobody had warned me it could be an issue but I had not thought that I had reduced my HbA1C that quickly 50mmol/mol to 42mmol/mol in 3 months and down to 36 after another 6 months.

Yes, that is what I had. Instead I went to the eye doctor for advice first who said it is a common issue. I had serious issues reading on my computer and I could not read on my mobile phone at all unless it was far away. The eye doctor specifically said I should not go to the opticians until it has settled down, so that was good advice.