Hello from Rob

[Rob1969]

Hi, My name is Robert and I'm new to the forum. My nurse warned me that I'm close to being pre-diabetic and recommended Diabetes UK to me. She sent me the magazine has given me two months to make some changes before I get checked again. This has come as a shock to me and after a day of worry, I settled down, read the magazine and started referring to this site which has been so useful.

 

[Vonny]

Hi @Rob1969 and welcome to the forum 🙂 The good news is that you should be able to reduce your blood glucose with a few minor tweaks to your diet. As well as sweet and sugary food, high carb foods such as potatoes, bread, rice and pasta can all affect your blood sugar. Reducing these foods should stand you in good stead for your your next check.

It's encouraging that you have been put on notice for pre-diabetes....the sooner you know what to do with your diet, the sooner you can get your sugars back into the healthy range.

Nice to have you on board 🙂

 

[Ljc]

Hello @Rob1969 . Welcome to the forum, though I really do hope we can help prevent you from joining our club 🙂

Do you know the result of the Hb1ac is , it’s the blood test to find out if you have diabetes or not .
And may I ask why they tested you for diabetes.

As you have not even reached pre diabetes levels , which are ,
42 to 47 mmol/mol
Or in the old % version
6.0 to 6.4 aprox
You won’t need to make many changes like a full blooded T2 would.

Maybe just cut down a wee bit on carby snacks like biscuits , crisps and sweets
But till we know the result of your Hb1ac we won’t be able to give you appropriate dietary advise as you’ve not even reached ore diabetes. Yes it’s great you have had this pre warning but in my non medical opinion you may well only need to do some tiny tweaks.

Diabetics are fine with protein in all it’s forms , red meat too .
Dairy is fine
And so long as you don’t have a medical condition that requires you to reduce them a normal amount of good fats are fine too.
I hope that helps.

You probably have loads of questions about diabetes, so ask away ok.

 

[Rob1969]

Hi @Rob1969 and welcome to the forum 🙂 The good news is that you should be able to reduce your blood glucose with a few minor tweaks to your diet. As well as sweet and sugary food, high carb foods such as potatoes, bread, rice and pasta can all affect your blood sugar. Reducing these foods should stand you in good stead for your your next check.

It's encouraging that you have been put on notice for pre-diabetes....the sooner you know what to do with your diet, the sooner you can get your sugars back into the healthy range.

Nice to have you on board 🙂

Thanks for the welcome Vonny. Right now I am changing from the white stuff to wholemeal and staying away from free sugars. I also have a battle on my hands with resisting statins.

 

[Rob1969]

Hello @Rob1969 . Welcome to the forum, though I really do hope we can help prevent you from joining our club 🙂

Do you know the result of the Hb1ac is , it’s the blood test to find out if you have diabetes or not .
And may I ask why they tested you for diabetes.

As you have not even reached pre diabetes levels , which are ,
42 to 47 mmol/mol
Or in the old % version
6.0 to 6.4 aprox
You won’t need to make many changes like a full blooded T2 would.

Maybe just cut down a wee bit on carby snacks like biscuits , crisps and sweets
But till we know the result of your Hb1ac we won’t be able to give you appropriate dietary advise as you’ve not even reached ore diabetes. Yes it’s great you have had this pre warning but in my non medical opinion you may well only need to do some tiny tweaks.

Diabetics are fine with protein in all it’s forms , red meat too .
Dairy is fine
And so long as you don’t have a medical condition that requires you to reduce them a normal amount of good fats are fine too.
I hope that helps.

You probably have loads of questions about diabetes, so ask away ok.

Hi Ljc and thanks for the welcome to the club everybody want to leave

I know the test result was below 42 but there is no previous record in my surgery. This is odd because I get a yearly blood test to check for other functions and the nurse was scratching her head wondering why I wasn't tested for diabetes. I'm a bit concerned because of my age 67 and carby snacks saturated fats are very hard to find in our kitchen. I'm the household cook and have the time to cook from scratch. It may be down to me drinking too many sugary cocktails in the past three months - each drink will contain 2-3 tsp of sugar = 27tsp of sugar extra per week which may have undone years of mindful consumption. Anyway, I get tested in a few months time and hopefully I will be in better shape. Thanks for all the info and advice, Bob

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi Ljc and thanks for the welcome to the club everybody want to leave

I know the test result was below 42 but there is no previous record in my surgery. This is odd because I get a yearly blood test to check for other functions and the nurse was scratching her head wondering why I wasn't tested for diabetes. I'm a bit concerned because of my age 67 and carby snacks saturated fats are very hard to find in our kitchen. I'm the household cook and have the time to cook from scratch. It may be down to me drinking too many sugary cocktails in the past three months - each drink will contain 2-3 tsp of sugar = 27tsp of sugar extra per week which may have undone years of mindful consumption. Anyway, I get tested in a few months time and hopefully I will be in better shape. Thanks for all the info and advice, Bob

If you there are no records of previous tests then you haven't got anything to compare with but you are not even in the prediabetic range so unless you are having any symptoms which are concerning, thirst, frequent loo visits, headaches then I don't think you should worry too much as your diet sounds to be good except for the sugary cocktails maybe. You could wean yourself to less sugar in them or have a gin and sugar free tonic 🙂

 

[Cherrelle DUK]

Hi Rob1969, jut popping in to say hello.

It's great that they've been able to catch this at an early stage so you can make the required changes.

It sounds as though you're off to a good start. Pay attention to hidden carbs and sugar whilst increasing water and exercise.

If there's anything we can help with, do let us know.

 

[Rob1969]

Hi Cherrelle, Thanks for popping in and for the tips. Next week is week two of educating myself and creating an action plan. I love cooking from scratch so sugars, saturated fats etc are already under control. How to cram in an extra 2 portions of veg a day is the problem 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Why do you need to add more veg ?

 

[Rob1969]

Why do you need to add more veg ?

Historically I have eaten about 1-3 portions of of fruit and veg a day and often not full 80gm portions of veg because I get too full. Also it's not uncommon for me to not eat any fruit in the day.

 

[Leadinglights]

Historically I have eaten about 1-3 portions of of fruit and veg a day and often not full 80gm portions of veg because I get too full. Also it's not uncommon for me to not eat any fruit in the day.

If you are feeling full and not eating veg, what are you having for your meal as cutting out the high carb foods people then find they need to fill out the meal with salads and green veg. Berries are probably the better fruit to have with yoghurt for breakfast or cream for a desert.
If you give us an idea of what you have for meals people could suggest where you could substitute items and allow you some veg.

 

[Rob1969]

If you are feeling full and not eating veg, what are you having for your meal as cutting out the high carb foods people then find they need to fill out the meal with salads and green veg. Berries are probably the better fruit to have with yoghurt for breakfast or cream for a desert.
If you give us an idea of what you have for meals people could suggest where you could substitute items and allow you some veg.

I am eating veg 🙂. My understanding is that a portion of veg is 80g so if I put one portion each of carrot, cabbage and broad beans on my plate (3 of 5 a day) I will struggle to eat it all. That's on top of a small piece of meat and potato, rice, pasta etc.

 

[Leadinglights]

I am eating veg 🙂. My understanding is that a portion of veg is 80g so if I put one portion each of carrot, cabbage and broad beans on my plate (3 of 5 a day) I will struggle to eat it all. That's on top of a small piece of meat and potato, rice, pasta etc.

You would be better not to have the potato, rice or pasta and just have the veg as you are having a double whammy of carbs with potato, broad beans and carrots as they all have carbs, cabbage good.

 

[Felinia]

I tried this yesterday and it was both delicious and low carb. I made a traybake with skinless boneless chicken thighs, Schwarz chicken seasoning, a pack of Mediterranean vegetables (peppers, courgettes, tomatoes, onions) in basil oil, and diced squash/sweet potato. We have the rest tonight! If you are a cook this is a great time to start experimenting. I use cauliflower mash, cauliflower cheese for mash or rice, courgetti instead of spaghetti, and you can get Bare Naked noodles which are carb free instead of ordinary noodles. I like them in a stir fry of Chinese veg with soy sauce, 5 spice powder and cashew nuts. In the summer it's runner beans and strawberries all the way! My DSN recommended green leafy veg - broccoli, kale, spinach, cabbage, Spring greens. The kale I can't stand but I have lots of the rest.

 

[Rob1969]

You would be better not to have the potato, rice or pasta and just have the veg as you are having a double whammy of carbs with potato, broad beans and carrots as they all have carbs, cabbage good.

Thanks for the heads up. I was cutting down on the starchy components and never thought they would have such an effect. I will need to buy a book but first I will start a spreadsheet to get me going.

 

[Felinia]

Thanks for the heads up. I was cutting down on the starchy components and never thought they would have such an effect. I will need to buy a book but first I will start a spreadsheet to get me going.

There are a few online apps available which cut out the hard work. I use NutraCheck so know my carb levels for the day, and my portion sizes.

 

[Rob1969]

I tried this yesterday and it was both delicious and low carb. I made a traybake with skinless boneless chicken thighs, Schwarz chicken seasoning, a pack of Mediterranean vegetables (peppers, courgettes, tomatoes, onions) in basil oil, and diced squash/sweet potato. We have the rest tonight! If you are a cook this is a great time to start experimenting. I use cauliflower mash, cauliflower cheese for mash or rice, courgetti instead of spaghetti, and you can get Bare Naked noodles which are carb free instead of ordinary noodles. I like them in a stir fry of Chinese veg with soy sauce, 5 spice powder and cashew nuts. In the summer it's runner beans and strawberries all the way! My DSN recommended green leafy veg - broccoli, kale, spinach, cabbage, Spring greens. The kale I can't stand but I have lots of the rest.

I love all the food in your post. There's nothing like chopping up a ton of med veg. If there's any left over it gets blitzed with some stock into a soup with spices of choice. Courgetti topped with marinara sauce, a sprinkle of herbs, skinless chicken breast or meatballs + a little cheese. I use Evernote as my recipe book and it's always to hand.

 

[Leadinglights]

I love all the food in your post. There's nothing like chopping up a ton of med veg. If there's any left over it gets blitzed with some stock into a soup with spices of choice. Courgetti topped with marinara sauce, a sprinkle of herbs, skinless chicken breast or meatballs + a little cheese. I use Evernote as my recipe book and it's always to hand.

Have a look at the thread What did you eat yesterday for some fab ideas for meals, nothing boring or bland. You sound as if you are a willing cook. @adrian1der uses a Pinch of Nom for a lot of his meals.

 

[adrian1der]

I use four of Tom Kerridge's books as well - "Fresh Start", "Loose Weight for Good", "Dopamine Diet" and "Outdoor Cooking". You just have to be selective on the menus or make appropriate substitutions