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Hi Alison and welcome

Would you like to tell us a bit more about yourself and how you came to be diagnosed with diabetes. Are you recently diagnosed? What if any medication you have been given and your HbA1c if you know it.... This is the blood test result which is used to diagnose diabetes and will be a number of 48 or more but can be into 3 figures if things are particularly out of balance with your system.

We all know how overwhelming things can be at first so please be assured that it does get easier and we are here to give you as much advice and support as we can. Please ask any questions you need to, no batter how basic they may seem. We all started with little or no knowledge so we understand that it is the same for other people. There is also a lot of misinformation in the press and online and even within the NHS, but the people here on the forum have lived experience of what does and doesn't work for them, so can give you advice based on that. It may take a little trial and improvement to figure out what works for you but we can give you ideas and point you in roughly the right direction and then you fine tune it to suit your tastes and lifestyle and commitments and perhaps other medical conditions etc. It is not a one size fits all approach, but there are some general principles.

Look forward to hearing more from you and hopefully to helping you improve your diabetes management.
 
Hi all i was diagnosed with type 2 diabetics in 2019 was put on meformin 4 tablets once a day and 1 high colestrol tablet daily i have to test my blood once a day i cant have my blood tested as i have issues with needles my test results were going good so they cut some of my meds down then last year my readings were going high again so now iam back up on more medication
 
Hi @Alison pullin 🙂 Have you also changed your diet? How are you finding that? There are lots of Type 2s here who can offer suggestions.
 
Hi Alison, welcome to the forum.

Just popping in to say hi. I've merged your posts as they were complimentary, hope you're navigating the site ok.

Sorry to hear that your numbers have been higher of late, are you aware of anything that may have caused this?

has given some great thoughts above so do feel free to share your thoughts and any concerns and we'll be happy to help.
 
Alison pullin said:
Hi yes i must change my diet but there are a lot of foods i.dont like can i have some food suggestions i love brown bread and scrambled egg
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Scrambled egg is fine, as are things like chicken and fish if you eat them. The foods to watch are the carbs - pasta, rice, bread, cereal, etc. You don’t have to cut them out but you’ll probably need to watch your portion size. So a simple way is just to slightly alter the balance of foods on your plate to reduce the carb part and increase the green veg and/or salad.
 
Alison pullin said:
Hi are baked potatoes good for diabetics as i love these.
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I'm afraid potatoes are one of the high carb foods, baked and mashed being higher in carbs than new potatoes. People often swap potatoes for celeriac or swede which are lower in carbs. A normal size potato as served in a cafe would be prohibitively high carb for most Type 2 folk.
The only way you will know if you can tolerate the potato would be to test before you eat and after 2 hours hoping for a increase of no more than 2mmol/l and no higher than 8.5mmol/l. This is how many people find which foods and meals they can cope with and really is the best way to find a dietary regime which suits you.
When you say you can't have blood tests, how were you diagnosed as the test used for diagnosis is usually the HbA!c test which is from a blood sample taken from the arm. What is the daily test you are doing, is it from a finger prick, when are you doing it and what sort of levels are you getting? It will help people to tailor their suggestions if you give a bit more information about your diagnosis.
 
I was diagnosed by a blood test by the arm 1st time but every time i went for other times i panic at the prick of a needle i fingervprick my blood once a day my blood readings went from 4.7 to 7.5 when i was first diagnosed now its 20 23 theve put my meds back up and my diabetic nurse is ringing me in a few wks.
 
Alison pullin said:
Hi are baked potatoes good for diabetics as i love these.
Click to expand...


Alison pullin said:
I was diagnosed by a blood test by the arm 1st time but every time i went for other times i panic at the prick of a needle i fingervprick my blood once a day my blood readings went from 4.7 to 7.5 when i was first diagnosed now its 20 23 theve put my meds back up and my diabetic nurse is ringing me in a few wks.
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Baked potatoes are not good for Type 2s generally @Alison pullin They are high in carbs and those carbs push your blood sugar up quickly. With blood sugars in the 20s you should be avoiding them and concentrating on protein like meat/fish plus veg.

You haven’t said if you have any weight to lose? If you do, losing that weight will help a lot too.
 
Those finger prick tests are really quite high and you should be trying to get them into single figures even after food.
I suggest you keep a food diary along side your blood glucose tests. Maybe you could chose one meal a day to test before and after your meal to see if you can pinpoint anything which is pushing those levels up so high.
What was you HbA1C when you were diagnosed as although well out of date it will help to know where you started at. It is difficult if you have a restricted number of foods you like but you should try to get those levels down as being at that level for a long time you do risk diabetic complications.
It maybe that you need additional medications if the metformin and restricted carbohydrates are not working so keeping that food diary and your reading will help your diabetic nurse to advise on a way forward.
 
Welcome to the forum @Alison pullin

I am sorry to hear your levels have risen recently, but glad that you are back on the meds which will help.
As others have said it is any carbohydrates that will be raising your glucose levels. This doesn’t mean that you have to eliminate them totally, as you could reduce the portion sizes. I love baked potatoes too, so I just have a 1/4 of a potato if I treat myself to one. In other cases I have swapped foods to lower carb options when I have wanted to reduce the carbs.

As @Leadinglights has said a food diary will help you to make decisions. This would be important as if you levels are in the 20s you are in danger of causing complications.
 
Everyone reacts differently I'm afraid so we can't really say what works for you. For me, if I had high readings I would reduce my carbs to bring down these figures.
 
You could try a 'chaffle' - a cheese waffle - the mix can also be used to make flat 'wraps' in a ordinary frying pan - I like to have 'toys' in the kitchen, so I got a waffle maker - one chaffle with a thick rasher of bacon - other fillings are available - is a quick and easy breakfast.
You could use your cheddar to make cauliflower cheese - I use steamed cauliflower, from frozen. I put a fairly heavy bowl in the oven to warm up to around 160 degrees C, then when the cauliflower is not quite cooked I pile it into the bowl, cover with cream cheese, sprinkle on a herb or spice if you like then cover with grated cheese. I put it back into the still warm oven, turn it up to 180 degrees and wait for the cheese to go melty and lightly golden tanned.
 
Hi all could i drink a can of zero coke or is it a no go not every day iam drinking tea with semi skimmed milk or water with fresh fruit in it also are sausages ok to eat
 
Diet drinks are fine as regards diabetes but probably best to limit them to a sensible level as regards general health due to all the additives in them but yes 1 a day is probably fine. I started buying the large bottles of diet coke and diluting it a little with water starting with an almost full glass of diet coke with just a little bit of water and slowly reducing the coke and increasing the water so that now I just have an inch of it in the bottom of a glass and the rest water and find that is sufficiently sweet and flavoured enough for me to enjoy it like that and full coke tastes far too sweet.

As regards tea, you would actually be better off having whole (blue top) milk instead of skimmed as that has less carbohydrates in it. Milk contains natural sugar called Lactose and there is less lactose in full fat milk than there is in skimmed, so it is a better choice. I actually have cream in my morning coffee because it contains almost no lactose and it tastes really good and the fat in the cream fills me up and keeps me from feeling hungry.

It is best to get high meat content sausages because cheap sausages have rusk added to them which is carbohydrate. Lidl do some 95% meat Chipolata sausages which are really tasty if you shop there. It will usually have the meat content on the front of the pack if it is a high meat content sausage. Ideally you want 85% meat or more.
 
Alison pullin said:
Hi all could i drink a can of zero coke or is it a no go not every day iam drinking tea with semi skimmed milk or water with fresh fruit in it also are sausages ok to eat
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We have Coop sausages as they are low carb and not overly seasoned, but at our local store we have to be careful as they can look a bit iffy - they are stored vertically on chiller shelves and the ones at the front go green, so we always take the ones at the back and then push the whole lot back into the colder part.
 
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