Really confused over what I can eat. New Diabetic.

[MancVandaL]

Hi, the question is in the title. As a new Type 2 I'm really confused as to what and when I can now eat. I've gone on a diet (I'm slightly overweight but not by a lot) and I've started excising everyday (30 mins minimum).

I eat three regular meals a day and take Glimepiride with my main meal for my Diabetes. ATM my calorie intake is around 1800-2000 to help lose the weight.

The thing is, I'm getting the feeling of hypoglycaemia, but only mild. This makes me want to eat to get rid of it but I'm worried I'll mess up all my good work. I'm at the point where having an Apple is a major issue. Should I have one or ride it out and stick to how I am? That sort of thing.

I'm not after eating junk food, just Apples, Pears, yoghurt etc. to fill the gap. Are these OK?

Reading some of the posts on here, I think I may be over doing it for a Type 2 and actually living as a type one. But this is from reading other websites on the net that said a Type 2 should test their blood daily like a Type 1 and this really threw me. My doctor told me I don't need to test all the time, but to just take the average every three months from the main blood test.

I'm really confused!

Any pointers are appreciated.

 

[AlisonM]

Welcome to the forum MancVandaL.

Sadly, there's a big disagreement between diabetics and the medical profession over testing. Most folk on this forum agree that testing blood sugars is a very useful tool, no matter what form of diabetes you have. In the early days certainly, it can be very helpful to learn what certain foods do to your blood sugar levels and long term testing can help you gain better control of your diabetes and may help prevent nasty complications later on. If you are strapped for cash, there's a cheap meter which does the job, the SD Codefree, strips cost less than ?7 for a pot of fifty (as opposed to ?25-30 per pot for a more 'advanced' meter). You can get it from Amazon among others. There's also a book you may find useful, from Amazon again: Type 2 Diabetes, The First Year

It's a lot to absorb I know, but you have made a good beginning by finding some support.

 

[MancVandaL]

Thanks for replying.

How often do you recommend I test my BS and when? I mean before or after food? How long after etc. I'm a total newbie, so have no idea.

Thanks again.

 

[AlisonM]

I would suggest testing before you eat and then 1, 2 and possibly 3 hours after. For the first few weeks you will be learning how food affects your blood sugars, what you can eat, what you can have sometimes and what you really ought to avoid. Sometimes your blood sugars may shoot up, or they may take longer to rise, depending on the meal. Fat can slow the release of glucose into the bloodstream while a lower fat content might have your blood climbing faster and falling again more quickly.

It's not just the obvious things like fruit, sweets, desserts and drinks, but less obvious things as well such as high carb/starchy foods like bread, spuds, rice and pasta. Some cereals can be bad too but you'll need to test those for yourself as different ones affect different folk in different ways. The only way you're going to know is to test and keep a diary of what you eat and what happens to your blood sugar levels. A test before and after exercise is worthwhile too.

I follow a fairly strict low carb/low GI (Glycaemic Index) diet with only small amounts of wholemeal pasta, wholemeal or wholegrain bread and brown or wild rice. I bulk up my meals with veg and replace some things like spuds with alternatives such as sweet potato, celeriac or cauliflower.

I think the object of the exercise is not just to lower blood sugar levels but to try and keep them fairly stable with no huge peaks and troughs through the day. Not an easy task by any means, but worth it if we want to avoid complications.

 

[MancVandaL]

Thanks again.

What I'm trying to work out is as a T2, I'm after getting my overall levels down of course, so how do these daily measurements help? If say I eat a potato and that sends my level up, would that mean my level would stay up, or would it not drop again at some point? If I eat and the levels go up, then I exercise, will they then drop again? If I use up more sugar than I consume, even IF I eat something that effect my sugars adversely, wouldn't I still be on the right track? I'm trying to work out how the body uses food, which is fascinating to say the least but also very confusing.

The doctor told me to look at the 'big picture' and not to be so focused on the numbers per day, which I understand but seems contrary to what other Diabetics have said online.

Can I also ask what you mean by 'low carb' IE what levels do you aim for per meal/day?

Sorry to keep bothering you but I'm all over the place atm. What I'm essentially asking is, is it the exercising that will help the most? If I eat a low carb diet, and exercise, thus using up more than I consume, is THAT what a Diabetic is really after? I know it is, but I'm talking about how I achieve it, rather than just a low carb diet, is exercise the key?

EDIT* I've just been sat here thinking about this and it just hit me that of course, knowing that a potato for example would jump my levels up, would mean that I would have to exercise more to get them back to normal, so removing them from my diet would, in the end, make things easier for me. Why I didn't see this before now I don't know. It seems that the doctor has just cast me off and left me to my own devices, rather than really helping me out. "Yes you have T2 diabetes, don't eat a lot of carbs, cya". It's just not enough tbh, I need to go back and ask more questions. Thanks again.

 

[AlisonM]

OK. The point of the exercise is to keep your numbers down as much as possible. If they go above a certain level on a regular basis you risk unpleasant complications later on. Non diabetics are normally in the 4-7 mmol/l range. My DSN (Diabetes Specialist Nurse) wants me to try and stay within the 5-9 mmol/l range, which is pretty good for a diabetic and which I am managing most of the time these days. That would be a good target to set for yourself.

Reducing the carb (carbohydrate) content of your meals will help keep your blood sugars at reasonable levels and help prevent the kinds damage (Google retinopathy and neuropathy for a start) that can occur if you have high levels over a period of time.

Any food you eat will affect your blood sugar to some degree, but starchy, high carb foods will raise your blood sugars quite considerably and may keep them high for some time. Potatoes are very high carb foods and, I reckon, should ideally be an occasional treat rather than a daily food. Other offenders are rice, pasta and bread, although some kinds are worse than others, white bread or rice for instance can be almost as bad as spuds.

My situation is perhaps a little different as I'm a 1.5 and not a 2, all that means is I have slow onset Type 1 diabetes but I still benefit from a low GI (Glycemic Index)/low carb diet, it helps me and many others maintain some control of our numbers. I adopted the diet when I was first diagnosed as a T2 and have found it very helpful even since the diagnosis as changed.

As for the testing thing. Medical professionals are often unwilling to encourage Type 2s to test, but this is usually for budget reasons rather than because they think it serves no real purpose. Many diabetics however, think this is a false economy as testing is an extremely useful tool which can actively help reduce the risk of nasty (and expensive) complications down the line.

I hope all this helps.

 

[MancVandaL]

It does, I really appreciate you taking the time to help.

I'm on a low calorie diet and as of today I've worked out the carbs too and thrown potatoes out for starters. I've replaced them with sweet potato which have less carbs. All my life I've ate what I felt like and this restriction is difficult to get used to and very daunting. However I'm now seeing food for what it actually is, a source of energy, like petrol in a car. If something looks nice, I ask if it's going to benefit me in anyway and if not, I avoid it. It's REALLY hard though lol.

Again, thanks for the help. I'm determined to get my levels down and avoid any complications in the future.

 

[robert@fm]

Regarding your feeling hypo, this is probably because you have been running high for some time now, so your body has begun to regard a high blood glucose level as "normal" and has reset your alarm thresholds, so to speak. This is called a "phantom hypo" and is fairly common, but with any luck will fade once you get your levels under control.

Welcome to the boards! 🙂

 

[LeeLee]

Several of us on here have found Slimming World very effective for weight loss (6 stone for me). The Original plan is much lower carb than most other diets, and it's based around healthy eating. My pancreas has forgiven me! 🙂 If you get stuck doing your own thing, try it and see.

 

[Naty]

It does, I really appreciate you taking the time to help.

I'm on a low calorie diet and as of today I've worked out the carbs too and thrown potatoes out for starters. I've replaced them with sweet potato which have less carbs. All my life I've ate what I felt like and this restriction is difficult to get used to and very daunting. However I'm now seeing food for what it actually is, a source of energy, like petrol in a car. If something looks nice, I ask if it's going to benefit me in anyway and if not, I avoid it. It's REALLY hard though lol.

Again, thanks for the help. I'm determined to get my levels down and avoid any complications in the future.

Just wanted to say I am where you are - it gets easier 🙂

(Love the username btw, lived in Manchester for 16 wonderful years )

 

[MancVandaL]

Thanks everyone!

In regards to phantom hypos (which btw is fascinating to discover) should they be taken seriously? If my levels are still high but my body thinks they're low, given me these feelings, am I in danger of actually having a hypo turn or is it 'all in the mind' so to speak?

 

[AlisonM]

Thanks everyone!

In regards to phantom hypos (which btw is fascinating to discover) should they be taken seriously? If my levels are still high but my body thinks they're low, given me these feelings, am I in danger of actually having a hypo turn or is it 'all in the mind' so to speak?

Without testing, it's impossible to say what's going on for sure, but certainly, as your blood sugar levels fall you're going to feel odd from time to time. Your body is used to the higher levels and has to learn to cope with lower ones. This is one reason why testing is a good idea, so you know for sure whether you're high, low or in the zone.

If you test and your BG is lower than 4 then you're hypoglycaemic (hypo), if it gets below 3.5 it's a 'real' hypo and you need to treat for it. A few jelly babies or a small amount of Lucozade. Higher than 4 and you're OK. If you're higher than 10 then you're hyperglycaemic (hyper) and there's not much you can do except wait for it to come down on it's own.

As a measure, my highest reading was just before I was diagnosed at 38.7. My lowest so far is 1.2. On both occasions I fetched up in hospital and was extremely ill but in different ways. Now that I have a working treatment regime such highs are unheard of and hypos are rarer but I still get them, and I still get into double figures occasionally. I know what's going on because I test regularly. Of course, I have to now because I'm on insulin, but at first I was buying my own strips and testing because I needed to know what was happening and to understand how various foods affected me.

I know I'm going on a bit but I really do believe in testing BGs, no matter what flavour of diabetes you have.

 

[Northerner]

Thanks everyone!

In regards to phantom hypos (which btw is fascinating to discover) should they be taken seriously? If my levels are still high but my body thinks they're low, given me these feelings, am I in danger of actually having a hypo turn or is it 'all in the mind' so to speak?

As Alison says, testing is the only way to know for sure, but unless you are on insulin or some of the tablets (sulphonylureas like gliclizide and glimeripide) that can cause hypos, then it's unlikely they will be a problem for you. It's not quite a case of all in the mind, as the symptoms are very real. Your brain relies on glucose for energy, it can't use any other source, so if it thinks the glucose levels in your blood have dropped too low then it sends out panic signals, like sweating and shaking, heart racing etc. If it's a phantom hypo then just having a little something to eat will usually ease the symptoms 🙂