Bee

[Barbara]

Have been diagnosed withType 2 since august. Am trying to make sen se of the dietary advice and would real people to tell me the real problems or solutions rather than medical staff so SOS please. and Hello

 

[AlisonM]

Hi Barbara, welcome to the forum. I was diagnosed in September and am still learning what's what myself. Low sugar and reduced carbs seems to be working for me, other than that I'm not doing much beyond getting more exercise.

What have the experts told you to do?

 

[Northerner]

Hi Bee, welcome to the forum!🙂

It can be very confusing and can take some time before you find the best diet for you that suits your lifestyle and your diabetes. I've found that I haven't had to make the drastic changes I first feared - I guess to some extent, it depends what things you currently enjoy as to how big a change it might be. Moderation is a good word to abide by. You can still have treats, but you do need to start looking at the food labels on packaging and start avoiding the high sugar/high fat or high salt foods.

Please feel free to ask anything you are unsure of on the General message board - lot so people will step forward and try their best to answer you!🙂

 

[Peter C]

Have been diagnosed withType 2 since august. Am trying to make sen se of the dietary advice and would real people to tell me the real problems or solutions rather than medical staff so SOS please. and Hello

Type 2 Diabetes : some general ideas..

The Basics.
The causes of Type 2 Diabetes are unknown and therefore there is no actual
treatment for it; what is on offer is management of the symptoms - high
blood glucose, raised cholesterol and hypertension. This is necessary to
lessen the risks of the many dangerous , potentially fatal, complications of
Type 2 Diabetes.
Good control consists of balance of diet, exercise and medication. The
precise nature of that balance will vary from individual to individual.

Exercise
Exercise or physical activity in general is vital for Type 2 Diabetics. It
uses up glucose and thus helps keep bgs lowish and under control. If you
have a physically demanding job you may be fulfilling the requirement
anyway.
The exercise you can do depends on your age and weight of course. Basically
the recommendation often given to Type 2s is a two mile walk every day or
the equivalent exercise. Walking is the simplest of exercises and is of
proven value. And of course there are power walkers and treadmills available
now if you cannot get out.

Another aspect of exercise, which is invaluable to Type 2 Diabetics, is
muscle building exercise. Muscles demand glucose in order to work, so the
more muscles you have the more glucose is used and lower the blood glucose.
But there is an added value - muscle-building exercises themselves soak up a
lot of glucose / energy while they are being performed. Thus working with
weights or simple dumbbells is also of great benefit to Type 2s. Anaerobic
exercise routines with dumbbells on alternate days should not take up to
much time and are possible for most Type 2s.

The message for Type 2 Diabetics is to turn fat into muscle. In particular
get rid of abdominal fat. Whatever condition you are in, start today ! Walk
instead of driving on local journeys, develop some muscle building routines.
Do it at your own pace, building up to effective levels.

The regime that most newly diagnosed Type 2s are introduced to is Diet and
Exercise - the exercise part of the equation is just as important as the
diet but is often forgotten by most T2s.
Exercise is not an option - it is a necessity to help manage your condition.

The Standard Dietary Advice.
The standard advice on diet for Type 2 Diabetes is to get 45-65% of your
calories from Carbohydrates, 10-20% from protein and upto 35% from fats.
And als they suggest eating "some" starchy carbs with every meal - in order to hlep keep stable bgs.
Many Type 2 Diabetics struggle to maintain good control on that diet.

Practical experience shows that reducing the
carbs helps reduce the bgs. But it is a personal matter you need to find out
which starchy carbs affect you and what amounts of them you can safely eat.
You are now in lifelong struggle with starchy carbs ( bread, potatoes,rice, pasta etc). "Sugar" is only involved because it is a fast acting carbohydrate.

Moderate carbohydrate intake.
Carbohydrates should be moderated - that means lower levels of starchy carbs such as bread, potatoes, rice, pasta.
You need to use your meter to find out how much of those you can eat and in what prtion sizes. Think 15 grams ( e.g. ONE small new potato) as a carb prtion and take it from there. DESMOND suugests that an averagley active woman with a small frame would need about 15 carb portions per day.


Breakfast - many diabetics find that they are at their most Insulin
resistant in the mornings. Consequently carbohydrate intake can be a
problem. They will spike the blood glucose level through the morning. So a good first principle is that breakfasts should be low or no carb.
Bacon and egg type breakfasts rather than toast or cereal.

Low spike diet.
Another helpful concept is a "low spike" diet i.e. eating
foods that will not spike the blood glucose level so that you remain under 8 mmol at 2 hours after the meal. Recent research has
shown that high bgs ( spikes ) after a meal are just as damaging and
indicative of future complications as high HbA1cs ( the six monthly average
of bgs).

Bedtime Snacks.
Many Type 2 Diabetics are affected by the Dawn Phenomenon. They go to bed with a decent bg of 5 or 6 and then in the morning their bg is raised above that for no apparent reason into the 7s or 8s. This is the Dawn Phenomenon -
the liver dumps glucose in the system just at dawn in order to get the you
ready for the day ahead. Its not a problem for non-diabetics, Type 2s,
trying to control their bgs find it perplexing. The best way to handle the
DP ( if you have a pronounced version of it) is to experiment with snacks
before bedtime that provide long acting carbs that fool the liver in to not
dumping glucose in the blood stream in the morning.

Testing.
The basis of all diabetic control is that you test with your own meter how
foods are affecting you. If you do not believe that carbohydrates are the
main issue for you, eat normally for a day and test after meals. The next
day give up bread, potatoes, rice etc and test after meals - see the results
for yourself.

The mantras for good control are "Test,test,test" and "eat to your meter".
The meter will tell you what you can eat and in portion sizes.

You should start with a lot of testing and reduce it as you find out how
foods affect you. Some good times are on waking, before a meal, one hour
after a meal and two hours after a meal.

The targets you are looking for are under 6 with a fasting bg, something
like 4.6 before a meal, under 8.0 an hour after a meal and definitely under8.0two hours after a meal.

Once good control is established pre-meal testing becomes less useful.

Dietary principles
1. Low carb breakfast
2. less ( perhaps signifciantly less )
than 60% total calories from carbs
3. low spike meals
4. bedtime snacks to cheat the DP.

 

[Northerner]

What an excellent post Peter, thank you🙂

 

[cazscot]

Many thanks for your post Peter, very informative 🙂

 

[am64]

wow peter ive copied you post into my Diabetes file where i keep info i need to remind myself of absolutely Brillant !!

 

[wallycorker]

Hi Barbara,

I'm a Type 2 also diagnosed nine years ago but I've normalised my blood glucose levels over the last twelve months by making changes to my diet.

In my opinion, after cutting out the sugary foodss then the second thing that you ought to do is to cut back on whatever starchy carbohydrates that you eat - e.g. cereals, bread, potatoes, rice and pasta etc. That usually leads to a quick reduction in blood glucose levels.

Starting to test is a good idea too so that you can learn what different foods do to your blood glucose levels.

Best wishes - John

 

[HelenP]

Hi Bee, welcome to the forum, I'm sure you'll find lots of interesting adn informative posts on here.

Thanks for all the info Peter.

xx