First time on any forum and a newbie Diagnosed 2 months ago. totally confused only diet advise has been eat a healthy diet but a week ago after going back to surgery asking where to go from here/ got refered to a clinic on diabetic but not for 3 months said I would like it quicker so now have to go further to be seen in 6 weeks At the surgery told no one tests urine or blood them selves and made feel an idiot for even suggesting I might and, now having read your forum very confused, am so tierd depressed and eyes hurt is just here in Dorset that there is so little HELP
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Confused newbie - jan387
- Thread starter jan387
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Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hi jan, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about the difficulties you have been having in getting the care you deserve. Unfortunately, the support people receive from the NHS is very patchy up and down the country, which is a real shame, especially when you are newly diagnosed 
OK, in simple terms, diabetes is all about carbohydrates and how your body is able to tolerate them. A person without diabetes can happily eat as much rice, pasta, bread, sweets, cakes, potatoes as they wish and their blood sugar levels will stay fairly steady in the range of 3.3-6.0 mmol/l. However, when you have diabetes then your blood glucose levels may climb to several times that when you eat a meal containing carbohydrates, because you are not able to use the glucose efficiently due to either not enough insulin being produced, or it not being used effectively.
This doesn't mean that you can't eat carbs though, it just means that you need to know how different types affect you - what you can tolerate and what you can't. Simply telling you to eat a 'healthy diet' is not very helpful, because some things that you might consider healthy, like many types of fruit, may actually be bad news for your blood sugar levels.
I would recommend getting a copy of The GL Diet for Dummies. This gives a good explanation of how you can select foodstuff and food combinations that will have a slow and steady release of energy, and thus have less of an impact on your blood glucose levels.
Please ask any questions you may have - nothing is considered 'silly', so if it is confusing you, please ask. There is a tremendous amount of information around, but the best approach is to take one thing at a time. Start a food diary and record the amount of carbs in everything you eat and drink each day. Then look for areas that might be improved and make those changes. It will take a little while, but it is the best approach and in no time you will be much more confident about what agrees with you and your diabetes and what doesn't. To really know what is going on you should test before and one or two hours after eating to see what effect the meal has had - if the numbers are good, then you can happily eat that meal again, if not so good then you need to try and determine what it was about it that might have caused a problem. You are, of course, free to ask us what we think, there is a wealth of experience here 🙂
Ask your GP or nurse for a blood glucose meter and to prescribe some test strips so that you can learn more about how changes to your diet and activity levels are affecting you blood glucose levels. They may be reluctant, as the strips are expensive, but do persevere as it will save them money in the long run if you are well-controlled and able to stay off expensive medications 🙂
OK, in simple terms, diabetes is all about carbohydrates and how your body is able to tolerate them. A person without diabetes can happily eat as much rice, pasta, bread, sweets, cakes, potatoes as they wish and their blood sugar levels will stay fairly steady in the range of 3.3-6.0 mmol/l. However, when you have diabetes then your blood glucose levels may climb to several times that when you eat a meal containing carbohydrates, because you are not able to use the glucose efficiently due to either not enough insulin being produced, or it not being used effectively.
This doesn't mean that you can't eat carbs though, it just means that you need to know how different types affect you - what you can tolerate and what you can't. Simply telling you to eat a 'healthy diet' is not very helpful, because some things that you might consider healthy, like many types of fruit, may actually be bad news for your blood sugar levels.
I would recommend getting a copy of The GL Diet for Dummies. This gives a good explanation of how you can select foodstuff and food combinations that will have a slow and steady release of energy, and thus have less of an impact on your blood glucose levels.
Please ask any questions you may have - nothing is considered 'silly', so if it is confusing you, please ask. There is a tremendous amount of information around, but the best approach is to take one thing at a time. Start a food diary and record the amount of carbs in everything you eat and drink each day. Then look for areas that might be improved and make those changes. It will take a little while, but it is the best approach and in no time you will be much more confident about what agrees with you and your diabetes and what doesn't. To really know what is going on you should test before and one or two hours after eating to see what effect the meal has had - if the numbers are good, then you can happily eat that meal again, if not so good then you need to try and determine what it was about it that might have caused a problem. You are, of course, free to ask us what we think, there is a wealth of experience here 🙂
Ask your GP or nurse for a blood glucose meter and to prescribe some test strips so that you can learn more about how changes to your diet and activity levels are affecting you blood glucose levels. They may be reluctant, as the strips are expensive, but do persevere as it will save them money in the long run if you are well-controlled and able to stay off expensive medications 🙂
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