Confused

[trophywench]

Good point Lee Lee - there are shedloads of different 'Diet' and 'Lite' varieties of 'pop' now, also flavoured water which has just about zilch carbs - only trouble is as you say out and about it's diet Coke or plain water - often not even carbonated water on offer - which I find quite palatable on its own, WHEN I fancy it and esp when it's really hot.

Re fruit, nobody seems to have mentioned yet that berries have a lot less carbs than many other fruits. OK generally they are a bit more expensive than apples or whatever fresh, plus it's hard to stop eating em until the whole tub is gone! but if you buy cheapo frozen 'Fruits of the Forest' or straight Rasps or Bluebs (only do check the labels, found to my horror once that my fave at the time mega cheapo brand (Iceland) contained grapes, which entirely defeats the object! and because they tend to go mushy when they defrost - so doesn't matter if they start off smashed when you buy em - ideal for stirring into a pot of plain yoghurt (if you like yog) or serving with a dollop of cream for a luxury dessert, or how about heating up a spoonful or 2 in the microwave, and pouring over a small portion of vanilla ice-cream. Do check labels for lowest carb varieties; check actual ice cream for preferred taste - although slightly higher carb than lesser ones, we currently buy supermarket own brand Cornish because less is more in this case - I mean a smaller portion satisfies because it's richer)

 

[Rivki061]

I'm not ever so keen on eating berries aside from strawberries (do they count) but I don't mind them in a smoothie so I could make use of my smoothie maker.
Sainsbury's here I come.

 

[Northerner]

I'm not ever so keen on eating berries aside from strawberries (do they count) but I don't mind them in a smoothie so I could make use of my smoothie maker.
Sainsbury's here I come.

Strawberries are one of the better fruits 🙂 Not so sure about smoothies though, whether the processing of them into a pulp would speed their digestion and therefore increase their GI. Hopefully someone better informed than me can comment! I know the commercial smoothies are a big no-no because most of them are very high carb, usually based on bananas and with added sugar

 

[Rivki061]

Strawberries are one of the better fruits 🙂 Not so sure about smoothies though, whether the processing of them into a pulp would speed their digestion and therefore increase their GI. Hopefully someone better informed than me can comment! I know the commercial smoothies are a big no-no because most of them are very high carb, usually based on bananas and with added sugar

Glad about the strawberries and I like them as they are and even better with cream but I guess that's something else to cut back on!
I hadn't thought about smoothies increasing GI.

 

[trophywench]

Glad about the strawberries and I like them as they are and even better with cream but I guess that's something else to cut back on!
.

Why? Are you trying to lose weight? Nowt wrong with cream or butter as long as you eat neither by the gallon/ton. Some margarines have FAR worse fats in em by the time they've finished messing about with the ingredients, than good old saturated fat.

 

[Rivki061]

Why? Are you trying to lose weight? Nowt wrong with cream or butter as long as you eat neither by the gallon/ton. Some margarines have FAR worse fats in em by the time they've finished messing about with the ingredients, than good old saturated fat.

I wouldn't mind shedding a few pounds to be honest but I don't suppose a small amount of cream is too awful and strawberries taste so good with it🙂

 

[Northerner]

I wouldn't mind shedding a few pounds to be honest but I don't suppose a small amount of cream is too awful and strawberries taste so good with it🙂

There you go then - a little treat for when you've been good/going round the twist! 😉

The fat in the cream lowers the GI too!

 

[Rivki061]

Why? Are you trying to lose weight? Nowt wrong with cream or butter as long as you eat neither by the gallon/ton. Some margarines have FAR worse fats in em by the time they've finished messing about with the ingredients, than good old saturated fat.

There you go then - a little treat for when you've been good/going round the twist! 😉

The fat in the cream lowers the GI too!

To think that I've been denying myself treats that are not so bad after all-in moderation of course!

 

[Chatterbox]

This has been one of the most useful threads I've ever seen. I'm a newly diagnosed T2 and I eat (or try to stick to) 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. I am wondering if I should have a snack before bed or is there a time (as on diets) where 7pm is the cut off point for eating before bed?

 

[DeusXM]

Not sure about a cut-off point. What I would say is if you're eating and then going to bed, ideally you want something that releases energy very slowly.

If you think of blood sugar as 'energy' that converts to fat when it's not used, you'll see if makes sense not to eat something that will raise your blood sugar and then sleep - you'll just get a glucose rise that will be converted by insulin into body fat for use later.

As for the specific 'should I have a snack before bed?', the answer is the same as 'do I feel hungry before going to bed?'. And that's also really the case for all meals and snacks throughout the day - if you're not hungry, why eat?

 

[trophywench]

Deus - well if you are a T2 with marked Dawn Phenomenon, a prebed snackette of card/fat/protein often helps stave it off.

Us 'lucky' T1s should deal with it by expert use of the right basal insulin at the right time, but many T2s don't have that in their toolkit!

 

[DeusXM]

Does eating before bed help stop the hormonal release in the mornings then? I was working under the impression the hormone/glucose response was unrelated to nighttime BGs and satiety, and more to do with the body's expectations when awake.

Personally I've found the surest non-medical ways of dealing with DP are either booze the night before, or breakfast soon after waking - you can retrain your body to expect an energy hit on waking so it doesn't feel the need to supply it itself. Wouldn't a pre-bed snack in a T2 just cause a short-term BG rise for a couple of hours either a) returning to normal and thus causing a morning liver dump or b) artificially raise BG levels throughout the night and causing long-term complications?

 

[caffeine_demon]

of course some soft drinks don't even come in diet versions anyway (Tango, Mountain Dew, Tizer etc.)

Actually - mountain dew is available in a diet version - but the only shops I've ever seen it in are poundland and 99p stores (and even then, only occasionally), and I'm sure I've had diet tango...

But yeah - It gets on my nerves when I want a diet ribena, or something other than diet coke or water and the shop doesn't stock it!, seems to have happened more over the past couple of years!