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Diagnosed a month ago and way out of my depth.

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Martin W.

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Type 2
Hello everyone, thank you for having me on your site. i've seen all the fancy weird and wonderful cordon bleu recipes containing ingredients I've never even heard of that are beneficial for diabetics. But what about the average Joe? For years I would have either a full English or scrambled/boiled eggs for breakfast. Apparently this is a no no. One site said egg whites only and another said one a week.
In an attempt to have a super healthy smoothie for breakfast, in my nutribullet I put 1 weetabix, 1 shredded wheat, 1 banana, Greek style yogurt, blueberries and skimmed milk. My blood sugar jumped from 7.8 before to 14.8 after. .??? Are their any simple recipes out there? Thank you.
 
Welcome.
Looks like you would have been better with eggs.
My understanding is smoothies are not as good as the marketing people claim.
 
Martin W. said:
Hello everyone, thank you for having me on your site. i've seen all the fancy weird and wonderful cordon bleu recipes containing ingredients I've never even heard of that are beneficial for diabetics. But what about the average Joe? For years I would have either a full English or scrambled/boiled eggs for breakfast. Apparently this is a no no. One site said egg whites only and another said one a week.
In an attempt to have a super healthy smoothie for breakfast, in my nutribullet I put 1 weetabix, 1 shredded wheat, 1 banana, Greek style yogurt, blueberries and skimmed milk. My blood sugar jumped from 7.8 before to 14.8 after. .??? Are their any simple recipes out there? Thank you.
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Hi Martin, welcome to the forum 🙂 Don't get too worried about the fancy recipes, it doesn't have to be too complicated! Diabetes is chiefly all about carbohydrates and how well, or badly, your body can handle them. So, things like bread, rice, potatoes, cereals, fruit, pasta, pastries and, of course things containing sugar are all things you need to consider when planning your meals. What you need is food that will digest slowly and release its energy steadily over a long period of time, rather than digesting quickly and hitting your blood glucose levels like an express train! I'd suggest looking at the GL (Glycaemic Load) diet, which describes the types and combinations of food that can help achieve the sort of steady release you need when you have diabetes - The GL Diet for Dummies is a very good introduction 🙂 Your breakfast, I'm afraid, contained far too much carbohydrate and that is why your levels went up so much. Actually, a non-carbohydrate, or low carbohydrate breakfast, such as bacon and eggs, or scrambled eggs would be much better for you, and should hardly raise your levels at all 🙂

I'd suggest having a read of Jennifer's Advice and Maggie Davey's letter - these should help you to understand things better, so you're not floundering with all the conflicting advice. These have both been around for years, and are still around because they explain things so well! Also, the book Type 2 Diabetes: The First Year by Gretchen Becker is very helpful for guiding you through the early months. It can be extremely confusing to begin with, because there is no 'one-size-fits-all', but once you have learned what works well for you as an individual then you should be able to enjoy a varied and flexible diet without having to resort to too many exotic ingredients and recipes - unless you want to! 🙂 As you have a meter, you are well-placed to discover (as you did with your breakfast experiment!) what works for you and what doesn't. Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S is an excellent article that explains how you can use your meter to tailor your diet to your own tolerances.

If there is ever anything you are unsure of, please just ask and we will try our best to help 🙂 No question is considered 'silly', so if it is confusing or worrying you - ask! 🙂
 
Thank you so much for your very informative reply. I shall certainly be taking a look at your suggestions. Thanks again.
 
Martin W. said:
Thank you so much for your very informative reply. I shall certainly be taking a look at your suggestions. Thanks again.
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Eggs were given a bad press when the big cholesterol debate started, because they contain cholesterol. Since then it's been discovered that most of your cholesterol is made by your own body, so eating stuff with it in has a minimal effect. I often have scrambled egg for breakfast if I want something low carb.
 
My understanding is that the egg thing is old advice. And there's actually no problem with them at all. This is general advice for everybody, and being diabetic doesn't change that.
The fry up is non diabetic related too. It's to do with the fat.

Healthy? smoothies? I've no idea why people talk about health, healthy, or dieting and weight management together with smoothies. Just eat the food.
In this case, you're having things that are restricted on a diabetic diet. Carbohydrates. Shredded wheat can take my BG from 6.1 to 11.7.
Have scrambled or boiled eggs instead. Or bacon and eggs.
 
Exactly! Full English is really no prob - it's things like fried BREAD hash browns (ie SPUD) baked beans (Beans in general have quite a few carbs in comparison to eg green leafy veg - plus the sauce has SUGAR) and very cheap sausage (which has a lot of RUSK and v little meat) - that wreck the thing if you overdose on them. British Rail brekkies has the right idea, in the full English, you could refuse the beans but accept the grilled tomato and each fried egg was served on a quarter slice of delicious crispy fried bread, ooh - and you got mushrooms with it too. Brilliant start to the day for a diabetic!

All breakfast cereals consist of is carbs, and the fact that Weetabix has 'added whatever' in it, is ONLY because they removed all the natural whatever it is, during their manufacturing process ! Good advertising though isn't it?
 
I think of a fry up more as the bacon, egg & sausages. Oh yes, fried tomatoes & mushrooms.
 
Ralph-YK said:
My understanding is that the egg thing is old advice. And there's actually no problem with them at all. This is general advice for everybody, and being diabetic doesn't change that.
The fry up is non diabetic related too. It's to do with the fat.

Healthy? smoothies? I've no idea why people talk about health, healthy, or dieting and weight management together with smoothies. Just eat the food.
In this case, you're having things that are restricted on a diabetic diet. Carbohydrates. Shredded wheat can take my BG from 6.1 to 11.7.
Have scrambled or boiled eggs instead. Or bacon and eggs.
Click to expand...
 
Wonderful advice. My mouth is watering already. I actually grill everything except for the egg so I'm looking forward to checking my blood tomorrow. Thank you.
 
Hope it went well Martin.

When I was diagnosed I basically decided to eat pretty much what I was eating before (excluding regular takeaways, just the good stuff that I was eating before). It was just that I cut out quite a lot of fat (I was trying to lose weight as well .... yes, I know that there is this low carb, high fat diet idea, but I went a different path) and reduced the carbs to somewhere between 150g and 200g per day (this is also quite high for some people, but it worked for me). So rather than cutting things out completely, I just ate reduced portions (e.g. 2 or 3 small new potatoes here, a small dollop of basmati rice there and 2 slices of home-baked wholegrain bread per day (ish)).

The key to all this was being able to test myself using a meter. Whenever my glucose levels went a little haywire, I reduced the portion for next time (or tried again the next day to see if the result was repeated!).

Anyway, don't take as gospel anyone who blindly says "don't eat that". Listen to the advice, but then find out for yourself! We are all different. Some people on here can tolerate porridge, for example (including me), but others go sky high.

Good Luck,

Andy 🙂
 
Hello and welcome!
I agree with Andy HB - there is 'no size fits all' unfortunately. It's a question of test, eat, test to see what works for you.
 
Thanks a lot guys. Seems to me it's just a case of trial and error. Advice much appreciated. Martin
 
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