Diagnosed recently, Slimmingworld member, need a low fibre diet.

[swanny65]

Hi,

I am great believer in the power of forums for collectively helping resolve problems and getting advice, so here I am, glad I found you....

Diagnosed as the low end of type 2 just before Christmas. I would class myself as pretty active - pre-covid i played squash 3 time a week and ran 3 times a week. A dodgy hip means i now Parkrun once a week and cycle 5 times a week (about 100-120 miles). In supporting my wife i joined Slimmingworld and have lost 2st 6lbs since last July. I have 9lbs to lose to hit target.

Obviously, my diet has changed to lose this weight - I eat loads of fruit (never ate fruit before SW) and always have loved all carbs (great for SW). My only weakness are smacking on 6-10 mint imperials every day and I get through 3 or 4 Mullerlight yoghurts every day - as each are one 1/2 a syn. i am not going to give up the occasional pint and bottle of red each weekend ! They are red lines....

I have been working from home 4 days a week since Covid so my step count is low at c5000 a day each week.

I suffer with IBS and so need to be careful on the amount of fibre I eat and TBH I am struggling to keep this at a comfortable level without having a breakfast cereal that contains syns. I have joined the local NHS pre-diabetes programme which is on Teams over 10 months.

I did wonder if the change in my diet since I started SW could have up'ed my hba1c number. Ideas and tips on what I need//could do would be appreciated. My guess is stop/decrease the Mullerlights and look at veg alternatives to potatos/pasta. I also love fish and probably could add more to my diet - in fact, salad aside which I will eat, there isn't much I don't like

Thanks very much

 

[swanny65]

Thanks Martin.
That’s the sort of helpful advice I was looking for.
23gms of pasta ! OMG I moan how little 25gms of breakfast flakes is…. I burn 500 calories each time I cycle and my concern is where do I obtain that energy if not from carbs - perhaps that’s to simplistic?
Swapping the Mullers for natural yoghurt immediately, I suspected that would be recommended.
Well done on your HbA1c numbers

 

[nonethewiser]

Wife did slimming world 4 years ago lost 5 stone, idea was to lose weight & reverse pre diabetes diagnosis.

Still loosely follows sw maintenance diet, for breakfast she has fruit with greek yogurt & small amount of oats sprinkled in with it all.

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi @swanny65 and welcome to the forum.
I have never done dieting so no personal experience, however most T2 Diabetics I know who have tried a few low calorie diets say that Slimming World is (or used to be) the worst of the major ones for Diabetics because it's relatively high in Carbohydrates and all carbs (in grains, starches, sugars, even fruit) turn into glucose very quickly when eaten. So they spike our Blood Glucose. Fruit contains both Glucose and Fructose, so it has a dual effect: the glucose affect your Blood Glucose and the Fructose is processed by the liver helping you gat fatty liver (NAFLD it's known as).

If you get a Blood Glucose monitor and test your meals (before and then 2hrs after 1st bite) you will see how well your body can handle them (or otherwise). Aim for a rise from a meal of around 2.0 mmol or lower. The best (lowest carb) fruit for diabetics are things like berries, rhubarb, watermelon which are all much lower in carbs than tropical fruit (or even apples and pears).

You seem to be concentrating on losing weight rather than on getting your diabetes in remission. I did didn't actually want to lose weight, but did so even when increasing my total calorie intake by going low carb and eating much more fatty cuts of meat, eggs, nuts, olives, avocados and cheese.
Your bottle of red wine is probably OK (assuming you don't mean Port or Sherry which are very sweet i.e. high in carbs) but the majority of beers are high in carbs - it's mainly the carbs that matter rather than the alcohol which actually reduces and spreads out glucose spikes - so can lower your BG for a few hours. Other alcoholic alternatives are spirits with a low calorie (= low carb) mixer.

 

[Leadinglights]

Thanks Martin.
That’s the sort of helpful advice I was looking for.
23gms of pasta ! OMG I moan how little 25gms of breakfast flakes is…. I burn 500 calories each time I cycle and my concern is where do I obtain that energy if not from carbs - perhaps that’s to simplistic?
Swapping the Mullers for natural yoghurt immediately, I suspected that would be recommended.
Well done on your HbA1c numbers

If you still want to have pasta then try edamame or black bean pasta as it it much lower in carbs than normal pasta.
You might find this link useful

Freshwell Low Carb Project – Real Food, Low Carb, Good ...https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk

 

[swanny65]

Thanks for posting and the link above will give it a look.

Losing weight most definitely is not my focus and I do wonder, looking at some of the HbA1C numbers and dates in your signatures, if 6 months on SW has pushed my own number into the bottom of the range. It was my other half who wanted/needed to lose weight and had done SW before, she asked me to support her and I went along as I was a bit overweight..... I clearly don't want my HbA1C number to go higher and want it to go down asap.

Finally checking the carb/sugar content of a Mullerlight is 6.6/5.7g per100 g. Yogurt isn't as low as I expected e.g. Yeo Valley Natural at 4.9/4.9g, Tesco Greek Style 4.0/4.0g (several SW syns), Tesco 0% Fat Greek Style 5.3/5.3g. I suppose every little helps but merely cutting my pasta/potato/rice intake by 50% would probably have a greater affect on carbs alone.

"Food" for thought............

Thanks again

 

[Leadinglights]

Thanks for posting and the link above will give it a look.

Losing weight most definitely is not my focus and I do wonder, looking at some of the HbA1C numbers and dates in your signatures, if 6 months on SW has pushed my own number into the bottom of the range. It was my other half who wanted/needed to lose weight and had done SW before, she asked me to support her and I went along as I was a bit overweight..... I clearly don't want my HbA1C number to go higher and want it to go down asap.

Finally checking the carb/sugar content of a Mullerlight is 6.6/5.7g per100 g. Yogurt isn't as low as I expected e.g. Yeo Valley Natural at 4.9/4.9g, Tesco Greek Style 4.0/4.0g (several SW syns), Tesco 0% Fat Greek Style 5.3/5.3g. I suppose every little helps but merely cutting my pasta/potato/rice intake by 50% would probably have a greater affect on carbs alone.

"Food" for thought............

Thanks again

You probably need to take account of the portion you are eating, the Muller light yogurts are usually a 160g pot so at 7g/100g it is well over 10g carb. Full fat Greek yoghurt at 4g/100g, you would be hard pushed to eat a 160g portion, more like 100g with a few berries added would be less carbs.
Something like Fruit corners are approaching 15g carb per pot.
One to try might be Kvarg deserts low carb, low fat, high protein.

 

[Leadinglights]

Just to add the Kvarg deserts are 4.8g carb per 150g pot, just had a blueberry and vanilla one (well half) with some blueberries and seeds.

 

[swanny65]

Tesco Click and Collect order has taken considerably longer this evening but has helped me understand where I can very easily cut out sugar in my diet. A few simple changes.

Breakfast - remove two Mullerlights (yes i know two is a lot but I have cycled for an hour on my trainer !!!), replace with 200g Greek Yogurt (7 extras syns) and a little less fruit....or cereal and milk plus a little less fruit
Lunch - no more Batchelors instant pasta, (with a handful of extra pasta !), Ravioli in tomato sauce, replace with homemade veggie soup, more omletts, and tinned fish in Brine, making my own sauce. SW allows almost anything in tomato sauce as free food but as you know it has plenty of sugar I don't need.
Tea - less pasta, potato, rice, and egg noodles each day, each week. Half the amount of potato and mash with swede, butternut squash etc. Beansprouts instead of noodles. Chickpea pasta and mentioned (still free with SW).
No more mint imperials

Thanks - today has been great and I feel I have taken a big stride in the right direction.

 

[Leadinglights]

Tesco Click and Collect order has taken considerably longer this evening but has helped me understand where I can very easily cut out sugar in my diet. A few simple changes.

Breakfast - remove two Mullerlights (yes i know two is a lot but I have cycled for an hour on my trainer !!!), replace with 200g Greek Yogurt (7 extras syns) and a little less fruit....or cereal and milk plus a little less fruit
Lunch - no more Batchelors instant pasta, (with a handful of extra pasta !), Ravioli in tomato sauce, replace with homemade veggie soup, more omletts, and tinned fish in Brine, making my own sauce. SW allows almost anything in tomato sauce as free food but as you know it has plenty of sugar I don't need.
Tea - less pasta, potato, rice, and egg noodles each day, each week. Half the amount of potato and mash with swede, butternut squash etc. Beansprouts instead of noodles. Chickpea pasta and mentioned (still free with SW).
No more mint imperials

Thanks - today has been great and I feel I have taken a big stride in the right direction.

I would certainly recommend getting a blood glucose monitor so you can test if your substitutions have been successful and your total carbohydrate intake is not more than you can tolerate.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @swanny65

Glad you have found us! It can be so helpful to have others alongside who are facing the same daily challenges, and working their own way through the maze of options, strategies and tactics to try to keep their BG in a happy place.

Try not to be disheartened about your diagnosis, many people on the forum later reflect that their diagnosis became a catalyst which prompted them to make positive changes towards a healthier and more active life. Perhaps changes that they had been intending to make for years.

Good luck, and let us know how things go 🙂

 

[Deleted member 21371]

In the absence of carbs the only other sources of nutrition are fats and protein. Contrary to popular belief fats aren't as bad for us as is sometimes made out, if they're the unsaturated kind (the so-called 'good' fats). Nuts are mostly fat but not much of it is saturated, and they're a good source of protein too.

I'll give Professor Tim Spector of UCL the last word on fats: replacing the total fat component of our diet with extra, mainly highly refined, carbs in recent decades has turned out to be a total health disaster.

What he's suggesting, of course, is that this is to blame for the rapid rise of Type 2 Diabetes globally.

Martin

I can't really say eating sweets and biscuits gave me diabetes.
The past generations lived on a mostly carb diet.
If he said getting fat did it, it may be more true in my case, but even then, I think other things came into play

 

[swanny65]

The first day of proper changes today. Breakfast was 200 ml Greek-style yogurt (okay), oats, and lots of fruit. SW chilli and jacket spud for lunch (no change) and ham eggs beans mushrooms with swede, sweet potato, and half a portion of potato. A bonus treat of cheese and crackers for dessert and still within 25 syns. No mints !!!

 

[ianf0ster]

I can definitely say that following the NHS low fat, high carb diet to a bit of an extreme gave me diabetes., but since my GP, the press and my wife were constantly urging me to go lower fat and higher carb, it may be that if I had just ignored them and gone lowish fat, higher carb I might have been OK. But going to 8 per day (of the 5 per day) and having lots of whole grains at every meal and cutting fat down as low as I could manage both made me hungrier and also made me get fatter.

People have told me that a diet of chicken breast, bananas, mangoes, parsnips, carrots, apples, whole oat porridge, whole grain bread and fruit juice won't give you diabetes, but I found it did for me! I was eating a moderate amount of protein with almost everything else being carbs. Yet after my 3x bypass, they were still urging me to go more extreme even though my eating was nothing like that of the average person in the UK.

 

[Deleted member 21371]

He's pointing the finger at diets low in fats but high in refined carbs, in particular processed and ultra-processed foods.

Yes, like I said, I can't blame the Mars Bars and Chocolate Hob Nobs giving me diabetes, but if he wants to point the finger at me for eating them, I've had worse. They didn't hurt my parents.

 

[Deleted member 21371]

Might have been different if they'd grown up on a diet of Big Macs, pizza, ready meals and assorted 'junk foods' though? It's not gone unnoticed that cases of T2 are growing fastest in countries which have started to embrace a so-called 'Western' diet.

This discussion keeps reappearing.
I make pizza, burgers, other junk food.
Will it "give me diabetes"
Is it the combination of ingredients.
Is it an additive that suddenly triggers type 2?
Burgers, fries, pizza have been around for decades.
They still didn't give my parents type 2.
But this is off topic, maybe the old thread can be revisited?

 

[Leadinglights]

The first day of proper changes today. Breakfast was 200 ml Greek-style yogurt (okay), oats, and lots of fruit. SW chilli and jacket spud for lunch (no change) and ham eggs beans mushrooms with swede, sweet potato, and half a portion of potato. A bonus treat of cheese and crackers for dessert and still within 25 syns. No mints !!!

You are really following the SW regime rather than paying too much attention to the carbs. I suspect that if you also work out the carbs rather than consider the 'sins' you might be surprised.
Oat, fruit, jacket pot, sweet pot, crackers (depends on how many) would be pretty high carb.
If you are testing with a monitor it would be interesting to see how much effect it has on your blood glucose as that is the important factor.

 

[Drummer]

During my adult life I have gone from a 'healthy' GP supplied diet which was high in carbs, low fat, back to an Atkins type diet quite a few times - as soon as I am out from the supervision and nagging of the NHS, and I have see as much as a Kg a day weightloss so if your aim is to lose weight as well as control blood glucose I can only advise avoiding high carb foods. If you need to avoid fibre as well then the list of foods you are eating should be revised to lower fibre options.
I found that testing my blood glucose helped a lot in making good decisions.

 

[Mrs Mimoo]

Might have been different if they'd grown up on a diet of Big Macs, pizza, ready meals and assorted 'junk foods' though? It's not gone unnoticed that cases of T2 are growing fastest in countries which have started to embrace a so-called 'Western' diet.

India and Pakistan have lots of type 2 as they live on biryani (rice) meals. Low carb is better I think. The NHS Eatwell plate is terrible for me - I need to eat no refined carbs and get my energy from protein and fats.

 

[janw]

Personally I would shelve the "syns" as they are NOT going to help your diabetes. Lower your carbs intake, increase your good fats intake, keep ample protein in mind and you will lose weight and get your BG under control....best of both worlds. You can look online for low carb diets, check out keto recipes too for more low carb ideas, these are far healthier than slimming clubs with their low calorie choices that can be detrimental to those with diabetes or pre-diabetes - or even push people into going that way unwittingly. DO get yourself a BG meter, it will be your best friend in finding out which carbs affect you the most and which the less, if spiked too high then either reduce the portion next time and re-test, or find an alternative. It puts you in control of your health and wellbeing. Hydrate yourself regularly, water where possible, your glass of red wine when desired - but get an online food diary to add everything you eat and drink - that will help show you your carb, fat and protein intake - which are what matter - calories are the least important as it is carbs that need reducing to lose weight and to be maintained once weight loss has been reached.
Good luck
PS your wife might benefit too by following you instead, plus it could divert her away from the diabetic route, but it would be the healthiest option for you both anyway (and save you subscription money!)