First day first time

[SpanG]

Just to say hello to all. I have recently join Diabetes UK but I have lived with diabetes 2 for a long time. I have books on the subject but I don't seem to be able to get better. I want to eat the right food but I don't know where to find the right recipes. I will now
.I thank you for your welcoming letter. Speak to you soon

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi Welcome to the forum
Have a look around the site and you will find some recipes in the food forum and also people post the meals they have in the thread What did you Eat Yesterday, just bear in mind that people will be on different dietary regimes or meds.
Also if you look on the internet for low carb or keto recipes you will find lots of variety.
What dietary regime are you trying to follow as many here find a low carb way of eating successful.
What particularly are you struggling with at the moment
Do you test your blood glucose at home as many find that is one way of making better food choices.
Are you on any medication as that can influence the suggestions you will get and what your HbA1C is will give a good idea of what might be going wrong with managing your condition as you have been diagnosed a long time and the thinking on how to keep blood glucose levels under control have changed over the years.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome.

I hope you find the forum as helpful and beneficial as I have over the last 3 years since diagnosis. It really is a goldmine of knowledge and experience, form people who have been there and got the T-shirt.

Dietary advice is probably the single biggest issue for people with Type 2 and a lot of the confusion stems from talk of blood sugars, which makes people think that sugar is the problem but in fact all carbohydrates are broken down by the digestive system into glucose and absorbed into the blood stream. Advice in the past was based upon cutting down on sugar and sweet stuff but that is only a part of the problem. Bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and breakfast cereals etc probably contribute more to our Blood Glucose (BG) levels than sugar itself.
To give an example, my brother in law has just been diagnosed with pre diabetes. He regularly has 2 white baps (bread buns) made into bacon sarnies for breakfast. I asked my sister to check the nutritional info on the label and each bap is about 35g of carbohydrate. I teaspoon of sugar is 5g carbs, so each bap is equivalent to 7 teaspoons of sugar, so his breakfast of 2 of them made into bacon sarnies is the equivalent of 14 teaspoons of sugar..... That is quite staggering when you break it down like that and hopefully will help him to understand where he needs to make some reductions.

Reading nutritional information on food packaging and learning to understand it is a good first step. The traffic light info on the front of the packet giving green, amber and red lights for sugar and fat etc is of little use to us diabetics. What we need to do is locate the "Nutritional Information" box, which will usually be in very small print on the side or back of the packaging and look at the total carbohydrate content of the food. Underneath it will say "of which sugars" but you can ignore that, you are just interested in the "total carbs". It will be expressed as grams of carbs per 100grams of product but may also give a value for the recommended portion or individual item. It will say somewhere what the recommended portion size is and I would encourage you to weigh or measure that out as it is usually a bit of an eye opener as to how small it is compared to the amount of it we usually eat. This is particularly obvious with breakfast cereals which are a very high carb food being a mixture of grains and sugar. We are so used to just tipping some into a bowl, we don't think about how much we should actually be having as non diabetics, but as diabetics we need to be much more conscious of portion sizes.

The key with managing diabetes through diet is to reduce the higher carb components of a meal (ie the spuds, pasta, rice, bread etc) and have more of the other tasty stuff and extra veggies. So have a couple less spuds and more cabbage and cauliflower and broccoli etc. Many of us have ditched breakfast cereals or toast for breakfast (both high carb foods) and have Creamy Greek style natural yoghurt with a few berries which are the lowest carb fruits. It is important to note that fruit can be quite high in carbs too, particularly tropical fruits like bananas and mangos and pineapples and oranges and grapes are often referred to as little sugar bombs here on the forum, so best kept to an occasional treat and portion control is again important. I have mixed seeds and cinnamon with my yoghurt and berries for breakfast and sometimes just a tiny sprinkle of a low carb/nutty granola to give it extra texture. Eggs are another good low carb breakfast choice whichever way you like them. I find an omelette works well and you can vary the fillings according to what needs using up in the fridge and makes a good filling meal to see you through until lunchtime or even beyond. If I have a good breakfast I sometimes skip lunch or just have a snack like a chunk of cheese or some nuts or a pot of olives with feta to tide me over until my evening meal.

Anyway, those are just some thoughts and suggestions of how to start making some progress. If you don't understand anything or want to know more, just ask. A low carb diet is considered to be anything under 130g carbs per day. Some people's diabetes will cope with 130g a day, others need to go a bit lower (70-90g carbs a day). Some find that they need to restrict themselves to less that 50g per day. Some people find that less than 50g a day is too restrictive and compromise with medication and a lesser carb reduction. It is all about balance and finding what you can manage and sustain, but some dietary change is usually very necessary to reduce the risk of your diabetes becoming progressively worse. Just taking whatever medication the doc gives you and hoping that will sort it out like most other illnesses is usually just not going to cut it with diabetes. The great thing to know is that with a bit of effort and the right dietary changes, you can manage it well and actually feel fitter and healthier and slimmer and younger than you did before, so there can be a lot of rewards for the effort you put in as well as reducing the risks of diabetes complications light damage to sight and loss of blood supply and nerves in your feet.

 

[Inka]

Welcome @SpanG 🙂

 

[Leadinglights]

@rebrascora has really said it all with her very good advice.
Not only did I cut down on the carbohydrates but also portion size in general. Meals I make like chilli, curries, casseroles now do 6 portions rather than 4 and added to with more veg or salad.
We have all got used to eating portions which are far too big, in particular pub meals are piled with high carb foods like chips, a massive jacket potato, a pile of pasta or rice. and only a minute amount of veg or salad.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @SpanG

There are lots of ideas around eating with diabetes in the Enjoy Food section of the Diabetes UK website.

Eating with diabetes

If you, or someone in your family, has type 1, type 2 or another type of diabetes, you'll know that it can sometimes be difficult to know what to eat. Start here for the key information you need to make healthy food choices for a balanced diet.

www.diabetes.org.uk

There’s no single way of eating that will work for everyone, as everyone is different - but if you are interested in trying a lower carb approach there are some suggestions and a meal plan here:

Low-carb diet and meal plan

Eating a low-carb diet means cutting down on the amount of carbohydrates (carbs) you eat to less than 130g a day. But low-carb eating shouldn’t be no-carb eating. Some carbohydrate foods contain essential vitamins, minerals and fibre, which form an important part of a healthy diet.

www.diabetes.org.uk

 

[Deleted member 34756]

Hi @SpanG, welcome to the forum! We have some great resources and material which include recipe guides that you can order from our website. Or you can give us a call and we'll happy to place this for you 🙂

 

[Deleted member 34790]

Hey @SpanG you can check out our meal plans and recipe finders that are chock-full of information that could be really helpful for you! - https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/eating-with-diabetes/meal-plans 🙂🙂