Food shopping

Status
Not open for further replies.
CoventryTrev

CoventryTrev

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 3c
Just been food shopping at Asda and walking down each aisle, my partner is throwing nice food in the trolley. Me, I'm walking down each aisle thinking no I can't eat that or that looks nice then I remember, no can't eat that.
I'm new to diabetes (type 1) and finding it hard when it comes to food.
I have removed all sugar in drinks and moved to sweetener. I try not to eat junk between meal but sometimes the temptation gets to much.
Does it get any easier?!?!
 
You can eat anything at all (ish, still avoid eating anything poisonous) once you know how to adjust insulin to match the food.
 
As Lucy has said once you know how to match your carbs to insulin from a diabetes perspective you do not need to restrict your diet.
 
I'm not currently carb counting as it completely confuses me.
So I can eat a bar of chocolate but how do I know how many units of insulin I should give myself to counteract it?
Sorry,but I'm totally confused with diabetes, carbs and food.
 
CoventryTrev said:
I'm not currently carb counting as it completely confuses me.
So I can eat a bar of chocolate but how do I know how many units of insulin I should give myself to counteract it?
Sorry,but I'm totally confused with diabetes, carbs and food.
Click to expand...
You need to ask your medical team for help, ask them if you can go on a DAFNE course or similar which will teach you all about it. But basically, you work out how many grams of carbs are in whatever you are about to eat. For a chocolate bar, you look on the back of the packet at the total carbs (not just the sugars) and see how much is in the portion. Then you will have a ratio of insulin to carbs to work it out, most people start at 1:10 and go from there. So for example, if your chocolate bar contains 30g of carbs and you are using a ratio of 1 unit per 10 carbs then you would inject 3 units. Of course not all the numbers work out that easily, your chocolate bar is more likely to be 27g or something like that so you’d have to round the dose, and 1:10 doesn’t work for everybody, you might find that it’s a bit too much or not quite enough and have to use 1:9 or 1:12 or something, you do whatever works for you. My daughter was 1:17 for a while, that was fun, calculators required every mealtime! There’s quite a lot of trial and error involved to find what ratio works, particularly in the beginning, you also might find that you need different ratios at different times of day, but if you can stick with it it gives you much more flexibility to eat what you like.
 
Just to add to what Sally said that relates to changing your bolus (quick acting insulin). Your basal (background) insulin should keep your blood sugars fairly level even if you don’t eat. Believe me it will soon become a lot easier for you.
 
And yes it does get easier, once you get the hang of it it soon becomes second nature and you just do it automatically 🙂
 
Another to say "with Type 1, you should restrict your diet no more than someone without diabetes."
I was diagnosed nearly 20 years ago. My attitude is diabetes should work around my life. Not doing what I want is letting diabetes win and I won't let it. I eat what I want. I exercise as I want (a fair amount). I do the job I love (with some stress). I travel as much as I want (covid permitting) , ...

I have no complications.

It took some time (a few years) but I learnt to use the tools I have available (insulin, CGM, etc.) to allow me to do this and it is not always easy. But I am winning. Diabetes is not.

Do not expect to get it right first time. Do not expect to get it right every time. But do not let diabetes control your life.
 
CoventryTrev said:
I'm not currently carb counting as it completely confuses me.
So I can eat a bar of chocolate but how do I know how many units of insulin I should give myself to counteract it?
Sorry,but I'm totally confused with diabetes, carbs and food.
Click to expand...
You need to practice counting the carbs. You would count the carbs in the chocolate. If it was 30g carb and your insulin ratio was 1unit per 10g carbs then you’d inject 3units. If you ate 30g carbs and your ratio was 1unit per 15g carbs you’d inject 2 units

There are free apps to help with the calculations once you have your ratios. First thing to do is start counting carbs in all your food. There’s also a free online course called Bertie online that goes through it all. You can do that as well as getting help from your team
 
@CoventryTrev Here’s the BERTIE link:

https://www.bertieonline.org.uk/

You honestly can eat pretty much what you want. It just takes more thought and care. I eat chocolate, cake, cheesecake, crumble, ice cream, etc etc. The only thing I was told to avoid was full sugar soft drinks, unless I was treating low sugar or about to exercise.

I was taught carb-counting at diagnosis. It took no time at all and isn’t hard. Go carefully and always err on the side of caution. Making notes helps too as you can record what works and what doesn’t.
 
Can’t really add to what others have said. You can eat what you want, and normally when you want.

All of us are different but once you know your ratios insulin to carbs it’s easy to manage, and after time somethings you won’t even need a label to know how much you need.

There’s things that misbehave for all of us but it’s just trail and error.
Also you have to live your life, the only person you are accountable to is you. So as long as you are happy with how you are getting on that’s okay.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top