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Hello all

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Trucker883

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hello everyone just been diagnosed with type two diabetes also suffering with high blood pressure and just had surgery for peripheral artery disease, so bit fed up with it all .need advice on diet
 
Hello everyone just been diagnosed with type two diabetes also suffering with high blood pressure and just had surgery for peripheral artery disease, so bit fed up with it all .need advice on diet
Hi Trucker883, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about your diagnosis :( I'm guessing that your other problems may be related. Have they put you on any medication for the diabetes?

I'd suggest having a read of Maggie Davey's letter - it's a very good overview of what diabetes is all about, and what sort of things you need to consider in your diet in order to manage your blood sugar levels well 🙂 It's never great to get a diabetes diagnosis, but it CAN be managed well, and once you have got your head round it and made the necessary adjustments you can look forward to feeling much happier and healthier, there are a lot of very positive steps you can take and fit into your everyday life, it does not have to be a future filled with deprivation and despair - quite the opposite!

If you have any questions, please let us know, we will be more than happy to help 🙂
 
Hi and welcome.
Sorry to hear you qualify to join the forum but it is a great place for advice and support from friendly helpful people who understand where you are at and the overwhelming effect that diagnosis can have.

Most people who are successful here in pushing their Type 2 diabetes into remission follow a low carbohydrate diet and use a Blood Glucose meter (usually self funded) to figure out portion size and type of carbs they can get away with. Because we all have our own unique mixture of gut bacteria, we digest foods differently and therefore some people can eat small portions of potatoes or rice without too much of a BG spike but even a little pasta send their BG soaring for hours whilst others just need to completely avoid potatoes but can eat a little pasta which has been cooked, cooled and reheated (as this process sometimes slows the release of glucose from it.)

Carbohydrates consist of both sugars and starches, so foods high in carbs are not just the obvious added sugar, sweets, cakes and biscuits but also fruit and fruit juice and most importantly bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, couscous and breakfast cereals including so called healthy porridge. That may seem like there is nothing much left to eat, but actually eating low carb and increasing your intake of natural fats like full fat dairy (butter, cream, cheese creamy natural yoghurt etc), fatty meat and oily fish, eggs and nuts and olive oil can all help to make you feel full and satisfied for longer without blowing your blood glucose levels out of the water. Eating more fresh veggies is also good and particularly leafy green veg and cauliflower, which is a wonder veg for us diabetics as it can be boiled and mashed (with a good dollop of cream cheese) to replace potato, or grated and used to replace rice or couscous or just made into cauliflower cheese.
Regular exercise is another important aspect of diabetes management and a brisk walk every day, even if it is only 10 minutes is a good start..... it doesn't have to be anything overly exertive.

Anyway, I hope that gives you some ideas of a way forward. Eating low carb does often take a few months to get your head around and you have to be open to change, but it really can be an enjoyable and sustainable way to eat once you figure it out.
 
I have done the same as many others. By adopting a Low Carb 'Way Of Eating' (not a calorie restricted diet) I've been successful in reducing my Blood glucose but still have further to go.
This works quite well for many/most people, but what constitutes Low carb differs as we are all different in our ability to handle carbs and which carbs we tolerate best.
It is much easier if you self-fund a Blood Glucose meter (an SD CodeFree or a Spirit TEE2 are cheap ones with lower cost test strips are good choices, the main cost is the cost of the test strips). When you have a BG meter you can test exactly how each meal affects your Blood Glucose and 'eat to your meter' i.e. avoiding big BG spikes due to excess/inappropriate carbs.
 
Want to welcome you to the forum too. I’m very recently diagnosed and found this place a great source of information and support.
 
Just saying hello from another T2 sufferer, as the advice says above, we need to watch the carbohydrates intake in our diets...
 
Hello @Trucker883

Welcome to the forum!

If you are looking for ideas around what to eat, there are lots of other members thoughts in the ‘what did you eat yesterday’ thread.
https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/what-did-you-eat-yesterday.30349/

Many T2 members find that it is all sources of carbohydrate (not just sweet and sugary things) that they need to consider in their eating plan, because these will be having the largest effect on blood glucose.

Different people respond very differently to different types and amounts of carbs (even finding different tolerances at different times of day!), so while some general rules of thumb can be helpful, the very best way is to use BG monitoring strips to check and see how you respond to foods as an individual.

AlanS’s ‘test review adjust’ is a simple, methodical way of understanding how different foods are affecting you, and gradually working towards better and better BGs by reducing the rises and ‘spikes’ in BG that some foods cause.

https://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/test-review-adjust.html
 
Hi @Trucker883 and welcome to you. Great advice above. Have a good look around the site and ask any questions at all whether they be big or small, sensible or silly - we have all needed the help and support of others when first diagnosed and still do. Be assured that once you get your head around things you will find diabetes is something you are able to live with and keep your levels in a ‘normal’ range. Some of us need the aid of medication such as myself and others manage to do so without it, we are all different. Diabetes is one condition where we can do quite a lot to help ourselves, diet, exercise etc.
Wishing you well and please do keep posting. Sue
 
Thank to all your advice .my medical problems I have now found out most likely due to diabetes I have never been a person who eats lots sweets or cake and chocolate not keen on sweet things , the things I thought were good for me like pasta rice potatoes boiled or baked instead of chips. Did enjoy a coke now and then and coffee with sugar as I don’t drink alcohol. I use sweetener now in my drinks and sugar free soft drinks will have to find out what makes it high like suggested. I have a blood glucose monitor my readings have been high ,have to see what works for me thanks again hopefully get this under control
 
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