Hello from Bristol

[Grace1961]

Hope the blood test and nurse visit goes well.
Food is a bit of a minefield,and there's conflicting views about what's ok to eat.
I've gone low carb, as it works for me, but the NHS guidance is to make 1/3 of your plate carbs, hence the advice from your diabetic nurse, and that I was given on the DESMOND course I attended. Some T2s eat more carbs and it works for them, we're all different and our bodies react differently. It's about finding out what's right for you.
You can buy bags of frozen cauliflower rice to heat in the microwave and have if your husband is having rice with his meal, or make your own if you have a food processor, and freeze it yourself in portions. Or have half cauliflower rice and half brown rice. I usually roast florets of cauli or broccoli on a baking tray with a spray of oil, pinch of salt and a sprinkle of herbs/spices, and have that with my chilli or curry as it's quicker than making cauli rice.

Thank you again.
My appointment was cancelled at 8.45am. Disappointed but perhaps this gives me a chance to do some good work, with all your help. I am off to
Sainsburys in a minute and cauliflower rice frozen is a brilliant idea. I made it once but such a pain to do, it put me off, easier to just cook brown rice.
I also have not really been shopping with Covid - bit scared as I also have asthma, really only just out and about again.
I can't thank you all enough.
I have a healthy list including oatcakes.
My low carb books are out in earnest.
Prawn salad for lunch, curry and cauliflower rice for dinner.

 

[Drummer]

@Grace1961 Your nurse has obviously got no idea about type 2 diabetes if she is advising that you replace carbohydrate with carbohydrate - it is just not going to do any good at all.
I used a testing meter to check my response to various foods, so knew that grain of any kind was not sensible for me to eat, nor legumes, potatoes and other starchy veges, and only berries and the lowest carb fruits in modest amounts.
Some people find that they can eat oats, but they are no good for me.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Grace1961

Glad you have found us!

As you can see there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to eating that will suit everyone. but hopefully by comparing notes with others you’ll get some ideas to try, and some encouragement as you continue your experimentation to find a menu that works for you 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Nobody 's body gives a stuff what colour the carbs are. (cos pasta can be quite pretty, can't it!) It just converts the carbs to glucose come what may.

The scientific theory with 'brown' and 'wholewheat' is that the extra fibre slows down the absorption of the glucose - but frankly I've never noticed any such thing.

 

[Mrs Mimoo]

Hi Harbottle
Wow, thats so kind of you to give me all those ideas.
I know having porridge and berries for breakfast, boiled egg and toast for lunch and chicken curry and brown rice isn't doing it.
If it isn't 80g grams of brown rice dried weight then its 80 grams of brown spaghetti. I avoid potatoes, I like sweet potato chips in the air fryer. I make my own cotswold grain, dark mix of wholewheat/ rye bread.
Treats are digestive biscuits and ryvita thins and some cheese or olives. Only fruit I eat are berries really with Greek yoghurt.
I think your food is less carbohydrates?
Maybe this is where I am going wrong - its a minefield.
I really appreciate your long helpful reply.

I've cut all obvious carbs out, so no rice bread pasta or any beige food. No potato. I find it easy to just eat quality protein like salmon chicken and a small steak, and accompany with a green leafy veg cauliflower etc. Celriac is my potato sub. I eat full fat dairy. I am currently eating one meal a day of this kind of low carb food and two meals which are meal replacement shakes. I have lost 9kg in 7 weeks. Brown rice and brown pasta have the same carbs as white rice and white pasta.... probably not helping.

You can make smaller changes than i have and lose the weight. I would avoid all rice pasta and potato and bread for a while? and oatcakes. Snack: baby bel. Or a small walnut portion. Double the green veg instead?

 

[Grace1961]

I've cut all obvious carbs out, so no rice bread pasta or any beige food. No potato. I find it easy to just eat quality protein like salmon chicken and a small steak, and accompany with a green leafy veg cauliflower etc. Celriac is my potato sub. I eat full fat dairy. I am currently eating one meal a day of this kind of low carb food and two meals which are meal replacement shakes. I have lost 9kg in 7 weeks. Brown rice and brown pasta have the same carbs as white rice and white pasta.... probably not helping.

You can make smaller changes than i have and lose the weight. I would avoid all rice pasta and potato and bread for a while? and oatcakes. Snack: baby bel. Or a small walnut portion. Double the green veg instead?

Thank you, that's great advice, already helping. I now have cauliflower rice, no bread, potatoes or pasta. Cross fingers.
Another appointment tmrw - to replace the cancelled one last week for my blood test etc. Hope I can do as well as you have and others on here.

 

[Windy]

Can I suggest doing a couple of weeks of reduced carbs before you cut them out significantly @Grace1961 ? It'll make you feel a bit poorly if you stop too quickly, and can cause some damage to your fine blood vessels - better to ease into lower carb so your BG doesn't fall sharply too quickly.
@Mrs Mimoo suggests avoiding oatcakes - I can eat a couple of cheese ones without spiking my BG levels - no idea if this is normal for just me, or other T2s! They're probably the most carby food I have currently, though I have a recipe for low carb bread in my Caldesi Diabetes recipe book that I'm going to try out next week.
Hope your appointment tomorrow goes well, Sarah

 

[Grace1961]

Hi Sarah
Thank you so much for your messsge.
Yes, I already experienced a really bad time Friday morning at 5am I was wide awake, starving hungry- felt really bad, I had to have a piece of toast and tea, at that time in the morning. Then went back to bed to sleep. I am having about 25 per day now. The cheese oatcakes are nice and I have not had a digestive biscuits since. I have coconut flour pancakes, for breakfast 1 carb each and blueberries with some yoghurt. I brought some rye bread, 11 carbs a slice, if I need. Then fish or chicken with veggies and or cauliflower rice. Hopefully this has to help.
Thanks again.

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi Sarah
Thank you so much for your messsge.
Yes, I already experienced a really bad time Friday morning at 5am I was wide awake, starving hungry- felt really bad, I had to have a piece of toast and tea, at that time in the morning. Then went back to bed to sleep. I am having about 25 per day now. The cheese oatcakes are nice and I have not had a digestive biscuits since. I have coconut flour pancakes, for breakfast 1 carb each and blueberries with some yoghurt. I brought some rye bread, 11 carbs a slice, if I need. Then fish or chicken with veggies and or cauliflower rice. Hopefully this has to help.
Thanks again.

If you are only having 25g carb per day and that is a big reduction from what you were having previously then you may feel unwell as you body is having to adapt to much lower glucose levels, this can affect your eyes and small blood vessels. It is suggested you reduce carbs over a period of time to avoid that, so reduce by one third for a couple of weeks then another third until you get to where your need to be.

 

[Grace1961]

If you are only having 25g carb per day and that is a big reduction from what you were having previously then you may feel unwell as you body is having to adapt to much lower glucose levels, this can affect your eyes and small blood vessels. It is suggested you reduce carbs over a period of time to avoid that, so reduce by one third for a couple of weeks then another third until you get to where your need to be.

Well I just did my reading at 9.30pm and it was 10. Of course I will check in the morning after fasting overnight. I will talk to the nurse during my diabetic review tomorrow. Many thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Leadinglights]

Well I just did my reading at 9.30pm and it was 10. Of course I will check in the morning after fasting overnight. I will talk to the nurse during my diabetic review tomorrow. Many thanks for your thoughts.

Fasting levels are useful to monitor progress but testing before you eat and after 2 hors will tell you if your meal was too high carb for you to tolerate if the increase in more than 2-3mmol/l and ideally no more than 8.5mmol/l so your reading of 10 implies your meal was too carb heavy. What did you have for your meal and what time did you eat.

 

[Grace1961]

Yes it does but I ate dinner at 6.30pm it was roast chicken and tray baked veg, carrot, parsnip, leeks, sweet potato, steamed broccoli and Brussels sprouts with gravy.
I had a tiny portion of carrot, parsnip and sweet potato (I know these are higher in carbs). Lots of sprouts and broccoli. Then tea and a tiny square of keto, sugar free lemon cake, which should not increase my BS as its made with almond flour. Nothing else so finished around 7pm.
The bottom line is I need 2 x 500 mg of metformin per day, not one, hence my need for blood test so Doctor can put it back on my prescription. For now!
Can I ask what Rampiril is ?

 

[harbottle]

Isn’t parsnip quite high in carbs? It’s a vegetable I have been avoiding.

 

[Windy]

Can I ask what Rampiril is ?

Ramipril is anti-hypertensive medication, I take it each day as I have high blood pressure.

 

[Grace1961]

Ramipril is anti-hypertensive medication, I take it each day as I have high blood pressure.

Oh sorry, I tmdidnt mean to be intrusive.
Had my bloods done today and will receive a phone call next Monday in place of review! I am sure everyone is experiencing this.

 

[Windy]

Oh sorry, I tmdidnt mean to be intrusive.
Had my bloods done today and will receive a phone call next Monday in place of review! I am sure everyone is experiencing this.

Go on with you, it's not intrusive at all!
Fingers crossed that your review is positive. I've managed to get both an in person appointment with the phlebotomist (v difficult to do over the phone 😉) and with the practice nurse for my three month review.
I've got everything crossed for myself that my numbers are looking healthier.

 

[Leadinglights]

With those higher carb veggies it all depends on how much you have, it could just be the combination of snips, carrots and sweet potatoes and leeks which also have carbs. But you could try same again bit with a bit less of those of or alter the proportions of each. Per 40g, the sweet potatoes are 15g carb, parsnips 8g carb, carrots, 2g carb. So I suspect the sweet potatoes were the problem.
Sounds a lovely meal anyway.

 

[Grace1961]

Go on with you, it's not intrusive at all!
Fingers crossed that your review is positive. I've managed to get both an in person appointment with the phlebotomist (v difficult to do over the phone 😉) and with the practice nurse for my three month review.
I've got everything crossed for myself that my numbers are looking healthier.

I hope it goes well for you.
Let me know.

 

[Grace1961]

I hope it goes well for you.
Let me know.

Hi Windy
Had my bloods done and my result is HbA1c is up 10 to 50.
To be honest I expected worse.
I have a phone review with the Diabetes Nurse at our practice on Monday.
I am currently only taking 1 x 500mg metformin per day. She may put it back to 2 per day. I have cut out my normal brown pasta and rice now, replaced it with cauliflower rice and veg. I found the Burgens bread everyone mentioned, I have a slice for breakfast as my carbs. Can't live without toast.
Overall really pleased as I know I can bring that 50 back down. Yay.
Grace

 

[Gwynn]

Lower carb, higher protein and fats coupled with lower calories overall, with increased exercise, was the method I have adopted. Protein and fats have to increase to balance the loss of carbs in the diet.

There seems to be a lot of confusion with many at first (me included) with conflicting advice and sometimes misleading advice (like, switch from white bread to brown, or cut down on just sugar, etc). The real emphasis and battle is with the Carbohydrates that an individual can tolerate and that is different for every individual and specific food items they eat. It's personsl ! I keep my carbs down to below 130g aa day and generally beliw 100g a day if I can. It works for me but may not work for others.

I seem to be able to tolerate quite a range of foods but BG testing is really the only way of finding out which foods are ok for you and which are not.