Some advise I would like is it good to monitor blood sugars. I've been told not to. But we would with patients and my nan was diabetic she used to check hers.
People newly diagnosed with T2 diabetes are often advised not to check their own BG levels at home, but many members here find it is an essential part of understanding how they react to different foods, and to tweak and optimise their menu for improved BG outcomes with a level of detail that HbA1c simply cannot show.
Part of it seems to be simply penny pinching, part of it is probably that self monitoring doesn’t suit everyone (and not everyone either wants to do it, or feels able to understand the results). There is also some trial data that suggests self monitoring can lead to people feeling depressed or anxious if they see out-of-range results - though this begs the question whether those in the trials were empowered to use the data to make their own adjustments, or whether they were asked to stick to a diet that didn’t suit them!
You can use a BG meter, taking a reading before and again 2hrs after eating, to see what the differences are, to identify any carbs that seem to be spiking your glucose levels (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them).
If you see a rise of more than 2-3mmol/L by 2hrs after a meal you can begin experimenting with reducing portion sizes of the carbs or trying different types (sometimes just having things at a different time of day makes a difference). Gradually tweaking and tailoring your menu to find one that suits your tastebuds, your waistline and your BG levels
🙂
Sometimes it can be a real help to start with a brutally honest food diary for a week or two. Totting up the total carb content (not just ‘of which sugars’) in the foods and snacks you are currently eating, to give you a baseline idea of your menu.
