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Hello!

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Hi and welcome to the forum

I gather from your other post that it is your husband who is diabetic. Would you like to tell us a bit about it.... Things of particular interest are how long he has been diagnosed, what medication he is on for it and his most recent HbA1c result if you know it.... this is the blood test used to diagnose diabetes and monitor progress and will usually be a number in excess of 47 if you have a diabetes diagnosis although quite a few people here on the forum manage to push it back under that diagnosis level through lifestyle changes and perhaps medication.
Does he have much/any weight to lose?
How active/mobile is he?
Is he suffering from any diabetes complications/symptoms?

Diabetes can be very individual, so the more info you can give us about your husband's particular circumstances, the more we can tailor our responses to be as appropriate as possible for him.
 
Welcome to the forum @Anne Marie 🙂

Be great to get to know a little about you, if you would like to share, maybe what led you to join the forum. But there's no pressure

The forum is a great place to ask any questions, answer others people's questions or just have a bit of a chat!
 
Hi,

A little bit about my other half (he doesnt do social media / forums etc)

He's 66 years old
Diagnosed around 15 years ago
Lost a lot of weight over since diagnosis and just about at his target weight
He is quite active, goes to the gym twice per week and never sits still for long! We live on a farm so always active/outdoors!
No symtoms
Medication - Metformin + Dapagliflozin + Glaclazide and Simvastatin (Cholestrol is controlled well)

I'm really trying to help him with changing and improving diet and have changed quite a few things but doesn't seem to have made much difference, so I'm not sure where to go next.
 
Thanks for that extra information. When you say he has lost a lot of weight can you give us an idea of how much and has it been fairly recent and was it easier than expected..... not wanting to take any credit away from your husband but just wondering if he might possible be another mis-diagnosed Type1 as unexpected or easy weight loss is usually associated with that rather than Type 2.
Since he is on Gliclazide I assume he has been given a test kit to take his BG levels at home? If so, what sort of readings is he seeing and when were those tests done ie in the morning before breakfast or after meals etc?

What sort of changes have you made to his diet so far? For instance, can you give us an idea of a typical day's menu ie breakfast, lunch and evening meal and any snacks and drinks...... just so we can see if there is much wriggle room to tighten his diet further?
 
Thank you for your reply, the weight loss has been over the years and would say 3 stone overall so a gradual loss through better diet and lifestyle.
Yes, he takes readings every morning before breakfast and readings fluctuate between 7-9

His last appointment with the nurse she said if he could get the readings down then his meds could be lowered!

Yesterdays menu was:
Breakfast, porridge
Lunch, wrap with cheese, salad & tomato and a packet of crisps
Afternoon snack (as he gets hungry) 2 small slices of malt loaf and lurpak
Evening meal, jacket sweet potato, home made chicken pie with pastry topping, peas & gravy. Plain Greek joghurt with home made low carb granola (approx 1 tbs)

Throughout day tea and coffee no sugar
 
Anne Marie said:
Thank you for your reply, the weight loss has been over the years and would say 3 stone overall so a gradual loss through better diet and lifestyle.
Yes, he takes readings every morning before breakfast and readings fluctuate between 7-9

His last appointment with the nurse she said if he could get the readings down then his meds could be lowered!

Yesterdays menu was:
Breakfast, porridge
Lunch, wrap with cheese, salad & tomato and a packet of crisps
Afternoon snack (as he gets hungry) 2 small slices of malt loaf and lurpak
Evening meal, jacket sweet potato, home made chicken pie with pastry topping, peas & gravy. Plain Greek joghurt with home made low carb granola (approx 1 tbs)

Throughout day tea and coffee no sugar
Click to expand...
Oh and 2 apples
 
Has something suddenly changed in the 15 years to suggest he needs to change?
No symptoms for 15 years?
His nurse wanting to reduce meds, not increase them?
 
No, just the blood sugar readings are fluctuating whereas they used to be more consistent at around 6.5 - 7

Symptoms? What do you mean?
 
You said his nurse wants to reduce meds.
And he has no symptoms.
That sounds good, rather than bad?
Have you recently gone low carb, and what blood sugar readings are fluctuating?
 
travellor said:
You said his nurse wants to reduce meds.
And he has no symptoms.
That sounds good, rather than bad?
Have you recently gone low carb, and what blood sugar readings are fluctuating?
Click to expand...
Yes, it is positive but he needs to bring down his BS levels which after recently going low carb still haven’t come down which we don’t understand why.
He takes his BS before breakfast each morning averaging 7-9
 
Anne Marie said:
No, just the blood sugar readings are fluctuating whereas they used to be more consistent at around 6.5 - 7

Symptoms? What do you mean?
Click to expand...
I suspect that he is less able to cope with some of the high carb foods he is having, from your list of foods porridge, wrap, crisps, malt loaf, sweet potato, pastry, peas, apples are all food which come into the higher carb category.
You may find the book Carbs and Cals helpful in making some lower carb choices.
For example, butternut squash is lower carb than sweet potato, nuts lower than crisps, green veg lower than peas, berries lower than apples.
Increasing healthy fats and protein would help with the hunger pangs.
A breakfast of eggs in any form makes a good low carb start to the day or full fat greek yoghurt with berries and a small 20g low sugar granola.
If you like puddings than sugarfree jelly with berries and cream.
The website sugarfreelondoner had good low carb recipes for cakes which would be a lot lower carb then malt loaf which has 20g cars per slice.
If you are wanting to follow a low carb approach, then no more than 130g per day is suggested. I think if you tot up the Total carbs in your typical day it would be substantially more than that. The apples and malt loaf would be 60g ish.
 
Anne Marie said:
Yes, it is positive but he needs to bring down his BS levels which after recently going low carb still haven’t come down which we don’t understand why.
He takes his BS before breakfast each morning averaging 7-9
Click to expand...

Yes, low carb does that.
Morning fasting levels will rise.
It's a common issue.
Why did you go low carb?
 
Despite cutting out bread and pasta, that seems like a high carb diet!
While some Type 2 diabetics can tolerate small portions of porridge, that and most breakfast cereals are completely off the table for me and many others. Has your husband actually checked his BG before breakfast and again 2 hrs after first bite. A rise of 3 or more would confirm that breakfast was too carb heavy. Remember that all digestible carbs raise Blood Glucose when digested this even includes whole grains like outs as well as pastry, crisps, malt loaf, and sweet potato and even legumes such as peas - though french or runner beans are generally so low as to be OK as are broad beans (lnown in the USA as 'Fava beans'.

Will he eat cabbage, cauliflower, courgette, aubergine or celeriac?
Eggs are very useful for Type 2 meals very good for breakfast: bacon & eggs, boiled scramble or poached eggs, omelette (with mushrooms or cheese etc).
Cheese, cold boiled eggs, olives, nuts make decent snacks, but it's better to eat bigger main meals than to snack between them - that gives the body a rest from producing insulin.
High meat content sausages are low carb and cheaper (high fat) mince is good for most Type 2's - don't fear natural fats, for most of us they are better than so called vegetable oils (which need to be produced in factories from seed oil which would otherwise be used to lubricate machines).
 
Leadinglights said:
I suspect that he is less able to cope with some of the high carb foods he is having, from your list of foods porridge, wrap, crisps, malt loaf, sweet potato, pastry, peas, apples are all food which come into the higher carb category.
You may find the book Carbs and Cals helpful in making some lower carb choices.
For example, butternut squash is lower carb than sweet potato, nuts lower than crisps, green veg lower than peas, berries lower than apples.
Increasing healthy fats and protein would help with the hunger pangs.
A breakfast of eggs in any form makes a good low carb start to the day or full fat greek yoghurt with berries and a small 20g low sugar granola.
If you like puddings than sugarfree jelly with berries and cream.
The website sugarfreelondoner had good low carb recipes for cakes which would be a lot lower carb then malt loaf which has 20g cars per slice.
If you are wanting to follow a low carb approach, then no more than 130g per day is suggested. I think if you tot up the Total carbs in your typical day it would be substantially more than that. The apples and malt loaf would be 60g ish.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your help, I must admit I am quite confused as I thought i had reduced carbs the nurse gave him some info on better foods to opt for and malt loaf was on the list as a snack, also apples. Think we need to go back to the drawing board
 
travellor said:
Yes, low carb does that.
Morning fasting levels will rise.
It's a common issue.
Why did you go low carb?
Click to expand...
Nurse advised him to cut out bread and all pasta and choose low carb ‍♀️
ianf0ster said:
Despite cutting out bread and pasta, that seems like a high carb diet!
While some Type 2 diabetics can tolerate small portions of porridge, that and most breakfast cereals are completely off the table for me and many others. Has your husband actually checked his BG before breakfast and again 2 hrs after first bite. A rise of 3 or more would confirm that breakfast was too carb heavy. Remember that all digestible carbs raise Blood Glucose when digested this even includes whole grains like outs as well as pastry, crisps, malt loaf, and sweet potato and even legumes such as peas - though french or runner beans are generally so low as to be OK as are broad beans (lnown in the USA as 'Fava beans'.

Will he eat cabbage, cauliflower, courgette, aubergine or celeriac?
Eggs are very useful for Type 2 meals very good for breakfast: bacon & eggs, boiled scramble or poached eggs, omelette (with mushrooms or cheese etc).
Cheese, cold boiled eggs, olives, nuts make decent snacks, but it's better to eat bigger main meals than to snack between them - that gives the body a rest from producing insulin.
High meat content sausages are low carb and cheaper (high fat) mince is good for most Type 2's - don't fear natural fats, for most of us they are better than so called vegetable oils (which need to be produced in factories from seed oil which would otherwise be used to lubricate machines).
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply, No, he has never taken readings after eating and will try that.

Yes, he’ll eat all veggies

Will make changes at breakfast though, eggs would be an easy alternative for him.

I /We definitely need to re educate ourselves food wise.
 
Anne Marie said:
Nurse advised him to cut out bread and all pasta and choose low carb ‍♀️

Thank you for your reply, No, he has never taken readings after eating and will try that.

Yes, he’ll eat all veggies

Will make changes at breakfast though, eggs would be an easy alternative for him.

I /We definitely need to re educate ourselves food wise.
Click to expand...

Mornings BG don't really matter if you are low carb.
They rise.
I would guess it very recent?
 
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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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