I have been diagnosed with D2. I am living in Spain and have been told I should not eat carrots or peas. Is there a special reason for this. I am truly confused. My blood sugars are high and have been threatened with insulin if this isn't under control. Help!! I thought I had got this organised
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- Thread starter Kissyfur
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novorapidboi26
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
carrots and peas aren't food items that I would say have significant effects on blood sugar levels.....
they are reasonable low in carbs and slowly processes in to glucose.....
when were you diagnosed and are you on any oral medications......?
how many carbs are you eating a day, so bread, potato, rice etc....?
they are reasonable low in carbs and slowly processes in to glucose.....
when were you diagnosed and are you on any oral medications......?
how many carbs are you eating a day, so bread, potato, rice etc....?
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
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Hi and welcome
Carbohydrates are the problem for us diabetics, so anything which contains sugars or starchy carbs are a problem and will break down in our digestive system to form glucose. That means the obvious sweet stuff like cakes, biscuits and sweets and any added sugar and drinks containing sugar, but also beer or cider and fruit including dried fruit and fruit juice and all the starchy foods like bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, couscous, breakfast cereal, even otherwise healthy porridge. These things will all push your blood glucose levels up to a greater or lesser extent. Peas and carrots are higher in carbs than some other vegetables but no where near as bad as bread or pasta.
Perhaps if you give us an idea of what you currently eat on an average day for breakfast, lunch and dinner we could make alternative lower carb suggestions for what you could try instead.
Most of us here on the forum find a blood glucose meter an invaluable tool in helping us to manage our BG levels by indicating which foods and in what quantity we can get away with eating and which spike our blood too much and we need to avoid. because we all have different tastes and tolerances to carbohydrates, even though we are all diabetics. For instance some of us can eat porridge and get away with it whilst others get a huge BG spike from it that lasts half the day. Many of us can't manage pasta but a couple of small potatoes are ok whilst another person can eat a little pasta but potatoes send their readings skyward. Meters are relatively inexpensive to buy @ approx. £15 but the purchase of test strips for them can run up the finances and for this reason here on the forum, we recommend meters which have the cheapest test strips and for this reason, the SD Gluco Navii or the Spirit Health TEE2 are recommended as strips are just £8 for a pot of 50 as oppose to £15-£25 for some other brands.
Anyway, in the meantime, let us know what you currently eat and drink and we will attempt to help you.
Carbohydrates are the problem for us diabetics, so anything which contains sugars or starchy carbs are a problem and will break down in our digestive system to form glucose. That means the obvious sweet stuff like cakes, biscuits and sweets and any added sugar and drinks containing sugar, but also beer or cider and fruit including dried fruit and fruit juice and all the starchy foods like bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, couscous, breakfast cereal, even otherwise healthy porridge. These things will all push your blood glucose levels up to a greater or lesser extent. Peas and carrots are higher in carbs than some other vegetables but no where near as bad as bread or pasta.
Perhaps if you give us an idea of what you currently eat on an average day for breakfast, lunch and dinner we could make alternative lower carb suggestions for what you could try instead.
Most of us here on the forum find a blood glucose meter an invaluable tool in helping us to manage our BG levels by indicating which foods and in what quantity we can get away with eating and which spike our blood too much and we need to avoid. because we all have different tastes and tolerances to carbohydrates, even though we are all diabetics. For instance some of us can eat porridge and get away with it whilst others get a huge BG spike from it that lasts half the day. Many of us can't manage pasta but a couple of small potatoes are ok whilst another person can eat a little pasta but potatoes send their readings skyward. Meters are relatively inexpensive to buy @ approx. £15 but the purchase of test strips for them can run up the finances and for this reason here on the forum, we recommend meters which have the cheapest test strips and for this reason, the SD Gluco Navii or the Spirit Health TEE2 are recommended as strips are just £8 for a pot of 50 as oppose to £15-£25 for some other brands.
Anyway, in the meantime, let us know what you currently eat and drink and we will attempt to help you.
I was diagnosed about three years ago and had my levels under control or thereabouts. I was on Metformin but didn't find it agreed with me. The doctor reviewed my medication and dropped the dose. This year my reading today was 240 and the doctor had a fit. She has now put me on sitagliptina 100mgs. I have to keep a diary now and take bloods every other day. I return to doctor next week. I am confused about some of the things she is insistent I shouldn't have such as black tea as she puts it. Bread I eat no more than two slices of whole meal. Potatoes not many as they are usually mashed with carrots, broccoli etc and again pasta rice maybe once a week. I am worried that my diet isn't actually the problem!
Thank you so much Barbara.
I currently eat for breakfast cereal, with Greek yoghurt and frozen fruit of read berries on top. Lunch is when I usually have something on toast like beans or eggs and like today had a casserole withe beans and pulses with pork and carrots. I have watched what I eat but think I have got over confident. I know I can get it back on track. The doctor gave me a meter today and I have to keep a diary this week and take bloods every other day. I eat apples and all sorts of fruit every day and also vegetables. I do like potatoes and feel this has probably let me down. It has been suggested to me that I should have a light bite before bedtime which will get me through the night so my readings are not so high in the morning.
Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it.
Chris
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
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Hello Kissyfur
Sounds like you've had some odd advice about peas and carrots!
If you would like to examine how different foods are affecting you as an individual, one of the most direct methods would be to get a BG meter and check your readings immediately before and again 2 hours after eating.
This blog post by Alan S is a good framework if you'd like to know more. https://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/test-review-adjust.html
I'm not sure which brands of meters are available in Spain if you need to self-fund, but it would be worth looking around because some meters (and especially the strips that you need to use them) are much more expensive than others.
Sounds like you've had some odd advice about peas and carrots!
If you would like to examine how different foods are affecting you as an individual, one of the most direct methods would be to get a BG meter and check your readings immediately before and again 2 hours after eating.
This blog post by Alan S is a good framework if you'd like to know more. https://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/test-review-adjust.html
I'm not sure which brands of meters are available in Spain if you need to self-fund, but it would be worth looking around because some meters (and especially the strips that you need to use them) are much more expensive than others.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi again Chris.
My first bit of advice would be to scrap the breakfast cereal. They are usually high in sugars as well as starchy carbs and diabetics are usually most insulin resistant in the morning so breakfast time carbs are often the most difficult to get out of the system. What are you like with eggs? Maybe scrambled eggs with bacon or ham or an omelette with whatever filling you fancy including cheese. Or creamy natural Greek yoghurt with berries and nuts and seeds but no cereal or bread/toast. Or full English with mushrooms and a tomato but minus any beans, hash browns or bread/toast.
Beans on toast is very carb heavy as there are carbs in the toast, in the beans and in the sauce.... so a triple whammy! An omelette works well for lunch if you had yoghurt for breakfast or salad with eggs, meat or fish and a nice creamy coleslaw. I usually buy cheese coleslaw as it has slightly less carbs than regular and tastes better.
Eating lots of fruit is probably not helping you either. If you have a few berries with breakfast, then probably no more than a small apple for the rest of the day and not every day. It is best to keep away from grapes and bananas and oranges and other exotic fruits like mango and pineapple. Ideally just one piece of fruit a day.
For evening meal, many of us enjoy stir fries with steak or fish or ratatouille made with Mediterranean veggies and lots of lovely olive oil is good with either of those and cauliflower makes a great mashed potato substitute.... cooked and mashed with a good dollop of cream cheese and a spoon of mustard. It can be served with good quality bangers (look for high meat content sausages as the cheaper ones are bulked out with rusk which is carbs) or used to top a cottage or fish pie with plenty of grated cheese sprinkled on top of course. It can also be grated and used to replace rice or couscous and has a tiny fraction of the carbs in potato or rice. I love sausages or ham/gammon/bacon with cauliflower cheese and cabbage sweated in a knob of butter. Carrots, peas and sweetcorn occasionally are ok in small portions but try to have just one type at a time (ie don't have carrots and sweetcorn as two veg portions on the same plate) and be prepared to eliminate them if your meter shows too much of a spike. Parsnips and sweet potato can be as bad as potatoes or worse so be careful with them
You may notice that fatty foods like olive oil, cheese and butter feature quite a lot and this is intentional as you need an alternative source of energy if you are eating a lot less carbs and fat provides a good slow release alternative. Fat takes longer to digest than carbs and therefore keeps you fuller for longer so you don't feel hungry and sometimes 2 meals a day become enough. Quite a few of us have cream in our morning coffee as it is lower in carbs than milk and helps to keep us feeling satisfied with a lighter breakfast until evening.
There is a growing school of thought amongst eminent scientists that dietary fat is not responsible for Cardiovascular Disease as has previously been believed for the past 70 years and that the original research which suggested that was flawed at best and even possibly cherry picked to support the original scientist's theory. We have spent almost our whole lifetime being told to eat low fat and that may in part be the reason why we are seeing such a huge diabetes epidemic now. Foods which were made low fat had added sugars and starches to improve the flavour and texture or artificial transfats added to replace the natural saturated fats which were thought to be bad. In short, it is entirely possible that the low fat diet has lead to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.... the exact opposite of what was intended, particularly when combined with our more sedentary lifestyle.
Since you have been provided with a BG meter and strips, we usually recommend testing before food and then 2 hours after a meal. You are looking for your BG to rise no more than 3 full units after your meal, but ideally 2 or less. Anything more than that and you need to reduce the carb content of that meal or remove the main carbohydrate element of it. Keeping a food diary along with the readings will help you to see where changes need to be made but don't get too hung up on individual readings as many things can cause variation, so you are looking more for trends. It will take a few weeks to get your head around it but once you learn what to buy and how to cook it and how much your system can cope with and what it can't tolerate, it gets much easier. Also, once your body gets used to running on fat and protein and not on carbs, the cravings pretty much stop and you don't seem to need nearly as much food as before. In the mean time, having low carb snacks like boiled eggs, chicken thighs, cheese, olives (if you like them) and nuts to snack on when you feel the need helps keep you from eating more carby things like cakes biscuits or crisps.
I hope that helps you figure out what you need to do to help bring your levels down but do feel free to ask any questions and keep us posted with your progress. If you read some of the other posts on the forum you will find many inspirational stories of people losing a lot of weight as well as bringing their BG readings down dramatically by following this way of eating.
It is also important to increase your physical activity level, but a brisk walk each day or an hour or two of gardening is as good as anything, so don't feel like it has to be something really exertive, unless that is something you enjoy.
My first bit of advice would be to scrap the breakfast cereal. They are usually high in sugars as well as starchy carbs and diabetics are usually most insulin resistant in the morning so breakfast time carbs are often the most difficult to get out of the system. What are you like with eggs? Maybe scrambled eggs with bacon or ham or an omelette with whatever filling you fancy including cheese. Or creamy natural Greek yoghurt with berries and nuts and seeds but no cereal or bread/toast. Or full English with mushrooms and a tomato but minus any beans, hash browns or bread/toast.
Beans on toast is very carb heavy as there are carbs in the toast, in the beans and in the sauce.... so a triple whammy! An omelette works well for lunch if you had yoghurt for breakfast or salad with eggs, meat or fish and a nice creamy coleslaw. I usually buy cheese coleslaw as it has slightly less carbs than regular and tastes better.
Eating lots of fruit is probably not helping you either. If you have a few berries with breakfast, then probably no more than a small apple for the rest of the day and not every day. It is best to keep away from grapes and bananas and oranges and other exotic fruits like mango and pineapple. Ideally just one piece of fruit a day.
For evening meal, many of us enjoy stir fries with steak or fish or ratatouille made with Mediterranean veggies and lots of lovely olive oil is good with either of those and cauliflower makes a great mashed potato substitute.... cooked and mashed with a good dollop of cream cheese and a spoon of mustard. It can be served with good quality bangers (look for high meat content sausages as the cheaper ones are bulked out with rusk which is carbs) or used to top a cottage or fish pie with plenty of grated cheese sprinkled on top of course. It can also be grated and used to replace rice or couscous and has a tiny fraction of the carbs in potato or rice. I love sausages or ham/gammon/bacon with cauliflower cheese and cabbage sweated in a knob of butter. Carrots, peas and sweetcorn occasionally are ok in small portions but try to have just one type at a time (ie don't have carrots and sweetcorn as two veg portions on the same plate) and be prepared to eliminate them if your meter shows too much of a spike. Parsnips and sweet potato can be as bad as potatoes or worse so be careful with them
You may notice that fatty foods like olive oil, cheese and butter feature quite a lot and this is intentional as you need an alternative source of energy if you are eating a lot less carbs and fat provides a good slow release alternative. Fat takes longer to digest than carbs and therefore keeps you fuller for longer so you don't feel hungry and sometimes 2 meals a day become enough. Quite a few of us have cream in our morning coffee as it is lower in carbs than milk and helps to keep us feeling satisfied with a lighter breakfast until evening.
There is a growing school of thought amongst eminent scientists that dietary fat is not responsible for Cardiovascular Disease as has previously been believed for the past 70 years and that the original research which suggested that was flawed at best and even possibly cherry picked to support the original scientist's theory. We have spent almost our whole lifetime being told to eat low fat and that may in part be the reason why we are seeing such a huge diabetes epidemic now. Foods which were made low fat had added sugars and starches to improve the flavour and texture or artificial transfats added to replace the natural saturated fats which were thought to be bad. In short, it is entirely possible that the low fat diet has lead to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.... the exact opposite of what was intended, particularly when combined with our more sedentary lifestyle.
Since you have been provided with a BG meter and strips, we usually recommend testing before food and then 2 hours after a meal. You are looking for your BG to rise no more than 3 full units after your meal, but ideally 2 or less. Anything more than that and you need to reduce the carb content of that meal or remove the main carbohydrate element of it. Keeping a food diary along with the readings will help you to see where changes need to be made but don't get too hung up on individual readings as many things can cause variation, so you are looking more for trends. It will take a few weeks to get your head around it but once you learn what to buy and how to cook it and how much your system can cope with and what it can't tolerate, it gets much easier. Also, once your body gets used to running on fat and protein and not on carbs, the cravings pretty much stop and you don't seem to need nearly as much food as before. In the mean time, having low carb snacks like boiled eggs, chicken thighs, cheese, olives (if you like them) and nuts to snack on when you feel the need helps keep you from eating more carby things like cakes biscuits or crisps.
I hope that helps you figure out what you need to do to help bring your levels down but do feel free to ask any questions and keep us posted with your progress. If you read some of the other posts on the forum you will find many inspirational stories of people losing a lot of weight as well as bringing their BG readings down dramatically by following this way of eating.
It is also important to increase your physical activity level, but a brisk walk each day or an hour or two of gardening is as good as anything, so don't feel like it has to be something really exertive, unless that is something you enjoy.
Neens
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Welcome @Kissyfur glad that you have found good advice here. This forum and the helpful support in it has been a lifesaver for me. I was eating far too many carbs before diagnosis and despite lots of research couldn't find what the recommended levels were until I came here. Things make so much sense when you know, but it can be a minefield when you are first diagnosed and so much contradictory advice. Good luck.
Thank you so much for your help and support everyone. I've had a really good week this week with readings going in the right direction, although first thing in the morning reading still a bit high. Have started having supper which has helped. Feeling much more positive and certainly not so confused, as was said it is like a minefield at first and certainly very confusing. The first problem I feel was denial and getting past that feeling.
Thank you again for the vâlued support.
Chris
Thank you again for the vâlued support.
Chris
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