hey there!

[hannahbanana]

Hi, just popping in to introduce myself!
Recently I went to the Dr with vague symptoms like fatigue and inability to lose weight (I had a few different concerns and as I hadnt been to the Drs in 20yrs I thought it was time for a check up!LOL). Blood test results came back as prediabetes with a HbAIc of 43. Im aware this is low so honestly Im kinda grateful that I got an early wake up call, especially as alot of my family are type 2 diabetics.
Ive made some changes to my diet which I thought was fairly healthy. Im a vegan and mainly eat whole foods, inc brown rice, wholewheat pasta and bread. However Im 6st overweight and have been for many years no matter how many exercise plans and low calorie diets I go on. So now Ive cut nearly all the starchy carbs out of my diet (just 1 slice of bread and carbs from beans,veggies) to see if maybe its just that I dont tolerate carbs.
Hoping it makes a difference!

Been lurking for a couple of weeks and everybody here seems really friendly and knowledgeable. 😉

 

[Deleted member 21371]

This is a difficult one to answer.
I'm not vegan, and I respond well to low calorie diets. I did an 800 calorie shake based diet, (milk based) and exercised, through an NHS gym.
Overall I lost 5 stone, but I did lose a lot of that on a previous low fat low calorie diet as well, with a lot of plant based foods, (but not exclusive).
The other advantage of a low calorie diet is by definition, it has to be low carb, so BG isn't an issue.
We have posters who are vegan, hopefully they will be along to offer some good advice.

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi, just popping in to introduce myself!
Recently I went to the Dr with vague symptoms like fatigue and inability to lose weight (I had a few different concerns and as I hadnt been to the Drs in 20yrs I thought it was time for a check up!LOL). Blood test results came back as prediabetes with a HbAIc of 43. Im aware this is low so honestly Im kinda grateful that I got an early wake up call, especially as alot of my family are type 2 diabetics.
Ive made some changes to my diet which I thought was fairly healthy. Im a vegan and mainly eat whole foods, inc brown rice, wholewheat pasta and bread. However Im 6st overweight and have been for many years no matter how many exercise plans and low calorie diets I go on. So now Ive cut nearly all the starchy carbs out of my diet (just 1 slice of bread and carbs from beans,veggies) to see if maybe its just that I dont tolerate carbs.
Hoping it makes a difference!

Been lurking for a couple of weeks and everybody here seems really friendly and knowledgeable. 😉

Your HbA1C is just at the bottom end of prediabetes so it shouldn't take much work to get it down. Losing weight is probably more tricky but it may be more down to portion size rather than what you eat.
There are some low carb pastas based on edamame beans or black beans which are much lower than normal pasta and people substitute cauliflower rice for normal rice and veg like butternut squash and celeriac are lower carb than always having potatoes.
You do need to make sure you have enough protein and healthy fats.
As you are restricted in the foods that are zero carb like meat, fish and eggs then you would benefit from having a home testing blood glucose monitor so you can check that the meals you have don't increase your blood glucose too much, you would look for an increase from your meal after 2 hours of less than 3mmol/l or no more than 8mmol/l. If it is then you would need to reduce the portion size of the high carb foods or make substitutions. The suggested amount of total carbs per day is no more than 130g.

 

[ianf0ster]

Hi @hannahbanana
Not vegan myself, but I know from vegans in both this forum and the 'red one' that Diabetes control by diet is tough for vegans. the problem being that for vegans, all protein tends to come naturally packaged with a lot of carbohydrates, in contrast to carnivores where the protein comes naturally packaged with fats.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi @hannahbanana
Not vegan myself, but I know from vegans in both this forum and the 'red one' that Diabetes control by diet is tough for vegans. the problem being that for vegans, all protein tends to come naturally packaged with a lot of carbohydrates, in contrast to carnivores where the protein comes naturally packaged with fats.

I think it depends on which plant-based protein sources you use?

Tofu, tempeh, nutritional yeast and mycoprotein (quorn) are all high in protein and low or very low in carbs.

Pulses are popular, and do have relatively high total carb values, but they contain a lot of resistant starch which passes though the small intestine unabsorbed (hence the farting as bacteria feast on it in the lower intestine). Only around 35% of carbs in pulses are available for absorption.

So like chicken breast - which is animal protein, but once you take the skin off is low in fat - I guess it depends which sources a person chooses, and how they respond to them?

It’s perfectly possible to have a nutritious and satisfying low or moderate carb vegan menu 🙂