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Hi all another newbie here

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w0z26

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi everyone,

When someone ever mentioned Type 2 I keep thinking of VW camper vans, but here's a bit about me.

I've been told for what must be 2-3 years now that I have Diabetes Type 2, however I've never really accepted it and carried on living my life as normal as can be, I always dreaded going to see Diabetes nurse in my practice as I always got told off.

So whats changed?

We're on lock down and my Diabetes nurse rang me and said my last eyesight scan was worryingly abnormal, so she suggested an at home test kit that I've been using for the last few days and well lets say it's really hit home...

My test results are averaging between 8-9 sometimes up to 14.4 which i'm almost certain that's not good and when it was high on a couple of occasions i did feel ill.

So I'd like to say a big Thank you to my Diabetes Nurse for persisting with me and so now i'm here, I am now trying to change my diet and walk about 2 miles everyday.

Picking up some great knowledge thanks to this website.

Stay safe everyone.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum.

How fantastic that you have an enlightened DN.... just a shame a meter wasn't suggested sooner. Many health care professionals discourage the use of a BG meter for Type 2s, but many of the members here on the forum find that it is an invaluable tool in seeing what certain foods do to our levels and use it together with a food diary to tailor our diet to our own body's carbohydrate intolerance. This is achieved by testing before and then 2 hours after a meal and adjusting the carbohydrate content of the meal next time so that it rises by no more than 3mmols at that 2 hours after food mark.

I am not sure how much you know, but diabetes is about carbohydrates in general and not just sweet, sugary stuff which causes us problems, so starchy carbs from grains, like bread, pastry, rice, pasta, couscous, noodles, breakfast cereals and potatoes in their various guises are all broken down by the body reasonable easily into glucose. Sometimes the brown/wholemeal/wholegrain varieties have less of an effect but some of us find they spike our BG levels just the same as white, so we have to restrict our intake of all of those things quite dramatically. Diabetes can be quite an individual thing though due to us all having a slightly different metabolism and gut biome, so whilst one person can get away with eating a few small potatoes, another can't, but may be able to manage a little pasta or a slice or two of bread. Generally most of us are more resistant to insulin in the morning so avoiding high carbs foods like bread/toast and breakfast cereals and perhaps replacing with eggs in whatever form you prefer them or a full English minus and hash browns or toast/fried bread works well or if you fancy something lighter, a couple of spoons of Creamy Natural Greek Yoghurt (avoid low fat) with a few berries and chopped nuts and mixed seeds is nice but it depends on your tastes and time available.

Anyway, I have rambled on quite enough. If you need any specific help/support/advice please shout up.

PS. Just curious if your nurse has provided you with a meter and test strips are being prescribed or if you have had to self fund? If the latter, which model do you have because it is often cheaper to discard a higher end meter in favour of a more basic model which has much cheaper test strips, since it is these consumables which rapidly tot up the finances when you are testing lots and there is a huge difference in the price between £8 for a pot of 50 up to £25 for some others. The companies that make them often give away meters to Health Care Professionals because they make their money on the test strips, so it may be that the nurse was able to give you a meter but you have to purchase test strips which might be less economical than buying a new meter for £15, which has much cheaper strips.
 
I have to say I always thought it was about cutting down sugar and fat, I'm not and never will be an expert on nutrition, so thanks for that info.
This will explain as to why I have basic cereal with fully skimmed milk my levels rise.
The kit I was given is a Agamatrix, didn't cost me anything and it's OK apart from the fact I now have purple finger tips.
 
Welcome to the sore finger club!

Unfortunately the NHS dietary advice is not as helpful as it might be and it is largely an historic issue..... for years (all our lives for most of us) we have been led to believe that fat is bad for us, that it makes us fat and causes cardio vascular disease and gives us high cholesterol. This advice was based on research which was done 70 years ago but there is a growing school of thought from quite eminent scientists that it was based on flawed data and that in fact, the low fat diet which we have been encouraged to follow may in part be the cause of the diabetes epidemic which our generation has become victim to. The sad thing is that diabetes increases our risk of Cardiovascular disease so there has not been a drop in heat problems as a result of all the low fat products we have been consuming and we have an increasingly obese population.
The advantage of dietary fat is that it is a natural part of our diet, it takes longer for the body to digest and therefore you feel full for longer whereas with eating low fat and more carbs, you are hungry a couple of hours later and want to eat more, so you end up eating more food than you actually need. Fat also tastes good. When you remove fat from meat and milk and yoghurt it doesn't taste as good. With manufactured foods, the industry replaced the fat with sugar and other carbs and chemicals to make it taste better, so we ended up eating even more refined carbs, all of which is putting a strain on our pancreas, to produce more insulin and one of the things insulin does is to encourage the body to store this surplus glucose from carbs as fat, so by following a low fat diet, we feel more hungry, so we eat too much, we eat too many carbohydrates and we get fatter. Our bodies get used to huge amounts of insulin circulating to deal with the glucose in our blood until we become less responsive to it or our pancreas can no longer produce enough insulin and it starts to fail.

The upshot of this is that many of us find that following a low or very low carbohydrate, higher fat (LCHF) way of eating reduces our BG levels, means we want/need less food ..... 2 meals a day are usually enough without feeling hungry or craving food in .... and it tastes good, so we don't feel deprived and can follow such a way of eating for the rest of our lives without too much effort, rather than a normal diet which usually results in a yo-yo effect when we stop and start it or requires a lot of will power to sustain long term.

I was a sugar addict and serious bread lover pre diagnosis. I now no longer eat cakes biscuits sweets (just the odd square of 70%+ dark chocolate), bread, rice or pasta and just very occasionally a small portion of potatoes or sweet potato once or twice a week and I don't miss them or crave them which is a real revelation for me as I loved them.
Breakfast for me now is a cup of coffee with double cream and a 2 egg omelette with a variety of fillings, usually including mushrooms, onion and cheese, with a big plate of salad and a dollop of creamy cheese coleslaw and a bit of avocado.

I might have a chunk of my favourite cheese at lunchtime or a handful of nuts if I do feel hungry and then in the evening. something like high meat content sausages with cauliflower cheese, carrots and cabbage done in a knob of butter or salmon pan fried in butter with aubergines and served with broccoli or creamed spinach and a couple of small new potatoes or minced beef (at least 10% fat, not lean minced steak) and onions topped with mashed cauliflower instead of potato and served with swede and kale (sweated in butter).

Like quite a few others on this forum my cholesterol levels are coming down since eating more cream, butter, cheese, fatty meat and other high fat foods and drastically reducing my carbohydrate intake and my weight is currently stable in the normal BMI range, which all confirms to me that eating more fat has not been detrimental for me and it is beneficial in helping me manage my diabetes.
 
Hi W0z26, When you cut down on Carbohydrates you need to replace them with something else (unless you go on a crash diet and even then you can't stay on one for long).
So you have a choice between replacing the lost Calories with just Protein, with just Fat or with a combination of both.
Personally I chose both, with the balance slightly towards Fat.
So don't fear Fat! Skimmed Milk isn't as good as whole milk for a T2D. In fact full fat dairy forms a decent portion of my current meal plans.
Eggs are a wonderful food, almost equal amounts of Protein and Fat with no carbohydrates. So a breakfast of Boiled. Poached, Scrambled, Fried eggs or Omlette but with no Toast. Or bacon/bacon & eggs would make a great breakfast choice.
As would a handful of berries (but not most other fruits) with a generous dollop of double cream or full fat greek style yogurt.
 
That's all of great help for me as I always taught to believe that to lose weight go on a fat free diet, in fact just like I did 10 years ago, I lost 3 stone but went bonkers after that for normal food and gained it all back on a year later.

I'm only 44 and have early signs of Cirrhosis of the liver (not great) Now potentially Kidney issues.

I used to be super active and now struggle to do most things.

So if anyone has been past this website address by their doctor like I did a few years ago, take advice from me as by ignoring this as long as I have and being in denial like me is just being ignorant and damn right stupid.
 
You are not the only one to consider themselves damaged by conventional teaching about diet. Luckily we seem to be resilient enough in many cases for a simple correction in the diet to reverse many problems.
Follow what your meter shows, eat a lot of low carb veges, roasted, as stirfries and salads, some berries with cream and sugar free jelly makes a good dessert. Keeping your glucose levels in the normal range is a good thing for many of your organs and hopefully there will be improvements.
 
Glad you have found us @w0z26

Sorry about your journey to get here, but try not to focus on that, what’s past is past - you can’t change that, but you can use it to give you more determination to make positive changes now towards a happier, healthier, you.

Lots of ideas here for things you can try to improve your BGs aroind food, but remember... no one else has your exact diabetes, in your body, and with your tastebuds, preferences and metabolism. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution and we are all just trying to find our way through the maze. You will end up with a unique set of go-to meals, occasional treats and surprising ‘can get away withs’ that will be all your own.

Experiment, try things out, test, review and adjust towards better BG numbers and a meal plan that keeps you happy - this is a change that has to be sustainable for you.

And keep asking questions, folks here will have plenty of ideas, swaps, alternatives and exchanges you can try. 🙂
 
Hello @w0z26, welcome to the forum.
You have already been given some great advice and information, and I hope this helps you find a good solution that works for you.
I certainly found that low-carb eating plus some more exercise worked for me, and has also meant that I have feel much healthier and energetic.
There is a lot of information to absorb though. If you want some further information on the ideas mentioned here are some links that might be useful:

Firstly there is the Diabetes UK Learning Zone, and there is a link to this at the top of the page.
If you want to know more about the Low-Carb way of eating then Maggie Davey's letter, shows how this lady approached the problem.
test-review-adjust gives information on how to go about a testing regime

Best wishes, and I hope you will keep posting, ask any questions and let us know how it goes.
 
Welcome to the forum @w0z26 congratulations on taking control.🙂
 
Welcome to the forum @w0z26

I can’t think of anything more to add to all the useful information that you have been given above.
Only just to say please come back with any questions that you have. Nothing is considered silly on here. just ask.
 
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