What do you call eating healthy? What is healthy for a non diabetic person may not be healthy for a diabetic.
Unfortunately many diabetics have little understanding of what the food they eat does to their Blood Glucose (BG) levels and this is why home testing can be so helpful as it enables you to see which foods are a problem for you and which you can get away with and is can really help to discourage you from eating the stuff that causes you a problem when you see it sending your levels into orbit and encouraging when you find meals that hardly impact your BG.
The fact of the matter is that all carbohydrates break down into glucose in the digestive system and are absorbed into the blood stream where it is used to provide energy for all your bodily functions and any surplus should be stored as fat for later. If you have diabetes then that glucose sits in the blood stream for too long and over time it risks clogging your blood vessels. One of the simplest ways of reducing BG levels is to put less carbohydrates into your body, because they produce the most glucose, so not just sugar and sweet stuff but bread and pasta and pastry and breakfast cereals and rice and anything made with or from grains and starch veg like potatoes. Not saying not to eat any of these things but reducing your portion size of your favourites and replacing others with lower carb alternatives, like mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes or celeriac chips instead of potato or cauliflower rice. Changing to wholemeal and wholegrain in itself doesn't make much difference as whole meal as almost as many carbs as white but a bit more fibre. Reducing your portion size and bulking your meals out with other lower carb foods will make a significant difference to your levels. Even oats/porridge which is considered healthy and an ideal breakfast for diabetics by some health care professionals is high in carbs and it sends my BG levels into orbit so I had to give it up. Testing is the only way to find out if porridge is good for you or better left off the menu and how many potatoes your body can cope with and if a few chips or couple of roasties are actually better for your diabetes than a baked potato. Bread is my nemesis and I have mostly cut it from my diet as it spikes me too much. That was a really big deal for me as I loved bread and of course it is a convenient carrier for so many foods, so finding ways to eat without it was mind boggling at first but 5 years down the line it doesn't really bother me at all and the odd social occasion when I have a sandwich (funerals buffets etc) I actually wonder what the attraction was. There are some lower carb options which some people find works for them along with reducing how much they consume. To put it into a little bit of context, a single slice of medium wholemeal bread contains about 15g carbs and a teaspoon of sugar is 4g carbs so one slice of bread has the same amount of glucose as 3-4 spoons of sugar, so your average sandwich of 2 slices of bread equates to 7-8g sugar. Having something like an omelette for breakfast or creamy natural Greek yoghurt with a few berries and chopped nuts and/or mixed seeds can be just as filling and be far less carbs than 2 slices of toast or a bowl or cereal. Even bacon and eggs and mushrooms, which you might consider unhealthy has almost no carbs and will be unlikely to inflate your BG levels, whereas a couple of slices of wholemeal toast with half a tin of baked beans might seem like a really healthy choice but you have the carbs from the bread and the carbs from the beans themselves and then the sugar in the sauce, all totting up to a very high carb count. At diagnosis, I was eating 4 slices of wholemeal toast with a whole tin of baked beans for lunch and thinking that was a good healthy choice..... I shudder to think how many carbs I was consuming! What I am trying to illustrate is that you need to be able to see which foods raise your BG too much in order to manage your diabetes well, particularly if medication is upsetting your system, but dietary changes are necessary even with medication because the medication alone will not keep it well managed long term and you will need progressively stronger and more medication to keep a lid on it.
I should also say, that it isn't all sack cloth and ashes! Many of us have cream in our coffee instead of milk on a morning because cream is lower carb and more filling. We have meat and fish and eggs and cheese and veg or salad, we just reduce or cut out the high carb foods. So I have a big bowl of chilli with a big dollop of full fat coleslaw on a bed of cooked shredded cabbage or broccoli or cauliflower rice (grated cauliflower.... you can buy it grated and ready to zap in the microwave I believe) If it is a special occasion I will have a nice ribeye steak with mushrooms and salad and coleslaw and celeriac chips and that is still a low carb meal.
What do you call eating healthy? What is healthy for a non diabetic person may not be healthy for a diabetic.
Unfortunately many diabetics have little understanding of what the food they eat does to their Blood Glucose (BG) levels and this is why home testing can be so helpful as it enables you to see which foods are a problem for you and which you can get away with and is can really help to discourage you from eating the stuff that causes you a problem when you see it sending your levels into orbit and encouraging when you find meals that hardly impact your BG.
The fact of the matter is that all carbohydrates break down into glucose in the digestive system and are absorbed into the blood stream where it is used to provide energy for all your bodily functions and any surplus should be stored as fat for later. If you have diabetes then that glucose sits in the blood stream for too long and over time it risks clogging your blood vessels. One of the simplest ways of reducing BG levels is to put less carbohydrates into your body, because they produce the most glucose, so not just sugar and sweet stuff but bread and pasta and pastry and breakfast cereals and rice and anything made with or from grains and starch veg like potatoes. Not saying not to eat any of these things but reducing your portion size of your favourites and replacing others with lower carb alternatives, like mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes or celeriac chips instead of potato or cauliflower rice. Changing to wholemeal and wholegrain in itself doesn't make much difference as whole meal as almost as many carbs as white but a bit more fibre. Reducing your portion size and bulking your meals out with other lower carb foods will make a significant difference to your levels. Even oats/porridge which is considered healthy and an ideal breakfast for diabetics by some health care professionals is high in carbs and it sends my BG levels into orbit so I had to give it up. Testing is the only way to find out if porridge is good for you or better left off the menu and how many potatoes your body can cope with and if a few chips or couple of roasties are actually better for your diabetes than a baked potato. Bread is my nemesis and I have mostly cut it from my diet as it spikes me too much. That was a really big deal for me as I loved bread and of course it is a convenient carrier for so many foods, so finding ways to eat without it was mind boggling at first but 5 years down the line it doesn't really bother me at all and the odd social occasion when I have a sandwich (funerals buffets etc) I actually wonder what the attraction was. There are some lower carb options which some people find works for them along with reducing how much they consume. To put it into a little bit of context, a single slice of medium wholemeal bread contains about 15g carbs and a teaspoon of sugar is 4g carbs so one slice of bread has the same amount of glucose as 3-4 spoons of sugar, so your average sandwich of 2 slices of bread equates to 7-8g sugar. Having something like an omelette for breakfast or creamy natural Greek yoghurt with a few berries and chopped nuts and/or mixed seeds can be just as filling and be far less carbs than 2 slices of toast or a bowl or cereal. Even bacon and eggs and mushrooms, which you might consider unhealthy has almost no carbs and will be unlikely to inflate your BG levels, whereas a couple of slices of wholemeal toast with half a tin of baked beans might seem like a really healthy choice but you have the carbs from the bread and the carbs from the beans themselves and then the sugar in the sauce, all totting up to a very high carb count. At diagnosis, I was eating 4 slices of wholemeal toast with a whole tin of baked beans for lunch and thinking that was a good healthy choice..... I shudder to think how many carbs I was consuming! What I am trying to illustrate is that you need to be able to see which foods raise your BG too much in order to manage your diabetes well, particularly if medication is upsetting your system, but dietary changes are necessary even with medication because the medication alone will not keep it well managed long term and you will need progressively stronger and more medication to keep a lid on it.
I should also say, that it isn't all sack cloth and ashes! Many of us have cream in our coffee instead of milk on a morning because cream is lower carb and more filling. We have meat and fish and eggs and cheese and veg or salad, we just reduce or cut out the high carb foods. So I have a big bowl of chilli with a big dollop of full fat coleslaw on a bed of cooked shredded cabbage or broccoli or cauliflower rice (grated cauliflower.... you can buy it grated and ready to zap in the microwave I believe) If it is a special occasion I will have a nice ribeye steak with mushrooms and salad and coleslaw and celeriac chips and that is still a low carb meal.
hi Rebrascora,
