Hi everyone. i have had T2 diabetes for a while now, but i still am confused about what to eat and what not to eat. some people on here advice not to eat , potatoes, rice, bread, pasta etc. I just read on this site giving examples for breakfast- just to list a few it said you could have wholegrain cereal or 2 slices of wholegrain toast( i was lead to believe that brown bread was as bad as white and should be avoided). it goes on to give ideas for lunch. chicken or tuna sandwich (again bread) or a pasta salad.... i thought pasta was a no no even if it was brown. most people says stay away from pasta altogether. and lastly ideas for evening meal were Lasagne with salad or roast chicken veg and potatoes or curry with rice. im confused.... should i eat these foods or not ??? any advice welcome
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Hi everyone, i have had type 2 diabetes for a while now but still confused
- Thread starter jane58
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Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
This site caters for all types of diabetics, which is why a lot of us used blood glucose testers to determine what we can and can't eat and still stay in normal numbers, even if a type 2 and being advised not to bother our pretty little heads with complicated numbers as we might get all frightened by them.
I eat anything which is lower than 11%carbohydrate, but no low fat options - and I make an exception for high cocoa chocolate, but I only have one square of it so it doesn't even cause a flicker in the blood glucose levels. By staying at less than 40gm of carbs a day I get normal numbers, and have done for the last 7 years, needing no medication.
Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
What meds are you on for the diabetes @jane58 ? The answer to your question is whatever works for your blood sugar. Some Type 2s can eat those things, some can’t, and some can but only in small portions. You should eat what works for you as an individual.
Remember that there are different kinds of diabetes and so the meals and recipes here cover a broad range. It’s up to the individual to choose what works for them. Type 1s like myself can eat pretty much anything. Type 2s need to watch their carbs and can eat varying amounts per day.
Remember that there are different kinds of diabetes and so the meals and recipes here cover a broad range. It’s up to the individual to choose what works for them. Type 1s like myself can eat pretty much anything. Type 2s need to watch their carbs and can eat varying amounts per day.
Proud to be erratic
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- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 3c
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And @jane58 just to further complicate foods that we can/ shouldn't/ cant/ really ought not to/ or simply don't choose to eat ... I'm fully insulin dependent and so, as @Inka said, can pretty much eat anything provided I take insulin for the carbs in that 'anything. BUT sometimes I just want a short holiday from taking insulin (ie I'm in a rush or can't be faffed to stop what I'm doing, clean my hands, get my kit out of the safe place, etc) (or just having my own personal moment of rebellion!) THEN I need to know what food is available to me at that moment that has no carbs or negligible carbs so I can eat without triggering a glucose spike.
At these times I'm treading a similar path to a T2 and needing to be carb aware and carb avoiding. Then its deceptively useful to know and understand what foods work for me from testing (or closely CGM monitoring). Its one more aspect of 'trial and learning' for my D.
At these times I'm treading a similar path to a T2 and needing to be carb aware and carb avoiding. Then its deceptively useful to know and understand what foods work for me from testing (or closely CGM monitoring). Its one more aspect of 'trial and learning' for my D.
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I followed the principals in this link https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/ for a low carbs approach to managing my Type 2 with no medication and was guided by testing with a home monitor before meals and then after 2 hours, that enabled me to establish what foods I could tolerate.
The carbs I have need to be worth it so no I rarely have potatoes, never have rice or normal pasta but do have bread. I don't have more than one carby veg at any one meal, the breakfast cereals are low sugar granola or All Bran as a topping on full fat Greek yoghurt. I perhaps do have less carbs than some people at approx 70g per day but have determined that by my testing strategy when first diagnosed. I don't test particularly often now unless there is something new. For example I was out for lunch last week and had a turkey and ham pie with veg, I had not had pie in over 2 years so was curious, after 2 hours I was at 5,6mmol/l so I was gobsmacked. Not that I will have pie any time soon,
Docb
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- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Hi @jane58. Crazy isn't it. If you tried to follow everybody's advice then you would be so busy organising meals that you would have no time for anything else. I'm not going to try and tell you what to eat or not to eat, that would create more confusion and no doubt generate loads of argument. My approach in most things (including organising my diet after diagnosis) is to go back to first principles and work out what would suit me best.
I worked from the simple idea that carbohydrate converts to glucose and the glucose turns up in your blood. If your system cannot handle the glucose you get diagnosed with diabetes. Next first principle is that it is a good idea to keep blood glucose within bounds. I know it's all more complicated than that when you get into the details but you can worry about them when you have got the basics sorted.
As many on here will know I like numbers and measuring things. That's because numbers do not have opinions. A bit of reading around pointed to the idea that consuming around 120 g of carbohydrate a day seemed to suit a lot of people and so looked like a good place to start.
My next question was not... what do I eat to get 120 g/day?... but how much carbohydrate am I eating now? No point in trying to get "down" to 120 if I was not eating much more than in the first place. That I thought was easy. Get a pencil and paper and write down everything I consumed in a week, and that was everything including random coffees, dibbing in the fridge, the can I often consumed with peanuts in front of the TV as well as regular meals and against every item look up and write down the carb content. Add it all up, divide by 7 and you have a carbs per day consumed figure.
Actually that was not as easy as I first thought because i soon discovered that carb contents in food are mostly guesswork and you could look stuff up and get quite different answers depending on which source you used. Once I twigged that, and twigged that portion size was more important than almost anything I got quite happy with rough estimates for carb content in my list and decided to make do with whatever I came up with.
When I did that, I found that I was eating somewhere between 200 and 300 g of carbohydrate a day. Bingo I thought, 120g carbohydrate for me could work.
Next step was figuring out what to do to get there. My instinct is always to try and get what I want by working with what i have rather than looking for some magic bullet which will solve all my ills. Less work and fewer disappointments that way I find.
So back to my list of things I ate in a week. Ran my eye down the list and the big hitters stood out immediately. Biggest were anything that contained flour in any quantity. The pastry on a pie, pizza, naan bread, pasta and the cake with a coffee. Second biggest were root veg, especially potatoes.
Next, I knew whatever I did would have to fit in with my way of doing things -itsthe only way I could keep it going. I'm a carer and so I had to fit in around routines. I can cook most anything but have no desire to spend hours in the kitchen and I have better things to do than spend more hours reading nutrition labels in supermarkets.
Taking all those things together I stopped eating some things.... pies and pizza being top of lists. Cut back on bread by going for less of something more tasty and now make my own. When I make a pasta dish I use less pasta and more sauce. Same for curries - make my own without the carb heavy gravy beloved of the takeaway. Make soups in batches - no flour to thicken them as in commercial soups. Trained the local chippie to lightly batter my fish and include a "mini chips" on their list and so on. All the time nudging but, apart from the couple of eliminations, never really changing much to line up with some grand scheme promoted by somebody or other. My blood glucose is doing OK, albeit with a bit of medication and I will take that.
So there you go - a bit long but a way of going about things in which you can come up with your own bespoke solution without having to try and unscramble all that apparently conflicting advice about what you can or cannot eat!
I worked from the simple idea that carbohydrate converts to glucose and the glucose turns up in your blood. If your system cannot handle the glucose you get diagnosed with diabetes. Next first principle is that it is a good idea to keep blood glucose within bounds. I know it's all more complicated than that when you get into the details but you can worry about them when you have got the basics sorted.
As many on here will know I like numbers and measuring things. That's because numbers do not have opinions. A bit of reading around pointed to the idea that consuming around 120 g of carbohydrate a day seemed to suit a lot of people and so looked like a good place to start.
My next question was not... what do I eat to get 120 g/day?... but how much carbohydrate am I eating now? No point in trying to get "down" to 120 if I was not eating much more than in the first place. That I thought was easy. Get a pencil and paper and write down everything I consumed in a week, and that was everything including random coffees, dibbing in the fridge, the can I often consumed with peanuts in front of the TV as well as regular meals and against every item look up and write down the carb content. Add it all up, divide by 7 and you have a carbs per day consumed figure.
Actually that was not as easy as I first thought because i soon discovered that carb contents in food are mostly guesswork and you could look stuff up and get quite different answers depending on which source you used. Once I twigged that, and twigged that portion size was more important than almost anything I got quite happy with rough estimates for carb content in my list and decided to make do with whatever I came up with.
When I did that, I found that I was eating somewhere between 200 and 300 g of carbohydrate a day. Bingo I thought, 120g carbohydrate for me could work.
Next step was figuring out what to do to get there. My instinct is always to try and get what I want by working with what i have rather than looking for some magic bullet which will solve all my ills. Less work and fewer disappointments that way I find.
So back to my list of things I ate in a week. Ran my eye down the list and the big hitters stood out immediately. Biggest were anything that contained flour in any quantity. The pastry on a pie, pizza, naan bread, pasta and the cake with a coffee. Second biggest were root veg, especially potatoes.
Next, I knew whatever I did would have to fit in with my way of doing things -itsthe only way I could keep it going. I'm a carer and so I had to fit in around routines. I can cook most anything but have no desire to spend hours in the kitchen and I have better things to do than spend more hours reading nutrition labels in supermarkets.
Taking all those things together I stopped eating some things.... pies and pizza being top of lists. Cut back on bread by going for less of something more tasty and now make my own. When I make a pasta dish I use less pasta and more sauce. Same for curries - make my own without the carb heavy gravy beloved of the takeaway. Make soups in batches - no flour to thicken them as in commercial soups. Trained the local chippie to lightly batter my fish and include a "mini chips" on their list and so on. All the time nudging but, apart from the couple of eliminations, never really changing much to line up with some grand scheme promoted by somebody or other. My blood glucose is doing OK, albeit with a bit of medication and I will take that.
So there you go - a bit long but a way of going about things in which you can come up with your own bespoke solution without having to try and unscramble all that apparently conflicting advice about what you can or cannot eat!
I am not on any meds yet. Diabetes nurse has delayed meds as I have gallstones and meds might annoy my stomach further. Hopefully my HBA1c will be down when he checks me again in may
Your advice is very helpful many thanks
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I think you are in the US in which case nutritional information is given differently as in the UK the FIBRE is already deducted from the carb value but in the US the FIBER is included so would be deducted. I know this confuses people when they see something from the US.
I think you will also find here there are more options for bread which include seeds and whole grains and there are alternative low carb pastas made from beans rather than wheat.
Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Its one of the worst things you can eat. A slice of sandwich loaf can raise your sugar faster than sugar straight from the bowl.
That’s simply not true (although, to be fair, I’ve never eaten American bread
). Bread does not raise blood sugar faster than sugar! If it did, we’d use it as a hypo treatment!
While Type 2s need to watch the amount of carbs they eat, demonising food like this isn’t good. Some Type 2s can eat moderate amounts of bread. Not everyone needs - or wants - to eat a keto diet.
That’s simply not true (although, to be fair, I’ve never eaten American bread
). Bread does not raise blood sugar faster than sugar! If it did, we’d use it as a hypo treatment! While Type 2s need to watch the amount of carbs they eat, demonising food like this isn’t good. Some Type 2s can eat moderate amounts of bread. Not everyone needs - or wants - to eat a keto diet.
Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Your enthusiasm might have taken over but you called pasta “bad”, and wholemeal bread bad indirectly:
forum.diabetes.org.uk
.
A broad church - low carb is not the only way
Just a gentle reminder to members that our forum is supposed to be a friendly and supportive place, which encourages members to find their own way through the available options to find a diabetes management approach that meets their ambitions, and is appealing and sustainable for them. While...
forum.diabetes.org.uk
.
Thank you kindly for your reply. i will take your advice, ill take baby steps as sometimes all this totally overwhelms me. I will stop the bread even though today i had a brown roll with tuna in spring water for lunch followed by a apple. I checked my glucose levels before i ate my lunch and it was 6.9, i checked again 2 hours later and it was 8.6. I didn't actually think that was all that bad?
hmmm i think mhtyler has confused me a little lol, not that it was their intention. I had a brown bread roll with tuna in spring water followed by a apple for lunch. i checked my glucose level before the meal it was 6.9 and then 2 hours later and it was 8.9. deffo didnt make my levels spike that much, then again mhtyler said anything above7.8 can cause damage. I thought if you eat a meal and your levels dont go about 3, that meal is ok for you? so many mixed messages making my head spin lol. finding it so very hard to quit carbs like rice bread and pasta. i have cut back a lot and try to have it in moderation and always have the brown varieties as some ppl adviced me to do. then i get told stay away from these foods altogether. It is no wonder i'm confused. I think ill keep monitoring my levels after everything i eat and see what works for me. I am so very grateful to each and every one who gives advice because i have so much to learn. i will and i need to stop stressing myself out. as its all being getting me down .Its one of the worst things you can eat. A slice of sandwich loaf can raise your sugar faster than sugar straight from the bowl.
That’s simply not true (although, to be fair, I’ve never eaten American bread
While Type 2s need to watch the amount of carbs they eat, demonising food like this isn’t good. Some Type 2s can eat moderate amounts of bread. Not everyone needs - or wants - to eat a keto diet.
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Inka
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Which is why Everydayupsanddown made that thread I linked to @jane58 There was a period when a few people were leaping on members saying things about all carbs being bad, and it caused upset and confusion and scared some members away because of the intensity, tone and the demonising of foods.
You’re quite right that your lunch of a brown bread roll and an apple didn’t spike you. Your blood sugar rose 2mmol, which is what people with Type 2 aim for (some say 2mmol, some say no more than 3mmol). If you want to experiment, you could switch things round a bit and, say, swap the apple for some berries and see how that affects your blood sugar at 2hrs. It’s all a case of experimentation as to what works for you, your lifestyle and your individual situation 🙂
You’re quite right that your lunch of a brown bread roll and an apple didn’t spike you. Your blood sugar rose 2mmol, which is what people with Type 2 aim for (some say 2mmol, some say no more than 3mmol). If you want to experiment, you could switch things round a bit and, say, swap the apple for some berries and see how that affects your blood sugar at 2hrs. It’s all a case of experimentation as to what works for you, your lifestyle and your individual situation 🙂
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Franthepotter
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- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
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- She/Her
Hi Jane, I've found the food choices the hardest thing about diabetes and still do. It seems that different bodies tolerate different things. Good luck
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
The result you got was absolutely fine according to the guidelines for Type 2 in the UK. 4-7mmol/l before meals and no more than 2-3mmol/l increase or 8 -8.5mmol/l 2 hours post meal.
The guideline in the US where mhtyler posts from may be different.
Use your monitor and make your own decisions based on eating both foods you like and your readings.
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