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Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
Hi,
- Thread starter Lorac22
- Start date
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rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi and welcome
Probably more useful advice on this forum than anywhere else so make yourself a cuppa and find a comfortable chair and do some reading. There are many informative posts here on the forum but will give you the gist of it here....
All carbohydrates are the problem for us diabetics, not just sugar as you may have thought. The body breaks down carbs from bread, pasta, rice, breakfast cereals, even otherwise healthy foods like porridge and fruit (in all it's forms... fresh dried and juiced) into glucose as well as from cakes and biscuits and sweets and chocolate. The glucose is absorbed into the blood stream and with us diabetics it gets a bit stuck there for a variety of reasons to do with insulin production. Usually Type 2 diabetics have become resistant to the insulin their pancreas produces, so the insulin is less effective at removing the glucose and with us Type 1s our pancreas has been damaged by our immune system and we can't produce enough insulin.
Anyway, the key to managing your diabetes through diet is to avoid putting so much glucose into the blood stream and that is achieved my limiting the amount of carbohydrates you eat. It takes a bit of getting your head around restricting such a huge number of foods from the biggest food group, but following a low carb way of eating can be enjoyable once you get your head around it and we can help you with lots of tips and tricks to make it easier.
The first thing to do is to keep a very honest food and drink diary of everything you eat over a few days and weigh things like your cereal portion or your pasta/rice potatoes etc and count the number of slices of bread. Then start looking at the nutritional information on the back of the food packaging (not the traffic light system on the front which is useless to us diabetics) and work out roughly how many grams of carbs you are currently eating and drinking in a day. Then start looking at one item or meal that you can change to reduce that carb intake. It might be changing your breakfast or even just changing any snacks you eat to low carb snacks and we can give you suggestions for those, so please ask.
As @Inka mentioned, a Blood Glucose (BG) meter is an invaluable tool in helping you to see what those carbohydrates do to your BG levels after eating them and it can be used to help you find which foods affect you most and perhaps need to be avoided and which foods are not too bad and maybe just reduce your portion size with those. It can also be really motivating to see your BG levels coming down, which makes sticking to the new eating regime easier.
Anyway, that is it in a very fine nutshell. We can recommend cheap BG meters (approx £15) and those with the cheapest test strips are the most economical if you are self funding, but maybe wait until you have seen the nurse in case they provide you with one.
Anything you don't understand or want more info on just ask.
You will likely be feeling pretty overwhelmed at the moment, so take your time to get your head around stuff. We often describe diabetes as a marathon not a sprint so just take it steady and start by making small changes and we will help and support you along the way.
Probably more useful advice on this forum than anywhere else so make yourself a cuppa and find a comfortable chair and do some reading. There are many informative posts here on the forum but will give you the gist of it here....
All carbohydrates are the problem for us diabetics, not just sugar as you may have thought. The body breaks down carbs from bread, pasta, rice, breakfast cereals, even otherwise healthy foods like porridge and fruit (in all it's forms... fresh dried and juiced) into glucose as well as from cakes and biscuits and sweets and chocolate. The glucose is absorbed into the blood stream and with us diabetics it gets a bit stuck there for a variety of reasons to do with insulin production. Usually Type 2 diabetics have become resistant to the insulin their pancreas produces, so the insulin is less effective at removing the glucose and with us Type 1s our pancreas has been damaged by our immune system and we can't produce enough insulin.
Anyway, the key to managing your diabetes through diet is to avoid putting so much glucose into the blood stream and that is achieved my limiting the amount of carbohydrates you eat. It takes a bit of getting your head around restricting such a huge number of foods from the biggest food group, but following a low carb way of eating can be enjoyable once you get your head around it and we can help you with lots of tips and tricks to make it easier.
The first thing to do is to keep a very honest food and drink diary of everything you eat over a few days and weigh things like your cereal portion or your pasta/rice potatoes etc and count the number of slices of bread. Then start looking at the nutritional information on the back of the food packaging (not the traffic light system on the front which is useless to us diabetics) and work out roughly how many grams of carbs you are currently eating and drinking in a day. Then start looking at one item or meal that you can change to reduce that carb intake. It might be changing your breakfast or even just changing any snacks you eat to low carb snacks and we can give you suggestions for those, so please ask.
As @Inka mentioned, a Blood Glucose (BG) meter is an invaluable tool in helping you to see what those carbohydrates do to your BG levels after eating them and it can be used to help you find which foods affect you most and perhaps need to be avoided and which foods are not too bad and maybe just reduce your portion size with those. It can also be really motivating to see your BG levels coming down, which makes sticking to the new eating regime easier.
Anyway, that is it in a very fine nutshell. We can recommend cheap BG meters (approx £15) and those with the cheapest test strips are the most economical if you are self funding, but maybe wait until you have seen the nurse in case they provide you with one.
Anything you don't understand or want more info on just ask.
You will likely be feeling pretty overwhelmed at the moment, so take your time to get your head around stuff. We often describe diabetes as a marathon not a sprint so just take it steady and start by making small changes and we will help and support you along the way.
Docb
Moderator
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Best thing is to use your waiting time to get up to speed on T2 diabetes so that when you meet the nurse you can have a proper conversation. No better place to start than checking round the forum and looking at the learning zone. Then as @rebrascora says, start asking questions.
Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
For many type twos, if boringly ordinary, all that we need to do is cut out the sugar and starch which is causing the problem.
Eat meat, fish eggs and cheese, have salads and stirfries of low carb veges, roast some if you like a more traditional looking meal though you can find low carb versions of many things on line it might be a good idea to experiment with them after you have pushed your metabolism back into balance.
I stick to no more than 40 gm of carbs a day, but I am really sensitive to carbs and had decades of being screamed at for not eating them because they are 'the basis of a healthy diet' - yeah, right.
I drink coffee with cream, and when I am in the mood I have frozen berries and cream as a dessert. I eat twice a day, early and late, as the least indication of fasting shuts down my metabolism - too many low calorie diets in my life.
There might be the possibility of something more complicated, but starting off by eating fewer high carb foods will give you a good chance of feeling a lot better by the time you meet the nurse.
Eat meat, fish eggs and cheese, have salads and stirfries of low carb veges, roast some if you like a more traditional looking meal though you can find low carb versions of many things on line it might be a good idea to experiment with them after you have pushed your metabolism back into balance.
I stick to no more than 40 gm of carbs a day, but I am really sensitive to carbs and had decades of being screamed at for not eating them because they are 'the basis of a healthy diet' - yeah, right.
I drink coffee with cream, and when I am in the mood I have frozen berries and cream as a dessert. I eat twice a day, early and late, as the least indication of fasting shuts down my metabolism - too many low calorie diets in my life.
There might be the possibility of something more complicated, but starting off by eating fewer high carb foods will give you a good chance of feeling a lot better by the time you meet the nurse.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Welcome to the forum @Lorac22
Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, and that you feel rather left adrift by your GP surgery - hopefully the help and support of forum members will help you to feel more at ease.
Diabetes is a serious condition, but it’s also one that can usually be managed well with a few changes and adaptations - it’s something that you can learn to live well with, and it shouldn’t stop you doing things you enjoy. Try not to be disheartened about your diagnosis, many people on the forum later reflect that their diagnosis became a catalyst which prompted them to make positive changes towards a healthier and more active life.
When it comes to managing your diabetes, it’s best to make changes to your menu and activity levels gradually - partly because they need to be sustainable long term, but also because very rapid and sudden changes to blood glucose levels are harder on the fine blood vessels, and changing things more gently will give your body time to adapt.
For a bit more background information, the ‘useful links’ thread is a mine of helpful information - useful-links-for-people-new-to-diabetes
Members here frequently recommend Maggie Davey’s Letter and Gretchen Becker’s book, as very helpful starting points.
Good luck, and keep asking questions!
Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, and that you feel rather left adrift by your GP surgery - hopefully the help and support of forum members will help you to feel more at ease.
Diabetes is a serious condition, but it’s also one that can usually be managed well with a few changes and adaptations - it’s something that you can learn to live well with, and it shouldn’t stop you doing things you enjoy. Try not to be disheartened about your diagnosis, many people on the forum later reflect that their diagnosis became a catalyst which prompted them to make positive changes towards a healthier and more active life.
When it comes to managing your diabetes, it’s best to make changes to your menu and activity levels gradually - partly because they need to be sustainable long term, but also because very rapid and sudden changes to blood glucose levels are harder on the fine blood vessels, and changing things more gently will give your body time to adapt.
For a bit more background information, the ‘useful links’ thread is a mine of helpful information - useful-links-for-people-new-to-diabetes
Members here frequently recommend Maggie Davey’s Letter and Gretchen Becker’s book, as very helpful starting points.
Good luck, and keep asking questions!
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