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How much sugar, how many carbs?

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poohbear

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hello, i am diabetic type 2 but struggling to understand my condition.

Could someone please tell me how much sugar per day i should be having and also how many carbs. Thank you
 
I'm afraid nobody can answer that for you as its totally individual and varies widely

To work out what suits you. you should test before eating and then again 2 hours after looking for a rise of no more than 2-3mmol
xx
 
poohbear said:
Hello, i am diabetic type 2 but struggling to understand my condition.

Could someone please tell me how much sugar per day i should be having and also how many carbs. Thank you
Click to expand...

The answer lies in your blood glucose results. Test as @Kaylz explains above. Sugar is just a form of carbohydrate. As it’s usually processed pretty quickly, you’d probably do best to keep sugar itself to a minimum, and eat carbs with a lower GI. Then modify your carbs depending on the how they affect your blood glucose.

A good starting place is to keep a food diary and work from that in seeing how you could improve your diet eg if you have cereal plus a couple of slices of toast for breakfast, you could easily reduce the carbs by cutting out the toast, or cutting the cereal and having poached eggs on one slice of toast, etc etc

Anything below 130g carbs a day counts as low carb. Diabetes U.K. has a meal planner with low carb suggestions.
 
Hi @poohbear and welcome to the forum. @Kaylz is dead right, there is no simple answer to your question. Having seen your post on the General Message board I really think you should be seeking help from the professionals now. When things have settled down, we will be only to willing to help you with understanding diabetes and working out the best way forward for you.
 
The Healthy Living advice I seen for sugar is a complete downer. As in you don't need it, don't bother having any. It's one of those things that doesn't have an amount you "should" be having.
 
Keep a food diary along with a record of your levels. Once you've got your meds etc sorted (just seen your other thread), look for patterns.
With some meds, you've to balance what you eat to what you're taking, and how your body reacts to both.
Many people on here do it. The food diary & self testing will help.
Could also be useful for medical people too.
 
Docb said:
Hi @poohbear and welcome to the forum. @Kaylz is dead right, there is no simple answer to your question. Having seen your post on the General Message board I really think you should be seeking help from the professionals now. When things have settled down, we will be only to willing to help you with understanding diabetes and working out the best way forward for you.
Click to expand...
Thanks
 
Hi all, thanks so much for your support today, you guys are amazing. I had to go back to bed but drank loads and loads of water. Just tested sugars again and have dropped to 15.
I know this is still high but i am feeling a lot more ‘with it’. My mouth still taste

Someone asked what i eat. I have a bad relationship with food and have a diagnosed eating disorder, so there are certain things i cannot eat, mostly no vegetables at all. I don’t eat fish either

My diet consists of lots of meat, mainly chicken, baked potatoes, pasta and bread.

i am addicted to fizzy drinks, but only coke zero, which says has no sugar at all - is this correct?

Thanks again for your support.
 
poohbear said:
but only coke zero, which says has no sugar at all - is this correct?
Click to expand...
So I hear. By law, in the UK it has to be what it says, for all ingredients.
 
Hi
Well done on drinking lots of water and getting your levels down a bit. That is great! Now lets work on keeping them at that levels and then dropping them.

It was me who asked what you typically eat in a day.

Meat is OK but best to keep to low processed meat. If you go for sausages, choose high meat content ones.
I struggle with fish but I keep trying to extend my tastes with it. I can manage a salmon fillet with lemon juice fried in butter and I had a sea bass fillet the other day cooked the same and it was OK. It is the thought of fish which puts me off I think, but I keep trying as i know it is good for me and the more I have the more I will develop a taste for it because you really can change your tastes if you have an open mind.
What about eggs? They are great for us diabetics? Fried, boiled, poached, scrambled or as an omelette with a variety of fillings.... very versatile quick and easy to cook and nutritious.
How do you feel about mushrooms and cheese? Not necessarily together? Cheese is my new chocolate!
What about nuts? Do you like them? Brazil nuts walnuts and hazel nuts are the lowest carb and peanuts and cashews higher so go steady on the latter but a few are fine as a snack.

Potatoes pasta and bread are all high carb and you need to look at reducing portion size with those if you want to continue eating them. Try a half portion. Cauliflower works well mashed with some cream cheese and perhaps a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard (if you like mustard) as an alternative to mashed potato and is quicker and easier to cook and mash and doesn't need peeling. Many people find it is just as nice as potato.... it works well with plenty of grated cheese on top as a cottage pie topping instead of potato. You can get Bare Naked Noodles which are a good low carb/carb free replacement for spaghetti or chinese noodles or use spiralised courgettes.

What is it about vegetables you dislike? Please don't say the taste because they all taste different.
Do you eat salad? I always have a big dollop of cheese coleslaw on my salads to make them taste better.
Things like cabbage and kale taste great cooked with a good knob of butter or bacon fat/lardons.
Courgettes and aubergines and peppers and tomatoes and onions and garlic cooked in lots of olive oil make a great ratatouille.
My gut feeling is that many people don't like veg because they have dim memories of them overcooked in lots of salted water from childhood (usually school meals) but stir fried or steamed or microwaved for a few mins (usually 3mins) with a knob of butter makes a big difference to the taste and texture.

Do be aware that diabetes is about carbohydrates not just sugar so don't get into the mindset of assuming if something is zero sugar, it is also zero carb. Get into a habit of reading nutritional labels (usually in very small print on the side or rear of packaging), but yes your low calorie fizzy drinks should be OK but try to cut back on them a bit as they just encourage a sweet tooth. I started mixing a little water into them so I would have 3/4 of a glass of Pepsi max (or the much cheaper Lidl equivalent) and top the glass up with water. Gradually I went to half and half and now I happily drink my water with a dash of coke in it.

What do you normally have for breakfast? That is often a problem time for carbs as I mentioned in my post on your other thread.

If it is any encouragement, I used to comfort eat pre diagnosis and I freely admit that I was a sugar addict as well as being extremely fond of bread and potatoes and pasta and ate them in much larger quantity than I should have. I now eat a very small portion of potatoes maybe once a week and don't eat bread or pasta or have sugar in anything and amazingly I don't crave them anymore. It isn't even difficult to refuse them if I am offered these foods now or if people are eating them in front of me and it feels amazing to be in control of my eating. It was difficult in the beginning for a few weeks until I started eating more fat and figured out what to buy and how to cook it, but now I enjoy my food. I eat much less than I did before and most of the time, even if I only eat one or two meals a day, I don't feel hungry in between. It feels great to be a normal BMI and I feel fitter and healthier than I have in 20 years, so I can only say that it is possible to turn things around, even if you currently have a bad diet. You do have to put a bit of effort in initially, but it really is worth it.
Being part of this forum and doing lots of reading of other peoples' posts and asking questions and using a BG meter to test what happened to my levels when I ate different meals/foods helped me to tailor my diet to manage my diabetes to my food preferences. Many other people here on the forum have done the same so you can too. What I like may not be what you like, but understanding the principles and reading labels and testing before and 2 hours after eating will help you to figure it out too.
The main thing that helped me was not to be frightened of eating more fat. Now my morning coffee with double cream is one of the highlights of my day and I relish it every morning. Hard to feel deprived when I start the day like that.
 
Last edited:
You might try mashed cauliflower in place of mashed potato, or chopped up as a substitute for rice and pasta.
When I roast a chicken I put it on a rack and place slices of swede in the tray beneath to cook in the juices.
 
Drummer said:
You might try mashed cauliflower in place of mashed potato, or chopped up as a substitute for rice and pasta.
When I roast a chicken I put it on a rack and place slices of swede in the tray beneath to cook in the juices.
Click to expand...

I've never really know what to do with a swede.
 
ColinUK said:
I've never really know what to do with a swede.
Click to expand...
I chop into v small pieces to speed up cooking, takes longer than eg carrot, boil until soft, drain well, mash with LOTS of butter and LOTS of black pepper.
 
ColinUK said:
I've never really know what to do with a swede.
Click to expand...
Following @Drummer's lead I cut it into potato chunk size pieces with similar sized chunks of carrot, parboiled and then roasted in the fat and juices from my roast chicken the other day and it was very nice like that.
Previously I have always chopped it up into half inch pieces and boiled either on it's own or with carrot and mashed with a good knob of butter as per @silentsquirrel
I also enjoyed munching on it raw like @grovesy and often eat a piece raw whilst I am prepping it for cooking.
 
I can't claim any credit - my own grandmother used to cook it that way and she could remember the death of Queen Victoria. She had to bring up seven children so if there was an easier way to do things she found it.
 
rebrascora said:
Hi
Well done on drinking lots of water and getting your levels down a bit. That is great! Now lets work on keeping them at that levels and then dropping them.

It was me who asked what you typically eat in a day.

Meat is OK but best to keep to low processed meat. If you go for sausages, choose high meat content ones.
I struggle with fish but I keep trying to extend my tastes with it. I can manage a salmon fillet with lemon juice fried in butter and I had a sea bass fillet the other day cooked the same and it was OK. It is the thought of fish which puts me off I think, but I keep trying as i know it is good for me and the more I have the more I will develop a taste for it because you really can change your tastes if you have an open mind.
What about eggs? They are great for us diabetics? Fried, boiled, poached, scrambled or as an omelette with a variety of fillings.... very versatile quick and easy to cook and nutritious.
How do you feel about mushrooms and cheese? Not necessarily together? Cheese is my new chocolate!
What about nuts? Do you like them? Brazil nuts walnuts and hazel nuts are the lowest carb and peanuts and cashews higher so go steady on the latter but a few are fine as a snack.

Potatoes pasta and bread are all high carb and you need to look at reducing portion size with those if you want to continue eating them. Try a half portion. Cauliflower works well mashed with some cream cheese and perhaps a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard (if you like mustard) as an alternative to mashed potato and is quicker and easier to cook and mash and doesn't need peeling. Many people find it is just as nice as potato.... it works well with plenty of grated cheese on top as a cottage pie topping instead of potato. You can get Bare Naked Noodles which are a good low carb/carb free replacement for spaghetti or chinese noodles or use spiralised courgettes.

What is it about vegetables you dislike? Please don't say the taste because they all taste different.
Do you eat salad? I always have a big dollop of cheese coleslaw on my salads to make them taste better.
Things like cabbage and kale taste great cooked with a good knob of butter or bacon fat/lardons.
Courgettes and aubergines and peppers and tomatoes and onions and garlic cooked in lots of olive oil make a great ratatouille.
My gut feeling is that many people don't like veg because they have dim memories of them overcooked in lots of salted water from childhood (usually school meals) but stir fried or steamed or microwaved for a few mins (usually 3mins) with a knob of butter makes a big difference to the taste and texture.

Do be aware that diabetes is about carbohydrates not just sugar so don't get into the mindset of assuming if something is zero sugar, it is also zero carb. Get into a habit of reading nutritional labels (usually in very small print on the side or rear of packaging), but yes your low calorie fizzy drinks should be OK but try to cut back on them a bit as they just encourage a sweet tooth. I started mixing a little water into them so I would have 3/4 of a glass of Pepsi max (or the much cheaper Lidl equivalent) and top the glass up with water. Gradually I went to half and half and now I happily drink my water with a dash of coke in it.

What do you normally have for breakfast? That is often a problem time for carbs as I mentioned in my post on your other thread.

If it is any encouragement, I used to comfort eat pre diagnosis and I freely admit that I was a sugar addict as well as being extremely fond of bread and potatoes and pasta and ate them in much larger quantity than I should have. I now eat a very small portion of potatoes maybe once a week and don't eat bread or pasta or have sugar in anything and amazingly I don't crave them anymore. It isn't even difficult to refuse them if I am offered these foods now or if people are eating them in front of me and it feels amazing to be in control of my eating. It was difficult in the beginning for a few weeks until I started eating more fat and figured out what to buy and how to cook it, but now I enjoy my food. I eat much less than I did before and most of the time, even if I only eat one or two meals a day, I don't feel hungry in between. It feels great to be a normal BMI and I feel fitter and healthier than I have in 20 years, so I can only say that it is possible to turn things around, even if you currently have a bad diet. You do have to put a bit of effort in initially, but it really is worth it.
Being part of this forum and doing lots of reading of other peoples' posts and asking questions and using a BG meter to test what happened to my levels when I ate different meals/foods helped me to tailor my diet to manage my diabetes to my food preferences. Many other people here on the forum have done the same so you can too. What I like may not be what you like, but understanding the principles and reading labels and testing before and 2 hours after eating will help you to figure it out too.
The main thing that helped me was not to be frightened of eating more fat. Now my morning coffee with double cream is one of the highlights of my day and I relish it every morning. Hard to feel deprived when I start the day like that.
Click to expand...
Hi

thanks for all your support, i couldn’t answer straight away as was both too ill and so overwhelmed with all the support i received. Today the district nurse has been and took a full set of bloods. My diabetic nurse will call with the results. Currently i am on weekly injections but she has already said she is thinking about putting me on daily injections. My one phobia in the world is needles so this in itself will be a challenge.

You ask about salad and cheese. No i can’t eat salad of any sort and am epipen allergic to cheese. You ask about why i don’t eat veg. That is too hard to answer but it is linked with my eating disorder.

Yes, eggs i love and eat a lot in different forms, not so much fried though.

For breakfast i have a yoghurt and a 45 portion of low sugar muesli with skimmed milk. Since feeling so ill. Sunday i have only drunk water, bottles and bottles of water.

My sugars are still high and my GP rang this morning and again tomorrow for a check in. She knows going into hospital would be the last resort for me as i have no one to look after my husband who has Alzheimer’s.

I hope i have answered all your questions and some of your thoughts and advice has helped so thank you x
 
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