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[Delightful.22]

Hi everyone,
I've been recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
I've been thinking ahead about Christmas. What to eat or not?
Has anyone else been thinking the same?

 

[Inka]

Welcome @Delightful.22 🙂

Are you on any meds for your diabetes? There are a few Christmas threads around, but you’ll need to concentrate on low carb foods eg cheese, meat, fish, nuts, veg, salads. You can still have nice foods 🙂

 

[Delightful.22]

I'm on Metformin and a vegetarian. Thanks for your advice!

 

[Drummer]

As a vegetation you are far more restricted - the only more restrictive regime, other than a range of allergies, is vegan.
look for low carb veges, avoid grain, and if you are sensitive to the, beans and peas, as some people can digest them better than others - I'm one, so it is as though I have eaten twice as many carbs as listed.

 

[Inka]

I'm on Metformin and a vegetarian. Thanks for your advice!

Cool 🙂 I eat mostly vegetarian and vegan food. So, you can have all the veggies (choose posh ones maybe as well as the sprouts). Are you having a nut roast for Christmas Dinner? We do. There are some lovely recipes around. Watch the carbs in it and in the roast potatoes. You can avoid those or perhaps have one small one. Fill your plate with veg.

For pre-meal nibbles, roasted nuts and seeds are good, as are olives, and little cubes of veggie cheese. There are some more unusual nibbles like roasted broad beans and peas which aren’t too carby in moderation.

Xmas Pud is very high carb so I tend to have a spoonful for tradition and extra brandy cream (watch out for added sugar in the creams). Mince pies are also very carby but there are filo ones that are less carby.

Going for a walk after a large meal can help a lot, and is nice to do anyway, weather permitting!

Do you test your blood glucose yourself?

 

[Delightful.22]

Thank you for your help. My issue is sugar. So as vvm iie

Cool 🙂 I eat mostly vegetarian and vegan food. So, you can have all the veggies (choose posh ones maybe as well as the sprouts). Are you having a nut roast for Christmas Dinner? We do. There are some lovely recipes around. Watch the carbs in it and in the roast potatoes. You can avoid those or perhaps have one small one. Fill your plate with veg.

For pre-meal nibbles, roasted nuts and seeds are good, as are olives, and little cubes of veggie cheese. There are some more unusual nibbles like roasted broad beans and peas which aren’t too carby in moderation.

Xmas Pud is very high carb so I tend to have a spoonful for tradition and extra brandy cream (watch out for added sugar in the creams). Mince pies are also very carby but there are filo ones that are less carby.

Do you test your blood glucose yourself?

Thanks for your advice. No I don't test my blood glucose myself. Do you? If so how is it done? I have tried but roasts but don't like them! I prefer the Quorn roast!

 

[Inka]

Thank you for your help. My issue is sugar. So as vvm iie

Thanks for your advice. No I don't test my blood glucose myself. Do you? If so how is it done? I have tried but roasts but don't like them! I prefer the Quorn roast!

Yes, I test my blood sugar a lot as I’m Type 1 and on insulin. But if I was Type 2, I’d test too (but not as much). I’d like to know what was going on. It’s a good way to see what foods work for you.

I can’t tolerate Quorn (apparently 1 in 4 people can’t, the Quorn rep told me - interesting) but it’s a good low carb option 🙂 If you like sausages too and don’t want the Quorn ones then the Richmond veggie ones are excellent.

 

[Inka]

I saw you’d started to mention sugar in your post above. Are you saying you have a sweet tooth or that you’re stuck for substitutions?

All carbs count as they put your blood sugar up - so sugar, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc. If you really want say, a mini mince pie, you could choose to limit other carbs in that meal to ‘allow’ yourself the mince pie.

If you’re going to be eating desserts, then some of the shop-bought cream gateaux aren’t too carby as long as you stick to a small portion. Strawberries and cream is a nice dessert too, and then some cheese after your meal. You don’t need biscuits to enjoy it. If you do want a biscuit with it, look for the crackers with less carbs eg 3g per cracker rather than a digestive which is 10g.

Carefully and consistently limiting carbs and trimming them down where you can, will help your blood sugar, and you can still have lovely food.

 

[Delightful.22]

Yes, I test my blood sugar a lot as I’m Type 1 and on insulin. But if I was Type 2, I’d test too (but not as much). I’d like to know what was going on. It’s a good way to see what foods work for you.

I can’t tolerate Quorn (apparently 1 in 4 people can’t, the Quorn rep told me - interesting) but it’s a good low carb option 🙂 If you like sausages too and don’t want the Quorn ones then the Richmond veggie ones are excellent.

I've tried Richmond sausages, I like them. Also Tesco sausages. I've just had my blood test results back. It has been labelled as satisfactory! However, I waiting for cholesterol results!

 

[trophywench]

Satisfactory - what the heck does that mean? What is your actual HbA1c result? That must be 48 or above otherwise you cannot have been diagnosed diabetic. It could be fifty something or it could be 100+.

 

[Delightful.22]

Satisfactory - what the heck does that mean? What is your actual HbA1c result? That must be 48 or above otherwise you cannot have been diagnosed diabetic. It could be fifty something or it could be 100+.

 

[Delightful.22]

The result was 48.6 come down from 50. My cholesterol is abnormal. So that means the diabetic nurse, will phone me to discuss treatment for it!

 

[Delightful.22]

Satisfactory - what the heck does that mean? What is your actual HbA1c result? That must be 48 or above otherwise you cannot have been diagnosed diabetic. It could be fifty something or it could be 100+.

I would appreciate that you don't doubt my diagnosis of diabetes. You don't know me?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I would appreciate that you don't doubt my diagnosis of diabetes. You don't know me?

I think TW was just meaning that it wasn’t a particularly helpful thing for your surgery to have told you.

We get a bit frustrated on the forum where people newly diagnosed are not ’trusted’ with the actual numbers which are far more helpful. I’m sure the ‘harrumph’ was directed at your surgery not you!

As @Docb often says to new members, knowing the actual numbers helps you know how much action is likely to be needed in your case, and how many changes to your diet would be helpful.

In your case your 48 or 50 is *just* over the threshold, and since it’s coming down it looks like whatever you are doing is working well 🙂

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I'm on Metformin and a vegetarian. Thanks for your advice!

There are loads of delicious vegan and vegetarian things you can choose for festive meals.

Most people find pulses are very BG friendly, as are many nuts, so some of your old recipes might be adaptable.

It all depends on your personal tolerance to different sources of carbs. Many people on the forum find bread, breadcrumbs and pastry tricky, so they might choose to reduce the amounts of those things (eg we have a fab Mushroom Wellington with chestnuts in it (from the Bosh book) which I might make lower carb simply by not eating all the pastry... or by converting into a topper pie or something similar.

What would you usually eat at Christmas?

 

[trophywench]

Nooo Mike! have the mushroom wellington - but use Filo instead of flaky!!

Even when you make classic beef wellington with a long piece of fillet beef, after browning the fillet, it is then coated in an equally classic duxelle of finely chopped mushrooms and onion, which have been sweated down together in butter, before encasing the whole in the chosen raw pastry, brushing with beaten egg and baked. So it already errs on the side of extravagance where mushrooms are concerned anyway!

Sounds lovely to my palate anyway.

 

[Delightful.22]

There are loads of delicious vegan and vegetarian things you can choose for festive meals.

Most people find pulses are very BG friendly, as are many nuts, so some of your old recipes might be adaptable.

It all depends on your personal tolerance to different sources of carbs. Many people on the forum find bread, breadcrumbs and pastry tricky, so they might choose to reduce the amounts of those things (eg we have a fab Mushroom Wellington with chestnuts in it (from the Bosh book) which I might make lower carb simply by not eating all the pastry... or by converting into a topper pie or something similar.

What would you usually eat at Christmas?

I usually eat veg sausages with all the trimmings! Christmas pud, cake, mince pies! How about you?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I usually eat veg sausages with all the trimmings! Christmas pud, cake, mince pies! How about you?

Well veggie sausages might be a bit carbier than meaty ones (depending on what’s in them) but there are lots of options for lovely roast dinner components that can be adapted or are already low carb. Go easy on the roast parsnips, stuffing and roast spuds though 😉

Christmas pud, cake and mince pies will need to be on the ’rarely’ list, but you can still treat yourself once in a while 🙂

This was written about Thanksgiving, but I still find it one of the wisest things to read in advance of Christmas

Thanksgiving and other Feasts

Managing blood glucose levels for type 2 diabetes. Learning how to achieve long term control by testing and diet.

loraldiabetes.blogspot.com