I am only 3 weeks in to my new life as a diabetic and already i have quit smoking, Given up meat(only eat fish now) started getting some exercise and for the first time in my life i am reading the labels on food. So my big question is what can i eat. I have read conflicting thing regarding food. I know everybody is different but what are the basic rules to follow. Can i eat weetabix for instance? is fruit such as grapes, strawberries, blueberry ok. What should i be aiming for per day with carb intake? Lots of questions i know but i honestly don't know where to start.
Binfield
The basic rules are to try to manage your Blood Glucose levels.
Now most GPs discourage us from measuring our own BGs and say we should just rely on 3 monthly HbA1C tests to tell us if what we had for breakfast today was a good idea or not.
- Can you see how ridiculous that is?
Healthy eating for a Type 2 diabetic is almost the complete opposite of what we have been told for the last 20 or 30yrs - no wonder there are so many Type 2 Diabetics around.
Meat (with the fat on it) is good for us, so are eggs, hard cheese and full fat dairy. The thing we need to cut down on is Carbohydrates as in Sugar, tropical fruits (fruit juice is even worse), potatoes, Grains( even whole grains for most of us) pasta and baked goods.
When we cut the carbohydrates most of us just add in more protein and more animal based bats so that we don't feel too hungry. We don't count calories, just keep the carbs down below our personal threshold.
Unless you are needle phobic, I strongly suggest that you get yourself a Blood Glucose meter and start testing before and then 2hrs after (first bite) of as many meals as you can so you find out what you can eat (and how much) without raising your BG by more than 2.0 mmol/L.
I use a Spirit Tee2 BG meter which has cheap test strips (around £8 for 50), The SD Gluco Navii is also popular with test strips around the same price.
