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Looking for Advice on Food Boxes

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.

PeteyC

New Member
Hi all,

My dad has been told he's at risk and needs to curb his diet. He lives alone and is not really a big cook as such so I'm wondering if anyone could recommend a food box supplier that he might use to address his condition while also being mindful of his weight? Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

With thanks, Pete
 
Welcome to the forum @PeteyC

I’m not sure we have any member who use those food box suppliers, and I would suspect that the challenge would be that they are probably basing their content on people with a fully functioning metabolism, where it sounds like your Dad has begun to struggle a little with the default quantity of carbohydrate in the standard UK diet.

One of the biggest questions when told you are at risk of diabetes is often ‘what can I eat’ and while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that he will be wanting to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects his BG levels, including potatoes, cereals, rice, pasta, bread, pastry, grains, and many fruits.

This often means that ready meals and pre-prepared processed foods (or even recipe boxes) can have too much readily available carbohydrate. There are some easy swaps you can make if you are preparing food for yourself (eg frozen grated cauliflower ‘rice’), or general principles you can apply to reduce carbohydrates and replace them with leafy veg, good fats and proteins.

It can he helpful to begin by keeping a really honest food diary for a week or so, so that he can see what he is eating (it’s often easy to forget). Especially helpful if the diary includes am estimate of the carb content of the meals/snacks.

As he is ‘at risk’ rather than formally diagnosed, it’s quite possible that just a few relatively modest changes will be all that is required. However we have had new members join who made more substantial tweaks to their menu and saw really excellent improvements away from the diabetes threshold.

I wish your Dad all the best. Let us know how he gets on 🙂
 
Welcome to the forum @PeteyC

I’m not sure we have any member who use those food box suppliers, and I would suspect that the challenge would be that they are probably basing their content on people with a fully functioning metabolism, where it sounds like your Dad has begun to struggle a little with the default quantity of carbohydrate in the standard UK diet.

One of the biggest questions when told you are at risk of diabetes is often ‘what can I eat’ and while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that he will be wanting to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects his BG levels, including potatoes, cereals, rice, pasta, bread, pastry, grains, and many fruits.

This often means that ready meals and pre-prepared processed foods (or even recipe boxes) can have too much readily available carbohydrate. There are some easy swaps you can make if you are preparing food for yourself (eg frozen grated cauliflower ‘rice’), or general principles you can apply to reduce carbohydrates and replace them with leafy veg, good fats and proteins.

It can he helpful to begin by keeping a really honest food diary for a week or so, so that he can see what he is eating (it’s often easy to forget). Especially helpful if the diary includes am estimate of the carb content of the meals/snacks.

As he is ‘at risk’ rather than formally diagnosed, it’s quite possible that just a few relatively modest changes will be all that is required. However we have had new members join who made more substantial tweaks to their menu and saw really excellent improvements away from the diabetes threshold.

I wish your Dad all the best. Let us know how he gets on 🙂

Thank you so much for the advice. I'll pass it on to my dad and encourage him to join the site himself. His name is Henri so hopefully you'll see him posting at some point as he acknowledges he's not terribly sure how he should proceed!
 
Do you mean ready meals?
If so a hospital dietitian suggested Wiltshire farms food as a qualified dietitian was and is employed to work out the food content. You can order what ever size meals you want from them.
 
Do you mean ready meals?
If so a hospital dietitian suggested Wiltshire farms food as a qualified dietitian was and is employed to work out the food content. You can order what ever size meals you want from them.

Thank you so much for the advice. I'll pass it on to my dad and encourage him to join the site himself. His name is Henri so hopefully you'll see him posting at some point as he acknowledges he's not terribly sure how he should proceed!
Thanks Sue - I did come across them when Googling for information so I'll suggest to dad that he has a look. I love to cook but unfortunately he doesn't and therein lies some of the problem. I think he eats plenty of fruit and veg but probably too much fruit and his mains always seem to be processed meals. Even the good ones don't seem terribly healthy though!!

Thanks again,
Pete
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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