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My partner has just been diagnosed

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welshy1

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Carer/Partner
Hi
I am new to this forum. My partner has just been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. He has to control it with just his diet. I signed up to forum, hopefully I can get some help to what food I can cook. At the moment I am finding it all very worrying and daunting. The food I am cooking is very bland and boring. I am so worried I can not get the correct food, in order to help with my partners diabetes. This is the first time for me on a forum, so not sure what to do. If possible is there anyone that can give me any advice on food I can cook. I don't know what the daily allowance of carbs or sugar is ok.
thanks
welshy1
 
Hi Welshy. If he is being recommended to control his diabetes by diet, then it looks like he is not a long way over the threshold. If you do not know, then you are diagnosed as diabetic if if you have a blood test which gives an HbA1c of over 48. Do you know what his result was because it helps when working out what to do.

When it comes to what to eat, the basic principal is that any carbohydrate you eat is converted to glucose. The glucose ends up in the blood and if you are diabetic then the body struggles with processing it. What controlling your diet means is reducing the amount of carbohydrate you eat. Do that and you make less glucose and your system does not have to struggle to control it and can keep your blood glucose the range that will not do any harm.

So, what you have to do is reduce carbohydrate intake. For many people carbohydrate is the backbone of their normal diet. We have been trained into putting sugar (a carbohydrate) in and on everything. We eat a lot of bread and wheat based products, and wheat is mostly carbohydrate. Carbohydrate is used to bulk out a lot of processed food and so can creep into the most unlikely places.

There are some easy things to do. Stop putting sugar on things. Get out of the sugar habit and things tend to taste much more interesting anyway. Stop eating cakes - mostly sugar and flour. Avoid pies where the filling could be OK but the pastry - mostly flour - is a carbohydrate source. Forget pizza!

The next step is to start taking more notice of labels on packets and tins. If you want a tin of mushroom soup for example check out the labels on different brands. Some can have three times the carbohydrate of some others even though they are supposed to be the same thing. Look at the TOTAL carbohydrate in 100g of a product you normally buy and and see if you can find an alternative with less.

Build your meals around protein fat and veg. No need to try and cut out carbohydrate totally, but halve the portion size when it comes to spuds or pasta and make up with other veg. Meat, cheese, eggs are to all intents and purposes carb free. Think about salads and stir fried veg - both far from stodgy and bland.

Have a read round the forum looking especially at the food section. Lots of ideas in there.

Finally, low carb eating is far tastier than than the boring monotony of high carb eating. You have just got to make that leap of faith and go for it!
 
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Welcome to the forum Welshy.
I don't know the "right" amount of carbs either. My usual advice is to self test, before and 1 - 2 hours after eating. This would show the affect food has on BG level, along with any changes made. Keeping a food diary, along with a record of BG levels would hopefully allow you to start seeing a pattern after a couple of weeks.
As for sugar, just cut it as much as you can get away with.
A cooked/English breakfast rises my BG much less than ceriel.
 
But it is the carbohydrates which are the bland foods - meat, fish, cheese - and eggs and seafood and all the low carb veges all lend themselves to being made into tasty dishes - you can add herbs and spices to your hearts content.
 
Hello All.
Thanks for all your replies. It is so good to hear from everyone who are all in the same situation. At the moment I am struggling coming to terms with such a change in lifestyle.
Trying to cook good food is very challenging at the moment, as this is so new to me.
As I am not very forum savvy at the moment I don't know how to reply to you all separately. I guess I might even get used to using the forum.
He had his bloods done, the results came back. Had to see his doctor, she told him he is borderline as results were 48. Had to see specialist nurse she told him he is diabetic. Haven't had really any help with the doctor, or nurse, so I had to do something to find out more about what to do, so glad I decided to come onto this forum. It is so nice to hear people help you.
Is there an actual amount of sugar allowed per day, I thought I read somewhere it was 6g of sugar a day.
Hey Drummer that is such a good result in all your weight loss, you must be feeling so much better for it. I am also trying to lose weight. This new regime is doing me good also. I have lost 17lbs so far.
I have to say, we both have not touched a cake, pies or pasties, ice cream, sweets, chocolate, biscuits, fried food for 3 months.
 
welshy1 said:
Is there an actual amount of sugar allowed per day, I thought I read somewhere it was 6g of sugar a day.
Click to expand...
That might be the general Health Living advice for the general population.
welshy1 said:
Had to see his doctor, she told him he is borderline as results were 48. Had to see specialist nurse she told him he is diabetic.
Click to expand...
HbA1C? Ranges for this test are:
30(?) - 41 "normal"
42 - 47 is called pre diabetic ranges
48 and above gets you a diagnoses of diabetes (even if it goes lower you're still diabetic) (some were diagnosed with levels of 100 or more.)

While 48 is diabetic, it's only just.
 
welshy1 said:
Hello All.
Thanks for all your replies. It is so good to hear from everyone who are all in the same situation. At the moment I am struggling coming to terms with such a change in lifestyle.
Trying to cook good food is very challenging at the moment, as this is so new to me.
As I am not very forum savvy at the moment I don't know how to reply to you all separately. I guess I might even get used to using the forum.
He had his bloods done, the results came back. Had to see his doctor, she told him he is borderline as results were 48. Had to see specialist nurse she told him he is diabetic. Haven't had really any help with the doctor, or nurse, so I had to do something to find out more about what to do, so glad I decided to come onto this forum. It is so nice to hear people help you.
Is there an actual amount of sugar allowed per day, I thought I read somewhere it was 6g of sugar a day.
Hey Drummer that is such a good result in all your weight loss, you must be feeling so much better for it. I am also trying to lose weight. This new regime is doing me good also. I have lost 17lbs so far.
I have to say, we both have not touched a cake, pies or pasties, ice cream, sweets, chocolate, biscuits, fried food for 3 months.
Click to expand...

It's nice to hear that you have had a benefit from the change in diet as well as your partner that had the diagnosis,I'm quite new to this and have lost 2.5 stones in the last couple of months,it gets easier as you pick up information as you go along,
 
With a Hba1c of 48 just cutting back on the carbs eaten pre diagnosis should (with any luck) solve the problem.
There is no great difference between sugar and starch where the eventual result is considered - if it is digested it has to be dealt with.
I am just half way through dinner - I have been out playing for dancing at a wedding, with the morris side I am with.
I get a very large bowl and tip in a bag of salad, chop up tomatoes, cucumber, sweet pepper, add coleslaw and today I put in a small tin of tuna. I add radishes, and celery when I have them, but I tend not to get everything at once, so there is some novelty day to day. I sometimes add walnuts. Alternative to tuna are various cheeses, or some cooked and cooled mixed seafood, boiled eggs are good too. I make small amounts of salad dressing or mayonnaise with herbs or spices if I find I am getting bored - but do eat salad fresh - maximum taste and nutrient value that way.
For dessert I made a jelly with yoghurt and frozen berries (it will set really fast with the frozen fruit)
 
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