NDfarmerswife71

[NDfarmerswife71]

Hello, I am new to this. I have a 49 year old son who has been told he has serious Type 2 diabetes. He has cirrousis of the liver, and Hepatitis C which caused the diabetes so they say? He is having a difficult time, he is a widowed father of a 16 year old daughter, and has no health insurance. Sadly no insurance, no one wants to treat him. He is just getting the very basic care. What I need to know is what kind of food can he eat that won't cause problems with his diabetes, or his currousis? He doesn't know what to eat, they are not saying anything to him except to watch his diet (don't tell us what though?). Does anyone know what foods are safe to eat with both of these dieases? We want to help our son, but don't know where to start, and can't seem to find any definitive info on line either? Thanks for any help.

 

[Northerner]

Sorry to hear about the situation your son finds himself in The main thing to remember about diabetes is that you need to be careful chiefly about your carbohydrate intake. So, bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, flour-based products will all raise blood sugar levels, it is not just sugar or sweet things that you need to be careful of. Ideally, he needs to follow a low GI or GL diet, which is a way of choosing food that will have a slow and steady impact on blood sugar levels. People's tolerances for different things can vary, so the best way to find out if something can stay on your menu is to test your blood sugar levels before and an hour or two hours after eating to see how much the food has caused the levels to rise. If the difference is more than 60 mg/dl then he would need to consider reducing portions of carbs in the meal, or substituting them with (for example) green vegetables. A good guide to the GL Diet is The GL Diet for Dummies.

 

[NDfarmerswife71]

Type 2 Diabetes +

Thank you Northerner for your help. I will look on Amazon to see if I can order that book. It doesn't help that he is a picky eater too. His blood sugar was all over the place today, scared him enough to call his diabetes doctor. She told him if the low reading this morning was accurate he would be dead. She said, watch your diet, and monitor your levels for the next three or four days. If doesn't get better, might be the liver causing the problems? I pray to god that he doesn't go into a coma, or worse drop dead. He drives a semi for a living when he is well enough, dangerous to be out on the road behind the wheel, but has to support his daughter. My sister just texted me to say that diabetes are not supposed to eat cheese? Is that correct? He was eating some here last night with some summer sausage. I don't know what else he ate last night after going home, but he has not been well all day, and his sugar levels went from extremely low in the AM, then sky high later in the day. I gave him some sugar free applesauce, is that safe to eat? Thanks Again

 

[Northerner]

What medication is he on for his diabetes, is he on insulin? Cheese is fine for diabetics and should not have much of an effect on blood sugar levels, if any, although it is fairly high in calories. I'm not sure about the applesauce, if it contains apples, then it contains sugar/carbohydrate - do they mean no added sugar, perhaps?

 

[AlisonM]

The trouble with fruit is it all contains sugar, not good if you're diabetic. Things like rice, pasta, bread and potatoes are a problem too and reducing his intake of these foods would likely help reduce his blood sugar readings. Some people have trouble with cereals, such as oatmeal, corn flakes and so on. From what you've said, he's able to test his blood sugars so one thing he might do to help himself is test after every meal until he learns how his food is affecting him. Knowing what he can and can't eat will go a long way towards helping him get control of his diabetes. Reducing his intake of carbohydrate and sugar is a vital action if he wants to start feeling better. It can be hard work, but well worth it if you can get him to do it.

There's another book you might get from Amazon that could be very helpful: The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed.