new diabetic

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Anergates

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I wanted to make a comment about the difficulty of all this being told I have to totally change my eating at 72.
Nothing much helps so far. Like this website, eg this

Try to cook from scratch where possible. That way you can be sure of what's in your food.

and then

Food labels are the best way to work out how much sugar is in what you're eating.

but no food labels on fresh ingredients so a real problem.
Struggling with this
 
We are the same age, @Anergates but I had learned how to eat low carb long before, as high carb 'healthy' foods made me feel rather ill. After diagnosis back in 2016 I burnt the GP's diet sheets in order to light barbecues.
I have a list of the veges which are low carb, in a little notebook, so no need for expensive phones to look up as I go around the shop.
After using a meter to test after eating I settled on keeping to foods with under 11% carbs, so I have carrot, swede, onion sweet pepper, turnip, leek, spaghetti squash, bamboo shoots, celeriac, cabbage, green beans, aubergine, tomato, kale, rocket, sprouts, radish, cauliflower, cucumber, lettuce, bean sprouts, courgette, asparagus, celery, avocado, bok choy, endive, mushrooms, beetroot, all berries, rhubarb and melon. I do have a few other fruits, kiwi fruit, plums and a few peaches or nectarines, but not often.
It is the carbohydrate, both starch and sugar we need to take into account, but I find enough variety in the basic veges and fruits plus herbs and spices to eat very well.
I make sugar free jellies plus extra gelatine whip in cream or yoghurt, then add berries once in a while. For special occasions I make almond sponge, real custard and add a dash of alcohol. I do indulge in some high cocoa content chocolate from time to time, 90 or 95% cocoa usually.
I hope this gives you some ideas of what to eat with the protein and fats we need.
 
You can Google the carbohydrate content of fresh food - do it per 100gms for consistency.
Alternatively, the web sire www.dietdoctor.com has lists of the lowest or lower carb content for various food categories including vegetables, fruit, nuts etc.
Some parts of dietdoctor.com are only for subscribers, but a large mount of content is free to the public.
 
Welcome @Anergates 🙂 Google is a good source of carb information. Just make sure you look at the Total Carbs. You don’t need to count them, just get an idea. Even reducing your portion sizes for things like potatoes, pasta and rice would be a good thing. You don’t need to know the carbs to do that.

You mention “having to totally change [your] eating”. Unless your diet is dreadful, you can probably make some small, sustained changes without having a massive change all at once. If you’d like to write down an average day’s food for you, you’ll get some suggestions of easy swaps and additions.

You could also look at the Diabetes U.K. recipes, where the carb info is listed:

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/recipes

Do you know what your HbA1C was at diagnosis (the blood test from your arm that probably diagnosed you)?
 
Whilst there are no food labels on fresh ingredients, I find it easy to find nutritional contents online, especially if you look at the standard supermarket pages.
I am lazy and just Google "carbs in 100g carrots", for example but I have to be careful that the site is not US-based as they include fiber (which we do not digest).
I have built up a spreadsheet where I can enter the weights of the ingredients and it will tot up the total carbs in my meal.

I think there are apps you could use as well.
 
I was diagnosed at the same age and found no difficulty in reducing the carbohydrates I have. I used the book Carbs and Cals for information about the carb content of various portion sizes of a whole range of foods, as well as looking on packets for the carbohydrate content and the internet.
I followed the principals in this link which is a low carb approach with many find successful. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
I had the support of my other half and we have the same meals but he does have a few extras.
 
HbA1C is up from 48 to 70 in a few months. Taken off jardiance as endless urine infections in the interim.
Shredded wheat with a few blueberries or similar. Toastie of some sort with "not white bread" (sourdough if we can afford it!).
Some sort of stew or curry, meat 2 veg (not potatoes usually), noodles with stirfried chicken, salad with ham cheese.
 
Anergates said:
HbA1C is up from 48 to 70 in a few months. Taken off jardiance as endless urine infections in the interim.
Shredded wheat with a few blueberries or similar. Toastie of some sort with "not white bread" (sourdough if we can afford it!).
Some sort of stew or curry, meat 2 veg (not potatoes usually), noodles with stirfried chicken, salad with ham cheese.
Click to expand...
Since something has changed then you may benefit from using a blood glucose monitor to test the effect of the meals you are having as on the face of it apart from the shredded wheat which are high carb and noodles which are as well what you are having doesn't sound too bad.
Many find that Greek yogurt with berries or eggs are a better low carb breakfast and find substitutes for noodles and rice like courgettes or cauliflower rice or butternut squash or swede or celeriac instead of potatoes.
Yes UTIs are not pleasant but are indicative of high blood glucose.
Have they offered you an alternative medication or are you trying by diet only now.
 
alternative med offered cannot remember the name. Not much sugar in shredded wheat I thought, only 0.3 g in a 45 g portion. Don't tell me I am wrong, it is one of the few things I have found that I actually like in this new life!
 
Drummer said:
We are the same age, @Anergates but I had learned how to eat low carb long before, as high carb 'healthy' foods made me feel rather ill. After diagnosis back in 2016 I burnt the GP's diet sheets in order to light barbecues.
I have a list of the veges which are low carb, in a little notebook, so no need for expensive phones to look up as I go around the shop.
After using a meter to test after eating I settled on keeping to foods with under 11% carbs, so I have carrot, swede, onion sweet pepper, turnip, leek, spaghetti squash, bamboo shoots, celeriac, cabbage, green beans, aubergine, tomato, kale, rocket, sprouts, radish, cauliflower, cucumber, lettuce, bean sprouts, courgette, asparagus, celery, avocado, bok choy, endive, mushrooms, beetroot, all berries, rhubarb and melon. I do have a few other fruits, kiwi fruit, plums and a few peaches or nectarines, but not often.
It is the carbohydrate, both starch and sugar we need to take into account, but I find enough variety in the basic veges and fruits plus herbs and spices to eat very well.
I make sugar free jellies plus extra gelatine whip in cream or yoghurt, then add berries once in a while. For special occasions I make almond sponge, real custard and add a dash of alcohol. I do indulge in some high cocoa content chocolate from time to time, 90 or 95% cocoa usually.
I hope this gives you some ideas of what to eat with the protein and fats we need.
Click to expand...
But none of the things you list actually taste of anything much at all. How do you eat/prepare them?
 
It's the total carbohydrate in a Weetabix, that you need to note (and yes that info is on the outside of the packet) PLUS the carbohydrate in the milk you have with it, that you have to take into account, NOT just the 'sugar content' Now - mad as this may sound, the milk which is lowest in carbohyrate content whether you eat/drink a teaspoonful of it or a gallon, is bog standard pasteurised cow's milk.

Semi skimmed is higher carb, fully skimmed even higher.
 
Anergates said:
.............. Not much sugar in shredded wheat I thought, only 0.3 g in a 45 g portion. Don't tell me I am wrong, it is one of the few things I have found that I actually like in this new life!
Click to expand...
All digestible carbohydrates actually digest into glucose - so even starchy things like whole grains, rice, pasta, flour, bread, potatoes, carrots all digest into glucose and some of them like flour or mashed potato actually have a higher glycemic index than table sugar - GI of table sugar is 65, while GI of refined wheat flour is about 70 and the GI of mashed potato is 83 !
 
trophywench said:
It's the total carbohydrate in a Weetabix, that you need to note (and yes that info is on the outside of the packet) PLUS the carbohydrate in the milk you have with it, that you have to take into account, NOT just the 'sugar content' Now - mad as this may sound, the milk which is lowest in carbohyrate content whether you eat/drink a teaspoonful of it or a gallon, is bog standard pasteurised cow's milk.

Semi skimmed is higher carb, fully skimmed even higher.
Click to expand...
OK but I am not talking about Weetabix but Shredded Wheat which is a lot better I think. And then milk has quite a lot of carb, so I eat cereals without milk? Skimmed and whole do not seem to be that different though. Don't want to go down the whole milk route as I have stent. I read somewhere that shredded wheat with skimmed milk has quite a good GI.
 
Anergates said:
OK but I am not talking about Weetabix but Shredded Wheat which is a lot better I think.
Click to expand...
No they’re about the same. 2 shredded wheat (45g weight) is 30g carb. Same weight of weetabix is 31g carb.
 
Lucyr said:
No they’re about the same. 2 shredded wheat (45g weight) is 30g carb. Same weight of weetabix is 31g carb.
Click to expand...
I have So that agrees roughly with you. But much less sugar in SW so better GI?
carb / 100g sugar /100g
Nestle Shredded Wheat66.7g0.7g
Weetabix Original69g4.2
 
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Anergates said:
HbA1C is up from 48 to 70 in a few months. Taken off jardiance as endless urine infections in the interim.
Shredded wheat with a few blueberries or similar. Toastie of some sort with "not white bread" (sourdough if we can afford it!).
Some sort of stew or curry, meat 2 veg (not potatoes usually), noodles with stirfried chicken, salad with ham cheese.
Click to expand...

Ok, well that’s not too bad but you could make a few tweaks. As suggested, a blood glucose meter would be really useful as you could then see how these meals affect you.

Shredded wheat is one of the healthier cereals, but if you’re needing to watch your carbs, you could try full fat plain Greek yoghurt with a few blueberries instead, or an omelette. Both of those have fewer carbs than Shredded Wheat. It’s not the sugar you have to watch, it’s the carbs (although it’s sensible to keep an eye on the sugar as well).

You could either totally replace the toastie with something like soup and/or a big salad with protein like chicken breast or grilled salmon or poached eggs. Or, as an interim step, you could have just one slice of bread as an open sandwich with salad.

Your evening meals sound ok, but you could either reduce your noodles portion or replace it with low carb noodles or courgette ‘noodles’ or cauliflower rice.
 
Anergates said:
I have So that agrees roughly with you. But much sugar is SW so better GI?
carb / 100g sugar /100g
Nestle Shredded Wheat66.7g0.7g
Weetabix Original69g4.2
Click to expand...
It’s all carbs that affect your blood sugar not just the sugar, shredded wheat is one of the better choices from cereals but it’s likely to still spike your blood sugar from the carbs. And I say that as someone who doesn’t push low carb or follow low carb.

So by all means try it, but ideally don’t be trapped into the thought pattern of “not much sugar so it’s definitely fine”. Ideally get a meter and find out for yourself.
 
It can be very confusing at first so I'll try and keep this simple. I'm 73 by the way, so your generation.
It's not the actual sugar Type 2 diabetics have to measure but carbohydrates. Your shredded wheat may only have 0.3gm sugar but almost 30gm carbs. The food label will say "Carbs" then underneath "of which sugars". Similarly 2 slices bread for your toastie could be over 40gm carbs but only 2.8gm sugar. It is suggested Type 2 should try and have less than 130gm carbs in total per day.
If you are comfortable with an iPhone or laptop, the easiest way to find the carb value of all foods including fresh, is with an app like NutraCheck. It keeps a running total meal by meal and for the day.
 
Many people fall into the trap in thinking something low or no sugar is perfectly all right but when you than look at the carbohydrate it is staggeringly high, though the portion size need to be taken into account. Some of the low sugar granolas like Lizi's are better on carbs being about 45g carbs per 100g. Cereals are something that many who are Type 2 avoid unless in very small portions as a crunchy topping for some Greek yoghurt and berries.
 
Leadinglights said:
Since something has changed then you may benefit from using a blood glucose monitor to test the effect of the meals you are having as on the face of it apart from the shredded wheat which are high carb and noodles which are as well what you are having doesn't sound too bad.
Many find that Greek yogurt with berries or eggs are a better low carb breakfast and find substitutes for noodles and rice like courgettes or cauliflower rice or butternut squash or swede or celeriac instead of potatoes.
Yes UTIs are not pleasant but are indicative of high blood glucose.
Have they offered you an alternative medication or are you trying by diet only now.
Click to expand...
Yes I have a monitor, as in a nexus thing where I have to do fingerprick. It is never over 10 mmol/L
 
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