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Lee763

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Hi

I’ve recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 39y old male. I’ve found the journey to be quite lonely at times. I’m trying to find the best foods or eating ideas as I’m currently struggling to get a well balanced diet, looking to find well balanced meals, I’ve stopped my snack eating use which used to have sweets, crisps chocolate (but no longer). I’m also dealing with male thrush any advice?
How long does it take to begin lowering blood sugar levels?

Many thanks

Lee
 
@Lee763 welcome to the forum. Do you want to share your hba1c result? I asked to be tested last year my first reading was 69 but hcp insisted I wouldn't be diagnosed until a second test. I was 64 on second reading and felt bereaved and bewildered. I didn't join here until after I had appointment with nurse and was started on metformin. If I had joined earlier I may have had better information to tackle my lifestyle and diet.
What medication are you taking for diabetes? Share as much or as little as you want. Thrush is a known side effect of the SGLT2 ( the flozins) I've been on them for 9 months. Effectively it encourages you to excrete glucose via urine. I have not had thrush or uti. After my first blood test whilst waiting my second I had a groin pain as if I was going to have a uti. I bought no sugar cranberry juice and it didn't happen. However, I am female and the canastan option seems sensible for you.
Make sure you keep hydrated and move more including ten minutes walk after eating.
Keep a food diary including motions and exercise. Work out what you will ditch, what you will replace and portion size. I have ditched pasta and either use edamame noodles or pieces of cabbage or courgette. I have also stopped eating rice and have curry etc on top of soft vegetables or cauli rice. I no longer eat jacket potatoes. I have a few new potatoes. I eat small portions of mash with extra veg or use swede or celeriac.
All carbs turn to sugar. If buy prepared items carbs are under nutrition often on the bottom.

Check out the freshwell site/app.
This nhs website has lots of useful info including on bottom left hand side to various useful websites. The Caldesi include lots of useful strategies.

newforestpcn.co.uk

Diabetes & Metabolic Health | New Forest PCN

newforestpcn.co.uk newforestpcn.co.uk
 
Thrush is a yeast infection and is often found when people have high glucose in their urine and the yeast just love the 'sugary' environment. The medication suggested should help the symptoms but hopefully once you get your diet sorted out and blood glucose comes down the cause will be obviated. Take care with your personal hygiene as it can be transmissible to partners.
 
Hi @Lee763 hopefully by joining the forum you'll start to feel less lonely and realise that that there is a whole community out there just waiting to support and assist you in your journey.
Diet is the starting point for most type 2s and finding a healthy balanced one is something we all look for, the diet also needs to be sustainable so that you can keep to it. However, you don't necessarily need to make major changes sometimes smaller portions of existing carbs in meals can be an option, alternatively finding substitutions can allow you to continue a meal you specifically enjoy.
Like a lot of people on here, I am on a low carb diet as it works for me but, I have found that I can tolerate small portions of rice and potato where as pasta and bread I have had to substitute (red lentil pasta and Edamame Bean or Black Bean noodles for pasta and homemade flax seed bread or the Fat Head Dough Rolls on the Freshwell app). Others find that the can tolerate some of the other big carbs and some people limit their carbs solely to vegetables and salads.
The LearningZone above is good and offers information on food choices and also recipes. Feel free to post your questions and the other community members will happily chip in with their experiences.
 
Welcome to the forum @Lee763

Hopefully joining the forum will help you feel less isolated. A diagnosis with diabetes can be an overwhelming experience, both physically and mentally, so be kind to yourself, and give yourself time to adjust.

As others have said, the thrush you’ve unfortunately been experiencing could be connected to glucose spilling over into your urine, which gives the thrush a suitable environment. Once BG levels get over about 10, the body tries to flush out the excess glucose in urine (and some diabetes meds use this mechanism to reduce BG further). The excess urination gives rise to the thirst that is sometimes a sign of undiagnosed diabetes.

Hopefully as your BGs gently come back down again, your balance will be restored, and the thrush will stay away. But in the meantime you can treat the symptoms with over-the-counter options.

Well done on stopping snacking. That can remove a surprisingly large amount of excess food energy from your diet, which should help to bring your weight down. Keeping an eye on portion sizes of all carbohydrates (not just ‘sugars’ and sweet things) is also a really powerful technique.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.
 
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