Welcome to the forum
@Phil C
Sorry you have to be here, but glad you have found us.
🙂
One of the regular pieces of advice for folks newly arriving on the forum, which often seems to help, is to keep a food diary. Noting down all your meals and snacks along with an approximate estimate or calculation of how much carbohydrate was involved.
The body uses carbohydrate as it’s preferred energy source,
because it is easily accessible, and can be broken down quickly. Often rather too quickly in the case of someone with diabetes! This can lead to elevated blood glucose which the body cannot process effectively, and which in the long term can lead to damage to blood vessels and organs. Sugar is an obvious culprit, but the body is fiendishly good at accessing most forms of carbs including bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, cereals, bakery goods and many fruits too
Eating a more moderate amount (or for some people quite limited level) of carbohydrate tends to allow the body to access the energy in the food more effectively, rather than it simply staying sloshing around in your blood stream as elevated BG and causing mischief.
The easiest way to check whether foods you are eating can be handled by your metabolism, gut biome and genetic make-up is through a process of experimentation and gradual ‘
test review adjust’ approach with a blood glucose meter, which will give more immediate information than the urine strips you have been using.
Of course you may simply choose to reduce the amount of carbohydrate you are eating, and rely on the regular checks at your GP surgery, if you prefer.