Newbie ... Hello and a query

[Georgina Burns]

hello everyone! I am prediabetic, Dr told me to cut down on carbs and exercise more. So here I am trying to learn

I am struggling to find out how many carbs is okay on a daily basis. Everything has carbs in it ... so confused. Feel very ignorant at the moment on diet. If anyone could help that would be great!

 

[HungryBird]

Hi there I was diagnosed prediabetic 4 weeks ago and I am finding the same problems as you. So confusing. I have asked the same questions. To start with I have just cut out all sugary snacks like chocolate crisps mini trifles and cake. I have also switched the wholemeal bread, pasta, brown rice and wholemeal noodles. I am just trying to cut down the amount of pasta rice or bread so just a handful - don't know if that is right but its got to be better than what I was eating before.

I don't have sugar in coffee or tea and I don't drink fizzy drinks. I am trying to drink 2 litres of water a day which I find easier if you buy the 500 ml bottle and drink four of these it is easier to drink than from a pint glass.

I am looking at labels now on foods I buy but again just like you I don't know what is good and what is bad.

I would be interested to hear from you with recipes or snacks you find out along the journey.

My repeat blood test is not until April and I don't know whether what I am doing at the moment is going to work but I have definitely cut back on my previous eating habits.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome.

You kind of have 2 options....

1. Keep a brutally honest food diary for a few days of normal (pre-diagnosis) eating and then work out how many carbs you were eating and then try half or 2/3 of that and see what your next blood test shows...and if it's not back in the normal range cut some more carbs out and try again.

2. Get yourself a Blood Glucose meter and test before and 2 hours after each meal and adjust the amount of carbs in each meal for the next time to keep the rise in BG to less than 2 mmols. This also involves keeping a food diary along with your readings, so that you can check back to the last time you had that meal and what amount of carbs worked (or didn't work).

We are all different in how we respond to carbs and indeed different types of carbs and sometimes different times of the day, so it is very much an individual thing as to how many grams of carbs a day each of us can tolerate. You have to find what works for you. The important thing is knowing which foods contain a lot of carbs and limiting those foods. Lots of label reading is important and it is usually in tiny print on the side or back of packaging. Total carbohydrate is all you are interested in, not the "of which sugars" part.

If you want recommendations for BG meters then just ask as cheapest is not always best and there are tried and tested ones which are economical to use which are found to be reliable by members here.
Anything else you don't understand, again just ask.

 

[Georgina Burns]

Hi there I was diagnosed prediabetic 4 weeks ago and I am finding the same problems as you. So confusing. I have asked the same questions. To start with I have just cut out all sugary snacks like chocolate crisps mini trifles and cake. I have also switched the wholemeal bread, pasta, brown rice and wholemeal noodles. I am just trying to cut down the amount of pasta rice or bread so just a handful - don't know if that is right but its got to be better than what I was eating before.

I don't have sugar in coffee or tea and I don't drink fizzy drinks. I am trying to drink 2 litres of water a day which I find easier if you buy the 500 ml bottle and drink four of these it is easier to drink than from a pint glass.

I am looking at labels now on foods I buy but again just like you I don't know what is good and what is bad.

I would be interested to hear from you with recipes or snacks you find out along the journey.

My repeat blood test is not until April and I don't know whether what I am doing at the moment is going to work but I have definitely cut back on my previous eating habits.

Thank you Hungry Bird (love the name) what you have written is really helpful. Even though I have cut out the main carbs ... my carb intake still seems high. I too will make the switch to brown rice, whole meal etc as going without it completely is not an option.
Yes I will share recipes etc; we really do need to get our heads around this, so we can pull it back. My repeat blood test will be in May/June.
living with Hope!

 

[Georgina Burns]

Hi and welcome.

You kind of have 2 options....

1. Keep a brutally honest food diary for a few days of normal (pre-diagnosis) eating and then work out how many carbs you were eating and then try half or 2/3 of that and see what your next blood test shows...and if it's not back in the normal range cut some more carbs out and try again.

2. Get yourself a Blood Glucose meter and test before and 2 hours after each meal and adjust the amount of carbs in each meal for the next time to keep the rise in BG to less than 2 mmols. This also involves keeping a food diary along with your readings, so that you can check back to the last time you had that meal and what amount of carbs worked (or didn't work).

We are all different in how we respond to carbs and indeed different types of carbs and sometimes different times of the day, so it is very much an individual thing as to how many grams of carbs a day each of us can tolerate. You have to find what works for you. The important thing is knowing which foods contain a lot of carbs and limiting those foods. Lots of label reading is important and it is usually in tiny print on the side or back of packaging. Total carbohydrate is all you are interested in, not the "of which sugars" part.

If you want recommendations for BG meters then just ask as cheapest is not always best and there are tried and tested ones which are economical to use which are found to be reliable by members here.
Anything else you don't understand, again just ask.

Thank you very informative

 

[Docb]

Hi to @HungryBird and @Georgina Burns. You have both discovered that the muggles (non diabetics) idea that it's all about sugars and rubbish food isn't quite the whole picture.

It's all about carbohydrates and taking in no more than your body can cope with. @rebrascora has given you where to start from.

I think the idea of writing down an honest diary of what you are consuming now, using it to calculate your current total carbohydrate intake and then setting a target well below that is a good way to go. You will probably find that a simple tweaks and some portion size control will get you a long way without having to drastically revise your diet. As an example, think sauce with pasta and not pasta with sauce and double up on the Parmesan!

 

[Drummer]

Thank you Hungry Bird (love the name) what you have written is really helpful. Even though I have cut out the main carbs ... my carb intake still seems high. I too will make the switch to brown rice, whole meal etc as going without it completely is not an option.
Yes I will share recipes etc; we really do need to get our heads around this, so we can pull it back. My repeat blood test will be in May/June.
living with Hope!

You really don't need to bother much about the colour of the carbs - white or brown they are all high. As you have not yet become diabetic you should find that a few substitutions and simply being aware of your carb intake day by day should do the trick in quite a short time.
I use cauliflower rather than rice with curry - just steaming some from frozen, chopping and adding to the smaller amount of rice should be enough to reduce the impact, but watch out if you use a ready made sauce - carbs are cheap and often find their way into jars and boxes.

 

[Perfect10]

I keep an online foods diary to count carbs and cals. It was difficult to know how many carbs to eat but I settled initially on approx 50g per day as I was just over into the diabetes range and wanted to reduce this which I was successful with as got this into the pre diabetes range quite quickly.
I have stuck to the 50 g per day as find it works for me and I manage this pretty easily although will increase this a bit over Xmas!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Georgina Burns

It’s important that you know nothing is ‘off limits’ food-wise. It’s a question of understanding the BG effect of different foods and choosing a portion size and frequency of consumption that works for you.

Personally I prefer to think of foods as being:
frequently... occasionally... rarely... and not worth the bother

Where ‘not worth the bother’ can consist of foods which I enjoy quite a lot, but whose major BG upheaval really takes the shine off eating them, or foods which while I might have formerly considered them staples I am happy to find swaps and alternatives which are easier on my BG (eg breakfast cereal which i could never tame). And the ‘occasionally’ and ‘rarely’ are ones where I know they are a bit spiky... but they are worth it for me.

You may find you have some BG success with brown rice and wholemeal versions, though you may find that these are not very different for you BG-wise - diabetes can be an infuriatingly individual thing!

As others have said one of the most direct ways to observe the effect of any dietary tweaks and changes you are trying is to check with a BG monitor and ‘eat to your meter’ 🙂

Let is know how you get on!

 

[Georgina Burns]

Hi to @HungryBird and @Georgina Burns. You have both discovered that the muggles (non diabetics) idea that it's all about sugars and rubbish food isn't quite the whole picture.

It's all about carbohydrates and taking in no more than your body can cope with. @rebrascora has given you where to start from.

I think the idea of writing down an honest diary of what you are consuming now, using it to calculate your current total carbohydrate intake and then setting a target well below that is a good way to go. You will probably find that a simple tweaks and some portion size control will get you a long way without having to drastically revise your diet. As an example, think sauce with pasta and not pasta with sauce and double up on the Parmesan!

Thank you ... this helps me loads. Over the weekend I have halved my usual intake and cut out chocolate. Thank you for taking time to write

 

[Georgina Burns]

Welcome to the forum @Georgina Burns

It’s important that you know nothing is ‘off limits’ food-wise. It’s a question of understanding the BG effect of different foods and choosing a portion size and frequency of consumption that works for you.

Personally I prefer to think of foods as being:
frequently... occasionally... rarely... and not worth the bother

Where ‘not worth the bother’ can consist of foods which I enjoy quite a lot, but whose major BG upheaval really takes the shine off eating them, or foods which while I might have formerly considered them staples I am happy to find swaps and alternatives which are easier on my BG (eg breakfast cereal which i could never tame). And the ‘occasionally’ and ‘rarely’ are ones where I know they are a bit spiky... but they are worth it for me.

You may find you have some BG success with brown rice and wholemeal versions, though you may find that these are not very different for you BG-wise - diabetes can be an infuriatingly individual thing!

As others have said one of the most direct ways to observe the effect of any dietary tweaks and changes you are trying is to check with a BG monitor and ‘eat to your meter’ 🙂

Let is know how you get on!

Thank you ... switching to brown rice etc .... not had any yet ... sounds boring ... i like your way of thinking. I deprived myself of bread, pasta, potato and rice and didn’t know how I was going to cope. But I feel more relaxed after reading this and the other posts. Thanks

 

[Georgina Burns]

I keep an online foods diary to count carbs and cals. It was difficult to know how many carbs to eat but I settled initially on approx 50g per day as I was just over into the diabetes range and wanted to reduce this which I was successful with as got this into the pre diabetes range quite quickly.
I have stuck to the 50 g per day as find it works for me and I manage this pretty easily although will increase this a bit over Xmas!

Thank you so much ... an actual figure of 50 g. I now know it is individual you don’t know how good it is to see a figure. Thanks

 

[Georgina Burns]

You really don't need to bother much about the colour of the carbs - white or brown they are all high. As you have not yet become diabetic you should find that a few substitutions and simply being aware of your carb intake day by day should do the trick in quite a short time.
I use cauliflower rather than rice with curry - just steaming some from frozen, chopping and adding to the smaller amount of rice should be enough to reduce the impact, but watch out if you use a ready made sauce - carbs are cheap and often find their way into jars and boxes.

Tweaking ... I like it. How clever ... thank you