Newbie, type 2 and coeliac disease

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Chezabelle

Chezabelle

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I have recently been diagnosed with type 2, been told to diet control. However, when I mentioned that I have coeliacs disease the diabetic nurse said that diet wouldn’t work for me. I’m currently waiting for an appointment with a dietitian but I just feel lost and confused. Does anybody have any advice or tips that could help?
 
Welcome @Chezabelle 🙂 What diet was it? Type 2s here eat various diets so I’d hope there’d be something that would work for you. Do you know what your HbA1C was?
 
They didn’t say what kind of diet, just mentioned eating more things like brown bread, brown pasta, brown rice. Cut down on carbs and eat plenty of fruit and veg. I believe that my Hba1C was 51.
 
Chezabelle said:
I have recently been diagnosed with type 2, been told to diet control. However, when I mentioned that I have coeliacs disease the diabetic nurse said that diet wouldn’t work for me. I’m currently waiting for an appointment with a dietitian but I just feel lost and confused. Does anybody have any advice or tips that could help?
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Welcome to the forum. I'm not sure why she thought that as many foods which as Type 2 avoid being high carbs are alos ones which I suspect you will not be having because of the coeliac disease.
Depending on what your HbA1C is will indicate how much work you will need to do. Anything over 47mmol/mol is a diabetic diagnosis.
Many find that a low carb approach successful so avoiding or reducing portions of foods like potatoes, rice, normal pasta, bread, breakfast cereals, pastry, tropical fruits and cutting out cakes, biscuits (unless home made low carb) and sugary drinks including fruit juice.
Basing meals on meat, fish, eggs, dairy, cheese and vegetables, salads and fruit like berries still give options for tasty meals. I know may of those foods may not suit you but there will be quite a lot that will.
You may find some meals which would be suitable in this link but the principals are those which may have found successful. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
When people have restricted options then getting a home blood glucose testing monitor can be useful as it enables you to check if the foods you have can be tolerated and which would be best avoided.
 
Just seen your post and 51mmol/mol is only just over the threshold and it should be very possible to make some dietary changes which will suit you.
Many who are Type 2 would be being careful of all those foods she mentioned as they are not low carb.
 
Chezabelle said:
They didn’t say what kind of diet, just mentioned eating more things like brown bread, brown pasta, brown rice. Cut down on carbs and eat plenty of fruit and veg. I believe that my Hba1C was 51.
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Good news that your HbA1C isn’t too high. Hopefully a few diet tweaks will get that down. Can you write an average day’s food for you pre-diagnosis?
 
Breakfast would be overnight oats
Lunch would be a sandwich, crisps and a biscuit
Tea would be whatever my husband makes but usually something out of the freezer like chicken nuggets or sausages and pasta or chips or mash potatoes
 
Ok, plenty of places to reduce the carbs there. Many Type 2s like plain Greek yoghurt for breakfast with a few berries. For lunch you could try soup or salad or a omelette with maybe one slice of your normal bread. Pasta and chips are both high in carbs. You could either reduce your portion and fill the space with green veg, or swap to something like courgetti.

The aim would be to reduce the carbs you’re eating. If you have any weight to lose, that should help too, as will exercise (even walking).
 
I usually make the overnight oats with plain Greek yogurt, so just take the oats away and keep the yogurt and fruit. Is honey ok? I occasionally use it in the yogurt.

I have done a few of the bits on learning zone which I’ve found helpful but just done those this evening.
 
Leadinglights said:
Welcome to the forum. I'm not sure why she thought that as many foods which as Type 2 avoid being high carbs are alos ones which I suspect you will not be having because of the coeliac disease.
Depending on what your HbA1C is will indicate how much work you will need to do. Anything over 47mmol/mol is a diabetic diagnosis.
Many find that a low carb approach successful so avoiding or reducing portions of foods like potatoes, rice, normal pasta, bread, breakfast cereals, pastry, tropical fruits and cutting out cakes, biscuits (unless home made low carb) and sugary drinks including fruit juice.
Basing meals on meat, fish, eggs, dairy, cheese and vegetables, salads and fruit like berries still give options for tasty meals. I know may of those foods may not suit you but there will be quite a lot that will.
You may find some meals which would be suitable in this link but the principals are those which may have found successful. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
When people have restricted options then getting a home blood glucose testing monitor can be useful as it enables you to check if the foods you have can be tolerated and which would be best avoided.
Click to expand...
May I ask why avoiding tropical fruits helps?
 
Chezabelle said:
They didn’t say what kind of diet, just mentioned eating more things like brown bread, brown pasta, brown rice. Cut down on carbs and eat plenty of fruit and veg. I believe that my Hba1C was 51.
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Oh dear - they have not got a clue - not. one. clue. if they think that brown carbs are going to be OK for a type 2.
Just ignore that bit - oh, and the eating plenty of fruit as well.
Look for low carb veges, and berries, eat meat, fish, eggs, cheese - if those are the sort of things you chose to eat. As a type 2 diabetic protein and fat are fine - you can cope with them.
Check the amount of digestible carbs in foods.
There are things called sugar alcohols or polyols which are carbs but we can't digest them - though things which are in your gut can. They have parties and make a lot of noise - I thought I was going to become geography.
By avoiding sugar and starch an ordinary type 2 can get to normal numbers, with a bit of luck. I used a blood glucose meter to check after meals, to see what I could eat. I have stirfry, stews, salads I make my own desserts and I really enjoy the way of eating. Some people need medication, some for a while, some for life - there are a few different reasons for the inability to cope with the carbs in a modern diet.
 
You may find the book or app Carbs and Cals useful as it gives carb values for a whole range foods with portion sizes so you can compare and make a better choice. Tropical fruits are high carb, berries the lowest and fruits like apples, pears, oranges, melon somewhere in between.
Pasta made from edamame or black beans are I believe gluten free and are low carb. Anything made from potato, chips, crisps, mash are all high carb.
You presumably have a list of gluten free veg and foods which you could run past us and we could indicate if they would be low carb or do an internet search and ask total carbs for whatever food you want.
 
Chezabelle said:
May I ask why avoiding tropical fruits helps?
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Because they are high in sugars! Fruit juice (even non-tropical such as apple juice) is even worse than whole fruit. You may as well drink unhealthy sweet fizzy drink and then add a tiny amount of vitamins vitamin to get the same effect.
But it is all carbohydrates (both the sweet and starchy ones) you need to reduce.
Now the odd thing is that not all carbohydrates affect all T2 Diabetics the same way. Some om person may tolerate better than average and others worse than average. I'm intolerant to mang (used to be my favourite fruit, banana the fruit I used to eat most often, carrots - the veg I ate most often, oats - I used to eat porridge for every breakfast). But some others are OK with small portions of oat porridge, or with carrots but few are OK with banana or mango, or potato or normal bread (though wholegrain bread is almost as bad.

Ignore the 'traffic lights on the front of a product and look at Carbohydrates listed at the back and work out how many carbs in the amount you are thinking of eating/drinking.

My BG meter told me i had to go very low carb to get to and stay in non-diabetic Blood Glucose range (over 3 yrs now) I eat between 20gms and 40 gms of carbohydrates per Day. Most people don't need to go so low, but trust your BG meter - it's your own personal Diabetes expert and it specialises in your body and your Diabetes!
Aim for a finger-prick BG reading of under 8 mmol 2 hrs after first bit of a meal and a rise from before eating to that 2hr mark or no more than 2 mmol. That is about as close as a Type 2 can get to a normal (non-diabetic or non-prediabetic) reaction to a meal.

Here is the blog post which set me on the path to T2 Diabetes remission:
josekalsbeek.blogspot.com

The Nutritional Thingy

There’s a few things you should know. 1. Practically all carbs turn to glucose once ingested , so not just straight sugars, but starches...
josekalsbeek.blogspot.com josekalsbeek.blogspot.com
 
Chezabelle said:
May I ask why avoiding tropical fruits helps?
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Because they’re higher in carbs than things like berries. The idea is to reduce your carbs by tweaks here and there over the day. Bananas, for example, are particularly high in carbs.

Tea would be whatever my husband makes but usually something out of the freezer like chicken nuggets or sausages and pasta or chips or mash potatoes

If you/your husband are short of time in the evenings, you might need to re-jig your evening meal planning. Batch cooking and freezing is time-saving, salads can be quick (and there are many, many options for those) and things like the Roasting Tin cookbooks have quick meals where you can throw everything in together. Processed foods like chicken nuggets aren’t good, not just because of the carbs but because they’re highly processed. Highly processed foods can potentially affect your gut and lead to poorer health.
 
@Chezabelle - DO you have a slow cooker or an air fryer? The reason I ask is they can help make cooking simpler.

A slow cooked stew, or hearty soup can go on in the morning and be ready at dinner time when you're both in from work. In the airfryer, simple meats like chicken legs/thighs or even drummers are quick to cook and have zero carbs, so quite a saving on nuggets or most sausages (some, high meat content are OK), and are less processed than what you're having now.

With an HbA1c of 51, you probably don't have to go Ninja on it all. You can likely get a way with some basic changes.

My coeliac testing was inconclusive, but the Endo told me to go gluten-free anyway, and I have been now, for a number of years.

My T2 diagnosis came before a GF way of living, so I can't make any exact parallels with you, but my T2 had been managed by diet for over 10 years now, and I have been in remission for almost all of that.

I would be sceptical of your nurse's assertion that diet won't work for you, and in your shoes I'd want to give it a good try anyway. Bearing in mind the first port of call for medication is usually Metformin, which is known to cause (usually temporary) gastric problems for patients, I'd want to swerve that if I could.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Welocme to the world of reading food labels. 🙂
 
AndBreathe said:
@Chezabelle - DO you have a slow cooker or an air fryer? The reason I ask is they can help make cooking simpler.

A slow cooked stew, or hearty soup can go on in the morning and be ready at dinner time when you're both in from work. In the airfryer, simple meats like chicken legs/thighs or even drummers are quick to cook and have zero carbs, so quite a saving on nuggets or most sausages (some, high meat content are OK), and are less processed than what you're having now.

With an HbA1c of 51, you probably don't have to go Ninja on it all. You can likely get a way with some basic changes.

My coeliac testing was inconclusive, but the Endo told me to go gluten-free anyway, and I have been now, for a number of years.

My T2 diagnosis came before a GF way of living, so I can't make any exact parallels with you, but my T2 had been managed by diet for over 10 years now, and I have been in remission for almost all of that.

I would be sceptical of your nurse's assertion that diet won't work for you, and in your shoes I'd want to give it a good try anyway. Bearing in mind the first port of call for medication is usually Metformin, which is known to cause (usually temporary) gastric problems for patients, I'd want to swerve that if I could.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Welocme to the world of reading food labels. 🙂
Click to expand...
Reading food labels is decade old past time I’d like to give the diet a try to avoid more medication
 
Chezabelle said:
Reading food labels is decade old past time I’d like to give the diet a try to avoid more medication
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Yes, of course. When I went GF, I had to redo all that label reading looking for pesky gluten I wasn't already avoiding.

In general terms, you'll be looking at Total Carbs when looking from a diabetes perspective.

You know, with your A1c, you may get away with smaller portions of the carby stuff (bread, spuds, rice and pasta), and making up the bulk with some above ground veg. If you could do with trimming up a bit, that might also help in that area.

Honestly, with that A1c, I feel very strongly you have a strong argument for having a few months to try diet. A high A1c is not at all desirable, but in diabetes terms your is elevated, but not alarmingly high - especially now you know about it. I doubt you'll want to ignore it.
 
Welcome to the forum @Chezabelle

Sorry to hear you were left feeling lost and confused after your appointment - not exactly a great start to your journey!

Hopefully some of the shared experiences from members here have given you some ideas and suggestions. As you can probably tell, one of the tricky things about managing diabetes is that it can be a very fickle and at times almost willfully contrary condition. A menu or approach that works well for one person, may not work for another, and there are no really definitive lists of ‘safe’ and ‘risky’ foods, because different people don’t necessarily react to sources (or portion sizes) of carbohydrates in the same way.

You are only a little way over the diabetes line, so hopefully a few tweaks to your menu to include more leafy and above-ground veg, fewer grains and gluten (which will have the benefit of suiting your coeliac too), reduced portions of carbs, and more fresh produce should all combine to have a significant positive effect.

If you’d like to be able to adjust portion sizes based on your individual reaction to foods, you might find a home glucose monitor helpful?

Good luck, and keep asking questions 🙂
 
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