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Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
Newbie
- Thread starter Chaps
- Start date
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Felinia
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
As a newly diagnosed diabetic I suggest you look through the Diabetes UK Learning Zone, because you are entitled to various tests including sensitivity and retinal scanning, dietary advice, a training course and ongoing support. If your GP surgery has not mentioned any of these I think you should chase them up. And I would certainly push hard for a 3 month review, so you have an idea if you are going in the right direction. I was newly diagnosed 3 months ago, and have had the lot, including my 3 month review just this week. I'm still coming to terms with it, asking lots of questions and learning all the time - the Forum has been great support.
Dietary wise, the main thing is to follow a lower carb healthy eating plan. It's not just the sugars but the starches in carbs that push up your blood glucose. Diabetes UK suggests a limit of 130gm carbs a day, but many of us go much lower. I personally wouldn't suggest the very low carb diet that some people follow, as I think you need to make sure you still get all the essential vitamins and minerals, and you are only just in the diabetic range This means cutting down on bread, rice, pasta, potato, or cutting them out if you can. If you have to have some it should be small portions of wholewheat or the low carb varieties, or just 2 small boiled potatoes. Of course, all the obvious things to cut out are cakes, biscuits, sweets, pastries, processed and refined foods. But nobody's perfect and I do have the odd treat - a strip of dark chocolate, or now it's Christmas - one of the mini stollen bites, or mini cake squares.
There are lots of substitutes - members make mash and rice out of cauliflower, Bare Naked noodles are a good substitute in stir fries, or instead of spaghetti. There are things like boodles, courgetti, squash sheets instead of lasagne or broccoli rice. I load up my plate with 4 or 5 veggies (today was cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, carrots, swede) then add a good portion of protein like grilled chicken, steamed fish, omelette. Lunch for me is always salad or home made soup, but you'll find plenty of other suggestions here. Breakfast is usually eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes or the occasional serving of proper porridge or oatbran with unsweetened almond or coconut milk, and a small serving of berries. But we are all different, some people have other medical conditions which restrict their diet, and we all have different likes and dislikes.
I suggest you keep a food diary and a record of your carb intake. I use an app which measures the calories, carbs and sugars of thousands of foods for me, and keeps a running total by meal, day and week. Or you can look at the back of packets and do it manually. There is a great little book called Cals and Carbs, which gives pictures of portion sizes, because portion control is all important. I am a couple of years older than you and was advised to lose weight and exercise as well. I have limited mobility so water based exercise was my choice plus I have a home exercise bike. If anyone had told me 6 months ago I'd spend 4 hours a week in a swimming pool, I would not have believed them, but I feel so much better for the exercise. Of course, you may be slim and otherwise fit!
I'm sure others will come on and paste various links for you to look at, or offer their suggestions. It's an individual journey and I hope you fid what suits you best. Good luck. 🙂
Dietary wise, the main thing is to follow a lower carb healthy eating plan. It's not just the sugars but the starches in carbs that push up your blood glucose. Diabetes UK suggests a limit of 130gm carbs a day, but many of us go much lower. I personally wouldn't suggest the very low carb diet that some people follow, as I think you need to make sure you still get all the essential vitamins and minerals, and you are only just in the diabetic range This means cutting down on bread, rice, pasta, potato, or cutting them out if you can. If you have to have some it should be small portions of wholewheat or the low carb varieties, or just 2 small boiled potatoes. Of course, all the obvious things to cut out are cakes, biscuits, sweets, pastries, processed and refined foods. But nobody's perfect and I do have the odd treat - a strip of dark chocolate, or now it's Christmas - one of the mini stollen bites, or mini cake squares.
There are lots of substitutes - members make mash and rice out of cauliflower, Bare Naked noodles are a good substitute in stir fries, or instead of spaghetti. There are things like boodles, courgetti, squash sheets instead of lasagne or broccoli rice. I load up my plate with 4 or 5 veggies (today was cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, carrots, swede) then add a good portion of protein like grilled chicken, steamed fish, omelette. Lunch for me is always salad or home made soup, but you'll find plenty of other suggestions here. Breakfast is usually eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes or the occasional serving of proper porridge or oatbran with unsweetened almond or coconut milk, and a small serving of berries. But we are all different, some people have other medical conditions which restrict their diet, and we all have different likes and dislikes.
I suggest you keep a food diary and a record of your carb intake. I use an app which measures the calories, carbs and sugars of thousands of foods for me, and keeps a running total by meal, day and week. Or you can look at the back of packets and do it manually. There is a great little book called Cals and Carbs, which gives pictures of portion sizes, because portion control is all important. I am a couple of years older than you and was advised to lose weight and exercise as well. I have limited mobility so water based exercise was my choice plus I have a home exercise bike. If anyone had told me 6 months ago I'd spend 4 hours a week in a swimming pool, I would not have believed them, but I feel so much better for the exercise. Of course, you may be slim and otherwise fit!
I'm sure others will come on and paste various links for you to look at, or offer their suggestions. It's an individual journey and I hope you fid what suits you best. Good luck. 🙂
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi and welcome
Your reading is just over the threshold for diabetes which is 48 so with some dietary changes you should see an improvement without the need for medication.
Felinia has posted a comprehensive reply above and the only thing I would add to that is that many of us have increased our fat intake to provide the calories that we are no longer getting from carbs. Things like cheese and nuts make good snacks for diabetics where you might otherwise have had a biscuit or crisps. Cream in coffee instead of sugar. Fatty meat and oily fish. Veggies cooked with a knob of butter or dollop of cream cheese. The fats fill you up for longer because they are slower to digest. it takes a bit of getting your head around when you have been used to filling your plate with carbs all your life and being told that fat is bad but it is an enjoyable way to eat once you get your head around it and some of the scientific community are starting to believe that the evidence that fat causes cardio vascular disease was flawed and we have been given bad advice on low fat for the past 50+ years. Of course, if you need to lose weight then keeping your fat intake low as well as your carbs will force your body to burn off it's own fat, but once you reach a normal BMI then increasing fat in your diet will make low carb enjoyable and sustainable and stabilise weight.
Your reading is just over the threshold for diabetes which is 48 so with some dietary changes you should see an improvement without the need for medication.
Felinia has posted a comprehensive reply above and the only thing I would add to that is that many of us have increased our fat intake to provide the calories that we are no longer getting from carbs. Things like cheese and nuts make good snacks for diabetics where you might otherwise have had a biscuit or crisps. Cream in coffee instead of sugar. Fatty meat and oily fish. Veggies cooked with a knob of butter or dollop of cream cheese. The fats fill you up for longer because they are slower to digest. it takes a bit of getting your head around when you have been used to filling your plate with carbs all your life and being told that fat is bad but it is an enjoyable way to eat once you get your head around it and some of the scientific community are starting to believe that the evidence that fat causes cardio vascular disease was flawed and we have been given bad advice on low fat for the past 50+ years. Of course, if you need to lose weight then keeping your fat intake low as well as your carbs will force your body to burn off it's own fat, but once you reach a normal BMI then increasing fat in your diet will make low carb enjoyable and sustainable and stabilise weight.
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