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Newbies

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Chelsea//

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi
I have had type 2 for about 2 years so not really new to this but I am confused on what to eat
 
Many people find that having a blood glucose tester is very useful in tracking what not to eat.
 
Hi and welcome.

The thing to know about diabetes is that all carbohydrates that we eat break down into glucose in our digestive system and get absorbed into our blood where they are not removed as efficiently as a non diabetic person so our Blood Glucose (BG) levels become raised. This puts us at risk of various other complications, so we need to do our best to keep our BG at lower normal levels. The most effective way to do this is to put less glucose into our blood by reducing the amount of carbohydrate we eat.
Carbohydrates are sugars and starches.
Sugary foods are the obvious sugar itself and all the other sweet products like honey and maple syrup etc and anything like sweets and cakes and biscuits which are made from them but fruit also contains quite high levels of sugar, so we need to be very careful with our fruit intake too. Berries like raspberries and strawberries and gooseberries and blackberries and black currants are the lowest in sugar.... bananas and grapes and pineapples and mangos are the highest in sugar so best kept for a very special treat. Dried fruit is actually higher in sugar than fresh so not a good choice. Portion size is important even with the lower carb berries, so don't kid yourself that you can eat them without restriction. My daily fruit portion is usually just 10-12 raspberries or 9 sour cherries or some stewed rhubarb (technically a vegetable not a fruit) from the garden with a little artificial sweetener. I have one of these options with my morning full fat natural Greek style yoghurt and mixed seeds for breakfast.
Starchy foods are grains and anything made from them, so bread, pasta, rice, breakfast cereals including porridge oats, cakes and biscuits (made with grain flour... even if they are made with artificial sweetener instead of sugar) pastry, batter. Starchy root veg like potatoes, parsnips and sweet potatoes, yams, cassava etc. Dried beans, peas and lentils can also be quite high carb and some of us find them much more of a problem than others.... sadly I am one of them.

There are however carbohydrates in many many other foods. Things like milk contain a sugar called lactose but at a lower level than the sugar in fruit. Worth bearing in mind if you drink lattes though or numerous cups of milky tea each day. Even lettuce contains carbs but at a very low level indeed and you would need to eat mountains of it to have much impact on your BG levels, so basically, the idea is to reduce or avoid the high carb foods and eat more of the lower carb foods instead.... so more lettuce and cabbage and cauliflower is wonderful stuff, and cucumbers and courgettes and aubergines and celeriac and mushrooms.

There are some foods which have pretty well no carbs like meat and eggs and fish. These are protein and fat based foods, so what may seem odd is that a bacon and egg breakfast (without beans and toast and hash browns) will have far less carbs than a bowl of porridge and have far less impact on your diabetes. That said, eating processed meat like bacon every day is probably not a good idea which is why many of us have yoghurt, seeds and berries, but you could have steak and salad if you liked or sometimes I have an omelette with all sorts of fillings and a big side salad with a large dollop of coleslaw (full fat variety.... same as my yoghurt is full fat)

Hope that gives you a bit more idea of what it is all about. If you don't understand just ask.
 
Hi Chelsea//, welcome to the forum.

Knowing what to eat is probably one of the top concerns most people have so thanks for asking the question.

There are lots of meals that you can have, just got to find out what works for you and your sugar levels.

We've got a great thread with people sharing what they eat in a day. Be sure to double check that the comment you're reading is from someone with type two as the diets of other types can vary. https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/what-did-you-eat-yesterday.30349/.

We've also got some great ideas on our main site so feel free to have a look https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/eating-with-diabetes/i-have-type-2-diabetes.
 
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