Hi Bargefreedom, welcome to the forum
🙂 Sorry to hear about your diagnosis
It can be very confusing regarding diet, as there is no real 'one-size-fits-all' diet that will work flawlessly for everyone. We have our own individual tolerances for things, so what may work well for one person may not be suitable for another. There are some basics that always apply, however. Diabetes, and keeping your blood sugar levels under good control, is almost entirely about the carbohydrates you consume - bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, cakes, biscuits, pastries etc. It can be very useful to start a food diary, recording the amount (in grams) of carbs in everything you eat and drink. This will give you a good, representative idea of your daily carb consumption, and you can then look for areas where you might reduce, or replace carbohydrates with alternatives that will be kinder to your blood sugar levels. I'd recommend looking into the GL Diet (Glycaemic Load) - this is a method of selecting and combining food that will have a slow and steady impact on your blood sugar levels, rather than 'spiking' it high, then dropping low again.
The GL Diet for Dummies is a good introduction. The other, extremely useful, tool you can use is a blood sugar meter - using this you can test before and after eating to ascertain the effect the particular food has on your blood sugar levels. You can then judge whether the meal needs reviewing or not. Have a read of
Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S for an explanation of how to do this efficiently. I'd also recommend reading
Jennifer's Advice and
Maggie Davey's letter which will provide you with a good understanding of diabetes.
That lot should keep you busy for a while!
🙂 Please ask any questions you have, there are lots of people here who have long experience of successfully managing their diabetes - it doesn't have to stop you from doing anything, and you can live a full, happy and healthy life with it once you understand how it affects you and how to deal with it
🙂
