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Nutritional courses?

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K

KJS

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hello all!
I am really struggling to understand what I can and can’t eat.
One website will state bananas are good but stay away from carrots, then another will list bananas as bad & carrots as good!

I was wondering if anyone knew of a good course or source for me to understand what to look for in foods and understand definitively what is good for me as a T2 and what to avoid?

I have ordered shakes from Exante and plan to have 2 a day (brekkie & lunch) then a low carb/ low calorie dinner and 1 x 100cal snack a day.

I welcome any thoughts, advise, opinions etc.

Thanks!
 
I have a list of foods and their carb content.
You need to watch of for the difference between UK and US information - the UK spells it fibre and doesn't include it in the total carbs, the US spells it fiber and does, so for purposes of carb counting, deduct it.
By using your meter you should soon see what you can manage and what is too much. It is an individual thing so best worked on for yourself rather than going by someone else's menu.
 
Hi @KJS and welcome to the forum.

I think the reason why you are finding conflicting information and things difficult to understand is that there is no simple set of rules you can follow to make all well. It does not help that somebody with a ship load of bananas to sell will say they are not a problem!

My approach is to start with the numbers. Do you have your HbA1c result? That, if you do not know, is the blood test used to diagnose diabetes. From that you can see how far over the diagnosis level and from that you can see how far you have to go. This might influence the route you take. Do you need to loose a bit of weight? For many (not all) diabetes is associated with being overweight and there is plenty of evidence to show that for this group losing weight gets things back under control.

When you have the numbers sorted, you can set some targets and put together a plan to get to a different place. Your plan will be your plan. It will have things in common with other peoples plans but we are all different and your plans will be different when it comes to the details.

Personally, I am not convinced by the occasional use of "shakes" is of great value. Some members have gone this rout with success but my impression is that their sucess has come from having a long term plan and a very disciplined approach to using them.
 
Hi @KJS 🙂

Looking at your HbA1C results at the bottom of your post, you seem to have done a good job getting them down from 120. Has anything changed that’s concerning you - eg a recent HbA1C, increased weight, change of meds?

Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I’m assuming your shakes are to lose weight?
 
Thank you all for your replies.

To be honest, I’m not quite sure how I got my levels down, I didn’t really change much other than eat less sugary things and take aways! The weight never shifted though and I would really like it to!
Weight loss is my goal and the reason for the shakes. Now I’m considering a strict diet I want to make sure it is diabetic friendly too!
For example looking at slimming world and their free carb/ starchy foods list I don’t think that would be right for me.

I suppose I’ll stick to low carb/ low calorie and check my blood afterwards and keep a record of how each meal has affected my numbers 🙂
 
KJS said:
Thank you all for your replies.

To be honest, I’m not quite sure how I got my levels down, I didn’t really change much other than eat less sugary things and take aways! The weight never shifted though and I would really like it to!
Weight loss is my goal and the reason for the shakes. Now I’m considering a strict diet I want to make sure it is diabetic friendly too!
For example looking at slimming world and their free carb/ starchy foods list I don’t think that would be right for me.

I suppose I’ll stick to low carb/ low calorie and check my blood afterwards and keep a record of how each meal has affected my numbers 🙂
Click to expand...

If you are looking at the shakes route, google the Newcastle diet, it's the one I did, and successfully reversed my diabetes by doing it.
I would say, if you are going very low calorie, don't worry about the carbs, by definition, the very low calorie part means you are eating a reduced carb, merely by the portion size, and if you look at the results, those who did it, (including me) see their BG fall.
 
Some people lose weight on Low Carb and some don't and so have to reduce calories as well.
Personally I would always advise trying Low Carb (higher Protein and Traditional Fats) first because (for most) it's easily sustainable for the rest of your life and involves no/little hunger - so requires much less 'willpower'.
It's not unusual for people to lose up to 100 lbs or more just by going Low Carb.
I only lost 28lbs (without trying to) because I had so little to lose in the first place since I am/was Thin Outside Fat Inside (TOFI).
 
Hello and welcome to the forum @KJS 🙂
 
Hi I'm a newbie so I'm still finding my feet but I'm following a healthy eating plan I.e wholegrain breads, rice, pasta. Small amounts of potatoes. I've increased my fresh veg and fruit that was zero before my diagnosis lol. I'm also keeping my carbs between 45 and 60grms per meal. Atm I'm doing ok. Hope this helps but like I said I'm a newbie so don't take my plan as gospel
 
Catherine Lindsay said:
Hi I'm a newbie so I'm still finding my feet but I'm following a healthy eating plan I.e wholegrain breads, rice, pasta. Small amounts of potatoes. I've increased my fresh veg and fruit that was zero before my diagnosis lol. I'm also keeping my carbs between 45 and 60grms per meal. Atm I'm doing ok. Hope this helps but like I said I'm a newbie so don't take my plan as gospel
Click to expand...
With that amount of carb per meal I should be checking with if your blood glucose is being pushed up by testing before you eat and then after 2 hours, If you haven't already got a monitor it might be useful to get one.
Although I am not on any medication 60-70g carb per day is what I normally have, but you might be fine with the amount you are having but you won't know unless you test.
 
Leadinglights said:
With that amount of carb per meal I should be checking with if your blood glucose is being pushed up by testing before you eat and then after 2 hours, If you haven't already got a monitor it might be useful to get one.
Although I am not on any medication 60-70g carb per day is what I normally have, but you might be fine with the amount you are having but you won't know unless you test.
Click to expand...
Thank you, yea im checking my glucose morning and nite and its coming down steadily. It was 7 this am.
 
Type two seems to be very individual and very variable - I have found myself losing a couple of pounds a day eating two meals a day, and maintaining the same weight when only eating once - it is impossible to forecast.
 
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