Observations on the site

[Mazet]

Hello all.

I’ve been Pre diabetic for some time but have sadly lapsed into a Type 2 diagnosis so have been having a wee wander around the site looking for tips and guidance.

I have to say that at first glance the site seems to be suffering from a large dose of information overload. I’m sure the information we all need is here somewhere but it certainly seems at first glance to be a little over complicated.
It seems that finding advice on good food choices v not so good is also almost impossible. Lists of carbs, sugar & fat content is all very well however IMHO straight forward guidance on what should be encouraged/discouraged would be most helpful.

I’m not a stupid guy and I am most certainly not a rocket scientist so if I’m struggling with the layout and navigation I’m pretty sure there are many who would be overwhelmed by the navigational difficulties that are to be encountered. Perhaps it’s a generational thing but I would be surprised if there weren’t many who simply found it all to be over complex.

Moving on to the menus and recipes recommended. I’m sure people develop diabetes for many reason but I guess poor diet choice might be right up there. Poverty and lack of education with regards to food and health will also undoubtedly play a huge part. In light of this it’s disappointing to see the overly complicated recipes and frankly they are of no use whatsoever to your average man/woman.

Dishes like Moroccan squash and aubergine Tagine or Caponata sound wonderful but if you’ve arrived home after a hard shift on a shop floor or building site then let’s not kid ourselves about how much use these kind of recommendations are.

Could we not have simple suggestions like a tin of low fat/sugar beans on toast as recommendations? Quick and simple suggestions as opposed to fancy multi ingredient recipes that wouldn’t look out of place in Michelin starred recipes would be much more beneficial. The majority of us don’t have deep pockets and the culinary skills to be preparing these meals.

As I said it’s my first visit but I find myself underwhelmed. I’ll definitely return but if I’m looking for down to earth basic food suggestions then I’m not sure that this site is the one for that.

It’s not been a complete waste of time though as I have discovered that Ready Brek seems to be a better choice of breakfast than porridge!

All the best and good luck to all on the journey ahead.

 

[Ralph-YK]

Welcome to the forum Mazet.

Dishes like Moroccan squash and aubergine Tagine or Caponata sound wonderful but if you’ve arrived home after a hard shift on a shop floor or building site then let’s not kid ourselves about how much use these kind of recommendations are.

Could we not have simple suggestions like a tin of low fat/sugar beans on toast as recommendations?

I don't remember seeing anything like that on here. General advice people get on here is manage/low carb. And self test to see what works for you. And answering any secific questions asked.
Or are you talking about something on the Diabetes UK website? We, the forum, are separte to the Diabetes UK website. Here you are talking to diabetics at large rather than to Diabetes uk.

 

[Becka]

Dishes like Moroccan squash and aubergine Tagine or Caponata sound wonderful but if you’ve arrived home after a hard shift on a shop floor or building site then let’s not kid ourselves about how much use these kind of recommendations are.

This forum is mainly other diabetics or people with a relationship to the condition, so you are better and using the contact links to tell the people responsible for running the site your comments.

However I had a look at the tagine recipe, if you have a bag of pre-cut vegetables in the fridge the recipe is literally gradually adding tags to a pan whilst stirring, then leaving it to simmer. A total time of 30 minutes. Something you can do whilst watching the news, a soap, the build up to tonight's match on TV.

The caponata recipe is almost the same but for also making courgette spaghetti. And if the effort of that is too much, you can buy it ready spiralized in supermarkets. After that is I just putting it in a pan of boiling water for a few mines, no different to regular spaghetti which is regularly eaten because it is so quick and simple to prepare.

Part of learning to live with and manage diabetes is accepting that you have to make the effort to make dishes like these rather than settling for unhealthy convenience foods. And if you know you are going to be coming home from a hard shift then you can do the preparation like cutting the vegetables in advance so that when you come home you have nothing more to do than stirring. They take less effort than mashing potatoes, a common part of many simple meals. You cannot eat healthily and have beans on toast or similar for tea every day. Not even with low sugar beans.

They are far from overly complicated, and nor are the ones you chosen expensive for most people. Costs per portion are always misleading, especially if you live alone, because you have to buy a whole squash etc. But you can chop one up and freeze the rest (letting a portion defrost while at work) so that you do end up getting the value of a 99p meal, and without having to have squash every day for a week.

If you want to put in the effort with your diet then you have to put in the effort. You cannot blame other people for not being able to offer you shortcuts which do not exist. It is a decision you have to make for yourself, but you singled out too recipes which, with the exception of the courgette spaghetti needing to be spiralized, are nothing more than chopping vegetables and stirring them together in a pan. How much simpler do you need if they are too much effort?

Maybe the site needs to do better at explaining that, it actually does not take much effort to make big changes. Because to me it sounds like that is what you need to hear. I can only think you looked at the recipes, thought they sounded fancy and would be difficult, so dismissed them.

The first effort being to read the recipes and think you will try making them. That does not have to be after a hard days work but it could be on a lazy Saturday afternoon. And when you see how easy they are, when you are used to making them that you do not need recipes, the effort needed after that long day at work will not seem like any effort at all.

That is the change you need to make if you want to start easting healthier, not asking people to tell you how you can keep eating unhealthy meals.

 

[HenryBennett]

I’ve been Pre diabetic for some time but have sadly lapsed into a Type 2 diagnosis so have been having a wee wander around the site looking for tips and guidance.

A number of people have pointed out that these forums are separate to the DUK website. There‘s a wealth of experience here and helpful, knowledgeable people. But you get out what you put it.

What I advise is that you send a complaint to DUK?

 

[brisr949]

OUCH...but true.

 

[Sally71]

Surely you don’t need a recipe to tell you how to make beans on toast?? Bread is not good for you anyway if you have diabetes because it is mostly carbohydrate. As is the sauce on the beans, probably even low sugar ones. So nobody here is likely to recommend that sort of thing for your tea. If you want people to tell you that it's ok to carry on eating meals like that then you've come to the wrong place I’m afraid.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome

Perhaps if you had come onto the forum and asked for some simple meal suggestions we might have been able to help you. Things like gammon or high meat content sausages with low carb cauliflower cheese or steak and salad or omelettes as Martin mentioned are simple meals. Incorporating more veg and particularly leafy greens into your diet and reducing the amount of carbs from bread, pasta, potatoes, rice and breakfast cereals and even fruit is what we recommend as well as ditching the obvious sugary foods. Not sure where you got the info about Ready Brek as that is usually more highly processed than some porridge oats but many diabetics find that any porridge is a problem and avoid it altogether. Similarly, baked beans even the low/no sugar ones, are high in carbs and so is toast, so not something we would necessarily recommend but you might get away with some on one slice of seeded or low carb bread every now and then.

Our best advice is to get yourself a Blood Glucose meter and test your blood before and 2 hours after a meal to see how your body reacted to it and then make adjustments if it spiked your BG levels too high. Responses can be very individual which is why dietary advice for diabetics is so confusing, so you need to learn what your body will tolerate and a BG meter will show you that.

The forum is kindly hosted by Diabetes UK but we are separate of them, so as others have suggested, any complaint about the Diabetes UK site would need to be addressed to them. We (the forum) are just people with diabetes like yourself who are here to help and support each other.

 

[Becka]

Well, to take a point from another topic, I guess we will now find out whether being encouraging or being offensive to people works better.

 

[Sally71]

I'd like to add actually, I did not mean to come across as rude so apologies if it came over that way. Basically things you can eat loads of are unprocessed meat, fish, cheese, eggs, green veg and salad, fill up on those as much as you like. Foods you should try to avoid are all high sugar foods obviously, but also bread, pasta, rice, cereal, potatoes and most fruits. So good meals would be simple salads, omelette flavoured with cheese mushrooms, bacon, peppers, onion etc. Steak with salad but no chips. Sunday roast with extra broccoli and no potatoes. Most stews are good, again with green veg but no potato or rice. Many people use cauliflower as a substitute for those. You could make up a big batch of stew at the weekend, freeze it in single portions and then when you come home all tired from your day at work just bung a portion in the microwave and that's your evening meal sorted, couldn’t be easier. With a bit of thought it's possible to adapt most meals to reduce the carbs. And it really doesn’t get any simpler than that.

Diabetes is complicated unfortunately and that might be why you find the information confusing. If you have any specific questions please do ask.

 

[Pumper_Sue]

It seems that finding advice on good food choices v not so good is also almost impossible. Lists of carbs, sugar & fat content is all very well however IMHO straight forward guidance on what should be encouraged/discouraged would be most helpful.

Hello @Mazet and welcome to the forum.
Reading your post I feel as if you are just hitting out at anyone and everyone due to your diagnoses which has probably come as a shock to you.

The main ingredient for recipes/meals is common sense, as in it's you that has to choose what is sensible to eat or not as the case may be. 🙂 Portion control works wonders as well.
If you like you bread then look at Burgen bread as it's a lot kinder on blood sugars and if possible perhaps think about an open sandwich thus your bread intake is halved but you can pile on the lower carb/carb free topping. There's way's and means of achieving your goals.🙂

 

[Mazet]

Well, to take a point from another topic, I guess we will now find out whether being encouraging or being offensive to people works better.

I’m a big boy and can take both encouragement and or robust response. I’ll take the time to reply to the observations when I have time.

At this stage I should point out that I don’t think that if I’m on the DUK website and an option on the site is to link to a forum then the forum I’m linked to is affiliated to DUK. Some have had the good sense to work out that is exactly what I have done. Others with a slightly thinner skin have decided to take my comments as a personal attack and turned the artillery on me.

I stand by my comments on the DUK site I find it very elitist and it does not make any attempt to target advice in a way that is easily followed by your average joe.

 

[SueEK]

@Mazet . Such a shame you feel that way, this is actually a very good site, informative, friendly and supporting. We are happy to help all who join in any way that we can. Diabetes is a fickle foe and how we are affected is different for everyone which is why so many questions are asked, particularly about food. What one person can tolerate, another can’t and of course we all have different tastes and medical requirements. EG I can tolerate potatoes quite well so steak, chips and salad is on the menu for me but many others couldn’t have that.
Can I suggest you have another look around the site with open eyes and with the knowledge that we are here to help not to hinder or intimidate.
All the best. Sue

 

[SB2015]

Hi @Mazet

There is a lot to take on at diagnosis. I found it worked well if I had specific questions to just ask. There has always been plenty of useful practical advice and support from others on here.

With regards to choices of food, if you already have meals, recipes that you like, a good thing to do as a starting point would be to work out the amount of carbohydrates you are currently eating. It is these that all get changed into glucose once inside us. If you have diabetes you do not have enough insulin to cope with the amount of carbs you are eating. You can reduce the amount at each meal by reducing portion size and or swapping foods for ones that are lower carb.

I tend to find general patterns more useful rather than specific details. I can then make choices that suit me. As others have said we all react differently. For example If I have porridge I know I will have a massive spike in my levels. Mind you readybrek would do that too, just a lot more quickly. For veg I found this rule of thumb useful.
Veg that are grown
- underground are high in carbs
- above the ground are medium carbs
- on the ground are low carb.
This helps me to make choices about swaps.

Another useful tactic I got from here is to not sit down for at lest 15 min after eating. That reduces my post meal levels a lot.

Do ask any specific questions you have.

Off for my walk.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Mazet

Thanks for your feedback on the main Diabetes UK, i will make sure this gets passed to the digital team so that they can consider it, as getting user experiences

I think it is understandable that members of the forum would spring to it’s defence when you say ’the website’ when posting on the forum, as it perhaps wasn't clear whether it was the forum that you found ‘information overload‘ or the main website.

While forum members have no influence over the structure of the main Diabetes UK website, several of them will have found helpful information on it, so if there’s anything in particular you were struggling to find, someone here can probably point you in the right direction?

 

[Becka]

I'd like to add actually, I did not mean to come across as rude so apologies if it came over that way.

Sorry, I was not referring to your post, but I can see how I sloppily made it appear that way.

It was meant to be a general response to a specific post, but I did not quote it as I did not want to call anyone out personally. And that post has now been removed anyway, so it is all rather irrelevant now.

 

[Becka]

I stand by my comments on the DUK site I find it very elitist and it does not make any attempt to target advice in a way that is easily followed by your average joe.

I do not know how many people here are average joes, and how many are elitists, but usually when someone uses those terms they actually mean whether they agree or disagree with them. However, could you explain what is difficult to follow about the tagine recipe you called out, and maybe other people can say what they find complicated too?

Here is that recipe:

Add the oil to a pan, followed by the onion, and stir for 3–4 minutes until just starting to brown.
Next, add the aubergine and butternut squash. Heat for 3–4 minutes, stirring regularly.
Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for 1–2 minutes, again stirring regularly.
Add the cinnamon, turmeric and cumin. Mix well, pour in the water, stir, and then add in the tomatoes.
Mix well and bring to a gentle boil. Turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes until the squash is soft.
Mix and serve with fresh coriander, plus some wedges of lemon.

Moroccan squash and aubergine tagine

www.diabetes.org.uk

Incidentally, I am focussing on this because I would generally agree that the navigation on the site is not great, but there is nothing forum members can do about that. It is something you have to take up with those in charge of the site itself.

But what we can do is offer advice on diet based on our own knowledge and experiences, offer advice based on the changes you need to make, and the attitude required. And that means not making excuses for not trying recipes that sound fancy when you seemingly just want someone to tell you it is okay to eat beans on toast all the time.

You chose that recipe as an example of "very complicated recipes and frankly they are of no use whatsoever to your average man/woman." So I am very curious what you find complicated? As for the average man or woman, they do not have diabetes.

Not that I agree with your apparent belief that the average person does not care about their diet and cannot or does not eat such food. If anything is elitist it would be that. And at risk of sounding elitist myself, you can buy tagines in Aldi, it is not as though it is a dish you never see outside of Waitrose. I would also be shocked if it is not something the likes of Jamie Oliver has made on very popular TV shows.

So I stand by my original comment, the problem in this regard is not the web site but your attitude. If you want to improve your diet you need to understand that beans on toast has to be a treat and not something anyone can say you can safely eat as a healthy diet. You need to stop looking down on out-of-touch those Aldi-shopping elitists with their "fancy multi ingredient recipes that wouldn’t look out of place in Michelin starred recipes" and become one of them. If you can slice bread and cook a pan of beans, you can chop vegetable and stir a pan of vegetables.

 

[Bloden]

Welcome to the forum @Mazet. 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Well I've been a member of Diabetes UK for donkeys years, cos I've had T1 for donkey's years and I really wonder whether you understand exactly what Diabetes UK is? It is a Charity. It funds all sorts of Diabetes Research. It is the only UK Charity that represents all people with diabetes and if funded both by the income it receives from our individual subscriptions, plus what folk like The Charities Commission stump up and a tiddly bit of commission for things sold in their shop. It takes things up with Parliament and the NHS for us, It has helped diabetic kiddies in schools be allowed to test their blood and do their injections and be taken far better care of, and diabetic adults with the DVLA, getting some of the driving laws changed when necessary. They man a Helpline for anyone with diabetes that's a bit stumped with any aspect of their lives. They give a great deal of info that a Diabetic needs to know in order to understand their condition, in their 'Learning Zone'.

They are a very useful asset for most of us.

They hadn't used to have recipes, and they can only respond to what people tell them they want. Hence as more folk adopt vegetarian or vegan diets (and many more people do these days than used to 50 years ago) they started suggesting recipes to suit them as well as the carnivores and those of us who also have other auto immune conditions to accompany the diabetes.

The only dietary component our bodies have difficulty coping with are the carbohydrates - and though low sugar baked beans do reduce the carbohydrate content of the sauce they cannot reduce the carbohydrate content of the beans! Beans (and peas) are what are called 'leguminous' vegetables and contain a lot of carbs and nobody can change that - so generally aren't an ideal choice. If you want something on toast a better choice would be egg - but there again there are usually a lot of carbs in the bread anyway - so you'd be better off having bacon, egg, tomatoes and mushrooms, bit of black pudding and/or high meat content sausage - than anything on toast.

 

[Sally71]

Sorry, I was not referring to your post, but I can see how I sloppily made it appear that way.

It was meant to be a general response to a specific post, but I did not quote it as I did not want to call anyone out personally. And that post has now been removed anyway, so it is all rather irrelevant now.

That's OK I didn’t think you meant me, but I have upset people on this forum once or twice before by not being very careful with my choice of words, so just wanted to make sure I wasn’t falling into the same trap again. I only ever want to help people but occasionally I think I fire off a reply a bit too quickly and that can be misconstrued. I think one or two comments on this thread have got people’s backs up and things can get out of hand quickly if you aren’t careful (and I’m not meaning anyone in particular on this thread but I've seen it happen before and even done it myself unfortunately). Written words can come across sounding very different from how the writer intended them to