Please can I have some help....sorry if it's been answered a million times already!

[freckles07]

I am T2 and had gestational diabetes 27 years ago. Unbeknown to me the diabetes stayed with me until it was discovered in a pre-op many years later. When I was diagnosed I was told that bread/pasta/potatoes should make up 1/3rd of my plate. I was also told to eat little and often to prevent hypos.

About 8 years ago I was told by my diabetic nurse that we were no longer testing and there was no need for me to home test. In the last couple of years I have lost over 6 stone. A very close bereavement kick started my weight loss and I have now totally changed my pattern of eating. the continuation of the weight loss has also resulted in my plastic surgeon agreeing to a fleur-de-lys (sp??) operation which is due in Feb/March.

In truth, I've sort of bimbled along quite happily for years being careful what I eat.

On Monday I went to my diabetic review and was told it was 77 - having been 45 for the last 3 years. I've now been told that my favourite meal - jacket and salad - yes, really - means I have 16 lumps of sugar with each potato. Also told definitely nothing between meals and stick to 3 meals a day. With these readings there is no way I will get the go ahead for my op and it has blown my mind!

The grief is an ongoing problem for me and in all honesty I have lost all interest in food and stick to about the same 5 different meals. Whilst I am ecstatic with the weight loss, I have to get my head around this new pattern. I am going back for a review in February (ahead of my op although date not confirmed yet) but this op means so much to me, it will change my life. If I don't get my sugars down the op will not go ahead.

How can I keep a close check on my sugars if I can't test?? Are the guides on the food packages any good to me or are they only for 'normal diets'? I have to get this sorted once and for all.

Please can you help me get my head around this before I lose my mind??

All advice much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Vince_UK]

I am T2 and had gestational diabetes 27 years ago. Unbeknown to me the diabetes stayed with me until it was discovered in a pre-op many years later. When I was diagnosed I was told that bread/pasta/potatoes should make up 1/3rd of my plate. I was also told to eat little and often to prevent hypos.

About 8 years ago I was told by my diabetic nurse that we were no longer testing and there was no need for me to home test. In the last couple of years I have lost over 6 stone. A very close bereavement kick started my weight loss and I have now totally changed my pattern of eating. the continuation of the weight loss has also resulted in my plastic surgeon agreeing to a fleur-de-lys (sp??) operation which is due in Feb/March.

In truth, I've sort of bimbled along quite happily for years being careful what I eat.

On Monday I went to my diabetic review and was told it was 77 - having been 45 for the last 3 years. I've now been told that my favourite meal - jacket and salad - yes, really - means I have 16 lumps of sugar with each potato. Also told definitely nothing between meals and stick to 3 meals a day. With these readings there is no way I will get the go ahead for my op and it has blown my mind!

The grief is an ongoing problem for me and in all honesty I have lost all interest in food and stick to about the same 5 different meals. Whilst I am ecstatic with the weight loss, I have to get my head around this new pattern. I am going back for a review in February (ahead of my op although date not confirmed yet) but this op means so much to me, it will change my life. If I don't get my sugars down the op will not go ahead.

How can I keep a close check on my sugars if I can't test?? Are the guides on the food packages any good to me or are they only for 'normal diets'? I have to get this sorted once and for all.

Please can you help me get my head around this before I lose my mind??

All advice much appreciated.

Thank you.

Hi Freckles
Sorry to hear about your problems.
Must be very concerning and upsetting for you.
I am T2 also but recently diagnosed and a complete novice.
There are many here with far more experience and knowledge than I could possible profess to have and I know someone will be along shortly with wise, meaninful and valuable advice.
My only comment would be that 1/3 of your plate with carbs seems a little high to me and a glib statement.
I have totally avoided potatoes, rice, pasta, bread etc. from the very beginning. Zero intake.
I would have thought it would have been wiser to advise you to control your daily intake of carbs by grams rather than plate proportion.
I have tried to keep my intake of carbs down to less that 75 gram/day in total.
Weight loss and BG level control being the result.
I know someone will be along shortly with solid advice.
Good luck let us know how thinsg go
We are all interested in how you get on.

 

[Northerner]

Hi Freckles, welcome to the forum 🙂 I'm sorry to hear this Hopefully we can help you to get your levels under control before your operation 🙂

I'd recommend reading Maggie Davey's letter for starters, it will give you a good overview of what you need to be looking out for 🙂 Really, apart from the more obvious adaptations you might make to your diet, like reducing your carbohydrate intake (bread, potatoes, pasta, rice etc.) the best and surest way of learning how your food choices affect your levels is to test. Have a read of Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S to understand how testing before and after eating can help you to tailor your diet to include only those food choices you tolerate well 🙂 It would be worth funding your own testing regime if your GP won't issue strips (it's wrong to say you don't need to test, but they think they are saving money ) - the cheapest option we have come across is the SD Codefree Meter which has test strips at around £8 for 50 (most meters can charge up to £30 for 50 strips on the High St ). You wouldn't need to test forever, just whilst you learn about how things affect your levels and how small changes might make a big difference 🙂

Write a food diary, and record how many grams of carbs are in everything you eat and drink for a few days - this will give you a useful starting point for seeing where you might make better substitutions or reduce portions of carbs and replace with, for example, more green veg 🙂

Please let us know if you have any questions about all this and we will do our best to help 🙂

 

[Martin Canty]

Hi Freckles.....

IMHO testing is vital, particularly now seeing as you have lost a little control.... You should test to try & see what is causing the rise in your A1c levels (the 77). As @Vince_UK mentions 1/3 of your plate in carbs laden foods is a lot & I would see about replacing that with less starchy vegetables

 

[Dave W]

As has already been said @freckles07 , you really need to start testing if you want to start to understand what you are eating is doing to your blood glucose levels.
The standard NHS dietary advice is becoming increasingly criticised from the diabetic perspective as being far too high in carbohydrate content. The "Eat Healthy/ Eat Well" plate has recently been described as the "Eat Badly" plate.
Dr David Unwin a GP from the north of England has had some quite remarkable results in reducing diabetes in his patients due to the low carbohydrate advice he and his colleagues offer.
I've appended a link to a conference video that you may find interesting. It's long at 45 minutes but very interesting and not too technical.

 

[freckles07]

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply; at this time of year particularly, I am very grateful. I think I felt that everything I had been advised had been turned on its head. I have a couple of diabetic cookbooks but they are fairly dated and now i wonder whether they are also out of date from an intake point of view?

Please can I ask some more questions? re the stats on packaging, where it states the carbs - of which sugars are these accurate for T2 diabetics and by that I mean can I use them or are they for a normal diet? I hope that makes sense .... it's just that Vince's answer says 75g and based on what I normally eat this sounds very high for me.

I have spoken with my son who summed it up when he said that I don't eat 'bad things' (hence the weight loss) however I don't eat a nutritionally balanced diet but this is because i have lost all interest in food. But I know I need to get interested!. He talked about how I used to cook for the family (I'm now divorced and live on my own) and said I always served up a proper, balanced menu practically every day. I don't eat enough protein certainly - mainly just from eggs/tuna.

I can't currently afford to buy testing strips; i won't go into detail but due to circumstances beyond my control, finances are absolutely minimal. I understand that you may say I can't afford not to test, but I promise you there are no spare funds at the moment for this option for me.

Thanks also for the link to the clip. I will watch it when I get home.

thanks again, for some reason I can't now see your replies so can't comment on some of your advice. It'll be better when I get home on the lappie!

You're all very generous, thank you.

 

[freckles07]

PS .... what on earth is Burgen bread??

 

[Kaylz]

PS .... what on earth is Burgen bread??

Its a brand of bread, its lower carb than most breads and is full of seeds, its not to everyone's taste to be honest, if its not to yours then I suggest you give Hovis lower carb a go, its available in whole meal, seeded and white varieties x

 

[Northerner]

PS .... what on earth is Burgen bread??

It's a brown bread, seeded as @Kaylz says, which helps slow the conversion to glucose and therefore has a gentler impact on blood sugar levels. The variety to go for is Soya and Linseed, as this replaces some of the ordinary flour with soya flour which lowers the carb content. Most larger supermarkets stock it, I get mine from Sainsbury's and I love it! 🙂

Regarding the numbers on the packaging - it is the total carbohydrate value that you are looking for, not just the 'of which, sugars' part. Remember that all carbohydrates count. The 'sugars' part is helpful though, as the greater the proportion of the carbs that is sugar, the faster it will convert to glucose and raise your blood sugar levels.

There are lots of suggestions in the Food and Recipes section for using alternatives to carbohydrates in your meals, so have a browse in there (things like cauliflower mash or cauli-rice, courguetti-spaghetti etc.). Do try writing the food diary - it can be quite surprising at first to learn what your total carb intake is over the day! I'm in a different situation to you as I am on insulin, however I do tend to eat between 100-150g carbs a day - much lower than the 'recommended daily amount' of 240g! 😱 Most people who don't have diabetes eat far more than that, because they have been led to believe over the past 30 years that fat is bad and the thing to avoid, so food manufacturers have replaced a lot of the fat that used to be in things with more sugar, carbs and salt. It's only now being recognised that perhaps this advice is what has led us to be overweight, and not excess fat in our food! 🙄 If your recipe books are a bit old they will most probably be out of line with current thinking.

It is a shame you can't afford to test, but I know it's not cheap. Really, your nurse/GP should supply you with a meter and prescription for strips, because the sooner you understand your diet and are able to adapt it, the better chance you have of getting your levels back under good control. It would be worth asking again, explaining what you hope to achieve and what you hope to learn. At the very least, you may be able to persuade them to give you a limited supply, say for 3 months or so, and then review whether they appear to have helped. That's not a major expense if it means lowering your risk of complications which would be much more expensive to treat in the longer term. In my opinion no person who is motivated to test and learn should be denied the means to do so.

Keep asking questions or let us know if anything needs clarifying for you 🙂

 

[Dave W]

Please can I ask some more questions? re the stats on packaging, where it states the carbs - of which sugars are these accurate for T2 diabetics and by that I mean can I use them or are they for a normal diet? I hope that makes sense .... it's just that Vince's answer says 75g and based on what I normally eat this sounds very high for me.

You're all very generous, thank you.

The details on the backs of packaging are for any and everyone, though the carbohydrate quantities i.e the grams of carbs per 100g of product is of particular importance for anyone with diabetes who is trying to follow a low carb diet. Disregard the ‘of which sugars’ as that is included in the total carbs.
You should also think about just how much of the product you are likely to eat because with some relatively high carb products you may only consume a small amount in a single serving. Grams per serving is often printed along with the other data.

 

[Drummer]

What dreadful advice you have had - it is like telling a learner driver to slam their foot down hard on the accelerator, don't worry about where you are going, and never look at the speedometer, I'll just get out now, but don't worry you won't have an accident. Yeah - right.
I need no medication, have normal blood test readings - but I do not eat any high sugar or starch foods - the ones which diabetics can't cope with - I stick to foods ten percent net carbs or less and no more than 60gm of carbs as an absolute maximum. I have two meals a day as that seems to suit me, coffee with cream, testing my blood glucose very occasionally just to be sure I'm not getting complacent.
Just checked and it is 5.6mmol/l - that seems fine to me.
The old way of treating diabetes was to eat low carb - it goes back a long way - but has been ridiculed and derided recently - just take pills instead seems to be what is considered normal.
In the UK we have the net carbs on the packets - the traffic light system is worse than useless for diabetics. Many web sites have the gross carbs including the fibre, as that is how it is done on the US, but that is not always helpful.
The situation is not too critical yet - eating low carb straight after diagnosis dropped my Hba1c from 91 to 47 in just 80 days, and I wasn't even trying hard.

 

[Dave W]

For anyone wanting really detailed and reliable information about the composition of foods - carbs and very, very much more, the standard dataset is the Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset ( 2015). The data in this are those used by food producers for their labelling.
As far as I've found so far there is no quick and easy way to access the data as it's in MS Excel format and even if one can open Excel files it results in a massive range of of data in alphabetic format, but is better than than nothing. However if you have the ability to import the Excel file into a searchable database such as MS Access or similar (I use Filemaker Pro) searching for any specific food takes just a second.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/composition-of-foods-integrated-dataset-cofid