Please help me!

[Scotia]

Recently diagnosed. I have no clue apart from being told, eat fish, veg, and chicken.
When I read sometimes on here you guys are weighing your food????WHY?
I am totally at a loss, as to what to eat or not.
I have ordered a book called, Carbs and Cals. But please help in the meantime.

I am not on any meds, nor do I have a blood counting machine.

It's all too much.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Redkite]

Hi Scotia and welcome 🙂 Speaking from the perspective of my son, who has type 1 diabetes, he needs to match his insulin doses with any carbohydrates he eats, so we often weigh out things like cereals, pasta and rice to accurately calculate the carb-content of his portion. As a person with type 2, you don't *need* to do this, although some people find it helpful to weigh food and watch their intake of carbs if they are trying to lose weight.

Are you controlling your diabetes with diet and exercise? Do you have any weight to lose? Carbohydrates all cause a rise in your blood glucose level, and people with type 2 usually have insulin resistance, which means that once the blood glucose goes up, it stays up and takes a long while to fall back to normal. You have probably been advised to avoid fast-acting (high GI) carbs, ie. sugary foods, but slow-release (low GI) carbs can also have a significant effect, and therefore some people with type 2 find it helpful to restrict the amounts of these foods by only having small weighed out portions.

 

[AlisonM]

The book will be a very useful resource as all diabetics should ideally keep track of the amount of carbs we eat. Our digestive process turns them to sugar and that provides the energy we need to function. But a diabetic's body can't process these sugars correctly, either through lack of insulin or perhaps insulin resistance so our blood sugars climb and we get sick. A low carb/low GI diet can help keep blood sugars under control.

Carbs and Cals is one of the best resources out there, here's a link to their website and there's an app you can get if you have smartphone which is very useful if you're out and about.

 

[Copepod]

Weighing is really only important for those of us who need to know carbohydrate content of meals so we can adjust insulin dose. Having said that, I don't weigh my food, just read labels for carbohydrate per portion (or how much I am going to eat eg a whole pack of cous cous when competing in mountain marathons, which is supposed to be 2 portions).

Apart from potatoes, vegetables have relatively low carbohydrate content, so make my life easier, I don't bother to count them. For fruit, I tend to rely on memory for how much carbydrate in a small / medium / large apple / banana etc.

Depending on what you trying to achieve ie whether or not you are trying to lose weight, then for you, monitoring calories in might be more important than counting carbohydrate - fats have highest calorie count of types of food (fat / carbohydrate / protein), apart from alcohol. Avoiding / minimising intake of saturated fats (such as fats from animals, such as on meat, in butter, cheese etc), while using sensible amounts of unsaturated fats (such as oily fish, olive oil etc) is also important for heart health.

 

[AlisonM]

Oh, by the way, blood testing is also a useful tool for any diabetic, though T2s in this country are not generally encouraged to do this. You may be able to get a meter and strips from your doctor/nurse, but it might be a god idea to look into getting one for yourself anyway. It can be very helpful, especially in early days since, with regular testing before and after meals and exercise, you can learn how food and activity affect your blood glucose readings and hence, what foods to avoid, what you can have occasionally and what you can eat any time you want.

You should keep a diary of what food you eat, plus when and how much you exercise and the associated BG readings so that you can see what's going on with our diabetes.

As a basic practice, you should test before you eat then 1 and 2 hours after a meal, plus before and after you exercise. You should do this until you are confident that you understand how your BGs are affected by different foods and activities as it will help enormously in the effort to control your diabetes.

These are some links that other members have found useful in their first days with Diabetes:

Type 2 Diabetes, the first year, from Amazon
An open letter to the new T2. PDF file
Jennifer's Advice. A blog

I hope all this helps.

 

[Scotia]

Alison

How do we get sick.?????

 

[AlisonM]

How do we get sick.?????

Well, I don't know about you but when my BGs rise too high, I feel like death warmed up and hurt all over, as well as being permanently exhausted. Some folk have a raging thirst and need frequent visits to the loo as well.

Longer term, there can be some very serious complications that can result in disability. So, anything you can do for yourself now, may help prevent extra troubles in the future.

 

[Vicsetter]

Hi Scotia, in the words of Douglas Adams - Don't Panic. Don't become obsessive with your eating habits. It might be worth approaching your GP/nurse to see if you can get referred to a dietitian to advise on your diet.
If your GP has diagnosed you as T2 and not put you on meds that they must think you are borderline. How were you diagnosed? do you have an Hba1C reading from your diagnosis.

You shouldn't need a blood glucose meter and you don't need to weigh your food. Just try and cut down on anything made from white flour or sugar (like cakes and white bread sandwiches). I don't know if you need to lose weight as well but reducing your carb intake will help. Reduce the amount of fast carbs you eat, so instead of say 4 potatoes eat 3 or 2. Similarly reduce the portion sizes of pasta and rice. If you like it increase your portion sizes of green veg (lettuce, cabbage etc) to stop you feeling hungry.

You may find you are given a lot of dietary advice based on 'a normal healthy diet', which is not necessarily anything to do with your diabetes. There is also still some old thinking out there which says you should increase your carb input and decrease your fat input - ignore it.

Regard your diagnosis as a warning sign that you need to eat healthier in future.

 

[Highlander]

Hi Scotia,

When I was first diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, I was eating just about anything I wanted. After I was diagnosed, I started watching my diet and avoided very sugary food, such as jam donuts, sweets, and anything that contained large quantities of sugar. If you take sugar in drinks then get some sweeteners. Drink things like Pepsi Max - no sugar at all and tastes OK. However, you don't have to avoid all sugar just cut down.

You may end up taking some tablets, such as Metformin. I was given a Blood Glucose meter and test strips by my GP and told to test a couple of times a day. I test in the morning and2 hours after my main meal of the day. The thing to avoid is Hypos (Yes type 2 diabetics do get them, particularly if they don't eat regularly) this is when your Blood Glucose (BG) falls below 4. At which point you need something to eat, such as a couple of digestive biscuits or some ordinary Coke or Pepsi followed by something to eat. Don't worry you will soon get used to it.

Try and see a dietician, as with a good diet you may not need to take any pills. As for me I hate fish, chicken is OK but I prefer red meat, always have done. I am not very fond of veg but love potatoes, particularly the ones I grow myself.

Best of luck.

 

[Scotia]

Thanks for all your help. I got my book today, so that should help.