Please help

NorthernLass27

NorthernLass27

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
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She/Her
Hi
new to the forum.
A little bit of advice please, are bananas OK to eat? I thought a small one would be OK, but can't find an answer.
Any advice or comments welcomed
Thanks
 
Hi @NorthernLass27 and welcome to the forum. Compared to many I am still a relative new member of club diabetes (the club nobody wants to join). As fruit goes bananas are quite high carb so can push your blood glucose levels up. Are you asking because you enjoy eating them or is it to increase your potassium intake?
 
Thanks for your reply
I'm trying to increase my fruit intake! I'm also looking for quick and simple breakfast food.
I struggle to keep my levels low so I'm looking around for enjoyable food.
Love your picture !
 
Berries of any kind are low carb and many people on the forum have berries with full fat yoghurt to start the day. I bought the Carbs and Cals book recommended by many people. It has several common foods listed together with portion sizes photos. Really helpful. A lot of people follow a low carb approach to manage their blood glucose levels. There is also an app called Freshwell, free to download and it has many recipes and menu suggestions as well as background dietary advice. Have you been recently diagnosed?
 
NorthernLass27 said:
Thanks for your reply
I'm trying to increase my fruit intake! I'm also looking for quick and simple breakfast food.
I struggle to keep my levels low so I'm looking around for enjoyable food.
Love your picture !
Click to expand...
Thanks. It's one I smuggled into work and put in the display cabinet alongside the company products. I like your avatar too. Stoat?
 
NorthernLass27 said:
Hi
new to the forum.
A little bit of advice please, are bananas OK to eat? I thought a small one would be OK, but can't find an answer.
Any advice or comments welcomed
Thanks
Click to expand...
As fruits go the tropical varieties like pineapple and banana tend to be higher carb and many of us avoid them for that reason. Berries, on the other hand, are at the other end and are a popular breakfast choice, whilst apples tend to sit in between.

My breakfast consists of a mix of berries with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt and to give it some crunch I add a single Weetabix, which I break up over it like an oxo cube, or sometimes a couple of spoonfuls of my wife's homemade granola.

You say you're struggling to keep your BG levels down. Do you know how many carbs you're eating in a typical day?
 
NorthernLass27 said:
Thanks for your reply
I'm trying to increase my fruit intake! I'm also looking for quick and simple breakfast food.
I struggle to keep my levels low so I'm looking around for enjoyable food.
Love your picture !
Click to expand...
If you are struggling with keeping your blood glucose levels down then bananas and indeed other tropical fruits are probably the worst ones to choose. Berries are lowest carb and can be added to Greek yogurt for a quick breakfast, apples, pears, kiwi, melon are somewhere in the middle for carbs.
Eggs can be a quick breakfast, scrambled or omelette are quick.
 
23g of carbs in a small banana. I tend to ration them like bread or biscuits, ie I'll treat myself to one occasionally, if I've had a really low carb day.
 
I come at this as someone with Type 1.
In the replies, everyone mentions that bananas are relatively high carb content and, therefore, they avoid them.
But doesn't it depend upon what medication you are on. For example, I have read that a low carb diet is not a good idea if you are taking Glicazide (sp?).
 
helli said:
I come at this as someone with Type 1.
In the replies, everyone mentions that bananas are relatively high carb content and, therefore, they avoid them.
But doesn't it depend upon what medication you are on. For example, I have read that a low carb diet is not a good idea if you are taking Glicazide (sp?).
Click to expand...
I agree that no food is off limits as such but some foods are better consumed in lower quantities if you are keeping your overall carb consumption down. I am currently running medium to low carb intake as my gliclazide has been very recently increased. I do include apples in my diet for variety. Any carbs I eat are generally nutritionally high for my overall health. I choose not to eat sweets and other empty carby or calorific foods at the moment
 
If @NorthernLass27 is struggling to get their levels down then regardless of whether they are on Gliclazide or not, reducing their carb intake will help. If the Gliclazide was keeping their levels nicely in range then reducing carbs could result in hypos, but eating one of the highest carb fruits whilst levels are high is not going to help and there are lower carb fruits which would be a better choice, like berries as mentioned.

In general fruits contain sugar, so portions are best limited if you are struggling with high BG levels and trying to reduce them through diet. My fruit intake is about 7 raspberries and probably about 10 blueberries at breakfast and I might have half an apple at lunchtime with some nice cheese.

Increasing your veg intake to make up your "5 a day" and increase your fibre intake is important unless you have other dietary restrictions.
 
Hi @NorthernLass27 and welcome to the forum!

As some have mentioned - bananas tend to be in the higher end of the fruits in terms of carbs, but if that's your all time favourite thing, it might be worth doing what Vonny has suggested - having one on a 'lower carb' day. It will highly depend on what you eat day-to-day and what's your usual carb intake, if you're on any meds etc.?
 
Wow, you are all so much more helpful than anything else I've found. Yes to the gliclazide along with metformin and sitagliptin (not sure of spellings) . I'll try berries and yogurt for breakfast, thanks for the advice on portion size too. How about bitesize shredded wheat? Do you have any advice on that? Something to go with the fruit?
Thanks in advance
 
I have mixed seeds, cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutty granola with my few berries on my creamy (not low fat) Greek style yoghurt which I get from Lidl in a 1kg pot, but Aldi do a similar 1kg tub and both are equally nice and creamy.

Can you give us a bit of detail about your diabetes? You are on quite a cocktail of medication for it which suggests your levels are pretty high. Have you been diagnosed long and what was your most recent HbA1c reading?
Do you test regularly with a finger prick to check your levels and what sort of results do you get when you do test?
 
Yes my levels are high- I think I'm still in denial despite a diagnosis 4 years ago. I've had a recent HbA1c check - so I'm trying to remember to test. The test after a banana was high, prompting the question. I'm trying this forum as a way to acknowledge I can't manage alone ( a huge thing for me)
Hopefully some friendly advice will help me.
Thanks
 
NorthernLass27 said:
Yes my levels are high- I think I'm still in denial despite a diagnosis 4 years ago. I've had a recent HbA1c check - so I'm trying to remember to test. The test after a banana was high, prompting the question. I'm trying this forum as a way to acknowledge I can't manage alone ( a huge thing for me)
Hopefully some friendly advice will help me.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Do you know what your HbA1C number is?
 
The forum is a great place for support and information so I am really pleased you have found it. There is no way I would have managed without coming here regularly. I have learned so much from comparing notes with others here and getting ideas about food and advice and support and to be honest, also being accountable for my diabetes management. It is easy to fall off the wagon and kid yourself that it doesn't matter or you will get back to it next week or whatever, but if I log in here daily, I am part of a team who are all facing the same challenges and I know that I am not alone with this but equally that I have to pull my weight with it as others are doing. How we do that can differ a bit but we all have to meet those challenges and deal with them or accept the consequences and the risk of those consequences can be quite motivating and we have some members bravely dealing with complications of their diabetes as trying to manage their diabetes as well as possible.

Do you mind telling us how your original diagnosis come about? ie Were you symptomatic and if so, which symptoms or was it discovered via a routine blood test?
Do you mind saying if you have much/any weight to lose and have you lost any weight over the past 4 years since diagnosis?
Don't feel obliged to answer any questions that you are not comfortable disclosing but the more information you can share the better we can understand your situation and provide more tailored advice. There should be no judgement from anyone as we are or were all in a similar position and we know how tough it is.

The fact that your levels are still high despite the amount of medication that you are on is concerning and depending upon your diet, it may be that you are not a standard Type 2, so the info about how your diagnosis initially came about might be quite relevant in that respect..... there are quite a number of us who were misdiagnosed with Type 2 when we were actually late onset Type 1s and there are some people who are diagnosed Type 2 when they are actually Type 3c which is due to damage to their pancreas from disease like pancreatitis, or cancer or cysts or alcohol abuse or trauma or surgery. Many GPs and nurses have no knowledge of Type 3c at all and many also wrongly believe that Type 1 only develops in children, and it is very easy for them to assume if you are a mature adult or are carrying a bit too much weight and/or have a bad diet, that you must be Type 2 and this in not always the case.

It would also be helpful if you could give us an idea of what you typically have for breakfast, lunch and evening meal and any snacks. This info gives us an idea of how much wriggle room there is in your current diet to improve things and if not, then advise on what other options you might have.
 
Fairly new to this diabetes lark myself, the freshwell site is really helpful and great, as is the Carbs and Calories book previously mentioned. Its now a constant reference for me. Showing the actual portion size (via photos) is very very useful.
 
NorthernLass27 said:
Wow, you are all so much more helpful than anything else I've found. Yes to the gliclazide along with metformin and sitagliptin (not sure of spellings) . I'll try berries and yogurt for breakfast, thanks for the advice on portion size too. How about bitesize shredded wheat? Do you have any advice on that? Something to go with the fruit?
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
I have a small portion of a low sugar or keto granola but they are quite expensive. I was mixing 50/50 Lizi's low sugar granola with a Keto Hana Granola but discovered M&S have a grain free fruit and nut Granola which is not as expensive and only 8g carbs per 100g which is very nice on Greek yoghurt and berries.
Just keep an eye on going too low carb with the cocktail of medication you are on.
 
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