Poor diet information?

[happydog]

A friend of mine has been diagnosed with T2. I am astonished that the nurse that cares for diabetics at his surgery has told him that he can eat macaroni cheese, lasagne and Chinese take away food, plus a certain amount of chocolate and up to three pieces of fruit per day. White bread is OK too. She says there is no need to test and that an HbA1c of 58 is good. He is on Metformin and the nurse says that this allows him to eat fairly normally although he should not have vast portions. I did not think that I should say anything but it does not seem like the best advice. Any views? Should I suggest that he limits his carb intake?

 

[Maca44]

Rubbish advice I would say, I suppose it all depends if you want to take meds and not make many changes or at least try to reduce carbs and get a change to reduce meds or even come off for a while none of which are guaranteed but at least better advice would give him/her a chance.

Being Type 2's we can make changes and often stop the meds I wonder how many get this sort of advice.

 

[Vonny]

Unbelievable! As @Maca44 says, it depends on whether he wants to stay on meds all his life. My son (also T2) has an hba1c of 34 despite eating bread but he is still on 2 x metformin per day. I'd prefer him to ditch the bread and the metformin, but he's a grown up so I have to let him get on with it!

Very surprised that a surgery is offering such a diet though. I'd suggest to your friend that he may prefer to cut out the food the recommended by the docs and try to reduce his carbs instead, and let him make up his own mind.

 

[Cherrelle DUK]

Sounds like a strange bit of advice but I've heard it myself from medical professionals.

Yes, with medication, it's job is to combat the impact that diabetes presents but it's a bit counterintuitive to continue to do things that active work against the medication.

It might be worth introducing them to the forum and just sharing your experience.

 

[DaveB]

Yes, bad advice. Suggest to your friend that they should set themselves a daily limit of carbs to aim for - perhaps 150gm/day. That way they can eat what they like within that. 58 mmol isn't that good so needs to come down and we all know a meter is essential. Where do some of these nurses get their information. We pay for this in our taxes.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Yes, with medication, it's job is to combat the impact that diabetes presents but it's a bit counterintuitive to continue to do things that active work against the medication.

I absolutely agree with this. Diabetes is about finding the balance... medication can’t do everything on its own, it needs to be balanced with the food take, and levels of activity.

As a T1 you get told this at the beginning, and it seems crazy that it isn’t the case for T2s.

Having said that I have seen conversations between HCPs online which rather unguardedly suggested that some Drs and diabetes nurses simply don’t believe people will be able to change their way of eating at all

Certainly doesn’t seem that your friend is getting good advice to me

 

[Drummer]

Has your friend done something to offend? Are they in possession of an unrecognised masterpiece or a piece of land vital to the progress of a development?
If not then their partner might be being stalked - or they could have simply been given some really bad advice about their diet.