My husband was asked to come in to see one of the GP's at our local surgery last week because he is pre diabetic.He wants a list of things he can eat rather than what he can't eat. The docter said there isn't a diet sheet she can give him to look on the internet. He said its all lists of don't.
Hi Susan, welcome to the forum
🙂 The chief thing to be careful of with diabetes (or pre-diabetes) is carbohydrates - so things like potatoes, pasta, rice, bread, anything made with flour really, and, of course, sugary items, since these are what will convert to glucose and therefore raise blood glucose levels the most. However, this shouldn't mean that you have to give all these up, it's a case of discovering what your own particular tolerances for things are, as these can vary very much from person to person - this is why it's difficult to just give a list of things, some things might be fine for your husband but something another person might have to avoid!
As a general rule, you need to keep carbohydrate consumption in moderation, and whenever possible fill up on things like vegetables or lower-cabohydrate substitutes e.g. sweet potato instead of ordinary potato. It's wrth sitting down and writing a food diary recording the amount (in grams) of carbohydrates in everything you eat and drink - you can use the information from packaging or in books such as the
Collins Calorie Counter. You can then use this to find out what the daily consumption is, and whether there are areas that can be improved in order to make them more blood glucose 'friendly'
🙂 As a general guide to the types of food that tend to work best, I'd recommend looking at the GL (Glycaemic Load) diet - this is an approach to selecting and combining foods so that they have a slow, steady impact on blood glucose levels.
The GL Diet for Dummies is a very good introduction
🙂
Finally, so that you really know what is going on and how well the food choices you make are tolerated, the only real way to do this is to test blood sugar levels before and one or two hours after eating.
Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S explains how this works. It's worth investing in a blood glucose meter and a supply of test strips so you can learn how to tailor your diet so that you exclude, replace or reduce things you don't tolerate well, but continue to enjoy things that you do
🙂 The cheapest option we have come across is the
SD Codefree Meter which has
test strips at around £8 for 50. The meters sold in High St shops, like Boots, tend to have test strips that are much more expensive, as much as £25-£30 for 50 strips.
Finally, it's worth having a read of
Jennifer's Advice and
Maggie Davey's letter, both of which contain a lot of sage advice about how to eat a healthy, varied diet whilst keeping blood glucose levels under good control
🙂
Apologies for the lengthy answer, but hopefully you will see that it's not quite as simple as a list of do's and don'ts
🙂
Please let us know if you have any questions and we will be more than happy to help
🙂
