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Pre-diabetes

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Were you given advice on what to do?

I had a blood test for something else and was told I was diabetic. Which was a surprise as I would have been considered a low risk and did not have any symptoms.

The good thing is you have been warned in advance so can take action to avoid any problems, and possible even avoid becoming diabetic.

That may mean any of losing weight, exercising more, and taking more care with your diet. But there is a lot of information available on suitable changes you can make, and people on here will answer specific questions and share their experiences to advise you where they can.

So you should not worry, but instead try to see it as being given a lucky opportunity to act before it becomes too late.
 
Hu and welcome

Diabetes is an inability to metabolise blood glucose (BG) effectively.
Food that we eat and carbohydrates in particular, are broken down in the digestive tract into glucose and absorbed into the blood stream. Insulin is produced in the pancreas and used by the body to facilitate the glucose to pass from the blood stream into the cells in the muscle and tissue of the body to provide energy. Diabetics have problems with this final stage either because their bodies have lost sensitivity to insulin (insulin resistance is usually associated with Type 2 diabetics and particularly if people are carrying a lot of fat), or they are unable to produce enough insulin (often Type 1 diabetics because their body's immune system has killed off the cells in the pancreas which make insulin)... The result is the same in that too much glucose gets stuck in the blood stream which can become toxic if levels get too high.

One of the most effective ways of lowering the glucose levels in the blood is to stop eating as many carbohydrates, which allows the body to manage better with the insulin it produces. Foods which are high in carbohydrates are the obvious sweet stuff like sugar and sweets and cakes and biscuits (even normally healthy sources like honey and fruit in all it's forms ie fresh dried, frozen and juiced) so cutting right back on these is a good start but also reducing portion sizes of starchy carbs like bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, breakfast cereals etc. Even otherwise healthy options like porridge can cause some of us diabetics problems.

Other ways of improving your BG levels are by exercising. Low grade exercise is usually best for this, so things like a daily brisk walk or an hour or two in the garden or a cycle ride or swimming. This causes the muscles to suck the glucose out of the blood stream.

Losing weight can reduce insulin resistance and therefore make the insulin you produce more effective at lowering BG levels and weight loss can be a beneficial side effect of following a low carb way of eating.

Medication can also be beneficial in some cases but since you are just pre diabetic that will hopefully not become necessary and some changes to your diet and increasing your exercise levels and perhaps losing some weight should enable you to push things back into the normal range and avert a diabetes diagnosis.

Hope that makes sense. If you don't understand anything just ask.
 
Basically, eating less carbs and go for a daily walk as mentioned in my post above should do it.
 
It’s hard to get out as I’m in a 1st floor flat with stairs. I don’t eat a lot of hard food as l have problems with my broken tooth and the dentist won’t do anything unless I’m in a lot of pain.
 
Low carb foods do not have to be hard. Vegetables ate not generally hard and eggs, whichever way you cook them, should not be difficult to chew and mushrooms and cheese are fairly easy to eat. Minced beef doesn't need much chewing.... Why do you foresee your broken tooth as a problem to changing your diet?

I assume you have difficulty with mobility. There are chair based exercises you can do if that is the case but if you are able to manage the stairs once a day, even if it is difficult, a walk will be beneficial and the stairs will get easier if you make it a regular routine.

Improving your health and diet does take a bit of effort, I can't deny that, but you have come here asking for help so it seems like you want to improve things, so start by making small changes and then build on them. Maybe just change one meal a day to low carb and do 10 mins of chair exercises or walking round your kitchen or living room 2 or 3 times every hour every day for a week and then do 20 mins the next week or tackle those stairs. Even if you only get half way and come back.... Find something that is getting you a bit more active and pushing yourself so that you breath a bit more deeply and slowly build on it.

Perhaps if you tell us what you currently eat and drink we can make some suggestions for low carb alternatives.

One of the things we suggest is to keep an honest food diary or everything you eat and drink and calculate how many grams of carbs you eat a day and then look at where you can make simple swaps.
 
Mash cauliflower cheese. Mince and mash with mushy peas. I drink a lot of coffee semi skimmed milk. I eat a bit of cake afterwards. I walk at the park a lot with my Zimmer frame. I get out of breathe a lot but I’ve got an oxygen mask for that. I drink water after my meal too. My ex partner mashes a lot of my meals up for me or uses a chopper to chop my meals up. I do have mobility needs as l have arthritis in my knee which makes it difficult to stand.
 
Cauliflower cheese is good but make it by coating the par cooked cauli with cream cheese and then sprinkle grated cheese over the top and put in the oven or under the grill to brown off, rather than making a cheese sauce with flour and milk or using a packet mix. Mashed potato is one of the worst foods for many diabetics as the glucose from it hits the blood stream very quickly. Mashed cauliflower is a great substitute for mashed potato and works well with mince. Again it can be topped with some grated cheese to improve the flavour. Cabbage should be easy to eat if it is chopped finely and cooked in a little butter it tastes great and much better for diabetics than mushy peas. An omelette or scrambled eggs are a good option for breakfast, or if you prefer something lighter then a creamy Greek Natural Yoghurt with a few defrosted frozen berries (berries are the lowest carb foods) as they tend to collapse when they defrost and be soft and maybe some ground almonds.
Best to avoid the cake unless your partner is willing to learn how to bake low carb cakes or perhaps you could do that yourself. You should be able to weigh and mix things from a sitting position and we have inspirational low carb bakers here on the forum who I am sure would be happy to share recipes.

As regards exercise, the more of an effort you make to keep moving about regularly the more it will help your mobility, your weight and your diabetes.
 
Having 2 eggs a day would not be unreasonable or unhealthy and would be a better choice for breakfast than porridge. If you do have porridge go for the least processed oats, like jumbo oats rather than the likes of Ready Brek and weigh out your portion size and keep it under the recommended portion size which is usually something like 45g dry oats which is surprisingly small, then have it with natural Greek yoghurt to make it more filling and obviously no sugar or honey but a sweetener to taste is fine to use.
 
Normal custard contains sugar, flour and milk, all of which contain carbs, so not a good choice, but you could make it more diabetes friendly by making a proper homemade custard with eggs and cream and use a sweetener instead of sugar.
 
Baking low carb cakes and bread requires very special ingredients which would most likely need to be bought online...
@NotWorriedAtAll is our resident expert on low carb baking and can possible give you information on what to buy and where. She has a Facebook page with info which hopefully she will link.
 
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