Recently diagnosed and wondering what to eat

[PeteC-267]

Hi all,

At 76 years of age, I've recently been diagnosed with Type 2 (HbA1c reading of 86), and prescribed Metformin. Even after 'toying' with prediabetes for a couple of years, it's still come as a shock and is a bit overwhelming. Starting to Manage the condition seems to be like navigating through a jungle without a map or machete at the moment.

I think I'm still relatively active for my age, but am definitely overweight at 15st 7ibs (obese) and need to get a fair bit of weight off.

As a start, I've been looking at both the low carb diet and the meditteranean diet, and am wondering if you need to stick to one or the other, or whether it's OK to mix them from day to day.

 

[Leadinglights]

Hi all,

At 76 years of age, I've recently been diagnosed with Type 2 (HbA1c reading of 86), and prescribed Metformin. Even after 'toying' with prediabetes for a couple of years, it's still come as a shock and is a bit overwhelming. Starting to Manage the condition seems to be like navigating through a jungle without a map or machete at the moment.

I think I'm still relatively active for my age, but am definitely overweight at 15st 7ibs (obese) and need to get a fair bit of weight off.

As a start, I've been looking at both the low carb diet and the meditteranean diet, and am wondering if you need to stick to one or the other, or whether it's OK to mix them from day to day.

They may not be too dissimilar but it is carbs which convert to glucose so whatever regime will not have more carbs that you can tolerate then day to day it may not be too problematic if you want to try both approaches.
Have a look at this link for a low carb way, https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

As a start, I've been looking at both the low carb diet and the meditteranean diet, and am wondering if you need to stick to one or the other, or whether it's OK to mix them from day to day.

Have you considered getting a BG meter to interrogate your emerging menu @PeteC-267 ?

Both low carb and mediterranean menus can be very effective for different people, but for any one person it can be very tricky to predict glucose responses to foods with absolute certainty, because we are all so different, with unique metabolic makeup, gut biome etc.

You can use a BG meter, taking a reading before and again 2hrs after starting to eat a meal, to see what the differences are - the ‘meal rise’. This can help you identify any sources of carbs that seem to be spiking your BG (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them). Ideally you would want to see a rise of no more than 2-3mmol/L at the 2hr mark.

Once you can see how you respond to different meals you can begin experimenting with reducing portion sizes of the carbs where you see bigger rises. You might find that you are particularly sensitive to carbohydrate from one source (eg bread), but have more liberty with others (eg oats or basmati rice) - It’s all very individual! You might even find that just having things at a different time of day makes a difference - with breakfast time being the trickiest.

Over weeks and months of experimentation you can gradually tweak and tailor your menu to find one that suits your tastebuds, your waistline, your budget and your BG levels - and a way of eating that is flexible enough to be sustainable long-term. 🙂

If you need to self fund your BG meter, the most affordable meters members here have found are the SD Gluco Navii or the Spirit Tee2 - which both have test strips at around £10 for 50.

Good luck! And let us know how you get on 🙂

 

[Maria DUK]

Hey @PeteC-267 and welcome to the forum!

A diabetes diagnosis is always a a shock even if you've been pre-diabetic for a while! There's also so many questions that come with a diagnosis but that's where the forum comes in, you can always ask as many questions as you'd like.

A lot of our forum users find that when they follow a low-carb diet their blood sugars go down and that it can contribute to weight loss which then also helps to bring your HbA1c down. Let us know what diet you decide to opt for and how it goes.