Scared and stressed

[Tracey Mcnally]

Hi. I'm a 49yr old female who's been told I have pre diabetes. I'm scared because my dad dies with type 2 complications. I'm looking at food in my cupboard and fridge everything is a carb. Rice bread, potatoes spag ,pasta, humus ,lentils ,barley ,cereal,oats. all my sauces have sugar in currys, pasta sauces soups ect. I've been told I can reverse it but dont know how

 

[Northerner]

Hi. I'm a 49yr old female who's been told I have pre diabetes. I'm scared because my dad dies with type 2 complications. I'm looking at food in my cupboard and fridge everything is a carb. Rice bread, potatoes spag ,pasta, humus ,lentils ,barley ,cereal,oats. all my sauces have sugar in currys, pasta sauces soups ect. I've been told I can reverse it but dont know how

Hi Tracey, welcome to the forum 🙂 Don't panic! It's great that you've joined, because we will be able to help with any questions or concerns you have - never be afraid to ask a question 🙂

I'm sorry to hear about your dad's experience What you need to bear in mind though is that things have very much moved on from when he was diagnosed, and knowledge and treatments are improving all the time 🙂 Yes, it is quite possible that, with the right knowledge and application, you will be able to bring your blood sugar levels under control and escape a full diagnosis. It's not true in all cases, because we are complex beings and some people do find they need the support of some medication, but in any event, you can most certainly reduce your risks of succumbing to any of the serious complications that your dad experienced 🙂

I would suggest starting by reading the excellent Maggie Davey's letter. It will help you understand how you should approach this new situation, and give you a good insight into the types of food you should look for to help you with your blood sugar control 🙂 I'd also suggest starting a food diary, and noting down the amount, in grams, of all the carbs in the food and drink you consume each day. You will then be able to use this diary to look for things that might be reduced or replaced in your diet to make if more 'diabetes- friendly' - there are lots of suggestions in our Food section, or you can just ask 🙂

One thing that can help enormously is knowing how your various food choices impact on your blood sugar levels, and you can do this by using a blood glucose monitor and test strips. How to go about this is explained clearly in Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S, so have a read of that and let us know if you have any questions about it. For a good value monitor, many of our members use the SD Codefree Meter which has test strips at around £8 for 50 (many other brands can charge up to £30 for test strips 😱)

Also, regular exercise is just as important as diet, in many ways, so if you can find something you enjoy and can look forward to each day, that will benefit you enormously 🙂 You don't have to join a gym or anything like that (unless you want to!) - just a brisk half hour walk, particularly after eating, will be great and you will really notice the difference 🙂

As I said earlier, try not to worry. You've done the right thing coming here to seek help, and we are all behind you in helping you get to grips with this 🙂

 

[trophywench]

Hi Tracey - panic not! - the worst thing we can do is panic since panic itself causes a raised blood glucose whatever type of diabetes we have - cos it produces adrenalin (the old 'fight or flight' response) which itself produces cortisol, which also raises insulin resistance - hence whatever access our body has to insulin - either your own variety in the case of yourself, or the injected sort in the case of me and other Type 1s - so it just doesn't work as well within our body and we need more of it, to 'stand still'. Insulin itself is a flippin growth hormone so if we have 'gallons' of the stuff floating round us, which can't be efficiently used by our bodies will, inevitably cause us to put on weight. And again whatever type we are - being heavier than we really should be - makes our insulin resistance worse. Vicious circle.

Fist of all - be aware that nobody actually needs to eat carbs cos in truth, our bodies can actually manage perfectly well without em!

Your mission is to treat yourself as a scientific experiment and find out for the first time ever how much carb your own body can happily tolerate - NOT to instantly give them all up and never consume another trace of them entirely. try to do the latter and you'll have horrible withdrawal symptoms (headaches and feeling yuk) same as you would should you try to give up nicotine or a 'hard' drug.

To do this you need to get yourself a blood sugar meter - a glucometer - to do your own fingerprick testing before and after eating different things to see what happens when you eat this that or the other. So the usual pile of mash or half a plateful of pasta may well be too much - but what if you only had half that amount - and fill the gap with eg a different veg? eg a chop, spuds and peas might become a chop, peas and carrots instead. Yes there are some carbs in both peas and carrots - but nowhere near half of what the spuds would have given you. There are some carbs in most things including lettuce and cucumber so it would be impossible to dump the lot - and you don't need to do that!

The other thing you need to really think about - is upping your exercise level. You don't have to go berserk with that either - think of simple ways - eg getting off the bus further away from your destination, walking up the stairs instead of jumping in the lift or whatever. When I lived in a house, instead of placing a pile of stuff on the bottom step and taking it up next time I eg went up to the loo - take it up NOW instead! We now have a recycling bin, so make a collection on a kitchen worksurface and take a lot out to the bin when it gets a bit much. No! - do it now as soon as you've emptied the tin into the saucepan. See what I mean?

 

[Tracey Mcnally]

Hi Tracey - panic not! - the worst thing we can do is panic since panic itself causes a raised blood glucose whatever type of diabetes we have - cos it produces adrenalin (the old 'fight or flight' response) which itself produces cortisol, which also raises insulin resistance - hence whatever access our body has to insulin - either your own variety in the case of yourself, or the injected sort in the case of me and other Type 1s - so it just doesn't work as well within our body and we need more of it, to 'stand still'. Insulin itself is a flippin growth hormone so if we have 'gallons' of the stuff floating round us, which can't be efficiently used by our bodies will, inevitably cause us to put on weight. And again whatever type we are - being heavier than we really should be - makes our insulin resistance worse. Vicious circle.

Fist of all - be aware that nobody actually needs to eat carbs cos in truth, our bodies can actually manage perfectly well without em!

Your mission is to treat yourself as a scientific experiment and find out for the first time ever how much carb your own body can happily tolerate - NOT to instantly give them all up and never consume another trace of them entirely. try to do the latter and you'll have horrible withdrawal symptoms (headaches and feeling yuk) same as you would should you try to give up nicotine or a 'hard' drug.

To do this you need to get yourself a blood sugar meter - a glucometer - to do your own fingerprick testing before and after eating different things to see what happens when you eat this that or the other. So the usual pile of mash or half a plateful of pasta may well be too much - but what if you only had half that amount - and fill the gap with eg a different veg? eg a chop, spuds and peas might become a chop, peas and carrots instead. Yes there are some carbs in both peas and carrots - but nowhere near half of what the spuds would have given you. There are some carbs in most things including lettuce and cucumber so it would be impossible to dump the lot - and you don't need to do that!

The other thing you need to really think about - is upping your exercise level. You don't have to go berserk with that either - think of simple ways - eg getting off the bus further away from your destination, walking up the stairs instead of jumping in the lift or whatever. When I lived in a house, instead of placing a pile of stuff on the bottom step and taking it up next time I eg went up to the loo - take it up NOW instead! We now have a recycling bin, so make a collection on a kitchen worksurface and take a lot out to the bin when it gets a bit much. No! - do it now as soon as you've emptied the tin into the saucepan. See what I mean?

 

[Tracey Mcnally]

Thanks. I've spoken to the helpline. I'm only pre diabetic not full blown just scared. But feel better after reading this and speaking xx

 

[trophywench]

Repeat after me - I am a calm person. I am a calm person. I am ....... LOL

 

[Martin Canty]

Hi Tracey, it sure is a wake-up call, however, you have recognized a problem & taking steps to control D there is no question that you will not be able to live a long & productive life. To be perfectly honest, these days (having got my D under control) I am in better shape than I have been in most of my adult life so there are positives.

 

[Drummer]

Remember Dr Atkins and his fad diet?
Well - the lists of foods for the Induction part of that way of eating are ideal for diabetics. You can eat more of them - I eat up to 60 gm of carbs a day, but from those low cab sources, and I used to be a full blown diabetic with Hba1c and now I am in the normal ranges.
You do need to get into the real Atkins diet - not the one the media mocked at - but it works really fast to reduce blood glucose levels.

 

[Mark Parrott]

Welcome to the forum.🙂

 

[Beck S]

Welcome to the forum Tracey.

Portion sizes have really helped me. I didn't realise how I was eating way too much in one go until I actually started going by suggested portion sizes, and I was astounded. it takes a bit of getting used to, but it means that you can still have some carbs, but in much smaller quantities, and you don't feel like you're missing out. I go through the same thing - I just look at food sometimes and can't see past the carbs but you can work around it. Good luck 🙂