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Self-testing blood.
- Thread starter Wayfarer
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rebrascora
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Hi and welcome.
The two most often recommended by members here who self fund as both economical to run and reliable are the Gluco Navii and the Spirit Healthcare Tee2 Blood Glucose meters. The initial meter kit costs about £15 and the additional pots of test strips which is where the costs can soon add up are £8 for a pot of 50, as oppose to £15-£25 for the test strips for some of the more fancy meters. Test strips are individual to each meter, so getting a meter which has the cheapest test strips but is tried and tested and well regarded is what you are looking for. The above 2 fit that criteria very well.
Good luck with your lifestyle changes. If you read around the forum you will get lots of ideas from people who have been in your situation and many who have crossed the threshold quite a long way into full diabetes territory but pushed things back into the normal range using diet and exercise and a BG meter to guide them. The general advice is to test immediately before eating and then 2 hours after a meal, to see how your body coped with that food looking to keep the rise in BG below 3mmols but ideally not more than 2mmols. Keeping a food diary with your results will help you to figure out what works for you as an individual and it can be quite variable between diabetics as to which foods cause problems, due to metabolism and gut biome differences etc. This is why using a meter is so invaluable as you can tailor your diet to your body's ability to deal with food and your taste preferences.
The two most often recommended by members here who self fund as both economical to run and reliable are the Gluco Navii and the Spirit Healthcare Tee2 Blood Glucose meters. The initial meter kit costs about £15 and the additional pots of test strips which is where the costs can soon add up are £8 for a pot of 50, as oppose to £15-£25 for the test strips for some of the more fancy meters. Test strips are individual to each meter, so getting a meter which has the cheapest test strips but is tried and tested and well regarded is what you are looking for. The above 2 fit that criteria very well.
Good luck with your lifestyle changes. If you read around the forum you will get lots of ideas from people who have been in your situation and many who have crossed the threshold quite a long way into full diabetes territory but pushed things back into the normal range using diet and exercise and a BG meter to guide them. The general advice is to test immediately before eating and then 2 hours after a meal, to see how your body coped with that food looking to keep the rise in BG below 3mmols but ideally not more than 2mmols. Keeping a food diary with your results will help you to figure out what works for you as an individual and it can be quite variable between diabetics as to which foods cause problems, due to metabolism and gut biome differences etc. This is why using a meter is so invaluable as you can tailor your diet to your body's ability to deal with food and your taste preferences.
Thanks for that,it's just the information I need.
I'll try one of those kits and hope I can reduce levels or even get back to 'normal'. I've cut out added sugar, about 5 teaspoonsful per day, biscuits and cake, although my intake of those was minimal.
As my bmi is 22 and I cycle and walk every day I was very surprised by the blood test result.
I'll try one of those kits and hope I can reduce levels or even get back to 'normal'. I've cut out added sugar, about 5 teaspoonsful per day, biscuits and cake, although my intake of those was minimal.
As my bmi is 22 and I cycle and walk every day I was very surprised by the blood test result.
rebrascora
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It is good that you have cut the obvious sweet stuff out but what many newly diagnosed people don't realise is that it is all carbohydrates which our digestive systems break down into glucose not just sugars, so starchy carbs from grains (rice wheat, oats, barley etc) and anything made from them (bread, pasta, breakfast cereal, pastry, couscous etc) and root veg like potatoes/sweet potatoes and parsnips. Not saying that you should cut these things out of your diet but reducing the portion size and finding which ones affect you most and which you can get away with. Some people find wholemeal spelt flour better than normal wheat flour. Some people can manage porridge but others can't or only a tiny portion. Some people can manage a couple of roast potatoes but mashed potato is usually nearly as bad as straight sugar for hitting the blood stream. Often combining these starchy foods with fat will slow the release of glucose down and allow the body to cope better.
Fruit in all it's forms ie fresh, dried, juiced or frozen) is another "healthy food" which is packed with sugar and therefore as diabetics, has the power to send our BG levels rather high and most of us limit our fruit intake to a small portion of berries as they are the lowest carb fruits.... Think of the more tart fruits which pack a big punch both flavour and nutrition wise, so that a small handful is enough. raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, blackberries, gooseberries, a few blueberries or strawberries. A common breakfast here on the forum is full fat Greek Natural yoghurt with a handful of berries and some chopped nuts or mixed seeds or both and maybe just a sprinkle of a low carb granola over the top. Or if you want to go for something more substantial;, bacon eggs mushrooms and high meat content sausages or an omelette with whatever filling you fancy. I usually include mushrooms and cheese and serve it with a large salad and a big dollop of cheese coleslaw, but creamy coleslaw is just as good if you don't like the cheese variety. Steer clear of low fat products as they almost always contain more carbs, even milk. Semi-skimmed milk actually contains more carbs than full fat because the milk sugar (lactose) is dissolved in the watery part of the ,milk and the fat (cream) contains much less. Many of us start the day with double cream in our coffee instead of milk because of this.
I imagine some of the above may surprise you in respect of healthy eating and perhaps your love of pasta and bread etc may be what has triggered your diabetes rather than the sweet stuff which is generally associated with the condition. We have quite a few members who were like this ie didn't really have a sweet tooth. If you compare like for like as regards the carb content of foods, a medium slice of bread has the same amount of carbs as 3 teaspoons of sugar, so a 2 slice sandwich has the equivalent of 6 teaspoons of sugar before you look at the filling, which might be negligible if it is something like ham or cheese but if you have coronation chicken or tikka and salad there will be a few more in that.
Baked beans are generally considered health but you have sugar in the sauce and carbs in the beans and then you serve them on more carbs (either toast or baked potato) Triple whammy carbs on a plate! So you do have to be mindful about healthy eating and understand where your carbs are coming from and be aware of portion size.
Hope that isn't too much info overload. As I said, I am not advising you not to eat any of these foods but reducing frequency and portion size will go a long way to getting your HbA1c (blood test result which diagnosed you as at risk) back down.
Fruit in all it's forms ie fresh, dried, juiced or frozen) is another "healthy food" which is packed with sugar and therefore as diabetics, has the power to send our BG levels rather high and most of us limit our fruit intake to a small portion of berries as they are the lowest carb fruits.... Think of the more tart fruits which pack a big punch both flavour and nutrition wise, so that a small handful is enough. raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, blackberries, gooseberries, a few blueberries or strawberries. A common breakfast here on the forum is full fat Greek Natural yoghurt with a handful of berries and some chopped nuts or mixed seeds or both and maybe just a sprinkle of a low carb granola over the top. Or if you want to go for something more substantial;, bacon eggs mushrooms and high meat content sausages or an omelette with whatever filling you fancy. I usually include mushrooms and cheese and serve it with a large salad and a big dollop of cheese coleslaw, but creamy coleslaw is just as good if you don't like the cheese variety. Steer clear of low fat products as they almost always contain more carbs, even milk. Semi-skimmed milk actually contains more carbs than full fat because the milk sugar (lactose) is dissolved in the watery part of the ,milk and the fat (cream) contains much less. Many of us start the day with double cream in our coffee instead of milk because of this.
I imagine some of the above may surprise you in respect of healthy eating and perhaps your love of pasta and bread etc may be what has triggered your diabetes rather than the sweet stuff which is generally associated with the condition. We have quite a few members who were like this ie didn't really have a sweet tooth. If you compare like for like as regards the carb content of foods, a medium slice of bread has the same amount of carbs as 3 teaspoons of sugar, so a 2 slice sandwich has the equivalent of 6 teaspoons of sugar before you look at the filling, which might be negligible if it is something like ham or cheese but if you have coronation chicken or tikka and salad there will be a few more in that.
Baked beans are generally considered health but you have sugar in the sauce and carbs in the beans and then you serve them on more carbs (either toast or baked potato) Triple whammy carbs on a plate! So you do have to be mindful about healthy eating and understand where your carbs are coming from and be aware of portion size.
Hope that isn't too much info overload. As I said, I am not advising you not to eat any of these foods but reducing frequency and portion size will go a long way to getting your HbA1c (blood test result which diagnosed you as at risk) back down.
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Welcome to the forum @Wayfarer
Good to hear that you are wanting to keep an eye on things between appointments, and it sounds like you’ve made a great start to tweaking your menu.
Many members find it can be really helpful to keep a brutally honest food diary for a week or two. Noting down everything you eat and drink along with a reasonable estimate of the amount of total carbohydrate in the meals and snacks. This will give you an idea of which meals and foods are the main sources of carbs in your menu, and can highlight some candidates for either tweaking or checking.
You can check your blood glucose levels immediately before eating and again 2 hrs later to see how much your BG has risen from the meal. Ideally you will want to aim for rises of less than 2-3mmol/L. In a sense, to begin with the numbers on your meter matter less than the differences between them - and if you can tweak your meals to get smaller rises, your overall levels will come down gently and smoothly, which is much easier on the fine blood vessels.
Since you are ‘at risk’ rather than having crossed the border into a definitive diagnosis, it is likely that you will only need to make relatively small adjustments to your way of eating in order to help your metabolism to cope better with the food you are eating 🙂
Good to hear that you are wanting to keep an eye on things between appointments, and it sounds like you’ve made a great start to tweaking your menu.
Many members find it can be really helpful to keep a brutally honest food diary for a week or two. Noting down everything you eat and drink along with a reasonable estimate of the amount of total carbohydrate in the meals and snacks. This will give you an idea of which meals and foods are the main sources of carbs in your menu, and can highlight some candidates for either tweaking or checking.
You can check your blood glucose levels immediately before eating and again 2 hrs later to see how much your BG has risen from the meal. Ideally you will want to aim for rises of less than 2-3mmol/L. In a sense, to begin with the numbers on your meter matter less than the differences between them - and if you can tweak your meals to get smaller rises, your overall levels will come down gently and smoothly, which is much easier on the fine blood vessels.
Since you are ‘at risk’ rather than having crossed the border into a definitive diagnosis, it is likely that you will only need to make relatively small adjustments to your way of eating in order to help your metabolism to cope better with the food you are eating 🙂
Two great replies, thank you.
My main problem will be not to lose any weight with a new diet. Fortunately I am lucky in that I find it difficult to put on weight whatever I eat, although my frame could take another stone as I am on the thin side, so my challenge is finding foods to replace starchy carbs. potatoes etc. and maintain or improve my energy levels.
My main problem will be not to lose any weight with a new diet. Fortunately I am lucky in that I find it difficult to put on weight whatever I eat, although my frame could take another stone as I am on the thin side, so my challenge is finding foods to replace starchy carbs. potatoes etc. and maintain or improve my energy levels.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
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Fat is your friend then!.... Fatty meat, cheese, nuts, avocado, olives, butter, cream, eggs etc.
I know it is contrary to everything we have been advised for years but fat is calorie dense so will give you energy and keep you from feeling hungry because it is slower to digest and let's face it, it tastes good!
If it helps at all, the low fat advice is now believed to have been based on flawed possibly even cherry picked data 70 years ago and the current thinking is that the low fat advice has in part lead to the obesity and diabetes epidemic we are now seeing. Removing the fat from products left us feeling hungry so we eat more than we need to. Extra carbs were added to those foods where the fat was reduced to make them taste good, so we were eating less fat and more carbs and carbs mean we have to produce more insulin and insulin makes us feel hungry. It becomes a vicious cycle. It amazes me how little I need to eat now that I have cut carbs right back. Pre diagnosis, I could eat a huge bowl of porridge with sultanas and honey for breakfast, 4 slices of wholemeal toast with a whole can of baked beans on them for lunch and 2 hours later I would be hungry again and then dinner with spuds or pasta and a dessert in the evening. Now I have some yoghurt with a few berries and seeds for breakfast, a chunk of cheese or some nuts or a boiled egg with mayonnaise for lunch and some meat and veg for evening meal and it is enough..... maybe a chunk of cheese and a glass of red wine at bedtime. I feel stronger and fitter than I have for 20, maybe 30 years and I am down to the same weight I was in my 20s and the figure to match.
I know it is contrary to everything we have been advised for years but fat is calorie dense so will give you energy and keep you from feeling hungry because it is slower to digest and let's face it, it tastes good!
If it helps at all, the low fat advice is now believed to have been based on flawed possibly even cherry picked data 70 years ago and the current thinking is that the low fat advice has in part lead to the obesity and diabetes epidemic we are now seeing. Removing the fat from products left us feeling hungry so we eat more than we need to. Extra carbs were added to those foods where the fat was reduced to make them taste good, so we were eating less fat and more carbs and carbs mean we have to produce more insulin and insulin makes us feel hungry. It becomes a vicious cycle. It amazes me how little I need to eat now that I have cut carbs right back. Pre diagnosis, I could eat a huge bowl of porridge with sultanas and honey for breakfast, 4 slices of wholemeal toast with a whole can of baked beans on them for lunch and 2 hours later I would be hungry again and then dinner with spuds or pasta and a dessert in the evening. Now I have some yoghurt with a few berries and seeds for breakfast, a chunk of cheese or some nuts or a boiled egg with mayonnaise for lunch and some meat and veg for evening meal and it is enough..... maybe a chunk of cheese and a glass of red wine at bedtime. I feel stronger and fitter than I have for 20, maybe 30 years and I am down to the same weight I was in my 20s and the figure to match.
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