Sugar, carbs & all the rest

[Diabetic Frog]

I just don't eat anything much that comes in a box - I am happiest with very old fashioned cooking, true to my Viking heritage I suppose.

My Daughter is at Uni in York, so we have seen quite a lot of Viking stuff!

 

[Diabetic Frog]

Don’t worry about what others eat - eat what’s right for you. That is, consider your HbA1C, your weight, other health conditions.

I guess someone types something quite innocently but how we read it can be completely different.
I had one shredded wheat, yoghurt, pumpkin seed and flax seed this morning. I'm going walking and I always carry my BG machine and jelly babies with me. I do want to lose weight, I have 4lb's left to remove and then that'll be a stone. Ideally I'd like to lose 2!

 

[Diabetic Frog]

THANK YOU everyone who has contributed. I did feel lost yesterday and I'm not really sure why it got to me so much. I obviously have food to eat but I will be more observant when I go shopping.
I feel more in control today!

 

[rebrascora]

@Diabetic Frog If you’re on insulin, you need to be very careful about reducing your carbs.

Don’t worry about what others eat - eat what’s right for you. That is, consider your HbA1C, your weight, other health conditions.

@Diabetic Frog I think many of us have been assuming you are not on insulin but being quite a long term Type 2 diabetic I wonder if we misunderstood your situation especially as you mention carrying jelly babies and your test kit. If you are on insulin then you should be aware of carbs and cautious of lowering them, especially if you are on fixed doses of insulin and clearly from the messages on this post you are not carb counting, so the best advice as always is to be guided by your meter.

I would also wonder if ....

a) You are really Type 2, then with a low carb rather than just low sugar diet, you might be able to push your diabetes into remission and possibly come off whatever medication you are taking

OR

b) You might be a misdiagnosed slow onset Type 1 (LADA) if you are on insulin.

I am sure many more people must have been misdiagnosed 18 yrs ago than are now, purely based on their age, since most doctors believe Type 1 is a childhood condition and more so back then. When people say a parent is/was Type 2 on insulin so they were doomed to get it anyway, I wonder how many of those parents may have been misdiagnosed Type 1s and how many are actually Type 2 but with the right dietary/lifestyle advice could have been prevented from needing insulin.

@Diabetic Frog
Would you like to tell us the story of how you came to be diagnosed and what medication you are actually on for it, so that we can understand your situation better?

 

[Drummer]

My Daughter is at Uni in York, so we have seen quite a lot of Viking stuff!

My daughter went to York Uni - I still have family in the area - I was born just by the minster, in the old part of the Prury Cust hospital, or nursing home, as it was then - 70 years ago next Tuesday - and lived on Main Street, Fulford.

 

[adrian1der]

I was at the University from 1983-1986

 

[Diabetic Frog]

W

My daughter went to York Uni - I still have family in the area - I was born just by the minster, in the old part of the Prury Cust hospital, or nursing home, as it was then - 70 years ago next Tuesday - and lived on Main Street, Fulford.

Wow small world! She is studying archaeology at Kings Manor. It's such a beautiful part of England. To be honest if she'd hadn't of gone there I would never have ventured up north!

 

[Diabetic Frog]

I was at the University from 1983-1986

What did you study?

 

[Diabetic Frog]

@Diabetic Frog I think many of us have been assuming you are not on insulin but being quite a long term Type 2 diabetic I wonder if we misunderstood your situation especially as you mention carrying jelly babies and your test kit. If you are on insulin then you should be aware of carbs and cautious of lowering them, especially if you are on fixed doses of insulin and clearly from the messages on this post you are not carb counting, so the best advice as always is to be guided by your meter.

I would also wonder if ....

a) You are really Type 2, then with a low carb rather than just low sugar diet, you might be able to push your diabetes into remission and possibly come off whatever medication you are taking

OR

b) You might be a misdiagnosed slow onset Type 1 (LADA) if you are on insulin.

I am sure many more people must have been misdiagnosed 18 yrs ago than are now, purely based on their age, since most doctors believe Type 1 is a childhood condition and more so back then. When people say a parent is/was Type 2 on insulin so they were doomed to get it anyway, I wonder how many of those parents may have been misdiagnosed Type 1s and how many are actually Type 2 but with the right dietary/lifestyle advice could have been prevented from needing insulin.

@Diabetic Frog
Would you like to tell us the story of how you came to be diagnosed and what medication you are actually on for it, so that we can understand your situation better?

My diabetes arose from severe trauma.
I have been called unique by several doctors over the years.
Three years later I went to the doctors and I have no idea why, but randomly I gave a wee sample. She said you have a lot of sugar in your urine and I said what does that mean? She said diabetes and I replied what's that?! I remember it like yesterday.
I've done Metformin and various other stuff. Metformin made me lose a lot of weight and in constant search for a toilet!
I lost my Dad coming up five years ago and it was a very traumatic time for me and helping my Mum cope. My diabetes went AWOL and I just stalled. I'm also, apparently, at that time of life!
My doctor called me in and said he was going to sort me out last year. I really wanted to impress him and make him proud of me and him before he retired.
I'm now on Glimepiride, Sitagliptin and 16 units of Levemir in the morning and 14 units in the evening. (Plus Amlodipine). I have a new doctor and she rang me up a couple of times a month to make sure I was controlling it.
So, here I am trying to do my best with my diabetes and get rid of some fat. I walk when I can and try not to sit around but this carb thing I just seem to have trouble coping with, it's another piece of the jigsaw.
Lunch today was low carb poppy seed crackers I just happened to have in the cupboard and cheese, salami and olives and a Pukka tea.
I think I am T2 but I needed a boost to get me to work on it myself. Phew!!!!

 

[adrian1der]

What did you study?

Theoretical physics

 

[Diabetic Frog]

Theoretical physics

Well that sounds cool and over my head!

 

[Freddie1966]

If it makes any difference, I as a Type 1 have never been on a carb counting course, I'm self taught and did so less than a month into my diagnosis xx

Me too I read and read as my surgery are not very helpful. I keep to a low carb mainly plant based diet , peppers and onions give me the sweetness. We don’t buy any pre made food cook everything from scratch because we both enjoy cooking

 

[Kaylz]

Me too I read and read as my surgery are not very helpful. I keep to a low carb mainly plant based diet , peppers and onions give me the sweetness. We don’t buy any pre made food cook everything from scratch because we both enjoy cooking

If that's what works for you then awesome, I however after my eating disorder do now eat carbs as having an irrational fear of them isn't right so I make sure to have carbs these days as was all part of my recovery, only thing that comes from a pack here is my granola and cold meats lol xx

 

[helli]

I went on a carb counting course 12 years after diagnosis. I learnt very little but it was worthwhile - I met other people with T1, saw some of the challenges they have, saw what affect bad management could have and, most importantly, qualified for a pump.
But carb counting was all self taught after being told “start with 1 unit of insulin for 15g carbs”. Only later did I learn this is relatively low start. Over the next 8 years, it increased to 1 unit for 10g and then went back down to 1 unit for 17g when I started my pump.
I only mention this to show how insulin to carb ratios can change, just like basal doses.

 

[Spozkins]

I too have had the diabetes for a long time and feel like I was really too late to the educational side as so much changed over the years and I never really kept up. I can't advise you exactly how many carbs you should aim for each meal and overall, but I k ow there has been a lot of talk recently about the carbs and cals book, for t2s and t1s alike. I would high reccomend this book because it can be really helpful in building an understanding of the carbohydrates and portion sizes.

So sorry to hear about the onset of your diagnosis.

 

[Lucyr]

I think it can be quite confusing as there seems to be a mixture of people who are Type 1 using insulin go with a low carb regime and those who eat a normal amount of carbs but count the carbs to work out their insulin. But for Type 2 control of carbs seems key, I'm not sure what people who are Type 2 but take insulin do. I suppose whatever you do testing is crucial to good management of the condition.

To answer the what do people who are type 2 but take insulin do, it depends on the type on insulin. If they just take basal insulin then they might not count carbs. If they also take mealtime insulin they might be on fixed doses or they might carb count. Personally I carb count and adjust insulin to the carbs in the meal. Whether that’s an omelette or a pizza, I just learn the carb count, use my ratios, then adjust the timings of insulin doses to match the action of the food in the same way a type 1 would. Of course testing being key to working those things out.

 

[Drummer]

Theoretical physics

I took Understanding Space and Time as part of my degree with the Open University - I'm not sure that I ever arrived back from that one....
I did various courses and one day I realised that the people who had written them didn't understand what they were trying to teach, which was something of a relief really.