Hi there. I was diagnosed T2 a week ago after experiencing symptoms and following blood tests. My doctor has prescribed medication and the nurse sent me a couple of info leaflets about diet in the post but apart from that I have had no other info. Looking on Diabetes UK site they stress the importance of checking bloods. Can anyone advise about when and if I need to start testing my own levels? Do I need to wait a while for the medication to start having an affect? I really have no clue about any of this and am so confused. The nurse at my doctors surgery told me to look on this website as she didn't want to get bogged down with it all at the moment. I am just getting a bit stressed by it all so any help would be appreciated.
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Testing bloods
- Thread starter Biggsyd
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Welcome to the forum @Biggsyd
Sorry to hear about your nurse’s attitude - but glad you were pointed in our direction! Hopefully comparing notes with the friendly helpful folks here will fill in some of the blanks for you.
One of the biggest questions when trying to get to grips with your diabetes is often ‘what can I eat’ and while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.
To begin with many new members find it can be really helpful to keep a food diary for a week or two. Be brutally honest! Note down everything you eat and drink. And make a reasonable estimate the amount of total carbohydrate (not just ‘of which sugars) in the meals and snacks. This will give you an idea of which foods/meals are the main sources of carbs in your menu.
It’s not that you have to avoid carbohydrates entirely (which is impossible and unwise). But it’s important to work out the level of intake, and the types of carbs that your body copes well with. The really tricky thing is that blood glucose responses to various foods are highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which types and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG without checking for yourself.
You can use a BG meter, taking a reading before and again 2hrs after eating, to see what the differences are, to identify any carbs that seem to be spiking BG (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them). Once you can see how you respond to different meals you can begin experimenting with reducing the portions of carbs in meals and trying different types (sometimes just having things at a different time of day makes a difference). Sometimes you can swap for something else entirely (eg grated cauliflower makes a really good ‘rice’ which does the job of carrying chilli or curry really well. By ‘eating to your meter’ you can gradually tweaking and tailoring your menu to find one that suits your tastebuds, your waistline and your BG levels 🙂
If you are interested in this approach you may find test-review-adjust by Alan S a helpful framework.
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 £8 for 50
There are lots of hints, tips and ideas on food and how to moderate carbohydrate intake on the ‘what did you eat yesterday’ thread.
Sorry to hear about your nurse’s attitude - but glad you were pointed in our direction! Hopefully comparing notes with the friendly helpful folks here will fill in some of the blanks for you.
One of the biggest questions when trying to get to grips with your diabetes is often ‘what can I eat’ and while there are obvious things like cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugary drinks that you will want to cut out straight away, you might be surprised how much *all* carbohydrate affects your BG levels, including rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, pastry, grains, cereals and many fruits.
To begin with many new members find it can be really helpful to keep a food diary for a week or two. Be brutally honest! Note down everything you eat and drink. And make a reasonable estimate the amount of total carbohydrate (not just ‘of which sugars) in the meals and snacks. This will give you an idea of which foods/meals are the main sources of carbs in your menu.
It’s not that you have to avoid carbohydrates entirely (which is impossible and unwise). But it’s important to work out the level of intake, and the types of carbs that your body copes well with. The really tricky thing is that blood glucose responses to various foods are highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which types and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG without checking for yourself.
You can use a BG meter, taking a reading before and again 2hrs after eating, to see what the differences are, to identify any carbs that seem to be spiking BG (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them). Once you can see how you respond to different meals you can begin experimenting with reducing the portions of carbs in meals and trying different types (sometimes just having things at a different time of day makes a difference). Sometimes you can swap for something else entirely (eg grated cauliflower makes a really good ‘rice’ which does the job of carrying chilli or curry really well. By ‘eating to your meter’ you can gradually tweaking and tailoring your menu to find one that suits your tastebuds, your waistline and your BG levels 🙂
If you are interested in this approach you may find test-review-adjust by Alan S a helpful framework.
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 £8 for 50
There are lots of hints, tips and ideas on food and how to moderate carbohydrate intake on the ‘what did you eat yesterday’ thread.
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