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Type 2 diabetes and still eating egg, beans, and chips.

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Djangoman

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hello all, just joined and feel really guilty about having made oven chips, with eggs and baked beans. Early stage diabetes, currently taking Metformin. I think I need to rethink my dietary choices.
 
Hello all, just joined and feel really guilty about having made oven chips, with eggs and baked beans. Early stage diabetes, currently taking Metformin. I think I need to rethink my dietary choices.
Welcome to the forum
The eggs are fine, not so much the beans and chips.
There are plenty of much better foods you can eat, ham and eggs, omelettes with filling of mushrooms and cheese, meat, fish vegetables and salads.
Have a look at this link for some menu ideas and principals for following a low carbohydrate diet which many find successful. https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
 
Hi @Djangoman and welcome to the forum.
Do you have a BG meter?
If so, then you can test your meals to see how well your body tolerates them.
This can be quite important to know because us with Type 2 diabetes can vary considerably in how much carbs we are OK with and also which types of carbs. For example, most are OK with a moderate portion of cooked carrots, where my BG rockets even after a small portion of raw carrot.

Here's a link to the Blog post which got me on my path to remission (in med free remission for nearly 4yrs now):
 
Hello Ian, I don't have a BG monitor, I should invest in getting one. Currently, I'm prescribed Metformin only. I think I need to seriously overhaul my diet and lifestyle. Thank you for the information. I'll read the article.
 
Deleted Member 45380 said:
Baked beans can have a lot of sugar in the sauce as well as the carbs in the beans. Beans in general are a good food when they aren’t in a sugary sauce but they can have too many carbs for some people.

When reading any recipes or menus on this site be aware that they are not specific to your individual diabetes so they might not be suitable for everyone, since some T2s can handle more or less carbs than others, and many T1s and other types don’t limit carbs, though some may choose to
 
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Few full blown type 2s can manage baked beans. I can have a small amount of peas or beans, even peanuts, but I really restrict my intake of carbs to the extent of having normal blood glucose and almost normal HbA1c.
I don't restrict meat, fish, cheese, eggs but protein and fat seems so nourishing I sometimes only have one meal a day and don't feel hungry.
When checking my blood glucose after eating I found that a full portion of peas or beans seemed to be providing more carbs than the listed count - almost double. It is well worth getting a meter and checking how you respond to various meals or foods if things don't add up.
If you are in the early stages then you might find that you can still manage quite a wide variety of carby foods, but I checked carefully so as to make a rapid retreat from the high peaks to the low foothills by the easiest route. I bought a Tee 2+ meter from Spirit Healthcare, along with some test strips and once I got my after meal tests down to 8mmol/l or under it was pretty much plain sailing.
If you like baked things there are a lot of recipes for buns and biscuits etc. on sugarfreelondoner's website. I have even bought a mixer to make home baking an easy option
 
The potatoes were grown on my allotment, Desiree variety, my portions need moderating, am a stress eater, yesterday wasn't a good day for me. I'm seriously considering the low carb diet because I can't go on the way that I have been.
You can't beat home grown potatoes, I used to plant 4 big beds of potatoes but so rarely eat them now 1 bed with a mixture of varieties is more than sufficient, I just have more beds for the green veg, French beans, runner beans, squashes, courgettes, beetroot, brassicas don't do too well but had some success this year with some broccoli, swiss chard, mangetout, peas and whatever else I can think of.
 
@Djangoman This is why you should test to see how your blood glucose levels react to meals - some foods are problematic in that some people find them akin to rocket fuel but others can manage modest amounts whilst others eat them every day and shrug - beans seem to be one of those, also porridge or other oat containing foods.
If you have the option to grow your own then I suggest cauliflower and swede/turnips as good low carb staples.
Swede cooked in a pressure cooker then mashed is good with dinner, but for breakfast, mixed with eggs, fried and eaten with bacon it is really good - or mix in eggs and cheese, put it in a dish, add more cheese on top and then into the oven to warm up and give the cheese a light golden tan.....
 
Deleted Member 45380 said:
This isn’t your thread though, you just seem to have taken it over. The OP is asking to understand the food they’re eating so they might not know that beans can have a lot of carbs in and they aren’t in remission
 
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I think these differences in experience are why many members here find self monitoring with a meter around food so helpful @Djangoman

By checking immediately before eating and again 2hrs later, and looking for a ‘meal rise’ of no more than 2-3mmol/L at the 2 hour mark you can experiment with all sorts of different foods, portion sizes, sources of carbohydrates, time of day - even cooking styles can make a difference!

Personally I find new potatoes the easiest on my glucose levels. I‘m OK with potatoes generally as long as I time my insulin dose properly. The spuds that really hit my BGs hard seem to be jackets. Partly I think because the long and slow cooking dries them out so they become more ‘concentrated’ and I probably eat a bigger one than I realise?

Beans and pulses do seem to be another food that gives rise to very different glucose responses in different people on the forum. Very ‘safe’ for some members, and like rocket fuel for others! Possibly due to how different metabolisms, gut biomes, and genes are able to break down the resistant amylose starches in legumes?

The old diabetes forum adage remains so relevant: Your Diabetes May Vary :D

It seems clear that you want to make some changes to your menu @Djangoman - hope the forum can give you some ideas, techniques and suggestions of things to try.

You might also want to take a look at one of the various meal plans for ideas and inspiration?

 
Deleted Member 45380 said:
I was trying to explain to you why your response that you can eat these things isn’t that helpful to the OP given they are asking for advice and aren’t in remission so will have a different experience to you
 
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I was trying to explain to you why your response that you can eat these things isn’t that helpful to the OP given they are asking for advice and aren’t in remission so will have a different experience to you
I really wince at the statement 'you can eat' and such and such 'is good for diabetics' - particularly when they are foods I know as an absolute certainty would cause my blood glucose to spike if eaten in an quantity, particularly soon after diagnosis, before my metabolism had a chance to recover.
If we just keep on trying to explain the pitfalls, perhaps the sage advice will eventually be recognised for what it is. I still regret not speaking up about how successful eating low carb was proving to be when I went on the 'education' course. I allowed myself to be diverted and when next I saw one of my fellow attendees he had one foot all bandaged up and the other one had been amputated.
 
A reminder again that different foods suit different people. There are different ways to manage diabetes, and there is no one single approach that works well (or appeals) to everyone.

Please be kind to each other.
 
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