Vegetarian Food Struggles

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AnnMK

AnnMK

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi everyone my name is Ann and this is my first post. I was diagnosed type 2 last summer. I was doing ok for the first few months but to be honest I was only eating cereal 24/7! Then since Christmas I have been really struggling and feeling burnt out with it all. My biggest problem is diet and I keep falling off the wagon. As well as diabetes I have high blood pressure and cholesterol and I’m overweight. So I need a low fat salt and sugar diet. But I think carbs may be giving me spikes too as I always feel awful afterwards? I am a vegetarian who hates eggs so breakfast is a particular problem! Not a fan of raspberries blueberries etc.
At the moment I’m having low sugar porridge with oat milk for breakfast but is there a better alternative? Everything I’ve seen revolves around eggs and I can’t stand them
Thanks for any help you can offer this fussy eater!
Ann x
 
Welcome to the forum.
There are quite a few people who manage a low carb dietary regime who are vegetarian but peoples tastes are very different.
Certainly you are having a double whammy with cereal High carb and oat milk, the highest carb of all the milks.
Do you like yoghurt as that with seeds and nuts would be a breakfast option or cheese on 1 slice of toast or mushrooms or tomatoes on toast or veggie sausages ( I have found some which were pretty low carb Cauldron I think)
There are some cook books which might give you some ideas, Rose Elliot has one but also look on the internet for low carb of keto veggie recipes.
Everybody need some salt just not too much and many find that by reducing carbohydrates their cholesterol comes down even though they are having normal or high fat meals.
You may find some ideas that would suit you in this link. https://lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk/
It has some good information and some do's and don'ts.
Being vegetarian finding sources of protein is rather more challenging than if you are a meat eater.
 
Hi and welcome.

Unfortunately eating predominantly breakfast cereal is one of the worst things you could have done since diagnosis. Carbs will spike everyone's blood glucose and most breakfast cereals are about 60-65% carbs so really not a good choice. Many of us have creamy Greek style natural yoghurt for breakfast with berries and nuts and seeds. If you don't like berries, then try it with just some chopped nuts and mixed seeds.

As a vegetarian, the hint of what to eat is in the word ie vegetables.... in all their variety of colours and shapes and textures, cooked (or raw) however you like them. Although I am a meat eater I have experimented a lot more with different vegetables since I was diagnosed and learned how to cook them in interesting ways and it has been really quite a journey finding new ideas and recipes to try to incorporate different flavours and textures and I don't let things like convention stop me, so I sometimes have cabbage with mushrooms and onions and a couple of slices of bacon for breakfast. I know you can buy vegan/veggie sausage and I would imagine you can probably get veggie bacon too.

Homemade veggie soup is a great option for lunch as long as you just have one small slice of bread and avoid soups with potatoes, rice or pasta which will all be higher carb or I often have half an apple with a chunk of nice cheese for lunch and save the other half for the next day.

Do you eat spicy food? I have a lovely recipe for cauliflower, halloumi and chick pea curry which I usually add butternut squash to. I sometimes have it with Konjak rice or noodles which are very low carb or on a bed of shredded savoy cabbage sweated in butter for 2mins in the microwave or I just have the curry on it's own which is yummy.
 
Welcome @AnnMK There are lower carb breakfast cereals, some have only a few grams of carbs. You could also try Greek yoghurt with seeds and a few berries if you can manage them. Do you like avocado? They make a nice breakfast too. You can have them with a dollop of hummus and a squeeze of lemon, for example. There are also low carb bars you could have.

Can you eat eggs in things eg pancakes, or can’t you eat them at all?
 
I have toast made from low carb bread with peanut butter and low sugar/diabetic strawberry jam, as well as a coffee with semi-skimmed milk and chocolate flavour Stevia drops. It works well for me. Alternatively there's full fat Greek yoghurt with berries. I'm toying with investigating Keto porridge although this might be a bit pricey.
 
Keto Hana have a range of very low carb granola (9g carb per 100g) however they are pretty pricy. I mix 50/50 with a low sugar granola (45g carb per 100g) which is cheaper but the two combined makes a much lower carb option.
 
@AnnMK Do you eat cheese - that's almost zero carbs like eggs are. Plus it can be eaten uncooked and cold - an advantage for a fast breakfast!
 
Do you have a BG meter? Or are you interested in getting one @AnnMK ?

They don't appeal to everyone, but one of the tricky things about diabetes is that blood glucose responses to various foods can be highly individual, and it can be impossible to say which types and amounts of carbohydrate will ‘spike’ your BG, in the same way that they might someone else's... or whether despite a foods reputation for 'slow release', your body doesn't seem to have read the memo!

The porridge you mention is a good example. Many people find it's a reliable start to the day, keeps them feeling full till lunchtime, that the whole/rolled oat varieties are fairly easy on their BG, and that the soluble fibre has additional benefits for cholesterol. For others... porridge seems to behave like rocket fuel and gives them an unwelcome spike in their BG levels first thing! 😱

While it can be helpful to compare notes with others, and suggestions around foods and ideas for meals, one of the benefits of getting a BG meter is that you can conduct your own experiments into how different foods and meals behave for you 🙂

This way you are looking at how you respond as an individual, and may get some happy surprises, plus you won't unnecessarily limit yourself because a certain food isn't ideal for someone else (but actually your body copes well with it). It also means you can start where you are. Eating what you normally do... and begin to work though your meals gradually ironing out the wrinkles 🙂

You can use a BG meter, taking a reading before and again 2hrs after the first bite of the meal, to see what the differences are, and to identify any carbs that seem to be spiking BG (initially in a way the numbers themselves matter less than the differences between them). Ideally you would want to see a rise of no more than 2-3mmol/L at the 2hr mark. Once you can see how you respond to different meals/sources of carbs you can begin experimenting with reducing portion sizes of the carbs where you see bigger rises, or look for some potential ingredient swaps.

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 £10 for 50.

Good luck, and let us know what you discover 🙂
 
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