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What type?

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Northerner said:
Your first point - in this respect you are just like the many people who wake up one day with a diagnosis of diabetes surely? Were you actively making choices that would lead to you succumbing to a chronic disease, or was it only when you were diagnosed that you realised you needed to make changes? Would those changes have come without the diagnosis, or would you have continued making the same choices and thinking that it only happened to other people?

On the second point, a diet rich in high glycaemic foods will stimulate excessive insulin production leading to weight gain - weight gain increases insulin resistance, so more insulin required to try and keep blood glucose levels under control, so more weight gain. With many people what may then happen is that blood sugar levels are continuously so high that glucose is shed through urine and fat is metabolised for energy, so you start to lose weight. At this point you feel so bad that you go to the doctor's and get diagnosed...

As Mike said earlier, "people diagnosed with D are living exactly the same lifestyle as everyone else - it's just that their bodies can't cope with the carb-saturated modern diet and/or have a twitchy immune system that eats their own pancreas."
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I was obese and unwell and for whatever reason simply didn't do anything about it until one day I couldn't move at Paddington station without threatening to pass out! One ambulanceman and a spot BG check led to hospitalisation and the start of my wake up call.

I can see that is a possible route re: weight gain and loss, but it all starts with the initial non-D related weight gain. If that was avoided, then the following problems would have been delayed or avoided too (possibly!).

Re: this lifestyle thingy. All I can say is my lifestyle before diagnosis consisted of excessively large meal portions on one side and missed meals (usually breakfast) on the other. I also didn't exercise much. Yes, this probably corresponds with quite a few other people in this country. However, as you say, I couldn't cope with it in the end. However, I can now cope with my new lifestyle (which isn't too different from the old one actually, except I eat regularly and keep an eye on what I eat ... plus exercise more .... just walking).

All I can point to is my personal experience. It will chime with some people but not with others (we are all different, I know). Some people may be unlucky if after losing the weight they are no better off. Perhaps their pancreas has given up the ghost already (fortunately mine seems to still be kicking for the moment!).

I also suspect that there isn't just one, two or three things going on with respect to the amount of diabetes in the population and it is probably that which muddies the waters. All I can say is, if you have type 2 diabetes and are overweight then do what you can to lose the weight! It isn't easy especially if you have other health issues. But you may do yourself a lot of favours if you can. It also isn't just about visible excess weight. I understand that fat around the internal organs is also a risk factor. So you can look nice and fit and still get the dreaded D!

Right, that's me done! :D

ttfn

Andy 🙂
 
bev said:
Seriously though I just dont understand adults who 'dont do veg' I mean grow up is what I think - fair enough as a child the texture is odd but by the time your an adult you should be able to tolerate it.🙂Bev
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Mmmmmm .... cabbage and gravy ..... mmmmm!! 🙂

Now it's deffo ttfn!

Andy
 
bev said:
...Seriously though I just dont understand adults who 'dont do veg' I mean grow up is what I think - fair enough as a child the texture is odd but by the time your an adult you should be able to tolerate it.🙂Bev
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I had a friend who had reached the age of about 30 only ever having meat and pototoes - wouldn't accept any veg at all. My girlfriend at the time invited him around for Christmas dinner which always involved about half a dozen vegetables at least - I prepared, she cooked! Although he was wary, he gave in...and never looked back! There are some things I really dislike and will never be persuaded otherwise, but don't understand people not liking ANY vegetables!
 
Northerner said:
I had a friend who had reached the age of about 30 only ever having meat and pototoes - wouldn't accept any veg at all. My girlfriend at the time invited him around for Christmas dinner which always involved about half a dozen vegetables at least - I prepared, she cooked! Although he was wary, he gave in...and never looked back! There are some things I really dislike and will never be persuaded otherwise, but don't understand people not liking ANY vegetables!
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Kids will say they don't like something without ever having tried it, that's what irks me! My son (thankfully) eats whatever is put in front of him, with the exception of blueberries, which he has tried and hated! One of his classmates has coeliac and a dairy allergy, and consequently (like my son) got very few invites to other kids' homes for tea. Yet he actually eats a wider variety of foods than any other child we've had over for tea, including any fruit/veg you put in front of him 🙂

Habits get learned first at home, so it's parents who need to stop buying rubbish foods for their children.
 
Redkite said:
...Habits get learned first at home, so it's parents who need to stop buying rubbish foods for their children.
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I still struggle with mashed swede - my mum used to mash it into the mashed potato to make me eat it! 😱
 
Northerner said:
.../ There are some things I really dislike and will never be persuaded otherwise, but don't understand people not liking ANY vegetables!
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Brussels Sprouts! There is no possible excuse for Brussels Sprouts, revolting things. I'll eat almost anything, but not those.
 
Northerner said:
I still struggle with mashed swede - my mum used to mash it into the mashed potato to make me eat it! 😱
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Yum! One of my faves....
 
AlisonM said:
Brussels Sprouts! There is no possible excuse for Brussels Sprouts, revolting things. I'll eat almost anything, but not those.
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I used to love sprouts as a little kid. I was intrigued by these little mini cabbages. When I got big, I stopped liking them. Now I am old, I like them again.
 
Chick peas with tomato and garam massala as a side to a mixed lentil and green chilli curry with a side order of spicy chilli and garlic mushrooms.

Olives and feta cheese with mixed leaves, peppers and tomatoes drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

What's not to like about dishes with no meat?
 
I have lost count of the amount of people who have asked me what type the said something like "oooothat's the bad one isn't it" or "is that the one that makes you go high or low"



Grrrrrrrr
 
My husband is the T2. He hates me telling anyone. It's as though he's ashamed of it: the fat old bastards disease! yet a friend wears his D like a badge of honour; getting a D medical bracelet almost the minute he was officially diagnosed.
My husband is overweight but then so am I yet we eat the same but I have no Diabetes, heart problems, blood pressure etc. in fact the doctor told me that I was at zero risk of heart attack yet my husband is at high risk. It seems very unfair. Diabetes is in his family so I assume he was at some risk of getting it through his genes. His sister told me that several of their relatives had D but not all were fat.
We have always eaten good food, lots of fruit, veg. and salad. I have always added raw cauliflour, leeks, mushroom, carrots, courgettes, endives etc. into salad and my husband not only eats it he enjoys it. Our meals have always consisted of several veg. and at least one pulse a day, sweetcorn, beans, red kid beans, chickpeas, lentils, so it seems totally unfair for the press to insinuate that T2 is the result of a bad lifestyle.
 
yorksman said:
Chick peas with tomato and garam massala as a side to a mixed lentil and green chilli curry with a side order of spicy chilli and garlic mushrooms.

Olives and feta cheese with mixed leaves, peppers and tomatoes drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

What's not to like about dishes with no meat?
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Talking to you afterwards if I didn't have the same? :D

(Ok, ok, you can have garlic with meat too!)

Andy 🙂

p.s. Actually, you've just made me very hungry already.
 
cakemaker said:
My husband is the T2. He hates me telling anyone. It's as though he's ashamed of it: the fat old bastards disease! yet a friend wears his D like a badge of honour; getting a D medical bracelet almost the minute he was officially diagnosed.
My husband is overweight but then so am I yet we eat the same but I have no Diabetes, heart problems, blood pressure etc. in fact the doctor told me that I was at zero risk of heart attack yet my husband is at high risk. It seems very unfair. Diabetes is in his family so I assume he was at some risk of getting it through his genes. His sister told me that several of their relatives had D but not all were fat.
We have always eaten good food, lots of fruit, veg. and salad. I have always added raw cauliflour, leeks, mushroom, carrots, courgettes, endives etc. into salad and my husband not only eats it he enjoys it. Our meals have always consisted of several veg. and at least one pulse a day, sweetcorn, beans, red kid beans, chickpeas, lentils, so it seems totally unfair for the press to insinuate that T2 is the result of a bad lifestyle.
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Lifestyle doesn't have to be outrageously bad to be not quite right and "not quite right" will be enough to potentially cause type 2 diabetes eventually. If a person is overweight and if they are genetically susceptible, they may stop producing or using insulin properly.

Also, remember that a person does not have to be overweight to be susceptible to diabetes. It has been suggested that the fat that you can't see (i.e. that around the internal organs) is a risk factor. The fact that this fat is deposited is also down to whatever lifestyle is in place.

Lifestyle is not just about what a person eats. It's everything to do with a person's life and the choices they make. For example how much regular exercise does a person take? Do they drive 5 mins to a shop rather than walking or cycling there? Do they walk up the stairs or take the escalator?

The press are not wrong to implicate lifestyle because it is, without doubt, a major contributor to the increase in diabetes in this and other countries. What they are wrong to do is indulge in apparent name calling and finger pointing.
 
Obviously lifestyle can play a big part in devloping a number of diseases but the assumption by the media and Joe Public that it is the only cause and therefore that anyone who develops said diseases(particularilly Diabetes) have bought it on themselves is totally wrong and unfair.

Every persons situation should be treated on an individual basis not a blanket assumption that 'It's their own fault'. It's like saying that everyone who develops liver disease has to be an alcoholic.
 
If i have to tell someone r.e work i just say i have diabetes, they then ask i say 2, when i told my seus chef he said is that the worse of the 2 lol grr.
 
Regarding the debate on "not liking veg", I wrote this on a blog intended to give people some ideas on substitutions for lower carb eating and how to make vegetables more interesting ages ago
If people with diabetes should restrict carbohydrate what’s left? Well, pretty obvious isn’t it? Vegetables. Yes, if you’re restricting carbs then you need to fill up on something, but, and it’s a big BUT for some people, they say they don’t like vegetables. My first reaction to that is “How can you not like vegetables?” I mean a carrot tastes nothing like a Brussel sprout, so even if you don’t like sprouts, there must be some veggie you can stand the taste of. So I set out to compile a list of interesting things to do with vegetables. Most I have tried and enjoyed. I hope this will help newly diagnosed people, and also those not so newly diagnosed, but looking for new ideas.
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Having just re-read it I had to giggle about the "interesting things to do with vegetables" which sounds vaguely rude!
 
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