What's for dinner?

[lauraw1983]

I need some inspiration, I'm struggling with dinner time meals. Partly with reduced appetite (Byetta) and some nausea, but also just keep thinking "must stay away from carbs" so easy things like pasta are now a no-go.

I work and then have 2 little ones to sort out too, and need quick and easy things I can fall back on on busy days...

So inspire me with your meal plan for tonight please!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

There's a bunch of low and reduced carb recipes in the old DSF forum 'Recipe' section - might be some ideas there?

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/forum/Blah.pl?b-802/

 

[Mark T]

Ours tonight will be 3 small new potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, carrot and oven cooked breaded fish with a couple of scampi. Although when I was trying to loose weight I was dropping out the scampi.

My notes have the new potatoes at 20g Carb, the fish at 22g Carb, the mixed veg is not more then 4g Carb and the Scampi is worth 7-10g depending on how many I have.

Normally that will have me at no more then +3mmol/L at the 1 hour point (and well below that at 2 hours).

All three of us have this, including my 2.5 year old.

 

[lauraw1983]

What is that book that gives carb values again? Is that what you refer to re; "your notes"?

do you breadcrumb the fish yourself or buy it ready to bake? If the latter, what kind is it please?

I've always been told so far not to do the post 2 hour meal thing, just pre-meal levels....should the 2 hour level be back to the pre-meal level??

 

[Mark T]

What is that book that gives carb values again? Is that what you refer to re; "your notes"?

do you breadcrumb the fish yourself or buy it ready to bake? If the latter, what kind is it please?

I've always been told so far not to do the post 2 hour meal thing, just pre-meal levels....should the 2 hour level be back to the pre-meal level??

Well, I did use Carbs & Cals for estimating some things - but some of my notes are based on grabbing the data from the sides of packets and weighing things (and then getting my calculator out).

The specific Fish we tend to use is Young's Breaded Cod Fillets x4 480g, which says it is 21.2g Carb per 120g fillet.

Oh, I ignored what my DN wanted and have been more following Alan S's test, Review, adjust guide: http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/test-review-adjust.html

Note that he actually talks about testing at 1 hour rather then 2 hours. Choosing 1 hour over 2 is probably not all that important.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I've always been told so far not to do the post 2 hour meal thing, just pre-meal levels....should the 2 hour level be back to the pre-meal level??

2 hour is likely to be higher than premeal. From what I have read of T2, 1 hour is likely to be higher still.

DUK/NHS guidelines suggest T2s should aim for 4-7 before meals and no higher than 8.5 at 2 hours. Carbs tend to affect T2s less later in the day, but you will probably still need to moderate/reduce carb intake to stay within those (fairly tight) guidelines.

The idea of testing at or around 1 hour has to do with the phases of insulin I think. T2s have often lost 'Phase 1' insulin response (the first splurge that is sent out when you begin eating). Phase 2 insulin kicks in later and has usually started working between 1 and 2 hours, so by testing at 2 hours you *might* miss the highest level your BG reaches after the meal (in the 'gap' between eating and phase 2 kicking in). T2s who are testing post-meal to try to prevent spikes seem to find their peak reading somewhere between 1 and 2 hours. By reducing the peak reading BG returns to 'normal' more rapidly and there is less overall glucose variation - which is a good thing. As with so many things Your Diabetes May Vary so it's really a question of working out how your own system reacts to food at different times of day.