What to eat to prevent type 2 - totally confused

[diabetesdiet]

Hello!

I had severe gestational diabetes in my last pregnancy and have been told I have the usual 50% risk of going on to develop type 2 diabetes. However I am utterly confused about what I should be doing with my diet to try to avoid this:

1. The doctor advised me to move to a wholegrain-only, vegan diet. This sounds extreme and would be extremely difficult for me to maintain. I used to be a vegetarian and had severe anaemia. I’m also unsure about whether I should be eating things I know spike my blood sugars (or did when I had diabetes), like porridge or bananas (and even to some extent wholegrain bread).

2. Loads of diabetics online seem to say low-GI is the best idea. Again this sounds like it would be difficult to maintain. But I’m also wondering whether cutting out carbs and eating lots of meat and eggs and cheese is a good idea when those are the things the doctor has told me are worst for diabetes risk.

Basically there seem to be people with good credentials saying all of the following will increase diabetes risk: carbs, sugar, meat, eggs and dairy. What does this leave?!!

Another potentially relevant factor is that I’m not and have never been overweight – my BMI is currently 20 and usually closer to 19. I’ve been advised not to gain weight but also I don’t want to lose weight. My diet has never been terrible - I would have a treat like some chocolate or ice cream every day but otherwise a balanced diet with fruit as the main snack, would rarely fry food etc. I'm obviously going to cut right down on treats.

I might get a dietitian’s advice but I wondered if someone could help me get this all clearer in my head because whatever the dietitian advises it will conflict with at least one of the two options above and I will always wonder if I’m doing the wrong thing. Help!!

@diabetesdiet

I hope you have found some advice by now, surprised no-one answered, and sad they didn't as I have a diet related question and was looking for answers on here.

I had already found the diabetes UK website but found that I need to ask questions, but it looks as if the helpful responses always refer you to the thread on what I ate today which gives no idea on quantities or how often you actually need to eat.

Your doctor is talking rubbish. Drop out the carbs, basically stick to the following:

Meat
Poultry
Fish
Shellfish
Non root veg, although turnips and celeriac are ok
Salad
Cheese
Eggs
70%+ dark chocolate

I would definitely not recommend a vegan diet especially if you would find this hard to follow. In an old life I did a lot of work on Diabetes education programmes, and the recommendations are wholegrain, high protein, medium fat.

Have a look at the xpert health programme ( there is free web content, or you can buy a handbook for about a tenner) which talks about high fat, low carb and Mediterranean diets for management of pre diabetes.

I get where the doctor is coming from. We know the sugar doesn’t cause diabetes and there is some research suggesting dairy produce and meats are contributing factors.

Dr David Unwin is great on this. He’s a UK GP who is passionate about helping his patients reverse T2.

www.dietdoctor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Diet-sheet-of-what-to-eat-with-Dr.-David-Unwin.pdf

twitter.com/lowcarbgp/status/1397638180678078465?s=21

Call your GP surgery and ask if they have a diabetic nurse you could speak to. Our surgery has one.

I'm pre-diabetic and went on a course (curtailed by Covid and all that but anyway) in which they said that reducing the amount of carbohydrate and sugar in your diet is the way to go, and replace with more veg.

For instance If you want bread, then choose a 'low-GI' one, which is basically one that has some form of protein with it, like nuts or seeds in it. Lidl do a really nice low GI loaf.
Ordinary bread toasted on its own is no good, but with peanut butter it becomes lower GI.

Wholegrain rice is better than white rice, and so on. You are trying to avoid sudden blood sugar highs and lows.

See also: www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-prevention/index.html

Have you had a blood test recently?
(probably not, come to think of it)

Perhaps cut out fruit as your main snack, as there's a lot of sugar in fruit (fructose). Have a source of protein such as nuts or seeds instead. Although root veg has sugars too, something like carrot batons would be fine if you have sone hummus dip as well.

If you eat loads more veg, you can cut back a bit on carbs without too much trouble.

Her tips are super useful about tricks to improve blood sugar

Based on science and research :)

https://instagram.com/glucosegoddess?utmmedium=copyy_link