Diabetic Dad

[daydreamer45]

Hi, looking for some food advice for my newly diagnosed type 2 Dad. He lives off spuds, chips, bread etc currently. Very plain eater, no rice or pasta, meat & potatoes with some peas or meat and chips are his usual dinners. Very limited on veg (carrots, broccoli, peas). Has cereal for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch, 2 sugars in his tea and has a very sweet tooth. Obviously this all has to change!! His nurse has suggested a low carb diet and I have done this before to lose some weight. I ate lots of meat, eggs, nuts, cheese, green vegetables with no potatoes, bread, cereal etc. The nurse is saying that Dad can have limited portions of carbs but they have to be counted (max 120g per day). Can he eat his usual diet if we ditch the sugar and cakes and count the carbs. He doesn't need to lose weight or do extra exercise as he's in great shape for his age. He's really sad and thinks he will find it hard to change his lifestyle after 70 plus years of eating this way. He's also a carer for my Mum so has limited time and energy (and ability) for cooking, he's always kept it really simple. Many thanks.

Oh poor soul, it will be hard to make a complete change so I'd take their advice and try to get the carbs down without cutting completely. He can obvs stick with his meat but try to add in more leafy veg and cut down on the carbs on the side. Wholegrain is better for slower release, if it has to potatoes, try for higher fibre like a baked potato with skin or skin on wedges. Same goes for his sandwiches, lighter whole grain or sourdough bread if he must but make it more filling than bread. Would he go for soup? Lentil is good carbs and is filling.

Cereal wise, whole oats made into porridge might work.

I get the surreal stuff which is expensive and is processed but is quick when required. I also get hi lo bread in sainsburys which is low carb.

Peanuts or dark chocolate for snack treats but Kind bars are pretty low carb in some flavours if his teeth can cope...

I make my own almond flour cookies and granola bars using stevia.

I would probably do small steps.

Start off cutting out the excess sugar, give it a couple of weeks and then make the next change so he doesn't feel like all the joy has been taken from his life.

Lots of supermarkets do diabetic friendly foods, Gullane is a brand I see a lot when I shop (I am dairy allergic so forever in the free from ailse).

If he is a white bread eater, would he swap to a granary bread maybe? They are "better" carbs than white processed flour for example?

Maybe try and get him to try sweet potato as they are a better carb than starchy white potatoes.

Also remember there are other things he can do to regulate his blood sugar. A bit of exercise after eating if he could manage a brisk walk for 15 mins that would help. Eating order, make sure he's eating fibre, fats and proteins before carbs. Plus a decent level of hydration.

I wish him the best of luck.

I'm a bit younger (58) and I've managed to get my type 2 into remission and wasn't overweight either but I did go hardcore keto and lost more weight than I wanted. I've gradually got back to a healthy bmi and still controlled my blood sugar.

My type 2 has ramped up recently so I've had to change my diet again. I find lunch the hardest because I would typically have something on toast or a sandwich. I'm wearing a continuous glucose monitor now and I've found that I am naturally higher and more reactive at lunchtime. So exactly the same meal for lunch will raise my glucose levels more than for dinner.

Soup is pretty good for lunch. I make a delicious broccoli and cheddar soup that I put into these glass containers with a snap on lid from Ikea https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/p/ikea-365-food-container-round-glass-50359195/ and put in the freezer. I also make dhal and other Indian bean recipes which probably wouldn't be your Dad's thing, but leftover stew or casserole would work. The containers are great because they are oven/microwave/freezer safe. So I take it out of the freezer, heat in the microwave (sitting on a plate because the container gets hot) and eat it straight from the container. Quite a few supermarket soups are fairly low in carb too, and I grate some cheese and stir it in when the soup is hot to add a bit of protein and make it filling for longer.

Another thing that I love for lunch is to fry some cabbage and leftover sliced up sausage or black pudding in a small frying pan, then add two beaten eggs to make a frittata.

A handy hint for bread that I got from a type 1 YouTuber is to look for supermarket bread that has no added sugar and where the carb to fibre ratio is 5 or less. It took a lot of reading labels but I found one that is reasonably widely available. I still can't eat a lot of bread but so long as I have protein with it this bread isn't too bad. So three scrambled eggs on one slice of toast works reasonably well, or a sausage sandwich occasionally.

I agree with @BigBoysDontCry that a brisk walk around 30 mins after eating really helps, now that I have a CGM I can see it working to bring down my glucose. Once I stop walking my glucose goes up again a bit because I'm still digesting but the walk stops it spiking too high and keeps it lower on average.

I'd start with small changes eg 1 sugar in his tea instead of 2, then half a teaspoon before going to none.

Depending how much tea he drinks that alone is cutting out a vast quantity of sugar in his diet.

You could then look at different steps for example changing the cereal, changing the bread he uses for sandwiches, cutting down on the cakes.

I do plenty of low carb baking which is delicious. My Mum requested one for her birthday cake as she had enjoyed it so much. If there is anyone in the family who likes baking they could make him some amd freeze. There's a site i use for recipes and they never fail

There are also companies who make keto cakes which are good but expensive.

Bread - there are some online companies. It's expensive but good to have some in for times when only bread will do. It's not as good as normal bread but satisfies a craving

If you're interested in any of the above i can post some links

Have you looked at Diabetes UK for recipes?

It's obvs hard given your Dad's preference is meat and potatoes followed by cake, but they have a vast array of recipes for every taste.

I would love some links please @FlippityFloppityFlump

You could swap him to a sugar substitute for his tea if he finds it hard to do without. I use monk fruit when I make hot chocolate (water, Valhrona cocoa powder and golden monk fruit) https://ie.iherb.com/pr/health-garden-monk-fruit-with-erythritol-gloden-16-oz-454-g/106071 and I use the white version when baking.

I make a great banana bread using monk fruit instead of sugar and this flour https://www.lonjevity-foods.com/buy-now I use less monk fruit by weight than the recipe asks for and also less flour and a little more liquid because the flour absorbs more but it comes out well. Not everything works, the denser and moister the result is supposed to be the better it works, I wouldn't attempt a sponge for instance but peach cobbler came out great.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar this is the site i used to buy cakes from. They're very nice but quite expensive (because keto baking ingredients are expensive)
https://deliciouslyguiltfree.com/

I use this site for baking recipes. https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/ Every cake i have made from here has been fantastic but make sure to read the tips and follow the recipe

The blackout cake is amazing and the one i made for my Mum's birthday. The keto lemon cream cake is delicious (i don't bother with the crumb coating and i have added a layer of lemon curd in the middle, recjpe for that is also from the same site)
I made the cake part of the chocolate orange cake for the first time yesterday and going to complete it later. It's made with coconut flour so i will be interested to see how it turns out