Hoping to be a vegetarian

[Beauble]

I am hoping to be a vegetarian and but i am diabetic type two. I was told by my nurse that i should do a meditetenean diet because i am obese with my diabetes type two, but i do not want to eat fish, poultry and red meat anymore. Should i do a vegetarian diet instead? Thank you in advance for your advice. 💛

The problem with T2 and vegetarianism is the carbs. Before I was T2 and was vegetarian I relied heavily on legumes and pulses. I couldn't do that now and keep my blood glucose under control. You'd be very heavily dependent on eggs and dairy for your protein.

Oh and tofu.

Okay, mediterenean diet it is. Thank you for the advice. 💛

Realistically veggie low carb is possible but hard work. There’s people out there doing it, it depends on your taste and how much effort you’re willing to put in!

You could try and tilt your diet towards less meat, more veg at each meal. So half a chicken breast rather than a whole one etc. And have tofu or other veggie protein once or twice a week. That way your overall consumption of animal products will be much less.

Thank you, great idea. ☀️💛

I’m a T2 vegetarian. I manage it (feel free to PM me for suggestions). I also naturally love Mediterranean food and it is pretty much my entire diet. At diagnosis, I did accept if I could not control it I would go back to eating some meat and fish for health reasons but it has not been necessary. It’s true I rely heavily on eggs and cheese as a PP says but also nuts, other milk products and to a lesser extent tofu. I also use lots of high protein vegetables like mushrooms and spinach and broccoli. I do have lots of beans, pulses and legumes in my diet as whilst they are more carby, they are slow digesting and I can incorporate them with care and they work for me.
Honestly though, if I were not already vegetarian (and really, really don’t want to eat fish and meat), I would not start in my current circumstances because life is much more difficult as a result.

Thank you for your advice. ☀️💛

should be fine, my sons t1 and has a lot of veggie meals (he does eat eggs though for protein) never really had a issue. Veg is low carb, infact we don’t even dose for veg as it barely effects him might just push him up 0.5 mmol but that’s about it.

Diabetes doesn’t have to be treated with a low carb diet. Research diabetes success with a low fat plant based diet, ie pretty much vegan, as this has been shown to be a successful alternative diet for diabetes management