Need to do low carb

[Dolallytats]

I am 18+3 weeks pregnant and my blood sugar levels, although just about ok at the moment, are getting near borderline for type 2 diabetes (runs in the family). Because of this I have been advised to lower my carb intake. There is a slight problem with this in that I also have IBS. This means I can't eat eggs (although I can if they are 'in' something, but can't eat them boiled, scrambled, in an omelette or quiche), I can't eat much dairy and too much fruit, veg, dairy or pulses can have me either in pain or running for the loo!!
My diet has been very carb heavy because that tends to not aggravate the IBS and the carbs that I have been eating have been of the wgite variety as this is also better for the IBS.
So, where do I go from here? I can eat small amounts of dairy, but not daily. I can eat small amounts of salad, but again not daily. I can't eat prawns, bacon, meat sausages (veggie are ok), can't eat large quantities of beans/pulses, basically all the foods you would normally use to bulk out a meal, I can only eat in small quantities.

Does anyone have any suggestion please?!?

Oh my goodness - there's not much left for you to eat, is there?!

I am an IBS sufferer, but also a long term low carber. I had no idea until I started low carbing that it would have an impact on my IBS - I don't suffer from it at all if I keep my carbs down.

Can you tolerate yoghurt?

Basically, if you need to low carb, then you're looking at planning your meals around a meat or fish component, plus some veg/salad.

I think, to be honest, that the threat of diabetes is going to be more important for you than your IBS, although I do appreciate that it's a horrible condition to suffer from.

If you're eating as many accessible carbs (white bread, pasta, rice) as your OP suggests, then I'm not surprised that diabetes is looming for you. Basically all these foods get turned into sugar by the body.

I know you aren't talking about losing weight, but come over and have a look at Bootcamp latest chat thread is here If you have a look at the spreadsheet that is linked to in the OP you will see (on one of the tabs at the bottom) the Bootcamp rules for low carbing as well as a list of allowed veg.

I think you're probably going to have to experiment a bit to find out what veg you can/can't eat. But there wouldn't be any problem in the short term for you to focus more on protein/fat until you can work out which veg/salad you can eat.

BTW, the reason you are able to tolerate the carbs you are eating is, I would think, because they are fairly low in fibre - certainly when I was first diagnosed, and told to increase my fibre levels, that only made things worse, so then I was advised to eat low fibre foods.

This is probably why you can't tolerate beans/pulses so well, given that they are high in fibre.

So the trick would be to drop the carbs but make sure that you're not eating too much fibre. Meat/fish are obviously perfect in this regard!

There's a useful list of low fibre vegetables here

Thank you so much BIWI. I did think what on earth am I supposed to eat!! You're right, I'll have to experiment and see if any of my tolerances/intolerances have changed. Thank you for the links, I shall have a look at those and this should give me a much better idea of what I can have. I did look on several websites, but they just confused me!!

Do you ever suffer from candida/thrush as well? IME it can be linked to IBS and a high carb diet. The anti-candida diet is very similar to a low carb one, actually.

No I don't get that a lot. I've ordered a book to help me....hopefully it will give me a clear list of what I can and can't have!! Thank you for your help!!

My pleasure! Good luck and I hope you can find something that helps you.

Eggs are not usually an issue for people with IBS- my DD has IBS and eats lots of eggs.

Have you ever looked up the FODMAP diet for IBS? Not many people know about it but it's been well researched in UK hospitals in London and has a 75% success rate.

Google it.

There are still vegetables you can eat- enough certainly to go with plain grilled fish, meat, and so on. Jacket potatoes with fillings such as tuna, prawns, chicken may etc might be okay. You can also eat quite a lot of fruits such as pineapple, raspberries, bananas, and more.

Have you tried non dairy alternatives like oat milk, soya, rice milk and so on? You might also be okay with lactose free milk and lactose free cheese.

TBH your GP ought to refer you to an NHS dietician because you could end up very malnourished and short of calcium. Can you ask?

Mexican chicken with tortillas: (serves 4, or freeze half)

4 chicken breasts
1 can chopped tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
1 onion
1 tsp chipotle paste (or a tbsp chilli con carne paste)
fresh coriander
tortillas

• Fry the finely chopped onion in a little olive oil for 5 mins until softening. Add the crushed garlic for 30 secs. Add the chipotle paste for 1 min and stir.
• Add the chopped tomatoes and bring to the boil.
• Add the whole chicken breasts and spoon the sauce over them - simmer for 20 mins, turning halfway through. Add a little water if drying out.
• Check chicken cooked, then remove to a plate and shred it with 2 forks. Tip it back into the saucepan and stir in.
• Serve with fresh coriander, tortillas and some natural yoghurt.

You can put it all together on the table and get people to help themselves, so you can choose to have fewer tortillas and more filling yourself to lower the carb content. It's a very quick and tasty recipe - the amount of paste above will give you just a mild dish, which is probably what you want with IBS and when you are pregnant, but if you want it a bit hotter you can add more paste.

Blogging I hadn't thought of getting referred to a dietician. I will look into that-thanks.

Mummy2 that sounds lovely, I've written it down and will be getting the ingredients in my next shop-thank you!!

the bbcgoodfood.com website has lots of great and reliably tasty recipes. There may even be a section on low carb, worth a look. I get all my recipes from there, I love it!

TBH if you have IBS that recipe could be a disaster! sorry

My DD is on the FODMAP diet and one of the worst things she could eat are onions and garlic. They an both produce alot of gas and make your IBS worse.

You really need to see to see your GP and ask for a referral and get it sorted professionally.

blogging I can eat small amounts of onion if I'm having a 'good' IBS day!! I tend to wait for those to make things like that (or a weekend when I don't have to take DS to school!!)

I have tried several different treatments with my GP, unfortunately it appears that none have worked so it is a trial and error of what I can and can't eat. This can change on a daily basis depending on if I am stressed, if my period is due (hormones affect it) and sometimes there just doesn't seem to be a pattern.

I am learning not to mix certain foods, avoid others completely and only have small or occasional bits of other foods at other times. For example, I can eat mince and potatoes on the same plate but seperate, but I can't eat a shepherds pie-or mashed potates made with actual potatoes. Instant mash is fine.

It's a confusing process at times. A few years ago all I could eat was chicken, boiled potatoes, tuna, green beans and rice. Thank goodness it has improved since then!!

mummy2 I like that website too.