Newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and I have questions.

[DireBetes]

My GP rang me with the news a couple of days ago. I can’t see the nurse until new year, and I wonder if anyone can answer my (probably stupid) questions?

My GP has advised that a low carb diet can manage, and maybe reverse, the diabetes, so I’m reading up about this and feel tentatively positive that I could follow this sort of diet.

I’ve been started on metformin, currently on 1 tablet a day, but to build up to four over a month.

If I mainly manage to stick to a low carb diet and occasionally have a treat, like bread sauce on Christmas Day, or a birthday takeaway, will this be a big set back, or ok as long as most of the time I’m sticking to low carb? Would it be dangerous?

Can I drink alcohol?

The biggest eating and drinking time of year is one week away, I’d love to know how careful I need to be - 100%, or if I would survive 90% careful!

If there’s anything else I really should know I’d be very grateful for advice. 🙂

My cousin is a retired doctor who now works as a health coach and also believes it is possible to reverse type 2 diabetes.

She worked as a doctor in the Solomon Islands in the 1970s and says that, at the time, they had zero cases of diabetes as there was still no processed food in their diet

Waves. I low carbed and was very restricted calories to shift 3 stone and got into remission. I've put a stone back on and am ot in remission anymore so I am back on it again. Things that made me slip are typical things like just one won't hurt, its only Saturday treat, so you do have to be honest with yourself!

Things that helped me get my bloods back in line - Intermittent fasting (16:8), regular exercise- walking an hour a day, realising I did need breakfast to function ( porridge spikes me,oatbran does not, i cannot eat eggs every day!),tuning into how i feel when i eat - If I eat carbs I feel tired, groggy, can't concentrate. When you make the connection with what's going in and really how you feel, it helps - binge on chocolate, fall asleep and feel crap, less likely to do it again. You learn over time. Much as you might love a box of milk tray, you'll be on the 70% dark if you want a bit of choc.

Highly recommended Life after diabetes book which explains why and how it works biologically. It's super easy to read and I'm a bit evangelical about it!

Good luck! We're right here.

I’m not sure I’d dare write down what I could eat in a day!

Keeping a food diary helped me. You don't have to share it with others, but it's worth thinking about for yourself.

Until you know what works for you, get a meter, check blood first thing, before any food or drink, before food, 2 hours after food and keep a note of it all, including everything you eat. Work out what increases your BG level.

I reduced carbs, first cut down on bread (brown only) absolutely no added sugar or fruit, no cereal, crackers, biscuits, cake... I also cut out fruit, you need to check lists of the best foods.

I was almost on the keto diet but didn't want to go overboard with it so kept bread to one slice per day, lots of vegetables, tuna is very low carb, lived on tuna salad, eggs, mushrooms I had energy. If I let it slip I started to feel tired. I can't exercise but walked round the block after meals. I did get keto flu so added more carbs, a potato or a bit more bread and felt better.

Snacks were a few peanuts or a couple of cheese triangles, something about the gooey texture ...

Ooops, I cut out fruit then added berries back but stopped again. Sometimes have a couple of slices of apple as it helps with indigestion after a meal.

Fantastic thread. I’m testing my blood glucose levels at the moment, trying to get them down. One tip - as well as all the others here - that I read, was that eating 2 tbsp of flaxseeds each day resulted in a drop in levels, after a month. I’m currently on about day 6 of eating them, and am hopeful. Also low carbing.

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 2 years ago. I took metformin for a year and followed a low carb diet. Cut out alcohol, chocolate, potatoes, bread etc. Lots of salads, meat and veg etc. Lost 25kg, and reversed the diabetes. Came off the metformin and relaxed. The trouble is that 10kg has kept back on and I'm not looking forward to having my blood tested after Christmas! I know that I need to start being stricter with myself in the New Year...

Would a whole apple with breakfast be too
much?
I think Aldi sells flaxseeds so I’ll get some soon.

I think it depends if you exercise at all after eating an apple , you have to metabolise any blood sugar spike. This is where my understanding is at : if we move our bodies after eating something , if we drink a big glass of water or two AND move our bodies, then we metabolise/dilute any spike. If we just eat a spiking food and stay sedentary, the spike stays around for too long and becomes a resident eventually…

Thank you for explaining that.

Your welcome. I’m new to this awareness, and have been fairly flummoxed by the mechanisms of our blood glucose responses. I hadn’t realised how sugar can build up in the blood and can be flushed out, too.
I have heard that if we cook any rice we eat a day before eating it, it creates less of a spike, as the starch in it changes to one that passes through the body more easily. The same goes for cooking potatoes the day before, and also freezing bread, apparently. (obviously we would only be eating those things in small amounts, and walking it off afterward)

If you want to Google it, look up “resistant starch”

An Apple, depending on its size, can have anything from 9-19g of carb, so potentially more than a slice of bread, or a packet of crisps. Berries are considerably lower carbs for weight, especially raspberries.

Metformin is a fantastic drug. It has lots of positive health effects besides lowering glucose, it reduces cardiovascular disease risk amongst many other benefits.

The low carb bootcamp threads on here (under the weigh loss section) have lots of tips and recipes, so is worth a look.

This website was set up by a gp practice in Essex and has some good info and advice about low carb. In the meal planners section there’s a link to their manual which has a lot of info and recipes. lowcarbfreshwell.co.uk

Thank you!
The website covers so much!

Bloody hell. Do not ditch the drugs!!! Yes, eventually diet and lifestyle changes can get you to a point where you MAY be able to rethink medication, on the advice of your GP, but that takes time!! The drugs are there for a reason, generally because insulin production is substandard or non existent. The body needs insulin to enable glucose to enter cells, without it the cells can die. The brain cells can only use insulin, they cannot utilise body fat like other cells. There are incredibly serious repercussions to just ditching medication and this is incredibly bad and dangerous advice.

The thing to remember - carbs turn to sugar in the body.

3 months ago my hbA1c was 52, and over 3 months I've decreased it to 37 by restricting carbs.

I've cut out all white bread, white pasta and white rice, but have been eating very limited amounts of potatoes, brown bread, brown rice and wholemeal pasta and eating plenty of protein and tonnes of vegetables. I've been very strict with nothubg processed with sugar in, but have been eating fruit (except Bananas)
For a treat, there are some really nice chocolate you can get made with stevia, like diablo and the lite chocolate company.

I'm so happy with the result - I am going to be less strict now but still limit sugar and carbs - desert of some kind once a month and will definitely be having roasties at Christmas. As well as lowering my blood sugar it seems to have improved my ibs, acid reflux and my skin looks really good. It was really difficult the first few weeks - I felt awful and really upset - but the positive results are really motivating and make it easier to stick to.

I think if you get going with some dietary changes and see an improvement in 3 months it will help you stick with it

Look for ground flaxseeds - I like them with yoghurt and fruit for breakfast, they make it more filling.

I forgot to add in my previous post, cutting our sugar seems to have changed how things taste - fruit tastes much sweeter to me now.

I have a metformin question - I’m on day 3, I have stomach ache and diarrhoea - I’m assuming this’ll settle down?

The lower carb things are berries - strawberries, blackberries and rasps.

Upset stomach is one of the side effects of Metformin.

Should it settle down?

Not in my H who has been diabetic for 17 years.

I have also been on Metformin as I was touching the diabetic score and I was unable to take more than 1 due to stomach issues.

I don't have type 2 but I did have gestational diabetes twice and have done the low carb diet for that. Once you get used to it it's really easy and you definitely feel better.
Check out the GDUK website. They have great low carb recipes. You don't have to be quite so strict with type 2 as you don't have a growing baby to worry about