Help! I have type 2 diabetes

[Diabetesnewbie]

Hi All

Newbie here, posting because I have lurked for a while and I need a virtual hug and some clear info. I just got my blood test results (a reading of 50) and the receptionist says that means diabetes. I am seeing my GP this week but I am freaking out and finding conflicting info online.

1. I am not going to tell my family or friends. I am so ashamed. My weight has been an issue by whole life.

2. Clearly I need to overhaul my diet. Are you allowed to take occasional days off diet with Type 2? I’m thinking specifically about family meals etc where family members don’t know my diagnosis (see 1)!

3. I am confused as to whether my priority should be low calorie/fat to lose weight (so low fat yoghurt), or low GI index (so full fat yoghurt!)

4. I am a chocoholic (why is there no official diagnosis for this kind of thing, like alcoholism? Not actually joking) but in fact the thought if not having chocolate isn’t that awful. I hate the thought of never eating Christmas cake and mince pies again though 😞

5. Should I monitor my blood sugar at home or wait for blood tests at intervals?

Thanks for bearing with my random list of initial thoughts. Feeling pretty fed up and could do with some wise help!

S.

Firstly - don't panic!

Going through your points in turn:

1. Up to you whether you tell friends or family, however it might make life easier to avoid people desperately pressing cake on you, or giving you chocolates for Christmas. Type 2 is very common, you may well find you aren't the only one.
2. Going on my DM's experience (and my attempts to give up sugar) it's honestly best not to have a day off. You make loads of effort, get past the sugar cravings and then bam, you are back doing the whole thing again
3. There is loads of advice on diet available on Diabetes UK. Deciding what yoghurt/milk to buy is not a priority compared to reducing processed carbs and especially sugar
4. Once you go through the pain of giving them up, you may not be as excited to have a mince pie again in the future. Again Diabetes UK has a load of Christmas recipes
5. Your GP will advise you about blood sugar monitoring. It may or may not be needed. I know my DM only had to initially and she found seeing the spikes after certain foods very motivating not to eat them again.

50 is at the lower end of t2. Make small changes which you can sustain. Avoid artificial sweeteners which tend to be in low fat products , plain yoghurt and fruit better for example. Swap water for fizzy drinks, wholemeal for white bread etc. Regular exercise. Smaller portions. The odd treat or meal out is fine. You don't need to monitor beyond your hba1c tests.

Two years ago my level was 47 which is literally the last number that is prediabetes. I lost 10kg using a low carb diet and have lost more since and have completely reversed it.

I recommend looking at Dr David Unwin’s dietary recommendations, many of his patients have completely reversed Type 2 https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diet-for-type2-diabetes.html

Hi. My DH is type 2, diagnosed during Covid with Hba1c of 60 and in remission now for nearly 5 years. He did a very strict low carb 1000 calorie a day diet for about 8 weeks to drop his weight fast and now maintains his weight on a low carb diet. This was based on the principles of the DIRECT trial which aimed to get people into remission.
What it means longer term is he doesn’t eat any sugar or white carbs - no added sugar, no high sugar fruit, no pasta, bread, rice or potatoes. He seems to be fine with higher carb veg. So essentially a Mediterranean diet with full fat Greek yoghurt, olive oil, nuts, avocado, full fat cheese, protein and lots of veg. As a family we just make dishes with carbs as a side rather than incorporated - so if we have chilli he will have cauliflower rice, if we have fajitas he’ll have the filling in Romaine lettuce as a wrap. He doesn’t count carbs any more but it’s about 70-80g/day (so much less strict than keto but less than standard NHS diabetes advice )
He does cheat occasionally but he was actually quite unwell recently after eating chips on a day out, his blood glucose was really high. Maybe he needs to confirm every so often that despite normal hba1c he is still diabetic!
The cookbooks by Giancarlo Caldesi are really helpful to get your head around it if you want to try to reverse this (Diabetes Weightloss cookbook or Reverse your Diabetes)
He started off without medication but now takes a statin - his triglycerides and cholesterol are much better than at diagnosis but cholesterol still a bit high.

It’s a wake up call for sure but you can manage this.

Calm down. The receptionist might have thought she was being helpful, but she really should have just made you an appointment so that a nurse or doctor could have explained your diagnosis.

First, 50 is only just over the limit to be diagnosed with diabetes and you should be able to reduce that quite quickly. (A normal reading is under 41 and pre-diabetes is 42 - 48.)

Second, Google "Freshwell" to find the foods which are diabetic-friendly. It was designed by GPs to inform patients.

Third, buy yourself a blood glucose monitor (finger prick testing). A TEE2+ costs around £14 and the test strips around £11. Test yourself just before a meal and then two hours after the first bite to see if you have what's known as a spike in your readings. A normal blood glucose reading is 4 - 7 mmol, and no more than 8.5 mmol after eating.

Fourth, join the forums at both diabetes.co.uk and diabetes.org.uk. Both sites are full of information and helpful suggestions for meals.

Low carbohydrate eating is the way forward, not just low sugar, as all carbs turn to sugar once digested. You should be pleasantly surprised at the amount of food you can eat.

Good luck.

I completely changed my diet, I didn't go too deep in 'diabetic' ideal foods but eat a decent breakfast, usually soup for lunch and a protein/veg/small carb tea. I don't snack at all anymore.

I have used Mounjaro to be able to manage these changes though, I could never have maintained it without that back up.

I have reversed my diabetes and my blood sugars are completely normal

Thank you all for the helpful info!

Once I have made changes to my diet, how quickly can I expect to see my blood sugar level falling? Or is it a very individual thing?

I’m wondering if I can make a significant change in, say, 3 months.

Three months is very "doable".👍

Definitely, I had made great progress in reducing my levels in less than three months.

You are normally retested after three months so yes can make a difference.

@Diabetesnewbie Don't Panic Mr Mainwaring!!

Having T2 is NOT all about having eaten too much and that you've brought it all on yourself because of that. There are a load of other factors at play including stress and lack of sleep so don't assume that you will be expected to go on a strict diet.

Calm down, because getting stressed about it will not be helping!

I'm just under the T2 threshold and keeping a lid on it, and these are three of the easiest things that will help you straight away.

1 - Go to bed at a reasonable time.

2 - Get some fresh air and go for a 5-minute walk round the block every day, rain or shine.

3 - Swap one spoonful or the equivalent of carbs (rice, potatoes, pasta, bread etc) for the same volume of vegetables or salad, eg instead of three roast potatoes with dinner, have two and increase veg by the same amount, or more spoon of Bol and one less of Spag.

A couple of other things - don't skip meals, don't switch to diet drinks thinking it will help (it won't), and if you have any low GI recipe books, have a look in them.

Right, so I don’t have an appointment with the diabetic nurse for another week or so, and I have a question!

Ive cut out sugar completely and most carbs too. However I have realised that I get blurry vision after lunch most days. I know that’s a diabetes symptom. Does that mean my lunch is too carby ? Today it was 4 oatcakes with hummus

It sounds like you were hypoglycaemic.

But it also sounds like you haven't really cut down on the carbs! I don't know what brand of oatcakes you were eating, but Nairns Fine Oatcakes, as an example, are 4.3g each - so 17.2g for those. And a quarter of a pot (50g) of Tesco's hummus is 6g carbs. So your lunch was probably around 23.2g carbs. While that may sound low, bear in mind that if you were doing the induction phase of the Atkins diet, you would only be allowed 20g of carbs for the whole day!

Check out the Fast800 or Diet Doctor websites - they'll give you a really good idea of what you should be eating, with a view to keeping your carbs low, and also (from the POV of Fast800) reversing your diabetes.

Good luck - and don't be scared or embarrassed.

I feel a bit daft now. There’s so much conflicting advice on what to eat, and I thought oatcakes and hummus were ok.

For context, breakfast is cut up pear with Greek yoghurt and home made sugar free and grain-free granola sprinkled on top. Basically the granola is just seeds and nuts with some cinnamon.

Dinner is something like chilli with cauliflower rice.

I want to get it right as I am determined to reverse this thing, so I really appreciate your wisdom!

I have recently crept into the diabetic range and I am panicking! I have been on a waiting list for ages for help but no help has been offered. My doctor just wants me on medication. I have read so much conflicting information. Some sites say don't eat yoghurt, and limit the amount of fruit you eat. Others say eat Greek yogurt with fruit. Some say no pasta at all, then post recipes with spaghetti! I am at my wits end.
I walk about 3 and a half miles several times a week, I eat very healthily. However I just struggle to know what I should be doing. I eat very little sugar anyway and don't snack. I don't eat junk or rubbish.

I am several stones overweight which has built up over time, so I obviously need to lose that and take more exercise. I have stopped eating breakfast for the first time in my life as oats are carbs and I was eating porridge every morning. I tend to have home made soup and a couple of oatcakes with cottage cheese or hummus as a rule for lunch, then a normal dinner. I have just read some advice to cut out cottage cheese, so really I just have no idea what to eat, and I am feeling very stressed. Oat milk and rice milk are apparently a bad thing to have but milk is also out. Help!

Also, what the hell are keto crackers?

Sorry to hear you're confused and conflicted @Meltedcandlewax - but don't panic!

As with @Diabetesnewbie I really, really recommend that you go and have a look at the Fast800 website. It's a very low calorie plan, based on work done at the University of Newcastle, aimed at helping T2 diabetics to reverse their diabetes.

It's a moderately low carb plan, although more recently they've been moving towards a lower carb, Mediterranean diet.

If you want to know more about what you can/can't eat if you're looking to lower your carbs, you could check out the Low Carb Bootcamp threads on Mumsnet. This thread might be most helpful - although it's specifically about Bootcamp (which is a 8 or 10 week plan), it should give you a good idea about low carbing in general.

In terms of diet recommendations, I know that advice for diabetics can be very contradictory! But I have to ask why you were told not to eat cottage cheese! That's perfect for a lower carb diet (as long as you're buying the full fat variety).

There will probably a gazillion different recipes, but here is one

Keto is generally a very low carb diet - no more than 50g carbs a day (sometimes as low as 20g).

These crackers are allowable as they use almond flour rather than flour based on wheat.

Try diabetesuk charity website for proper info and advice

Where can I get them though?

It was on one of the websites recommended up thread. No yogurt or cottage cheese! There is really nothing left I can eat. I’m not keen on eggs but force myself to eat them sometimes.

You'll have to look at the various different keto/low carb sites that there are - or make them yourself.

https://srslylowcarb.com
https://weareheylo.com

Are two sites I use occasionally - but don't know if they have crackers.

Thank you.

@Meltedcandlewax

It was on one of the websites recommended up thread. No yogurt or cottage cheese! There is really nothing left I can eat. I’m not keen on eggs but force myself to eat them sometimes.

If you want to follow a low(er) carb diet, then full fat Greek yoghurt is always a key food. And cottage cheese is fine too.

Which site, and why did they say you couldn't eat them?

If you don't like eggs, don't eat them! No point forcing yourself to eat something you don't like. The Diet Doctor site is especially good at showing/telling you what you can eat.

How old are you what do you weigh what is your BMI?