Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Diabetic Advice?

Hi, guys

Having recently been diagnosed with Type II diabetes, I'm looking for a little advice. I know that there are quite a few diabetics among the board members, so thought you'd be the ones who might be able to help

I find that I have absolutely no imagination when it comes to food and menus and as a result I'm really struggling with what's a very (entirely self-imposed) restrictive diet. It's a reasonably healthy diet, but very boring and dependent on only a few main ingredients (chicken, fish mostly) When it comes time each week to make up a shopping list, I'm stumped for ideas on what to get to vary my meals.

I find that if I try to get some ideas from the net, most of the sites are American and I often have trouble translating various foods. Many of them aren't available over here in the UK either.

I also need to take account of other dietary requirements, such as my diet must be low in sodium and because the diabetic meds I'm on have side effects of weight gain, I need to make sure what I'm eating is weight loss friendly too, to counteract the negative impact there. So low-fat, low-calorie, etc. Juggling all of these requirements is proving to be a bit of a dampener on what little imagination I have in the first place. <G>

So, I'm looking for ideas - recipes (quick and simple please - my idea of cooking is throwing chicken into a microwave and waiting for the ding ), a general idea of what other diabetics eat regularly, and how you vary your meal plans...that kind of thing.

Thanks!

LabRat

Labby,

Sorry to hear that. I can definitely sympathize. I was diagnosed earlier this year with hypoglycemia and I have to watch sugar, carbs, etc. Anyway, the sites I normally frequent wouldn't be of much help because they are US sites, but I have run across UK sites in my searches, so I thought I'd throw a couple of those links your way.

Diabetes Recipes

recipes

Of course, my meal plans are a little different than one for someone who is diabetic, but basically, I eat something every two hours, or I get weak and shaky. I really try to focus on protein in my diet, things like that.

I'm on lunch break, so I need to get going again, but if I think of anything else, I'll post here after work. I wish I could be of more help, but I figured out right away that I wouldn't know for sure what recipes I use would be helpful to someone in the UK and what wouldn't. Hope these two links are some help. I'll go through my history to check for more later tonight.

Take care,

Jana

[EDIT: I changed that second link because it wasn't the one I meant to put.]

Labby, you don't want any advice from me. I cheat like crazy. I got so sick of eating just chip type snacks during breaks at work that I slowly began to sneak in a candy bar, or a donut. Now I cheat on a regular basis. I only really buckle down about a week or so before I have to go in for a physical so I can get things back under control for the exam .

I have a blood tester, but only test myself when I'm getting close to one of those exams again (Instead of daily like I'm supposed to). My one advantage is that I'm in a fairly physical job and so get plenty of exercise.

The main things are to watch the sugars (did you know that a regular can of soda has 8 tablespoons of sugar in it?). Also watch the carbs. Unfortuantely I love bread and eat a lot more of it than I should.

Oh well, who wants to live forever.

Tank (who also tells Labby to stay away from those sugary, waffy Lois and Clark fics, they'll put you in a coma faster than a double chocalate fudge sundae)

I was thinking about it and there are some other things to watch... One is spaghetti sauce. Many types has as much as 15 grams of sugar a serving. It's one place that I never really thought about sugar, but... Also, yogurt. Depending on the brand, it can be terrible. I've seen some yogurt that had 45 grams of sugar per 1/2 cup! :rolleyes:

As for Tank's warning about fanfic, it is my "professional" opinion as a nursing student that he is wrong. I think waffy fanfics are the safest and healthiest places to get doses of sugar. :p

Jana (who is relieved that her internet is back on after being down several hours)

i'm going to try to keep this short; i shouldn't really be online now.

anyway, i've been a type I diabetic for just over half my life. i started out measuring everything really carefully, but i've gotten looser over the years. these days i don't watch what i eat so much as how much. i still eat all the same foods. i just make sure that the amount of food fits into my planned diet. after the first year or so, i was able to start reliably estimating the content of just about anything with just a glance.

in any case, you're looking for recipies. i'm not quite sure what to tell you. it depends on what you like. of course, i don't tend to use recipies so much when i'm cooking dinner (as opposed to baking or something). i just see what we have that's available, figure out what i'm in the mood for, and throw things together. it works pretty well for a variety of dishes... stir fry over rice with your favorite sauce, sauteed chicken cutlets with pasta and sauce, roasted chicken with stuffing, fish (lightly breaded and fried, baked, grilled, whatever) with rice or rolls, steak, hamburgers, etc. i just pick a base, then a style, then the sauce and/or flavorings, then the side dishes, and put it together.

my advice is to just keep making the same dishes you were making before. just keep an eye on the quantities of what you put in.

Paul

Thanks for the helpful pointers, everyone. I'll definitely be checking out those websites, Jana. )

So I'm having real trouble finding a correlation between my diet and my blood glucose level.

Anyone else have similar problems when they started?

LabRat

Carbs are NOT bad. Actually, carbs with a low glycemic index are GOOD. They help you keep your blood sugar stable.

And that's the goal -- to keep your blood sugar as stable (and in the right range, of course) as possible. If you're mostly "good" then the occasional "cheat" likely won't do much. But the worry I might have would be that the "better" reading the next day follows a spike the night before. Easy enough to rule out.

Then again, maybe you'll help them discover that sulfites (found in most wine and in Chinese food too, I think) act in lieu of insulin. Ok, probably not.

Oh, and do you know about cinnamon ?

Thanks for this info, Rivka! Looks very interesting and helpful.

Re any spikes in my count - what I meant there, and I realise I didn't explain it too well <g> - was that the only time I've ever managed to get a perfect blood count of 5.7 is the twice I've had something I shouldn't the night before. The 99% other than that I've been good it's been all over the place.

But I was joking really - I'm not planning to make a habit of it. <g> Much as I'm sorely tempted to adopt the Tank Philosophy, being someone who could just live on Chinese takeout and be happy. It may well be that I need to adjust my meds and that diet alone isn't going to do the trick. Something I'll need to discuss with my GP when I see him.

Thanks again for the good advice, guys.

LabRat

Hmm, I think I was the one who was unclear. This would be so much easier to explain if I could sketch a graph!

When someone has a chocolate bar, for example, their blood sugar spikes quite high -- that's why hikers sometimes carry it for a quick sugar rush. But the spike it followed by a rapid drop below the level the blood sugar was at before the spike, and may stay at that lower level for a while. That's why chocolate only works for a short, quick burst of energy, and is a bad idea if you need sustained energy.

So I was wondering if your atypical lower reading after a "treat" was following a spike, and possibly even caused by one. I have no idea how likely such a scenario is for most foods.

Just chocolate.

carbs are definitely good, tho some are better than others. carbs provide fuel for your body. without them, you have to start digesting fat. that's why low-carb diets let you lose weight so fast. you're basically starving yourself and tricking yourself into not feeling hungry by filling up on protien. from what i know, that's not exactly the healthiest thing to be doing on any count.

the thing with starches is to watch how much you have and what type. simple sugars (fruit, juice, candy, soda, etc) will raise your blood sugar quickly but will also leave your system quickly. so, if you have a low blood sugar, the first thing you want to go for is a simple sugar. in general, tho, you want to try to avoid them (they're okay in moderation, and can be good as part of a larger meal).

some foods like milk, white bread, cereal, muffins, and cake, have both simple sugars and complex carbs.

complex carbs (pasta, potatoes, rice, most breads, etc) digest more slowly. they raise your sugar gradually, but keep it there. so, when you have a low, it's good to get some complex carbs in after the sugar to keep you from going low again. they're also good as part of a meal to keep your blood sugar stable. they're especially good if you're going to be excersizing after the meal.

now, that's the other part of the equation... carbs are fuel, excersize is how you use it. if you excersize more, you may need to eat a bit more. the tricky thing is that the effects of excersize can last for hours afterwards. if you excersize in the afternoon, have a normal dinner, and go to sleep, you can feel fine have a normal test at bedtime, and then have a low blood sugar the next morning. it's happened to me more than once when i forgot to compensate. by the same token, if you excersize less, your sugar may be higher than usual the next morning.

now, most diets these days work by "carb counting." you're allowed a certain amount of carbs per day or you take a certain amount of medication per unit of carbs or something like that. i learned by the older system that counted simple sugars and complex carbs seperately. i think it's more accurate. in any case, if you're on a carb-counting diet, then any unit of carbs counts the same... an apple can be substituted for half a cup of pasta, a third of a cup of rice, an ounce of bread, etc. that'll usually work in the daytime, but you should watch what you have at night. try to have more complex carbs for dinner or at bedtime because they have to last you until breakfast. even though you don't burn that many calories while sleeping, you can still go low at night if you don't have enough slower-digesting foods.

another thing to watch out for is alcohol. it contains carbs in one form or another, but i'm also told that the alcohol itself tends to lower your blood sugar. i don't drink, so i don't know how that works, but that's what i've been told. you can still have alochol, but you should talk to someone who can help you plan for it.

as for quantities of food in general, the best thing to do is just stick to the diet you were given. you'll learn to cheat gradually and to estimate the content of complicated restaurant foods (pizza, for example, has complex carbs on the bottom, sugar in the sauce, and protein on top. plenty of other dishes have a bunch of things mixed together... rice and vegtables and chicken... makes it a bit trickier to estimate how much of what kind of food there is in your portion if you haven't cooked and measured it yourself).

incidentally, weight watchers, jenny craig, and a lot of other popular diet plans are based on the diabetic diet. the idea is the same - proper nutrition. have the right amount of the right kinds of food for your body type and activity level, and you can get your weight where it's supposed to be and have a healthy metabolism. as long as you can stick to the diet, that is. i never found the willpower to stick to any of those diets until i was diagnosed and they told me "stick to your diet. your life depends on it." amazing the motivating power of that phrase...

Paul

My brother-in-law found out a little over a year ago that he has type II. He had to go and take classes on everything. He is more healthy than me now! They told him everything he has to do. Are there any classes you can take over there?

'Popping' in to say that 3 cups of seasoned popcorn equals one serving of carbohydrates - just avoid the caramel corn....

Irene

Labrat,
My son is a type 1 diabetic. So I know some stuff about diabetes. did your Dr put you on a diet meal plan? If so let me know how many calories in English he gave you and I can tell you some type of meal plan you should follow. Now i know type 1 is different then adult onset. I know with all diabetic diets you have to eat so many fats, startches, fruits, protein, meats,dairy products.It's important to eat a balance diet.

Keep an eye on your blood sugar readings, but don't be too worried if they're all over the place for the next months--it takes a long time to get them under control and consistent.

The good news is that it's not too hard to learn to live with diabetes. A diabetic diet is no different than the diet we all should be eating anyway. Once your blood sugar is well controlled, there is some wiggle room. It's not that you can never have a treat again, it's just that you'll need to think more about the balance of your diet.

Two of your greatest allies are fiber and exercise. Both will increase your glucose sensitivity and help you manage your blood sugar. Depending on your current habits, slowly increase both the fiber in your diet and the amount of exercise you get. There are lots of ways to get fiber--you should eat lots of whole fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. High-fiber breakfast cereals and oatmeal are also ways to get extra fiber. Along with fiber you get through your foods, consider supplementing. You can get powders that you can make into a beverage, fine powders you can stir into foods, and fiber wafers. A high-fiber diet will help you use what insulin you do have much more efficiently. Exercise will help you in the same way. Along with helping with weight control, moderate aerobic exercise (i.e. walking) will sensitize you to your own insulin. Weight training is very important because muscle uses glucose for fuel. As you build muscle, it consumes more glucose leaving less for your system to try to deal with.

I hear you on it being hard to find new things to eat. It's very easy to get into a rut. Others are right too that you have to be on the lookout for hidden sugars. Keep in mind that a lot of salad dressings and cooking sauces (barbecue sauce, teriyaki sauce, etc.) contain sugar. Carbs are OK to eat--you just need to choose high-quality carbs. Don't swear off potatoes, they're versatile, filling, and full of fiber and nutrients. Try to choose whole wheat pasta, brown rice, and whole grain breads and crackers, don't eat more than two servings at one sitting, and eat them with some kind of protein and fat so they stay with you for a while.

Best of luck to you--I hope things go smoothly for you.

Ideas of things to eat:

Breakfast:
--Cottage cheese and whole-grain, low-fat crackers
--Oatmeal with peanut butter stirred in
--High-fiber cereal (Cheerios, most of the Kashi cereals, bran flakes, shredded wheat)
--Eggs (or egg substitute for lower calories) with low-fat cheese and vegetables (or salsa)
--Low-fat, high-fiber toaster waffles (we have Eggo Nutri-Grain waffles here in the States) with sugar-free syrup or strawberries mashed with a bit of Splenda

Lunch/Dinner:
--1/2 of a potato topped with low-fat chili or broccoli and low-fat cheese sauce (Green Giant makes these here in the States--they're sold in boxes with the frozen vegetables)
--chicken or lean beef fajitas (grilled meat with grilled,spiced vegetables wrapped in tortillas. Corn torillas are usually better for you than flour. Either way, look for small, low-fat tortillas)
--Spaghetti squash. Purchase 1 medium spaghetti squash, wash well, cut in half, scoop out seeds, prick with a fork, and microwave. Start checking for doneness at 10 minutes. Could take between 10-20 minutes--it's done when it's tender and a fork passes through easily. Once done, use a fork to pull out the meat of the squash in strands. It should resemble spaghetti. Once you have all of the meat out, you have a couple of options. You can toss it with chicken, garlic, and olive oil or you can combine it with a low-sugar marinara sauce and reduced-fat sausage or parmesean cheese. Spaghetti squash is very low-calorie, high-fiber, and full of vitamins.

Snacks:
--string cheese or reduced fat cheese
--Nuts, especially almonds, cashews, and pecans. Try honey-roasted nuts if you need something sweet.
--celery sticks with reduced-fat Laughing Cow cheese spread
--raw vegetables with reduced-fat ranch/onion dip
--low-fat microwave popcorn. Consider adding a tablespoon of real melted butter. It adds about 100 calories, but it helps keep you satisfied longer and feels very decadent. It's a nice treat.
--baked tortilla chips with low-fat bean dip


Also, one of my favorite, super-easy recipies. It's low fat and high-fiber.

Six-can Tortilla Soup

2 cans chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained (plain or chili flavored)
1 can corn, drained (Mexicorn if available)
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can chunk chicken (or whatever leftover chicken you have lying around, diced.)

Mix the contents of all cans in a large pot. Simmer at least 30 minutes. Feel free to make ahead, this just gets better as time goes by.

Again, good luck!

Rivka - that's very interesting and something I didn't know. And, of course, it makes absolute sense. I haven't eaten chocolate for a number of years - other than on the very odd occasion - but I'm sure that must translate into other foods too.

Paul, I think half the problem is I was never given a diet to stick to. At my initial assessment at the diabetic clinic, I spoke to a dietician. My diet was pretty healthy to begin with, I've been eating mostly all the right things for a couple of years now. So basically all she did was recommend a few basic changes - like eating pasta and potatoes, which I'd cut out of my diet as being unhealthy - and nothing much changed. The main change was having breakfast. I've never eaten breakfast, not since I was a kid, but now I make sure that I either have porage or Special K each morning. I have to anyway, as I take my meds then and it's recommended that you eat then to avoid any stomach pains which the meds might otherwise give you. That's been a positive change too, because it means I no longer forget to take my other meds - for high bp and cholesterol - as I take them all at the same time, just before breakfast, rather than whenever I happen to remember I forgot them. <g>

And thanks for the clarification on carbs. I knew from talking to my dietician that there were two kinds of carbs - bad and good - but I hadn't really grasped what the differences were - so that was very helpful there.

Roo - glad to hear that your brother is doing so well! No, no classes to take. I've had an initial assessment, when I got general information and spoke to the dietician, and my yearly foot and general exams - which turned out very well on all counts, so I was pretty pleased there. And I took an hour's class on how to take my blood glucose count and use the monitor. But really at the moment that's all I need to know really. There's nothing much other than that to learn. At the moment, my type II isn't having that much of an effect on my health and I'm getting off much more lightly than many others who have this, I presume. In fact, ironically, it's really had nothing but a positive effect on my life since I was diagnosed. I've stopped telling myself I'm going to start going for long walks with the dog and take more exercise, get myself fitter and healthier (which has been my procrastination mantra for some years now) - and I'm doing it. And it's amazing how quickly just a walk a day starts to have a positive impact. And for the past few years I've been plagued by spells of being so lethargic it's been an effort to do anything - and not knowing why. Now I do know what causes that and the diabetic meds seem to be countering it most days. The exercise seems to help too. I find if I miss my daily walk I'm very dopey the next day. Whereas if I keep up my walks I feel more energised and alert than I have in years. So - for now at least - I've got very little to complain about.

Irene - LOL, no fear there. Hate popcorn. <g>

Anita - thank you! But, no, as I say, no diet to stick to. Just the general healthy diet that experts currently recommend, more or less. Plenty of fruit and veg - well, I was eating that anyway - chicken, fish, that kind of thing. No junk food, chocolate, alcohol - other than rare treats. My dietician says I can have a Chinese takeout every four months or so and no harm - which is basically again what I'd already been doing.

In fact, she pretty much mirrored your advice, Pearlieq. And thanks for the reassurance on the count. It's been bothering me that I couldn't get it consistent. At the class we were told to mark down anything that was likely to have caused a spike, but since there really wasn't anything I was baffled as to what was causing such a wide variation. I'd been expecting a pattern to emerge right away and for me to be able to get it to a consistant 5.7 within days. Glad to know I've perhaps been over-optimistic there. I'll just keep plugging along then and have a word with my GP when I go see him. Thanks for the other fascinating information too and the recipes! All very useful.

And, yes, that's always been my main problem - since before I was diagnosed and after. I tend to start out with lots of variation in my diet and then gradually, mostly because I'm a very lazy cook <g>, I end up eating the same things day in, day out, just because it gets into a habit and I cannot be bothered thinking about what I'm eating. I get in a rut and then by the end of the week I cannot bear to look at chicken and pasta again and I'm stuck wondering what to make for dinner. I really just need to get some imagination going.

Thanks again, everyone, for the information, best wishes and help. I knew I could count on you guys. This has all been most helpful and I think will enable me to sort out the minor problems I was having.

LabRat

A really good place for easy to make recipes that will fit your new diet is (oddly enough)
"What to Eat When You're Expecting." I had gestational diabetes so I had to be very careful, and even though I haven't been pregnant for a long time (my son is 7) I still use lots of recipes from this book. Maybe you could borrow it from the library and copy out the ones you like.
There is lots of good advice on stocking your cupboards for healthy eating too, and none of hte recipes require too much work.

Allie

Thanks, Allie, I'll check it out.

LabRat (who took ten minutes to type this out and really wishes her fingers would work today... :rolleyes: )

Labby,

I too am lazy in the culinary aspect of my life... I will make and eat the same thing for a week straight and then look at it on day 8 and feel nauseous <g> What I ended up doing was making up a month's worth of meals menu. I think of all the different things that everyone in the family likes and then note them down, some three times some twice and some once. Or for the ones that we all really like four. Then in the morning I decide what is for dinner and take it out or get it ready and when we eat, I cross it off the list.

another thing that I do is pre prepare some things like the homemade sauces or vegetable mixes and then pre portion them and freeze them... makes the rest of the month easier to be lazy

There is a recipe site too called Searchable Online Archive Resource or Soar Berkley hosts it and its got foods from all over the world.

LOL. That about sums it up, Marnie, yes.

Thanks for the ideas. I'll check some of those out. I was just thinking the other day that I should go online and see if I can't find a diet friendly pasta/tomato sauce to make, rather than buy in readymade. It's a start. <G>

LabRat (who is ashamed of how she's slipped into bad habits and given up on all the things she should have been doing over the holiday and is looking forward to getting down to some hard work!)