So, a close friend of mine just rang and told me she’s been diagnosed with diabetes.
Bummer. Not wholly unexpected, but bummer.
Tomorrow, we have her booked to come sit on (ok, with) our children for an evening. In the process of collecting her, we are now also going to collect everything out of her kitchen she shouldn’t oughter eat these days. Apparently this is going to be quite a collection…
I have two or three spare hours this evening. I would love to make her something nice, and also healthy, to replace all the goodies we are about to take out of her life. I can’t leave the house and go shopping, because my husband is out, so am limited to what’s in the cupboard, including
*masses of fresh fruit (apples,oranges,bananas,kiwis,peaches,strawberries) and some tinned
*flour/rice/oats/polenta/grainy things in general
*milk products of all descriptions, but all of them HIGH fat (we are not a low fat household!).
Maybe I am just ratty right now, but seems to me you have just about everything on the planet anyone would ever want to eat, Just tell her to graze wherever she wants and avoid anything with any nasty chemicals she wants to avoid.
Managing diabetes requires control of carbohydrate (including fruit, grains, pastas, simple vs complex carbs etc) intake and balancing that intake against protein and fat. Depending on the type and severity of diabetes the extent of control can vary.
Have you asked her what her management plan is like? Insulin dependent? Just diet? Etc.
The problem is, there’s no one “diabetic diet.” In general, most docs recommend the same diet to diabetics that they do to anyone - eat healthy food, lots of vegetables, restrict (but don’t eliminate!) sweets, etc.
That said, a lot of diabetics want to get their blood sugar in control RIGHT NOW after diagnosis. That means massively restricting carbs - ALL carbs, not just sweets. So that’s a big NO on the fruits and grains you list. Even milk is carby, and I avoided it after diagnosis.
If she’s really in low-carb mode, good snacks are:
hard boiled eggs
deviled eggs
sausage/salami
cheese
nuts (make sure they’re not honey-roasted!)
full fat yogurt made with no sugar or fruit (use Splenda or other artificial sweeteners to sweeten up)
I’m not sure what her management plan is. I think at the moment she’s in OMG mode…
Last week she was thinking her recent health problems might be lactose/wheat intolerances (of which immedate family members have/had plenty) and was planning on going on a restricted diet for that. I suspect that’s out of the window now.
She seems to think fats are on the Bad List - is that right? Talking of getting rid of all the bacon in her fridge.
Nuts is a good idea. And eggs. I just want to send SOMETHING back rather than just ripping all the food out of her house! And even better if it were something I could make, but maybe that’s not on the cards right now.
ETA - proteiny things in our house are all meat, and I was more thinking along the lines of healthy snacks - something a bit cheering, since she’s currently envisaging a life of lentils and rice from here on in…
Nope, fats are fine, in the blood sugar sense of things. However, if she’s Type 2 and overweight, her doc may want her losing weight. If that’s the case, I highly recommend the Atkins/South Beach way of doing it, NOT by restricting fats. She needs to watch her carbs because of the diabetes; she can’t at the same time also highly restrict fats. Ya gotta eat something!
I’m not saying ditch everything in favor of high fat foods - just go in moderation. A couple eggs and 1 slice of bacon for breakfast is healthy and tasty, too.
Nope, she’s not going to eat lentils and rice! Both are high carb
Really, just think “healthy”. If she eats sweets, restrict them to small bits. Dark chocolate is delicious and generally lower carb than most other sweets. Cookies are OK, if she has one or two small ones. If she’s the type who can sit down and eat a whole package, that’s not too good. But she doesn’t have to give up everything that tastes good.
What’s her diet like now? Is it OK, or massively bad, or somewhere in between? That’ll give us something to start with…
I think I’ve decided that a plate of devilled eggs would be a good “thinking of you” gift for tomorrow. And maybe some of the insights in this thread…
Anyone got any good simple straightforward weblinks on the subject too? The doctor loaded her up with info, but she said she’s just been sitting there trying to process one sentence at a time and they’re not going in - apparently furry brain is a symptom of not-in-control diabetes too.
Does she have access to a nutritionist? Our local hospital has a nutritionist that your doc can recommend you to for managing chronic illness, like diabetes. They can breakdown the info from theory to an actual eating plan.
Is she insulin dependent or managing through diet/meds?
Make up a nice plate of 2 eggs made into deviled eggs, 4 oz or so of fancy cheeses, up to 18 thompsons seedless grapes and 2 oz of a nice hard salami/sopresata/cured sausage and 100 calories of some type of wholemeal cracker for sandwiching with the cheese and sausage. If she likes veggies, you can also include some raw goodies - broccoli, celery, cucumber, and make a dip based on sour cream or full fat yoghurt and chopped herbs [think something like boursin thinned out with sour cream or yoghurt flavor wise.] Avoid commercial dips [though Maries double blue cheese salad dressing is reasonably low carb and free of junk chemicals]
See, the problem for most high protein/low carb regimes is an interesting difficulty with lack of fiber. Many people just will not eat the amount of lower glycemic vegetables that you need to in order to get the fiber.
She actually wants to give us all her cheese, as part of her “clearing out the bad stuff in the cupboard” plan. But I think I’m going to have to persuade her otherwise
Sounds like she really needs some guidance in the diet department. I second IvoryTowerDenizen’s suggestion - take her to a nutritionist! In the US, it’s very common to see a “Certified Diabetes Educator” (CDE) after diagnosis. That’s a nurse and/or dietitian with special training around diabetic issues. They bring together the whole diet/exercise/blood sugar control thing in a way that makes sense depending on her diagnosis and lifestyle. I’m guessing there must be some equivalent in Australia.
When I found out I had type 2 diabetes, it took about a week for the shock to wear off and the adjustments to be made. After that, it has been relatively easy.
At diagnosis, I had a fasting BG of about 13 mmol. Within a week, it was normal and I’ve kept it that way through medication, diet and exercise. My A1C was 12.5. Within 6 months it was 6.0 and I’ve kept it between 6.0 and 6.9 (slightly higher than normal, but good for a diabetic).
The biggest adjustment was diet - the first trip to the grocery store was daunting and depressing. She’ll have to learn to read labels looking for carbohydrate information. I went with an Atkins diet approach - severely limit carbs. After a few days of mourning the loss of my previous lifestyle, I adjusted well. I realized and rationalized that high carbs food were now poisonous to me and that made it easier.
After stabilizing my BG and reading as much I could about different kinds of diabetic do’s and dont’s (there a couple of big online forums with good advice), I started looking at different food’s glycemic index values. Different foods react differently with each individual. I can eat some things but not others. It’s different for each diabetic. As with most type 2 diabetics, I’m ok with all meat and green vegetables - if I stuck with nothing but Atkins or a paleo diet, I wouldn’t have to think twice about what to eat.
Some experimentation with eating small amounts of other foods in conjunction with monitoring my BG before and after eating shows me what kinds of foods I can tolerate. I can do about 40-50 carbs per meal. But only some kinds of carbs. About 1/2 cup of brown rice or 1 cup milk are ok. Citrus fruits are out. I can’t do bananas. Berries are fine. All oats are out - even the low carb spike me hard. 1/2 cup of nuts are fine. Small quantities of beans are ok. Tomatoes are not. It’s a matter of fine tuning and paying attention to what the BG meter says. Every diabetic will react differently to some seemingly innocuous foods.
Exercise is huge in maintaining a healthy BG. 45 minutes of brisk walking every day or at least every other day does wonders.
Pretty much all of that is not going to be good for a diabetic as all of these items are higher carb and high glycemic index (except maybe fresh strawberries). Look at Atkins recipes. Something like steak and a leafy salad with an oil and vinegar dressing. A cappucino with sugar substitute and a few strawberries for desert would be a good way to start a new diet.
Seriously, is your friend type 1 or 2. They are really quite different beasts.
I’ve been type 1 since 1993. I just eat why I used to but avoid overly sweetened stuff. OK, that means steering clear of overly processed food, but it really isn’t that difficult.
Be careful with the fruit. A lot of naturally occurring sugar in fruit.
Maybe it’d help if you said what a typical meal for your friend would be and we could recommend changes?
Is this a type 2 thing? In the UK and Sweden I have always been told to maintain a balanced diet, which meant that starch/grain was an important part of the meal. In eighteen years I’ve never done the low-carb thing, mainly because if I have very few carbs it is really easy to screw up the amount of insulin and end up with blood sugar dropping fast.
And it may sound grim, but dropping the concept of desserts would be an even better way to start. I did, although at nineteen I’m guessing I was younger than the person we are discussing.
Type 2 don’t typically take an insulin dose prior to eating as type 1 diabetics have to. A meal has an immediate impact on BG readings. The goal for me as a type 2 is to maintain my BG as close to a non-diabetics numbers as possible through diet and exercise. Insulin is a treatment option for type 2 (I do take a small injection of long lasting insulin once per day), but I keep my reliance on medication down through limiting foods that cause big increases in BG.
I was diagnosed as Type 2 in the US, then 4-5 months later (when I finally went to a specialist) they changed it to Type 1.
In both cases, they told me to just eat a healthy, balanced diet.
That said, I find life a lot easier when I restrict carbs. I’m the opposite of you - eating very few carbs is easy. Eating a ton of carbs is where I find dosing insulin to be tricky.
