by Nicky Moxey
After about a month of testing after I ate, and still getting too-high post-meal readings on my trusty meter, I asked for a referral to a dietician. They have to know what they're doing, right? Well, not necessarily - at least, not what's right for you. The problem seems to be that every T2 diabetic seems to be an individual when it comes to food; you simply can't rely on a theory of healthy eating. I learnt a lot from the dietician - not least, the importance of reading labels - but I already knew enough to know that she and I had different ideas on a suitable diet when she handed round the cereal packets as good breakfast food. The next morning, I gave it a go; I ate the exact portion she recommended, of proper porridge oats cooked with water the way my Gran used to - what she said was the best possible breakfast for a diabetic. One-hour reading; 33. Oops; maybe not.
For the next few weeks, I tested like a loony - before every meal, and one and two hours after. I built up a database of foods that I could, and couldn't, eat. Carrots, yes; cooked or raw, any quantity. Tomatoes; cooked, fine - raw, treat with more caution. Parsnips, no way; don't touch them. Oats - nope; not at any time of the day. Bread; small quantities at supper, not earlier in the day, and not with any other kind of carb load. Time of day makes a huge difference to me; I can hardly tolerate any carbs at all at breakfast, but can cope with a LOT more as the day goes on.
So I went to the diabetic newsgroups with my shiny new database, and started to compare notes with the people there. To my complete amazement, just about every other person who'd done a similar exercise had come up with a different list! Some can eat oats. One friend of mine eats his breakfast museli as a bedtime snack, and has stew for breakfast. Most people seem to be able to eat parsnips, mutter...
The one constant seemed to be that breakfast is the most difficult meal. Fats generally slow down the height of a blood glucose rise, but may keep it higher longer. Fibre is generally a good thing - slowing down the rate that carbs are absorbed into the body - but can't be relied on always. Aha! This is beginning to sound like the Glycemic Index diet, I thought - until I tested some more. The GI, or better, the Glycemic Load - seems to be a reasonable guide; but there's still foods that in theory should be fine but spike me, and again there's a wide variation.
My bottom line is that I do not want to go outside normal blood glucose levels, ever - specifically, to go no higher than 7.8, I'll say why in another post. Going low is an obvious no-no, too. To stay within the 4-7.8 range at all times, I could either eat vanishingly small portions of stuff the dietician wanted me to eat - a portion of starch at every meal, sound familiar? - or replace them with foods that didn't spike me, but left me satisfied. One thing about testing a lot, is that I noticed that a lot of carbs would often drop my blood glucose too low, even if I didn't catch a spike, leaving me feeling like something the cat threw up. Nowadays, I generally have a LOT of veggies on my plate, some fats, and a moderate amount of protein - a combo that ticks all the boxes I've looked at for a healthy diet; and as an unexpected benefit, one that has completely reversed my neuropathy, and keeps the doctor and optician happy too. Oh, and I've also lost, and maintained a loss of, 25Kg - without ever going hungry.
I expect that if you do the same approach, with the same aim of minimising blood glucose excursions, that you'll come up with a similar kind of diet - but the exact proportions of what turns out to be a no-spike diet for you may be very different from mine. Here's how I went about it - and if getting hold of test strips is a problem in your part of the postcode lottery, you could apply the principle one meal at a time, starting with breakfast: Newly Diagnosed advice from alt.support.diabetes newsgroup
Be well,
Nicky.
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