Uncle Bob
Chef Extraordinaire
Lots of Type II Diabetes being diagnosed out there. I know there are copious amounts of recipes out there... but I was wondering if anyone has developed their own adaptations/ideas they would like to share?
Type II Diabetes
- Thread starter Uncle Bob
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Corey123
Washing Up
I'm Type 2 also.
Just try to remember that you CANNOT go on a low-carb diet because you need SOME starch and sugars (but not too much though) to balance your glucose level and to keep it from getting too dangerously low or high.
Just try to remember that you CANNOT go on a low-carb diet because you need SOME starch and sugars (but not too much though) to balance your glucose level and to keep it from getting too dangerously low or high.
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Which is why, although I lived with, and cooked for, a type II diabetic for three years, I never, ever provide dietic information to diabetics, other than to ask their doctor to refer them to a registered dietician. I am a nutritionist, but I am not a dietician.
A registered dietician can look at your medical records and the results of your periodic glucose testing and determine exactly what you should be eating, and how much.
A registered dietician can look at your medical records and the results of your periodic glucose testing and determine exactly what you should be eating, and how much.
Corey123
Washing Up
Nutritionists can ALSO give advice and suggestions to diabetics about their dietary intake of foods.
I just went to see one not too long ago at the Joslin Diabetes Center. She is the one who told me that diabetics need some sugar in their systems to make sure that the glucose level doesn't get too low or too high.
She gave me a list of the foods to eat, the amounts, the trade-off between starchy foods and deserts, as well as foods to be very careful of.
I just went to see one not too long ago at the Joslin Diabetes Center. She is the one who told me that diabetics need some sugar in their systems to make sure that the glucose level doesn't get too low or too high.
She gave me a list of the foods to eat, the amounts, the trade-off between starchy foods and deserts, as well as foods to be very careful of.
Dove
DC Grandma
Claire
Master Chef
I'm with Caine. Husband was diagnosed a couple of years ago .... and, in fact, I didn't have to change my cooking at all. I laready provided healthy, balanced meals. HE on the other hand, had to learn to control his carb intake, and we started using a measuring cup as a serving spoon. In other words, for supper he allows himself one cup of starch, total. He also learned that my habit of loving greens, he adopted. That salad a little before supper makes it easier to control the starch.
He also had to learn to eat some raw fruit every few hours. In other words, for HIM what works is to spread those carbs around, avoid fruit juice, wine, and beer, (too many carbs that get into his system too quickly) try to eat carbs correctly and time them. This controlled eating has his doctor actually wondering about his diagnosis. BUT EVERY BODY IS DIFFERENT. Don't take anyone's word for it. Go to a good dietician and find out what YOU need. In our case, it didn't take any change in the food I cook, just the timing and amounts that he eats. Luckily, he does not have a sweet tooth, and I don't like baking anyway.
He also had to learn to eat some raw fruit every few hours. In other words, for HIM what works is to spread those carbs around, avoid fruit juice, wine, and beer, (too many carbs that get into his system too quickly) try to eat carbs correctly and time them. This controlled eating has his doctor actually wondering about his diagnosis. BUT EVERY BODY IS DIFFERENT. Don't take anyone's word for it. Go to a good dietician and find out what YOU need. In our case, it didn't take any change in the food I cook, just the timing and amounts that he eats. Luckily, he does not have a sweet tooth, and I don't like baking anyway.
OP
OP
Uncle Bob
Chef Extraordinaire
Sound advice by all! I also find that weight loss and regular exercise was/is beneficial TO ME. Check with Your Doctor before dieting and exercising!!
Regular testing has helped me and lets me know how different foods/amounts effect my glucose levels.
I have a sweet tooth especially at night...I have found Bryer's Carb Smart ice cream to be both something I enjoy (especially chocolate) and something My old body tolerates.
Regular testing has helped me and lets me know how different foods/amounts effect my glucose levels.
I have a sweet tooth especially at night...I have found Bryer's Carb Smart ice cream to be both something I enjoy (especially chocolate) and something My old body tolerates.
Claire
Master Chef
Uncle, yes I forgot to mention the exercise. My husband had always been very inconsistent about exercise. He'd go for months where he did some kind of workout a few times a week, then for month he'd do zilch. Now he walks a couple of miles (we live in a very vertical community, so part of it requires a heart-pumping uphill climb) every single day.
YT2095
Executive Chef
for those with a really sweet tooth, you could also take a trip to China Town (most cities have one) and buy some Lo Han Kuo, hardly any calories at all and 250x sweeter than refined sugar!
I have some here I use as a medicine, but you can cook with it also, just don`t use too much as it`s insanely sweet.
it`s best to buy the Dried whole fruit rather than fresh or the powdered.
I have some here I use as a medicine, but you can cook with it also, just don`t use too much as it`s insanely sweet.
it`s best to buy the Dried whole fruit rather than fresh or the powdered.
boufa06
Executive Chef
Lo Han Kuo is better known in the Far East as Buddha fruit. The Latin name is Cucurbitaceae and it is used to treat sore throat and cough.YT2095 said:
YT2095
Executive Chef
cool 
actualy that`s also what I use it for too, with dried Honeysuckle flowers as an infusion.
actualy that`s also what I use it for too, with dried Honeysuckle flowers as an infusion.
Corey123
Washing Up
Or just eat a piece of candy. Or a piece of cake, a donut, cupcake, honey bun - anything with a high amount of sugar. Or a glucose capsule.
That is, if you begin to feel weak, disoriented, dizzy, sweaty and trembling.
It's a sure sign that your glucose level is dangerously low and that you are about to enter a hypoglisemic attack and possibly a diabetic coma.
This attack is the very same one that caused singer Patti LaBelle to collapse on stage in New York ten years ago! Except that her glucose level back then was too dangerously high- 500!! She had too much sugar in her blood.
The above foods are also needed to keep your glucose level evenly balanced anyway, as you will HAVE TO eat one of then every once in a while to stay out of danger.
That is why a low-carb diet will do more harm for us diabetics than good. Because we just can't eliminate starch and sugars entirely. Sugar travels into your blood almost instantly, so it will get you out of danger quick.
That is, if you begin to feel weak, disoriented, dizzy, sweaty and trembling.
It's a sure sign that your glucose level is dangerously low and that you are about to enter a hypoglisemic attack and possibly a diabetic coma.
This attack is the very same one that caused singer Patti LaBelle to collapse on stage in New York ten years ago! Except that her glucose level back then was too dangerously high- 500!! She had too much sugar in her blood.
The above foods are also needed to keep your glucose level evenly balanced anyway, as you will HAVE TO eat one of then every once in a while to stay out of danger.
That is why a low-carb diet will do more harm for us diabetics than good. Because we just can't eliminate starch and sugars entirely. Sugar travels into your blood almost instantly, so it will get you out of danger quick.
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bethzaring
Master Chef
listen to Caine, imo the registered dietician is the person to see. And as Claire says, each body is different. I studied diabetes for a full quarter and felt I knew less after the quarter than before. It is a very complicated disease and is very individualized. I would never advise anyone on diets related to diabetes. I have an associates degree in dietetics and I know how many factors are involved with the disease. It is too complicated to give advice without knowing your particular medical condition. You need some one with access to your medical records and I believe a registered dietician knows more than a medical doctor.
Poppi G. Koullias
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2010
- Messages
- 285
Two years ago shortly after Mummy died, I inherited Type 2 diabetes. It wasn’t unexpected - I had been warned. And this is my story on how I coped, though later I was given a lot of help from an Endocrinologist in Athens, and doctor John Koullias (no relation) in Kalymnos where I was born and raised.
Generally I stay away from all 'white' foods, other than cauliflower. This means that living with type 2 is a bit of a juggling act, because I have to stay away from white breads, limit my potato eating, corn, peas and 99.999% of ALL sugar, if I can help it, though every once in a while I do a jacket potato.
It was impressed on me to keep a log of my numbers. This enabled my Endocrinologist to advise me better. There's no cure for diabetes, but people recently diagnosed with Type 2 can learn to live with it. I’m coping, just as millions of others are living with it, though I would far rather be normal and pig bars of chocolate and at Christmas, stuff themselves silly like my family do.
I found this website excellent. Diabetes UK home page - Diabetes UK It has provided me a lot of very useful information. It's the one I have used when first wanting to read up on my illness and then go back to as a source of information. It's most comprehensive. With lots of easy to read sections. People, if this was a cookbook, it would be top reading!
I realise at age 20, I’m actually quite young to have this kind of diabetes, but it’s becoming, alarmingly so, much more common among young people these days. And Mummy warned that I might well begin showing symptoms towards my early 20‘s, though as far as I know, there may not be medical information supporting this.
At first I controlled it by diet, testing my blood sugar every hour or so. When I went shopping with family it became a nightmare - still is, especially when store managers keep moving stock around as Christmas looms ever nearer - stopping and reading the sugar content and saturated fat content, and salt content on everything we bought. Every supermarket meant me comparing brands for differences and then trying to find the most suitable one. And it took me far longer to get around the stores until I became used to it, but then the stores changed my favourite groceries, so I had to check out the salt, fat and sugar content(s) yet again. And again.
I have also tried really hard to make sure I eat at least the seven recommended portions of fruit and vegetables each day. I can't remember any other specific changes in diet except switch to brown bread from white, eat more yogurts; that kind of stuff. At least once a week I make yogurt which is healthy for breakfast eating because it encourages me to add slices of fresh fruit. Though I do have to be a bit wary on dolloping great spoons of wild thyme honey on it. Ooops!
Tonight I polished off 9 ounce rib eye steak, rationed myself to a handful of oven ready chips, but eaten a healthy pile of cauliflower, green runner beans and finished dinner with a couple of lovely fresh oranges. And a nice fresh fig, even though it cost me 60p whereas back home I can pieck em off trees by the side of the raod for free.
However, because there is so much more choice in grocery stores since two years ago, I still find it hard to match my needs with what I would have liked to have eaten - but can’t anymore. So it’s become an added complication to even my loved one’s life to start off with, even though they weren't the one with the illness. I snap back, “You’ll just have put up with my dithering about. YOU don’t have diabetes so be grateful. Here” - I chuck her a Stelson’s pork pie - eat it and stop complaining - just ensure you hand the empty wrapper to the checkout girl.” Or, a convenience meal heh heh.
I have regular checkups with the nurse at our doctor's surgery. If I return home to Greece, I still have to visit my doctor who is more of a family friend and been a good help to me since Mummy died so tragically from advanced cancer way back in in March 2008. I can call him anytime, day or night.
Type 2 diabetes is difficult, yes. It does complicate my life especially until I finally get it under control and get settled on a regime and diet that works positively for me - especially as after a long business day repairing motorbikes and modding them, I come home ravenous. When carefully balancing my food intake, my blood glucose and body will respond well, so my eating really isn’t all that boring.
To anyone recently diagnosed with Type 2, don't forget to test your blood glucose when you wake up in the mornings; and before each meal; and 2 hours after each meal; and then again right before bedtime. Presently I test my BG about 5 times a day, though it used to be as much 7 or 8. My diabetes has been difficult, though my doctor candidly advises it will improve once my body becomes accustomed down the years.
The other thing I would say though, is this. Even though I was fairly sure that the initial blood tests were going to show me to be diabetic, it is still life changing when I found out. My partner recalls my saying that when I was ill and taken to hospital, she said I left the house as one person and kind of came back as another. Because once the type 2 was confirmed like Mummy said it would, there was no going back. I came back diabetic and as far as I know that's it for life, with all that goes with it.
Generally I stay away from all 'white' foods, other than cauliflower. This means that living with type 2 is a bit of a juggling act, because I have to stay away from white breads, limit my potato eating, corn, peas and 99.999% of ALL sugar, if I can help it, though every once in a while I do a jacket potato.
It was impressed on me to keep a log of my numbers. This enabled my Endocrinologist to advise me better. There's no cure for diabetes, but people recently diagnosed with Type 2 can learn to live with it. I’m coping, just as millions of others are living with it, though I would far rather be normal and pig bars of chocolate and at Christmas, stuff themselves silly like my family do.
I found this website excellent. Diabetes UK home page - Diabetes UK It has provided me a lot of very useful information. It's the one I have used when first wanting to read up on my illness and then go back to as a source of information. It's most comprehensive. With lots of easy to read sections. People, if this was a cookbook, it would be top reading!
I realise at age 20, I’m actually quite young to have this kind of diabetes, but it’s becoming, alarmingly so, much more common among young people these days. And Mummy warned that I might well begin showing symptoms towards my early 20‘s, though as far as I know, there may not be medical information supporting this.
At first I controlled it by diet, testing my blood sugar every hour or so. When I went shopping with family it became a nightmare - still is, especially when store managers keep moving stock around as Christmas looms ever nearer - stopping and reading the sugar content and saturated fat content, and salt content on everything we bought. Every supermarket meant me comparing brands for differences and then trying to find the most suitable one. And it took me far longer to get around the stores until I became used to it, but then the stores changed my favourite groceries, so I had to check out the salt, fat and sugar content(s) yet again. And again.
I have also tried really hard to make sure I eat at least the seven recommended portions of fruit and vegetables each day. I can't remember any other specific changes in diet except switch to brown bread from white, eat more yogurts; that kind of stuff. At least once a week I make yogurt which is healthy for breakfast eating because it encourages me to add slices of fresh fruit. Though I do have to be a bit wary on dolloping great spoons of wild thyme honey on it. Ooops!
Tonight I polished off 9 ounce rib eye steak, rationed myself to a handful of oven ready chips, but eaten a healthy pile of cauliflower, green runner beans and finished dinner with a couple of lovely fresh oranges. And a nice fresh fig, even though it cost me 60p whereas back home I can pieck em off trees by the side of the raod for free.
However, because there is so much more choice in grocery stores since two years ago, I still find it hard to match my needs with what I would have liked to have eaten - but can’t anymore. So it’s become an added complication to even my loved one’s life to start off with, even though they weren't the one with the illness. I snap back, “You’ll just have put up with my dithering about. YOU don’t have diabetes so be grateful. Here” - I chuck her a Stelson’s pork pie - eat it and stop complaining - just ensure you hand the empty wrapper to the checkout girl.” Or, a convenience meal heh heh.
I have regular checkups with the nurse at our doctor's surgery. If I return home to Greece, I still have to visit my doctor who is more of a family friend and been a good help to me since Mummy died so tragically from advanced cancer way back in in March 2008. I can call him anytime, day or night.
Type 2 diabetes is difficult, yes. It does complicate my life especially until I finally get it under control and get settled on a regime and diet that works positively for me - especially as after a long business day repairing motorbikes and modding them, I come home ravenous. When carefully balancing my food intake, my blood glucose and body will respond well, so my eating really isn’t all that boring.
To anyone recently diagnosed with Type 2, don't forget to test your blood glucose when you wake up in the mornings; and before each meal; and 2 hours after each meal; and then again right before bedtime. Presently I test my BG about 5 times a day, though it used to be as much 7 or 8. My diabetes has been difficult, though my doctor candidly advises it will improve once my body becomes accustomed down the years.
The other thing I would say though, is this. Even though I was fairly sure that the initial blood tests were going to show me to be diabetic, it is still life changing when I found out. My partner recalls my saying that when I was ill and taken to hospital, she said I left the house as one person and kind of came back as another. Because once the type 2 was confirmed like Mummy said it would, there was no going back. I came back diabetic and as far as I know that's it for life, with all that goes with it.
4meandthem
Half Baked
Nice post Poppi!
I am type2 like alot of people on here too.We are all different so finding out what works best for you is key.
I was taking insulin shots daily until I started lifting weights regulary.I think the change from my body being in a degenerate state to one needing constant repair of muscle did it for me. I got off the insulin in about 3 months flat.Resistance excercise is getting more popular with doctors for their diabetic patients all the time. I find it fun as well.There are men and women of all ages doing it for health or as a competitive sport.
Diet AND excercise were crucial to getting ME there.
I have been off the insulin for 2 years now.I take more liberties with my diet than I should but my body can handle it better now.I have not lost any weight from when I was diagnosed but I have built some muscle and lost some fat.A nice trade.
I think that is why the weight training works so good for me.I hate cardio and I hate dieting as a routine.
I get my cardio from lifting and don't have to work at it.
I made a few changes in my grocery shopping habits
(i.e. don't put that $%&* in the cart) and the diet magicaly cleaned up alot.
Another thing that helped alot was to take a walk imediately after eating.Your BS starts to rise when you eat and the walking instantly counters it.Getting excercise twice a day instead of once will benefit 4 fold.
I am by no means an expert but I like to share my experience as 1 example of what MIGHT work for someone else since it was pretty easy.
I am type2 like alot of people on here too.We are all different so finding out what works best for you is key.
I was taking insulin shots daily until I started lifting weights regulary.I think the change from my body being in a degenerate state to one needing constant repair of muscle did it for me. I got off the insulin in about 3 months flat.Resistance excercise is getting more popular with doctors for their diabetic patients all the time. I find it fun as well.There are men and women of all ages doing it for health or as a competitive sport.
Diet AND excercise were crucial to getting ME there.
I have been off the insulin for 2 years now.I take more liberties with my diet than I should but my body can handle it better now.I have not lost any weight from when I was diagnosed but I have built some muscle and lost some fat.A nice trade.
I think that is why the weight training works so good for me.I hate cardio and I hate dieting as a routine.
I get my cardio from lifting and don't have to work at it.
I made a few changes in my grocery shopping habits
(i.e. don't put that $%&* in the cart) and the diet magicaly cleaned up alot.
Another thing that helped alot was to take a walk imediately after eating.Your BS starts to rise when you eat and the walking instantly counters it.Getting excercise twice a day instead of once will benefit 4 fold.
I am by no means an expert but I like to share my experience as 1 example of what MIGHT work for someone else since it was pretty easy.
Poppi G. Koullias
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2010
- Messages
- 285
Congratulations 4meandthem on your success. There's no doubt healthy exercise makes great contributions along with your eating healthily. But have you ever become unwell? And do you have a healthcare team on standby, even though you obviously seem to have excelled in a complete changerround to your lifestyle? Need to ask also, if you don't mind, but during this radical - and it is radical I have to say - change to deep excercise, have you ever become hyperglycaemic in having higher blood glucose levels? Or, gone the other way?
I belong to a David Lloyd gym in town and really should go there more often. I'm pretty fit anyway, but where you would be pushing iron, I prefer the treadmill or the benches. But just lately I take my boy and join our bike club. I have a fine Harley. But everywhere I go I always take the insulin along with a bit of butterscotch, just in case of a chance of my going hypoglisemic. Thankfully I haven't had a hypoglisemic attack for iover a year and intend keeping it that way. One thing I do have at work is a Dualit toaster into which I'll put some thick slices of brown wholemeal or, stoneground bread and toast it up. Sends our customers round the bend, so they get a chance of enjoying some, too. Spread the love.
Since you've been doing wights and have vastly improved your cardio, have you returned to check out your doctor, listen to any advice? Your physician must be pretty proud of you anyway.
I belong to a David Lloyd gym in town and really should go there more often. I'm pretty fit anyway, but where you would be pushing iron, I prefer the treadmill or the benches. But just lately I take my boy and join our bike club. I have a fine Harley.
But everywhere I go I always take the insulin along with a bit of butterscotch, just in case of a chance of my going hypoglisemic. Thankfully I haven't had a hypoglisemic attack for iover a year and intend keeping it that way. One thing I do have at work is a Dualit toaster into which I'll put some thick slices of brown wholemeal or, stoneground bread and toast it up. Sends our customers round the bend, so they get a chance of enjoying some, too. Spread the love. Since you've been doing wights and have vastly improved your cardio, have you returned to check out your doctor, listen to any advice? Your physician must be pretty proud of you anyway.
Claire
Master Chef
Oh, lord, isn't it all true. I have a friend who has been struggling with diabetic issues, and is now on some oral meds. But she seems to think that all it is about is not eating any starch or sweets. She's afraid to go to a dietician for the expense, and although hubby and I have both told her that it isn't about NOT eating carbs, but controlling your intake of them, balancing, and only your own doctor and a dietician can tell you how to do that. She seems to think she can just do without carbs for a few days, then "splurge" on starch (thank heaven she isn't a sweets lover). I cannot convince her that slow and steady is the answer, feeding her body regularly, and getting out and moving, again, regular, not spurts, will help her body work with this. She has a tendency to carb load, then do without for days. Ouch.
Good lord, I can't criticize too much, I'm hardly a paragon, but I've seen my husband's success. As I said, I was raised and learned to cook in a balanced manner, so while I do overindulge in many ways, we really do work on balance.
Good lord, I can't criticize too much, I'm hardly a paragon, but I've seen my husband's success. As I said, I was raised and learned to cook in a balanced manner, so while I do overindulge in many ways, we really do work on balance.
babetoo
Chef Extraordinaire
type two here, insulin dependent. i shop on line and can access the nutrition facts of each food, well most , anyway. watching the carbs is just instinct now after ten years. i know what is high and try to limit them a day at a time. i use lots of no sugar products, puddings, etc. if i want something that is over the top , i eat it. and balance out the rest of the day. on my grocery site, the salt content is listed as well, have to watch that too. beware of to many artificial sweet ed things. nasty things happen, and you will spend a good deal of time in the bathroom. many times i will eat two ok veggies in a meal and have no starchy things at all.
research on line. many helpful sites out there. if i really blow it, and i do, i have fasting acting insulin as well.
test test test. that will give you an idea what not to eat too much of. you will realize after you do this for awhile it will become second nature.
research on line. many helpful sites out there. if i really blow it, and i do, i have fasting acting insulin as well.
test test test. that will give you an idea what not to eat too much of. you will realize after you do this for awhile it will become second nature.
Poppi G. Koullias
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2010
- Messages
- 285
"Slow and steady". Yes, that's the answer. "Splurging" on starch is actually the worst thing your friend can do because that sudden intake is going to make her body go into overdrive. This slow and steady approach is far safer. Easier on the heart if she's older, too. You can only be there for her and hope she doesn't get sick. I hate to say she might have to learn by any mistake, but the greatest mistake is not listening.
Alcohol. Do impress on her strict moderation (2 units a day max). Only very occasionally now do I touch the stuff. One glass of red, maximum and that's mostly at weekends now. Two years ago I nearly died when bereavement did my head in to hit the bottle. But I am now "borderline", a far cry from being a teenage alcoholic.
4meandthem
Half Baked
Congratulations 4meandthem on your success. There's no doubt healthy exercise makes great contributions along with your eating healthily. But have you ever become unwell? And do you have a healthcare team on standby, even though you obviously seem to have excelled in a complete changerround to your lifestyle? Need to ask also, if you don't mind, but during this radical - and it is radical I have to say - change to deep excercise, have you ever become hyperglycaemic in having higher blood glucose levels? Or, gone the other way?
I belong to a David Lloyd gym in town and really should go there more often. I'm pretty fit anyway, but where you would be pushing iron, I prefer the treadmill or the benches. But just lately I take my boy and join our bike club. I have a fine Harley.
Since you've been doing wights and have vastly improved your cardio, have you returned to check out your doctor, listen to any advice? Your physician must be pretty proud of you anyway.
The only times I had low sugar crashes was when I was on the insulin.Scary stuff there!
I don't test daily anymore but I get bloodwork every couple of months.
fasting went from 320 to 130ish
A1C went from 13+ to 5.6 at best but last was 6.something.All my other tests improved dramatically too and remain good.
My doctor said she has never seen anybody do it as fast as I did.I started with a bike and some dumbells and a lot of walking.I just did my first powerlifting meet yesterday and got first place for weight class and age.
I was the only guy in my weight class so the win wasn't what I'd call competition, but I got the first one out of the way.
Congrats on the bike club and gym use.You are no doubt more physically fit than I am.I think the weights were the esey out for me.I still do as much walking as I can but the hardcore cardio ain't for me.
As far as the doctor goes I also made the decision to take my health into my own hands and use my doctor as my assistant if you know what I mean.Doctors get about 5 min to review your file before they see you.They know less than you about the way are feeeling.Take charge!
