Guest FourAces Posted January 17, 2011 Posted January 17, 2011 Just returned from a Doctors visit and my 3 month sugar average went through the roof. If I do not bring it down with diet and medicine he might have to start me on insulin. Ironically I do not eat many sweet foods but the past few months I had been doing so. I realize that being type 2 diabetic goes beyond staying away form sugar .... so I am trying to once again kick start a weight loss program. I even went food shopping today something I have not done in months. Here I go again Quote
Members ihpguy Posted January 17, 2011 Members Posted January 17, 2011 Lots of foodstuffs impact the blood sugar level. Even carbs and caffeine. So even diet colas are not great. Eating clean is really the way to go. I have become addicted to egg-white omelettes with cinnamon and sweetener. Fish, chicken breast, veggies and some fruit. Melons are great for potassium. Papayas are just great and only half the calories of mango. Quote
Members lookin Posted January 18, 2011 Members Posted January 18, 2011 Sounds like a really healthy diet, ihpguy. I could see myself eating like that if I had someone to cook it for me. I'm not good about committing hours in the kitchen every day, and haven't learned any really fast ways of cooking fish, chicken, and veggies. You're in Brazil right? Is it easy to find tasty, healthy restaurant food at reasonable prices? I can usually get two out of three in the Bay Area, but not often do I find them all in one place. Quote
Members ihpguy Posted January 18, 2011 Members Posted January 18, 2011 It really is quite easy, not too long in the kitchen and the availability of food stuffs depends on where you go. And where your culinary interests lie. I love chicken breast so I have it every day. I usually only cook it up about every 5-7 days. So no problem. Brasil is a haven for clean eating. They have por quilo buffets. Enormous buffets of cold and hot platters. Depending on where you go, the prices can vary from about $4.00/pound to $12.00/pound. BIG DIFFERENCE. Also, the cheaper place will not carry grilled meats slice to order and sushi. But they will always have grilled chicken breast and a couple of types of baked/broiled fish on the buffets. So with salads, fruit, cooked veggies and proteins, a wonderful resource. As I am retired and with lots of time, every morning I walk to my local fruit and veggie market for fresh lettuce, cilantro, carrots, peppers, etc. Tomorrow is the day for my Thai Chicken so placed my order today for arrival tomorrow for two huge bunches of basil. Just delicious. And sometimes I'm even lucky enough to have their supplier find some of the even more fragrant purple basil. Yum! Quote
Members lookin Posted January 24, 2011 Members Posted January 24, 2011 You are blessed to have so much good food at your fingertips. I used to like the local Fresh Choice, but now the nearest one is a half-hour away. Maybe tomorrow. Quote
Members TampaYankee Posted January 24, 2011 Members Posted January 24, 2011 I realize that being type 2 diabetic goes beyond staying away form sugar .... so I am trying to once again kick start a weight loss program. All carbs break down to glucose through the digestive process. That includes sugars and starches. Glucose in the blood is what is called blood sugar. Many carbs are only marginally better than sugar, only because a few more calories are burned cleaving the starch molecules to glucose compared to the cleaving the sugar (sucrose) molecule. Carbs come in two varieties: high and low glycemic index (GI). The GI is a measure of how fast the carbs are broken down to glucose and absorbed in the blood. The glucose GI is 100 and defines the baeline of how fast glucose is abosrbed directly in the blood. A smaller GI is better. Lowest GIs are found in nonstarchy vegetables and fruits. Starches like beans, sweet potato, brown rice are in the moderate range of the GI. White potato, white rice, white bread, flour etc... are have higher GI values. Food GI's are tabulated and can be found on the web. The GI is an indication of the speed that your blood sugar rises after eating that particular starch. Slower sugar loading is better in that it avoids a sharp blood sugar spike which wreaks havoc with your system and can cause coma in extreme cases. A related measure is Glycemic Load (GL) it is a measure of how much sugar is dumped in your blood and how fast. Basically GL is a measure of GI x calories/serving. For example, compairing a half-cup serving of sweet potato and bread-based stuffing. Again, smaller GL's are better. In this match up the sweet potato is the winner. Food GL's are also tabulated and found on the web. Dietary nutritonists make recommendations and mail-order diebetic food businesses base their menus on the GI and GL values for foods. Individuals can do the same when armed with the data. Quote
Guest FourAces Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 I've been eating a modified low carb diet the past week and feel much better. I am now starting to see some energy return and don't feel so blah in general. Now as we all know the trick is to stick with it Quote
Guest zipperzone Posted February 4, 2011 Posted February 4, 2011 I've been eating a modified low carb diet the past week and feel much better. I am now starting to see some energy return and don't feel so blah in general. Now as we all know the trick is to stick with it I was diagnosed with type 2 about 4 years ago. attended 2 free training sessions paid for by my Provincial Health Plan. It was very informative and although I don;t follow it religiously, I at least know the really bad foods and stay away from them. What has saved me however, is the medication I take. My doctor put me Metformin (500ml) - 5 pills a day - two at breakfast and 3 with dinner. It is a miracle drug IMHO. I can basically eat what ever I want without a problem the next day. I measure my blood - a simple prick and a meter every a.m. before I eat a thing. The scale used is different inCanada from the US (so i've been told) but I usual measure around 5.2 or 5.3. Anything under a 7 is considered normal. And if you have to pay for your meds, the price is very reasonable. A 3 month supply at 5 per day costs about $80. Quote
Guest FourAces Posted February 5, 2011 Posted February 5, 2011 I was diagnosed with type 2 about 4 years ago. attended 2 free training sessions paid for by my Provincial Health Plan. It was very informative and although I don;t follow it religiously, I at least know the really bad foods and stay away from them. What has saved me however, is the medication I take. My doctor put me Metformin (500ml) - 5 pills a day - two at breakfast and 3 with dinner. It is a miracle drug IMHO. I can basically eat what ever I want without a problem the next day. I measure my blood - a simple prick and a meter every a.m. before I eat a thing. The scale used is different inCanada from the US (so i've been told) but I usual measure around 5.2 or 5.3. Anything under a 7 is considered normal. And if you have to pay for your meds, the price is very reasonable. A 3 month supply at 5 per day costs about $80. I forgot the name of the scale but here in the states its also 7 or under. I had been in the 5.9 to 7 range for a long time with medication but then it jumped way up. Keeping in mind the scale is a 3 month average I hope to find in two more months I am back under 7. And here no medicine is reasonably priced. Without insurance a 20 day supply of Actos was $300. With insurance my co-pay is about $25. Quote
