Diabetics Food Recommendation

[MiG16]

I've done a search on the forum, and didn't see any discussion apart from bits and pieces in the exercise threads.

I'm trying to get as much info on recommended food for diabetics - keeping sugar levels in control, but still maintaining a healthy and nutritious diet.

After initial reading, my concern are:

Reducing carbohydrates, and replacing that with too much protein

Energy level, especially for a man who is into a lot of physical activities

Some reading I've done are:

http://www.helpguide.org/life/healthy_diet_diabetes.htm

http://www.webmd.boots.com/diabetes/guide/diabetic-diet-6-foods-control-blood-sugar

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39953370/ns/health-diabetes/t/foods-could-change-diabetics-life/#.UYXk3BEaySM

Then I came across this link, and started to wonder about all these various diets:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diet-basics.html

Appreciate input, suggestions and guidance. Thank you!!

[robblok]

MIG, get a home tester and test how the person responds to some of the meals. What i have heard it varies for everyone. I was still in the good scale but high up and what i did was just limited the amount of carbs per serving. I used to take 100 grams of oats (dry weight) and now i take 60 grams. I have brought back levels a lot by just changing that.

But its also about the kind of carbs you eat the more refined the worse it is.

[chiang mai]

I adopted an approach of eat, test,eat, test and adjustment based on the results, at the outset I was testing seven times a day (1 and 2 hour postprandial plus fasting), you soon find out what's good and what's not good but of course you must record your results and study them. The first things to go for me were rice, bread, soft drinks, confectionary and potatoes, it's tough at first but it gets easier with time. I exersise five days a week and I finally realised that what works for me is a fairly high protein breakfast, eggs, sausage etc but later I added oatmeal for carbs. - lunch is nearly always salds plus a protein dish such as chicken or fish and dinner is a mixture - portion sizes are all important as you'll see from your test results.

The good news is that the approach works, it's not easy but it does the job, after four months of eat/test eat/test I've got rid of all of my serious spikes and my 2 hour postprandial trend line sits at 110 whilst my fasting average is 105, that's a long way from the 150 and 130 (respectively) that I first discovered in January.

Good luck.

EDIT: also, look at the glycemic index, I dropped anything below 50, it means giving uop a lot of things you like but you'll adjust.

Edited May 5, 2013 by chiang mai

[Sheryl]

As an absolute rule: avoid processed carbs. That means no refined sugar, no white bread, white pasta, white rice.

Complex carbs (whole grains) and fruit in moderation and as above post says, taper to BS results

Plenty of vegetables and protein

[MiG16]

When you say eat test, ie, get a home tester and check after every meal?

If the sugar level goes up by a lot after whichever meal then reduce that food?

What's a per.... Level?

And where can I check the glycemic level for food? just google? the higher the better?

Educate me like I'm a child.....I have no idea about the health and nutritious side of food

While controlling the sugar, if the level drops substantially within a few weeks, what are the dangers? What to be mindful of?

These are questions I'd prefer to have the patient discuss with the doc, but they are not in Bangkok and doctors there seem to just want to recommend taking pills, with not much advice on diet control

Sheryl - with the protein, it may mean the patient ends up taking more protein to compensate for the less carb. Are there dangers, or things to watch for?

[robblok]

First of MIG,

Is it for Thai or farang ? If for a Thai I assume a lot of rice is consumed... try limiting that amount to start with (smaller portions of it) Stuff like laab is good (if no sugar is added). In general meat and vegetables are good fat isnt bad either. I am not sure but brown rice might be better as white too as it takes longer to digest.

Then for the tester you can buy them in fascino look for one that has tester strips that are not too expensive as you will need a lot of them certainly in the beginning.

Its normal to take a reading first thing in the morning before you eat anything and 1 hour and 2 hours after a meal. It is best to write down these numbers. After a while you start to see what foods spike it and what foods don't.

Refined carbs.. = stuff like bread / white rice / bread products that aren't whole grain

[chiang mai]

When you say eat test, ie, get a home tester and check after every meal? If the sugar level goes up by a lot after whichever meal then reduce that food? What's a per.... Level? And where can I check the glycemic level for food? just google? the higher the better? Educate me like I'm a child.....I have no idea about the health and nutritious side of food While controlling the sugar, if the level drops substantially within a few weeks, what are the dangers? What to be mindful of? These are questions I'd prefer to have the patient discuss with the doc, but they are not in Bangkok and doctors there seem to just want to recommend taking pills, with not much advice on diet control

The Univeristy of Sydney has an excellent glycemic index found here, http://www.nationalnumbers.co.uk/dvlc-plates-uk.html, play around and explore it.

Get a tester and plenty of testing strips and plan on testing frequeently, important that you wash your hands before testing else the numbers get messed up - don't get sidetracked into debates about the accurancy of self test devices, they are what they are.

Read this document at least twice - http://www.bloodsugar101.com/

When you eat food your blood glucose level goes up (or spikes), the issue is how high does it go and how long does it stay high before returning to normal, I have the following pinned to my daily tracking spreadsheet to remind me of what's normal:

"In healthy, nondiabetic subjects, 2-h postprandial blood glucose levels are usually <120 and rarely >140 mg/dl. Glucose levels peak at ∼1 h after the start of the meal and then return to preprandial levels within 2–3 h".

You also need to set yourself some targets for one and two hour tests so that you know when a result is good or not, your endocrinologist can help with that but be careful, published medical ranges tend to be too high for most peoples liking and most folks wnat lower targets. Google American Diabetes Association and see their target numbers.

In order to find out what's normal for you you'll need to test at one and two hours after each meal, you'll soon find out what's good and what's not. If you eat something that gives you high readings for longer than you want, cut down on that item or eliminate it, as Sheryl says, processed carbs are a no no.

Note: it takes the body a while to react to a changed diet and there are external influences that come into play, tempreture being one of them and stress another. Expect that if you change your diet today you may or may not see a result today or you may have to wait for three or fours days before a trend becomes apparent.

[chiang mai]

One more point that I think is important:

Google diabetes forums and join a couple of them, there's one in the UK and one in the US that have lots of great first hand experiences and info., I can't post the links here but I can PM them to you if you get stuck. I think those forums are really useful to try and understand the practicalities of what's involved and it helps to know that you are not the only person with this problem - lots of great tips re food and every thing else you might need.

EDIT: one more thing

Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is more dangerous in the short term than hypoglycemia (high blood sugar), the risk of hypo's needs to be fully understood and the symptoms known by all of us. BUT, hypo's are relative, if your normal blood sugar is say 95 and then all of a sudden you soar to 130, comming back down to 110 will make you feel hypo'ísh because your body will regard that at first as an abnormal low (it's scary when it happens but less so when you understand the why/how).

Edited May 5, 2013 by chiang mai

[Sheryl]

I gather this is for other persons, not yourself.

People vary in how active they are willing to be in trying to manage their condition and also in how much change they are willing to make in their lifestyle, diet etc. That's something that has to be accepted. Diabetes is something where active self care is very, very helpful, but the person must be willing.

For Thai cuisine, some very basic rules of thumb would be: (1) eliminate all cakes, desserts (unless specially made dietetic ones) junk food etc; and (2) eat much less rice and more of the main dishes (and make it brown rice if possible).

Blood glucose meters can be bought at any large pharmacy or the pharmacy section of a large super store, and often the pharmacy staff will demonstrate how to use them. (If not, they come with instructions and often a CD, you can also find videos online. It's pretty simple.)

If the patient is prepared to make major alterations in lifestyle and diet, then testing 2 hours after eating and learning from experience which meals and portions suit is fine, but if not, then at a minimum should test every morning before meals (fasting blood sugar) until things have stabilized. There is also a blood test called HbA1C which can be done every few months which will show the doctor how well the blood glucose has been maintained.

No problem with the recommended diet, in fact it is healthy from many vantage points. It will also not cause dangerous hypoglycemia, but if medication has been prescribed, that may, and people on hypoglycemic medications should take care to eat regularly and not skip meals.

This is a good Thai language resource:

http://www.diabassocthai.org/

[chiang mai]

For some reason my link above to the University of Sidney Glycemic Index turned out to be something totally different, my apologies and here's the correct link:

http://www.glycemicindex.com/

The idea of eating food with a low GI number is that it takes longer for the body to digest those foods thus the glucose spike is lower and of shorter duration, an example:

the number one bad food/drink on the GI scale is Gatorade which has a GI reference of 1, seconds after you've put some in your mouth it has started to be absorbed by your body and within five minutes it has been completely absorbed and your blood glucose levels has gone sky high, they will stay that way until your body deals with what it's just been given and that could take several hours. In the meantime of course there is a vast amount of sugar swilling around your system and beyond a certain peak and duration that does a lot of damage over time.

on the opposite end of the GI scale is Turkish noodle soup (I'm not joking) which has a GI reference of 100 and the sugar spike caused by this is very shallow and of short duration, it will take the body several hours to extract all the nutirents from that dish hence the sugar load is very low.

If you check the GI link above you'll see that all the good things you need to eat are rated (approx) 50 or higher whilst all the bad things that you enjoy but shouldn;t eat are rated 49 and below.

[MiG16]

Thanks everyone

And yes, it's not for myself, but I want to do the research cos the genes run in my family too. So could be handy for prevention for myself too.

Sheryl, yes he is quite willing to make a change to his diet, and has intact done so. He tested high a couple of years ago, and brought the sugar level down substantially through diet control. The last few months I guess he let down his guard, and hadn't tested for many months. Suddenly found that it had reached 188 (?) when tested two weeks ago. Within two weeks its come down to about 160.

Hence why my question/ concern about the drastic change through diet control.

Some people who are diabetic suggested that its better to take meds for sometime, then continue to control sugar level through diet. The patient is not keen to start taking meds if other things work (and he feels the diet control is working....while I just want some expert opinion on the downside....)

[thaicbr]

I have found that Boots sell the Accu chek meters cheapest in Thailand. 1280b for Viva and Performa 2800b.

Sent from my i-mobile i-STYLE Q6

[tropo]

For some reason my link above to the University of Sidney Glycemic Index turned out to be something totally different, my apologies and here's the correct link:

http://www.glycemicindex.com/

The idea of eating food with a low GI number is that it takes longer for the body to digest those foods thus the glucose spike is lower and of shorter duration, an example:

the number one bad food/drink on the GI scale is Gatorade which has a GI reference of 1, seconds after you've put some in your mouth it has started to be absorbed by your body and within five minutes it has been completely absorbed and your blood glucose levels has gone sky high, they will stay that way until your body deals with what it's just been given and that could take several hours. In the meantime of course there is a vast amount of sugar swilling around your system and beyond a certain peak and duration that does a lot of damage over time.

on the opposite end of the GI scale is Turkish noodle soup (I'm not joking) which has a GI reference of 100 and the sugar spike caused by this is very shallow and of short duration, it will take the body several hours to extract all the nutirents from that dish hence the sugar load is very low.

If you check the GI link above you'll see that all the good things you need to eat are rated (approx) 50 or higher whilst all the bad things that you enjoy but shouldn;t eat are rated 49 and below.

You've got this the wrong way around. Pure glucose has a GI of 100 and is used as a reference to all other food. The lower the number, the more slowly the food sugar is absorbed. Low is good, high is bad.

http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/planning-meals/the-glycemic-index-of-foods.html

The Glycemic Index of Foods

The GI is a ranking of foods based on how quickly they raise blood glucose levels. The reference foods, white bread or glucose, have a GI of 100. What is the glycemic index?

Low GI Foods (55 or less)

• 100% stone-ground whole wheat or pumpernickel bread
• Oatmeal (rolled or steel-cut), oat bran, muesli
• Pasta, converted rice, barley, bulgar
• Sweet potato, corn, yam, lima/butter beans, peas, legumes and lentils
• Most fruits, non-starchy vegetables and carrots

Medium GI (56-69)

• Whole wheat, rye and pita bread
• Quick oats
• Brown, wild or basmati rice, couscous

High GI (70 or more)

• White bread or bagel
• Corn flakes, puffed rice, bran flakes, instant oatmeal
• Shortgrain white rice, rice pasta, macaroni and cheese from mix
• Russet potato, pumpkin
• Pretzels, rice cakes, popcorn, saltine crackers
• melons and pineapple

Edited May 5, 2013 by tropo

[tropo]

You also need to set yourself some targets for one and two hour tests so that you know when a result is good or not, your endocrinologist can help with that but be careful, published medical ranges tend to be too high for most peoples liking and most folks wnat lower targets. Google American Diabetes Association and see their target numbers.

There is a good reason why doctors and the "American Diabetes Association" and other associations are conservative with their numbers. If they were too strict too many people would be diagnosed as diabetic. This is particularly bad for health insurance purposes.

[Sheryl]

Thanks everyone And yes, it's not for myself, but I want to do the research cos the genes run in my family too. So could be handy for prevention for myself too. Sheryl, yes he is quite willing to make a change to his diet, and has intact done so. He tested high a couple of years ago, and brought the sugar level down substantially through diet control. The last few months I guess he let down his guard, and hadn't tested for many months. Suddenly found that it had reached 188 (?) when tested two weeks ago. Within two weeks its come down to about 160. Hence why my question/ concern about the drastic change through diet control. Some people who are diabetic suggested that its better to take meds for sometime, then continue to control sugar level through diet. The patient is not keen to start taking meds if other things work (and he feels the diet control is working....while I just want some expert opinion on the downside....)

While these levels qualify as diabetic they are not so bad that control through diet alone would not be possible.

If he will eliminate all breads/cakes/junk food, switch to brown rice and significantly reduce his rice portions (offsetting this with more helpings of the main dish) that will go a long way. Also if he eats home cooked food, need to stop adding any sugar. There are some good sugar substitiutes available in the supermarkets, the ones with sucralose taste best, and they work just fine in Thai cooking. This is important as the amounts of sugar added to Thai food is not small; this tendency plus the white rice are big culprits.

Will also need to forgo noodles or at least strictly limit them.

Fruit needs to be in moderation only.

All the various Thai salads (if instead of sugar/palm sugar you use a sugar substitute) are very good. Also, raw and steamed vegetables with the various chili pastes and dips (ditto in terms of leaving off the sugar) are very good.

If overweight, losing weight will help.

Most of the glycemic index tools aren't so well suited to Thai food. The Thai diabetes assn site might have some geared towards Thai food, I don't read Thai well enough to make my way through the site.

[chiang mai]

For some reason my link above to the University of Sidney Glycemic Index turned out to be something totally different, my apologies and here's the correct link:

http://www.glycemicindex.com/

The idea of eating food with a low GI number is that it takes longer for the body to digest those foods thus the glucose spike is lower and of shorter duration, an example:

the number one bad food/drink on the GI scale is Gatorade which has a GI reference of 1, seconds after you've put some in your mouth it has started to be absorbed by your body and within five minutes it has been completely absorbed and your blood glucose levels has gone sky high, they will stay that way until your body deals with what it's just been given and that could take several hours. In the meantime of course there is a vast amount of sugar swilling around your system and beyond a certain peak and duration that does a lot of damage over time.

on the opposite end of the GI scale is Turkish noodle soup (I'm not joking) which has a GI reference of 100 and the sugar spike caused by this is very shallow and of short duration, it will take the body several hours to extract all the nutirents from that dish hence the sugar load is very low.

If you check the GI link above you'll see that all the good things you need to eat are rated (approx) 50 or higher whilst all the bad things that you enjoy but shouldn;t eat are rated 49 and below.

You've got this the wrong way around. Pure glucose has a GI of 100 and is used as a reference to all other food. The lower the number, the more slowly the food sugar is absorbed. Low is good, high is bad.

http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/planning-meals/the-glycemic-index-of-foods.html

The Glycemic Index of Foods

The GI is a ranking of foods based on how quickly they raise blood glucose levels. The reference foods, white bread or glucose, have a GI of 100. What is the glycemic index?

Low GI Foods (55 or less)

• 100% stone-ground whole wheat or pumpernickel bread
• Oatmeal (rolled or steel-cut), oat bran, muesli
• Pasta, converted rice, barley, bulgar
• Sweet potato, corn, yam, lima/butter beans, peas, legumes and lentils
• Most fruits, non-starchy vegetables and carrots

Medium GI (56-69)

• Whole wheat, rye and pita bread
• Quick oats
• Brown, wild or basmati rice, couscous

High GI (70 or more)

• White bread or bagel
• Corn flakes, puffed rice, bran flakes, instant oatmeal
• Shortgrain white rice, rice pasta, macaroni and cheese from mix
• Russet potato, pumpkin
• Pretzels, rice cakes, popcorn, saltine crackers
• melons and pineapple

Sorry, you are of course correct, my error, 100 is pure sugar, must stop posting so much in a hurry!

[MiG16]

No worries Chiangmai. You've provided some useful info.

Sheryl, this was previous diet (already cut down lots of bread since two yrs ago when first check revealed high sugar)

Breakfast - cereal and milk, coffee (some days maybe bread)

Lunch: rice with something or the other, KFC occasionally

dinner: rice with something.... Fish, veggie stir frys, non coconut based curry

Snack: crackers and coffee. Fruits (reduced sugary stuff like watermelon, orange, grapes, and switched to dragon fruit, apples and guava)

New diet

Breakfast - oats, but need other ideas as doctor has asked him to cut out milk. (I found oat milk in the supermarket....wonder if this is any good? I bought one for him to try when he visits next week)

(Cereals - I looked at the muesli options, and find that most have a lot of fruit, raisins in particular, and he's keen to cut those out. Is bran good? I've seen all bran cereals in the west, but not in Thai supermarkets).

Lunch - som tam and grilled chicken (less sugar......don't think it's completely without sugar)

Dinner - roasted / grilled chicken (with spices), brown rice with Thai dishes (stir fries, combination of veggies and meat), grilled fish

Snacks - no more crackers. Continue with dragon fruit, apples

I've suggested adding salads with beans to make it more substantial for in between meals, or compliments to dinner or lunch

I'm also thinking a more western flair to the meals? Eg pork chops, pork steak, that kinda thing? And yes roast or steamed vegetables might be another idea. Want appeal to his taste though. So the steamed veggies with Thai dips is a very good suggestion.

Appreciate more ideas, especially for lunch when he has to eat outside.

By the way, he's not overweight. When he first started cutting down on breads etc the first time, he brought the sugar level down a lot, but was always being told by people that he looked very thin and questioned whether he was ill. Months of that, and he felt he should go a bit easy. Was less strict about the carbs, and maintained a steady weight. He does exercise like sit ups, lift a bit of weights, and recently started golf. At work, he does a fair bit of physical stuff, lifting and such. (That's a separate and different concern......)

[chiang mai]

Thanks, you must remember that excess sugar has an adverse effect on brain cells (I wish that were a joke).

Meusilli is not good, fresh veggies are great, as are salads - think simplicty when it comes to food, some in the UK call it the cave man diet but that's not far off, meat and veg and nothing processed. Try looking at the recipie section of the UK and US diabetes forums, there's a shed load of recipies out there.

Grilled chicken, fish, pork - raw/boiled veg - cheese, nuts - salads - oats - eggs/cheese - apples, not much else I can think of that I eat, sauces and spices to taste of course.

Word of caution: watch the lipid levels as the carb intake is reduced and more calories gained from fats and protein, cardio (LDL/Triglycerides) and kidney function are risk areas but manageable if monitored.

[MiG16]

so meusli is not good?

another question - is it normal to feel numbness in the hands, feet, and sometime lips when you are diabetic? is this cause for concern?

another development - the blood sugar level has now come down to about 136 with diet control and a bit of exercise. again, is there anything to pay attention to, be mindful of when there is a drop from about 188 to 136 within a few weeks? (I have no idea if this is huge and if yes any possible negative effects in the big changes of sugar level?)

thanks again everyone. you have all been very helpful

[chiang mai]

Mesuili is fatal for my blood sugar, I love the stuff but it sends it so high it scares me.

I can't answer the point on numbness, perhaps others can?

You don't say whether the numbers you quote are fasting at wake up or postprandial, can you clarify?

A drop from 186 to 136 is good progress, regardless of when the reading was taken, keep doing whatever you're doing and record your numbers so that you can see progress and know what food stuffs are doing what.

When ever there's a marked drop (or increase) in blood glucose levels the body will take a few days to adjust, hypoglycemia (or low blood sugar) is very dangerous because it can lead to diabetic shock and death, although that doesn't happen until the numbers get very low and there's pleanty of warning, usually. But people with much higher numbers who reduce them quite suddenly may suffer symptoms akin to hypoglycemia even though their blood glucose levels are still quite high, that's just the body adjusting to the new lower levels so no need to panic.

Also, it's not a bad idea to stop any alcohol intake whilst you're adjusting, the problem is that the liver is a single function organ which treats alcohol as a poison and as soon as it sees it the process of glucose management is put on hold until the alcohol has been eliminated and that can take several hours. The risk is that if the stomach is empty at the time this is happening and the blood sugar levels low, the liver doesn't know to release glucose because it's otherwisw engaged eliminating alcohol, the result can be very nasty or fatal - if going to drink alcohol, best to do so on a full stomach.

Last point: as you read more about the subject you will see repeatedly the reference to the number 140, that is the blood glucose level, above which, sugar starts to destroy nerve endings and blood supply, lots of people including me purposely try and keep their numbers below 140 and that can be done by adjusting diet - it's a useful incentive to get the sugar levels down if you know what's going to happen if you don't!

Edited May 8, 2013 by chiang mai

[Sheryl]

You can probably construct an acceptable muesli if you use oats and completely unsweetened yogurt, mix it with some berries and a sugar substitute. The problem is the commercial Mueslis are loaded with sugar.

Diabetics are prone to neuropathies although that usually occurs after some years of poor blood sugar control. What you mention can also be related to some B vitamin deficiencies, which may occur when diet is being restricted. And, can be a side effect of some medications by I think you said no meds being used, just diet? If he is on medication let me know what.

Personally I would take a high potency B complex supplement and see if that helps. If it doesn't then see doctor promptly.

I am not surprised by the big improvement given what you said of the previous diet (cereal, crackers etc). Eliminating all that and cutting back on rice quantiites will naturally improve matters.

[MiG16]

No he's not on any meds

Vitamin deficiency? I will speak to him.....

Some years ago I had a friend visiting from the states. She tried to look for vitamin B in stores in Thailand but couldn't find any. I have no idea whether that has changed?

So just oats? What about Bran?

And weetabix? Are they somewhat ok?

When he saw a doctor they told him no milk completely. So would yogurt be ok then?

I saw oat milk in the supermarket. Could this be a good substitute to milk?

[onionluke]

I have found guava is the fruit that offers a refreshing morsel whilst adding roughage ,

[tropo]

I can't answer the point on numbness, perhaps others can

Last point: as you read more about the subject you will see repeatedly the reference to the number 140, that is the blood glucose level, above which, sugar starts to destroy nerve endings and blood supply, lots of people including me purposely try and keep their numbers below 140 and that can be done by adjusting diet - it's a useful incentive to get the sugar levels down if you know what's going to happen if you don't!

When a person who has diabetes starts complaining about numbness in the extremities, warning bells should ring.

We have no idea how long this person has been suffering from elevated glucose levels. Usually people have had the problem long before it is diagnosed - it truly is the silent killer. Most often elevated glucose levels have done considerable damage before a diagnosis.

One of the first things a doctor does to test for diabetic neuropathy (nerve damage) is to test feeling in the feet and toes. Diabetes is the number one cause of leg amputations in the US. It would be a good idea to test the retina of the eyes too, to see if there's any sign of diabetic retinopathy.

I'm not trying to be alarmist here. It possible the numbness could be due to other causes, but it should be checked out by a physician immediately.

To the OP: has your friend been suffering from excessive thirst or urination in the past couple of years? When blood sugar goes over 180 mg/dl the body starts to excrete excess glucose in the urine. Some urine test sticks can help to detect glucose in the urine.

If levels are persistently high and not coming down quickly, I would recommend diabetic medication first to get the BG into the safe zone. You can wean off it as you start to improve your control through diet and exercise. This is what I did when I was first diagnosed with high numbers. After several months I went off the medication.

I don't believe there's much risk of hypoglycemia if no medicine is taken. If a person is taking diabetic medication (Metformin for example), then it could happen if the person is also severely limiting their carb intake.

[Ulysses G.]

For some reason my link above to the University of Sidney Glycemic Index turned out to be something totally different, my apologies and here's the correct link:

http://www.glycemicindex.com/

The idea of eating food with a low GI number is that it takes longer for the body to digest those foods thus the glucose spike is lower and of shorter duration, an example:

the number one bad food/drink on the GI scale is Gatorade which has a GI reference of 1, seconds after you've put some in your mouth it has started to be absorbed by your body and within five minutes it has been completely absorbed and your blood glucose levels has gone sky high, they will stay that way until your body deals with what it's just been given and that could take several hours. In the meantime of course there is a vast amount of sugar swilling around your system and beyond a certain peak and duration that does a lot of damage over time.

on the opposite end of the GI scale is Turkish noodle soup (I'm not joking) which has a GI reference of 100 and the sugar spike caused by this is very shallow and of short duration, it will take the body several hours to extract all the nutirents from that dish hence the sugar load is very low.

If you check the GI link above you'll see that all the good things you need to eat are rated (approx) 50 or higher whilst all the bad things that you enjoy but shouldn;t eat are rated 49 and below.

You've got this the wrong way around. Pure glucose has a GI of 100 and is used as a reference to all other food. The lower the number, the more slowly the food sugar is absorbed. Low is good, high is bad.

http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/planning-meals/the-glycemic-index-of-foods.html

The Glycemic Index of Foods

The GI is a ranking of foods based on how quickly they raise blood glucose levels. The reference foods, white bread or glucose, have a GI of 100. What is the glycemic index?

Low GI Foods (55 or less)

• 100% stone-ground whole wheat or pumpernickel bread
• Oatmeal (rolled or steel-cut), oat bran, muesli
• Pasta, converted rice, barley, bulgar
• Sweet potato, corn, yam, lima/butter beans, peas, legumes and lentils
• Most fruits, non-starchy vegetables and carrots

Medium GI (56-69)

• Whole wheat, rye and pita bread
• Quick oats
• Brown, wild or basmati rice, couscous

High GI (70 or more)

• White bread or bagel
• Corn flakes, puffed rice, bran flakes, instant oatmeal
• Shortgrain white rice, rice pasta, macaroni and cheese from mix
• Russet potato, pumpkin
• Pretzels, rice cakes, popcorn, saltine crackers
• melons and pineapple

Glycemic Load is more accurate than the Glycemic Index. Just one example is pumpkin which is high on the index, but low on the GL. Pumpkin is a good food for diabetics. Watermelon is another good example. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/foods-high-on-the-glycemic-index-but-low-on-glycem.html

[onionluke]

I would recomend papaya and guava .

[chiang mai]

An average healthy person should eat a diet that contains around 50% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 20% fat (in round numbers and for the purposes of this explanation only). The challenge for the newly diagnosed diabetic is to reduce the 50% level of carbs. down to a level that reduces their blood glucose AND to replace any unhealthy carbs. with healthy ones. In practice what happens with many people is they do the first part quickly in order to lose weight (and because we get a little bit scared at the idea of having diabetes and we panic) and we flounder in trying to do the second part, eat only healthy carbs.

Not knowing how much you have read on this subject or already know I’ll follow your initial guidance and explain as though to a child by giving some common examples of the above (ignore as necessary):

Protein: meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy, nuts, soy

Good Carbohydrates: (most) vegetables, whole grains, some fruit, cheese, brown rice

Bad Carbohydrates: white pasta, white bread, sweets and candies, white rice

Fats: poultry, oils, nuts, seeds, cheese, butter, bacon, salmon.

In the early stages of the diagnosis we lose weight by lowering our carb intake and there are side effects based on the size of the carb. reduction, tingling and numb feet could easily be a part of this, I had forgotten that happened to me at one stage and as I increased my carb intake the problem went away.

As you reduce your carb intake the slack in your diet has to be taken up somewhere either by fats or by protein, in an ideal world we’d be able to simply replace the bad carbs with the new good ones but experience tells me that doesn’t always work! If you try to fill the void with an excess of fats you’ll end up with cholesterol problems and it’s for this reason and others that diabetics need to monitor their lipids function. Try and fill the void with extra protein and you’ll send your kidney function readings high so that needs to be watched also – in practice, over compensating with an excess of protein and fats in the short term is not a big problem for most people but it’s not a long term or even a medium term solution.

I think you can see from the above that there’s lots of balls for the average diabetic to juggle apart from just blood glucose levels and at first it’s quite daunting. That’s part of the reason why many diabetics eat unconventional meals and stories of people getting their nutrients from peculiar food sources for different meals are common. For example, I frequently eat chicken, a boiled egg and a piece of cheese for breakfast eating porridge shortly beforehand in order to get my carbs., others will no doubt know of stranger meals. The important thing though is to get the balance of the contents right rather than, does the meal seem appealing (that can come later).

Finally, a diet or particular food that works for one person may not work for another hence much of this is trial and error, that’s why frequent testing is important. My magic food dish is spinach because it drops my blood glucose levels like a stone, fortunately I actually like it, for others there’s no impact whatsoever. Ditto fruit, some can tolerate certain types of fruit whereas I can barely tolerate an apple, for those reason it’s helpful to take a multi-vitamin every day until you get the whole menu thing sorted.

[jrtmedic]

A good, reliable and easily accessed on line resource for those concerned about diabetes and its management is available here

http://www.diabetes.org.uk/

[tropo]

Glycemic Load is more accurate than the Glycemic Index. Just one example is pumpkin which is high on the index, but low on the GL. Pumpkin is a good food for diabetics. Watermelon is another good example. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/foods-high-on-the-glycemic-index-but-low-on-glycem.html

Pumpkin, carrots and potatoes are not good for diabetics. They'll send BG sky high in diabetics and pre-diabetics.

Best idea is to eat them and test what happens. The quantity eaten is the most important consideration when eating foods loaded with sugar.

[chiang mai]

Here's two forums dedicated to diabetes where you'll find loads of helpful information and be able to see how others are handling specific aspects of diabetes:

The UK forum is at http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-forum/index.php

And a US forum is here http://www.diabetesforums.com/forum/

Note that both have extensive recipie sections.