Did anyone have to change their diet cold turkey/go the whole hog/all or nothing for health reasons?

cyaneverfat

lemurcat2 wrote: »

Did they give you a referral to a dietitian or at least some very specific diet guidelines? Low carb and low fat seem hard to do together and usually there are specific things meant by that (as well as differences between sources of carbs and fat that are more important than total numbers).

They said that I would have to go private if I wanted to see a dietician :-( I had a 20 minute chat with the nurse, and she basically said I needed to do 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day (would make me breathe heavier) and she gave me a pamphlet about diabetes with foods that were labelled red for stop, orange for moderate amounts and green for eat as much as I want, and she said I could have reds in small amounts when I really needed them (like 3 squares of chocolate or a handful of chips), oranges were mostly carbs so I could have slow release carbs like whole grain pita bread, brown rice or bread, yoghurt and milk in small amounts, and green well you get the picture.

My mother has started us on the CSIRO wellbeing diet which is similar to low GI I think. I know it's low GI. It occasionally has things like bacon, so I'll have to do my own thing on those days.

rheddmobile

cyaneverfat wrote: »

lemurcat2 wrote: »

Did they give you a referral to a dietitian or at least some very specific diet guidelines? Low carb and low fat seem hard to do together and usually there are specific things meant by that (as well as differences between sources of carbs and fat that are more important than total numbers).

They said that I would have to go private if I wanted to see a dietician :-( I had a 20 minute chat with the nurse, and she basically said I needed to do 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day (would make me breathe heavier) and she gave me a pamphlet about diabetes with foods that were labelled red for stop, orange for moderate amounts and green for eat as much as I want, and she said I could have reds in small amounts when I really needed them (like 3 squares of chocolate or a handful of chips), oranges were mostly carbs so I could have slow release carbs like whole grain pita bread, brown rice or bread, yoghurt and milk in small amounts, and green well you get the picture.

My mother has started us on the CSIRO wellbeing diet which is similar to low GI I think. I know it's low GI. It occasionally has things like bacon, so I'll have to do my own thing on those days.

Oh my, it sounds like your nutrition consultation was about as useful as the one they gave me when I was first diagnosed! They just sort of tossed me in the deep end and said, “now swim!” Fortunately there are some good resources online - take a look at some of the diabetes forums for specific questions.

I strongly recommend using your own money to buy an inexpensive blood glucose meter and strips - I don’t know what country you’re in but Walmart’s Relion is fine, and so is Bayer contour next if you buy the strips on Amazon. Then use it after every meal until you learn what spikes you and how. The thing is, every diabetic is different in terms of what spikes them. Some diabetics can barely eat oranges, I can eat a whole large orange as long as I exercise afterwards. Yogurt and cottage cheese actually make my bg go down. But that pita bread would spike me like crazy. And any rice, even brown rice, spikes me so badly it’s not worth it. (Also, whole grain and brown versus white makes almost no difference to how quickly the carbs hit.) Other diabetics are the exact opposite. If you don’t test, you’re guessing. But the good news is that if you do test, you will quickly learn what works for you.

The other thing about exercise and diabetes is that timing matters. Three walks of ten minutes after every meal will lower your bg more than one walk of thirty minutes.