Fruit and vegetables?

I have diabetes 2, plus high cholesterol, and a high fat content in my blood. I was made aware of this on the 10th of July 2013, I am a 65year old male living alone, I make all my meals and I do the shopping! So I have had to change my lifestyle and food choices to try to rectify the damage of my previous lifestyle.
The first thing that went was smoking I will have been a non-smoker for 2 months on Friday and already had quite a few benefits especially my circulation it has improved which makes walking so much easier. I also joined my fitness pal which I have found really helpful to help me try to lose weight and so far 9.5 Lbs has gone! Which again helps my general health, I have been amazed at the amount of sugar I was consuming via added sugar to foods so now I carefully read the labels. What it doesn't make clear on my fitness pal or at least I can't find it is my sugar limit's it give's me a target figure of 25g per day, but is that 25g of added sugar or total sugar? Because as you know we can get natural sugar from fruits and vegetables, as an example today I am having a Quorn sausage dinner (no potato) 200g Carrot & Swede Mash = 24g of sugar in total with all the vegetables = 31g so I am confused because fruit and vegetables are supposed to be good for you, so should I discount the sugar obtained from natural sources? What would you advise? Thank you

Howdy. I'm a T2 diabetic as well, and here are my thoughts on what you posted. Everything I'll say is based upon my thoughts and experience, is not medical advice, and should not take the place of an ongoing conversation with your doctor.

1. Congratulations on not smoking. That's fantastic and a great step for overall health.
2. I'm a believer that weight loss, for the majority of adult-onset diabetics, is the single most important intervention for T2DM. By this, I mean -- within reason, if an adult with T2DM (who is obese) loses weight, the dietary changes necessary to achieve weight loss will also be enough to see benefits in A1c. So congratulations on starting the weight loss journey as well.
3. Now, within the realm of specific dietary changes with regards to T2DM. Controlling carbohydrates should be a goal of someone with T2DM. What's the ideal number of carbohydrates for you? That entirely depends on the person and what stage of the disease they're at. Your best way to determine this is to use your blood glucose meter after meals (you are testing yourself after meals, right?) and see what your number is. I would say as a rough estimate:

Carbs that cause a quick blood sugar spike and should be eaten sparingly: sweets, raw sugar, white bread, fruit juices
Carbs that cause a moderate blood sugar spike and can be eaten moderately: whole fruit, oatmeal, whole grains, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, other starches/starchy vegetables.
Carbs that have lower impact on your blood sugar, and feel free to eat as much as you'd like, staying within your calorie/macronutrient goals: spinach, lettuce, green vegetables, cauliflower, etc.

Obviously not meant to be a comprehensive list, but that's a start. Fruit, while natural, is still sugar, and your body will treat it as such. Having a piece or two a day isn't bad, but you should be moderate in your intake of them, in my opinion. Looking at your diary, I see the following macronutrient breakdown: 55% carb, 30% fat, 15% protein. Again, in my opinion, that's not a very good starting point for T2DM control. I would personally try to go something like more balanced, as a start: 30% carb, 35% fat, 35% protein. I personally eat around 70% fat, 25% protein, and 5% carb, but that's likely a bit extreme for someone just starting out.

I'm assuming your calorie goal is correct, so my above breakdown would look something like this:
100g carbohydrate
50g fat
112g protein

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm sure plenty of people will have varying opinions as well. That's cool -- sort through all the information and make the changes you think will work for you, then let us know how it's going in a couple weeks.

I would check out the American Diabetes Association website which has tons of information and food & meal ideas to try.

http://www.diabetes.org/

http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/

Another Type 2 diabetic chiming in here. My suggestion is that you need to figure out how your body reacts to the different foods, log the foods and check your glucose levels and document them. I use a spreadsheet to track my sugar and MFP to log my food. If I see that a certain food raises my glucose too much I know that I either need to not eat that food or reduce the serving size. We are all individuals and our bodies have their own reactions. I typically do not even look at the sugar in MFP because I get a vast majority of my sugar from fruits and veggies and not table sugar or HFCS. Another thing to remember is that fruits and veggies do not just have sugar they have minerals vitamins and fiber. The fiber can be a huge benefit to diabetics.