Humana provides health insurance to nearly 1 million people with type 2 diabetes. In an effort to better understand and support these Humana members, they have partnered with Diabetes Hands Foundation and TuDiabetes to sponsor a 10-day series of discussions about “tips and tricks” for life with diabetes. Information gained through these conversations will help Humana to better serve people with type 2 diabetes, so please join the conversations, and share as much as you can!
- Learn to count carbs. This is for the "safely" part of the question. Regardless whether you control your blood sugar with insulin, with oral meds, with diet and/or exercise, or with any combination of the above, knowing how many carbs you consume is critical to being able to balance them accurately and maintain a desirable blood glucose level. There are many excellent resources, both in print and online, to help with this. One of the best books on the subject is Gary Scheiner, The Ultimate Guide To Accurate Carb Counting (Boston: Da Capo Press, 2011)
- Consider switching to a low carb diet. This is especially helpful if you use medication of any sort to control blood sugar. The fewer carbs you eat, the less medication you need. The lower the dose of medication, the less chance of a serious low. This principle is sometimes called "The Laws of Small Numbers."
- Investigate cookbooks and web sites offering diabetes-oriented recipes. They are legion. Food doesn't have to be dull to be diabetes-friendly.
1. Everyone agrees that cutting carbs is vital so don't wait but start immediately while your diagnosis is still fresh in your mind. You might as well get all the shocks over in one go.
2. It is far easier just to say "I don't eat that' rather than try to limit portions. This makes it a once-off decision instead of a decision you have to make every time you are faced with something like chocolate cake.
3. For 10 years I lived on an almost entirely fat-free, low-carb diet (with no fruit)and I did very well on it but adding fat to my diet has opened up a world of possibilities. I have put on a little bit of weight but am feeling much better for it and am really enjoying my food
4. I take vitamin supplements to make up for anything lacking in my diet and I haven't had a cold for 2 years.
Oh gosh. Diet is little like religion. We have the high church which maintains a monopoly on dietary education. You can read my "roast" of the high church here (please any health professionals take this as a humorous chiding). But seriously there are many paths and everyone should be free to choose their path. And it is not all about diabetes. We must weigh a number of factors beyond being healthy, safe and enjoyable. Some people care about eating animals. Others want to eat sustainably.
My advice (of course in a list of 10) would be to:
- Listen to healthcare professionals but understand there are serious problems with their dietary advice
- If you can't have a useful conversation with your healthcare professional about nutrition don't waste your time arguing, find someone else you can work with
- Become a smart patient, give significant weight to well respected books and highly cited scientific articles, these are invaluable sources of information
- Learn to evaluate dietary advice objectively, there is significant contradictory advice, low carb/high carb, vegan/paleo etc.
- Beware the scam. No diet will cure you and if it seems based on "magic" you should probably run away
- You probably shouldn't call it a diet, it is really a lifestyle. If you can't keep it up forever in the long-term it won't be useful
- Learn to be a good cook. You will control what goes in your food, save money and be in control
- And spend extra money for better ingredients. Food is your medicine. If you cook and use good ingredients you can eat lobster and caviar at home for the same price as eating out
- Nobody eats themselves into having diabetes so don't ever believe you can eat your way out
- Get the "ground truth" about what to eat by talking to other people with diabetes, come to TuDiabetes
Your diet will need to accommodate the reality that you cannot safely metabolize carbs.
Your meter is a powerful tool for understanding how your body reacts to various foods and will enable you to modify your diet to minimize your chance of developing complications.
Learn to read nutrition labels and avoid processed foods containing unwanted ingredients like HFCS. Processed "low carb" foods are seldom a good choice.
The web is full of great tasting low carb recipes, use them to make interesting, great tasting food. This is the key to sustainability. Your diabetes isn't going to go away, so your diet needs to be something you will want to eat for the rest of your life, without feeling deprived.
I agree with David, Old Lady, Brian, and BadMoonT2 statements. I will add don't be surprised that your diabetes doesn't like some of the "healthy" foods you've always eaten--they may no longer agree with you or you may have to double up on insulin to cover the spike in BGs. Therefore, you may have to branch out to a variety of foods to maintain level glucose control. For me, I can only have green vegetables. No beans, corn, or any vegetable that may digest into a starchy carb because it will increase my BG quickly and drastically. Secondly, I developed an auto-immune allergy to some healthy foods that I was reared eating.
Understand that your life has changed and that you must change your daily habits. The choices you make will affect your quality of life. While you can influence your health outcomes, you cannot control them.
I can't better on what has already been said. My main tip is to test to see what foods you can or can't eat, we are all different. Don't accept advice from a health care professional as cast in stone, if you aren't on insulin you only have diet and exercise and pills to keep your blood sugars low. Test to make sure you can do this. And enjoy a treat from time to time, you don't have to endure your new life, enjoy it.
Ultimately blood sugar control in a type II diabetic is very much tied to body weight - particularly abdominal fat. Check your bmi - calculators are available via google - and do your best to get or stay below 30, which is where obesity begins. Type 2 diabetes is very much tied to insulin resistance which again is very affected by the amount of excess body fat we are carrying. When I was diagnosed I weighed 224 lbs and at 6 foot that meant my BMI was 29. My morning fasting levels were often in the 10 + range and after meals 14+. After a year of increased activity and eating low GI carbs my weight had dropped to 180 lbs and my morning fasting levels were consistently between 4 and 5 with few after dinner readings above 7.
Monitor your BG frequently - when you wake up, before and 2 hours after a meal, at bedtime and use your BG results to drive your food choices. Focus on low glycemic load foods. Have fun with the technology tools! Do research on yourself and keep a diary.