I began a low fat vegan diet in September after my diagnosis. My BG is consistently in the 120-135 range whether fasting or two hours after meals, etc. I workout for 30 minutes at the gym and walk 2 -3 mikes an evening. I am taking 2,000 mg Metformin daily. I have lost almost 40 lbs and my BP is great, but my numbers are still higher than I would like. I wondered if anyone else was eating vegan and what their experiences were and if I might get lower numbers by eating low carb instead. Any advice or suggestion to someone new to the game?
Make no mistake, eat carbs and your blood sugar rises. Nobody will tell you different (well a few might, but not many). If you want to limit your blood sugar excursions, then limit your carbs. If you want to go vegan or vegetarian that is fine, but it will be more of a challenge. I would certainly not suggest a low fat diet. Certainly you should avoid bad fats, namely trans fats, but I personally don’t feel that diabetics should limit fats, they need to limit carbs.
My person choice is generally even more extreme. I have followed a low carb diet with great success and in particular found a good deal of good advice from “Diabetes Solution” by Richard Bernstein. Although I don’t achieve his target diet, he has good advice. I must warn you, he does not look kindly on vegetarian diets.
ps. Dave is right, this post is more appropriate for the type 2 forum, perhaps you can ask the mods to move it.
Sorry for posting in the wrong place. I was attempting it via phone and apparently didn’t pull it off as well as I’d hoped. 
I do appreciate the feedback though.
I was a vegetarian for decades before being diagnosed Type 1. Not the same being a T2 of course, but even with injected insulin I couldn’t handle what I formerly ate. It was way too high carb to control BG.
Wonderful about the weight loss & all the exercise–kudos!
Best thing is to try low carb to see if your numbers are better. I bet they will be. Low carb is not low fat. There’s good research showing that low fat isn’t healthy & it’s the carbs responsible for bad lipid profiles & a host of other problems.
Tons of great sites with low carb recipes that are delicious & interesting.
Second BSC’s suggestion about reading Dr. Richard Bernstein’s book. Also check out http://www.bloodsugar101.com.
I’d help if I knew more information relevant to diets for Type 2’s, but I don’t.
But I did want to give a very big ‘Great Job’ for losing 40lbs, and exercising that amount-- you’re obviously taking serious control. Your blood sugars may be higher than you like, but you’re definitely getting healthier I have no doubt about that.
I am a type 2 on 1000 mg of metformin split through out the day. If I eat low carbs then my glucose will tank. If I work out for 30 minutes I will go from 200 to 70 constantly. I have tried all kinds of carbs to sustain a good level during workout but sometimes its a hit of miss. I like to bike so if I am going on a long ride then I bring my meter and some carbs.
Normally what I do is pick a type of food that I think has a low glycemic index within the allowed foods in the dash diet. Depending on the time of the day I will eat that food and test my glucose to see the impact on the numbers. If its dinner then I will eat higher level in the glycemic index since I need to maintain for a decent workout. The one thing that I started doing is spacing out the meals that i have during the day. Since the metformin sometimes tears up my stomach I can only eat small meals, so I go with small meals more oftern. I dont know if I test more than the average type 2 but normally i test like 10 times a day to see the impact of food. Since excercise can change my readings very quickly I always take my meter with me. I have good from 200 to 70 with a 15 minute walk. So my issue either the pancreas is dumping low amount of insulin or it over does it. But for me dash with testing seems to work, plus its great for hypertension
take care
I’m a vegetarian (not vegan), Tracie and had to make significant changes to my diet in order to lower carbs. I don’t do a low carb diet, but moderate carb (around 100 per day). I’m a little unsure if you are saying you decided to go on a vegan diet specifically to manage your diabetes and that I don’t think that is a good choice. I’m vegetarian for other reasons and am willing to put in the time and effort to continue to do so as a diabetic, but I know it makes it harder not easier. If you are commited to being vegan for other reasons than I believe with some effort you can continue to do so while managing your diabetes as well.