When you were first DX, how did you learn to tweak your diet?

[Rose1942]

I am in the early stages of tweaking my diet to discover what my carb tolerance is - and frankly, it looks as if it isn't very much. This is what I do, and wonder if others did something similar, or found ways to make it easier:

What I do is to try and check my BG as often as possible, and was difficult at first because I was not given a prescription for enough testing strips since Medicare has a limit on them. I finally discovered that I could buy meters and strips on my own, which I have done (thx to advice of people in this forum, by the way).

I have found that I can tolerate very little carb or sugar without a spike, so if I find a food that causes it, that food is gone. Weirdly, some things that seem ok for others, which I read here and elsewhere, are not ok for me, and vice versa. I can have 1/2 a grapefruit as long as I don't have even one other carb along with it. So, grapefruit with eggs is ok - grapefruit with one slice ww toast is not. Conversely, one 11 gr. carb slice of ww toast is fine, with bacon, which is nice, but I don't do it often anyway. Two slices for a sandwich, however is over the top, so I don't do that ever, no matter what is inside - I have a one slice limit. I can have 5 or 6 red grapes, but not a whole cluster. I can have 2 melba toast with cream cheese, but not 3 or 4. Stuff like that.

Tonight I had stuffed peppers which I make with pretty much all meat, no rice etc . in them - and they were fine, no spike. Recently I had the same meal with a small portion of sweet potato - not fine! So now I know it's not the peppers. But I don't know if I could have the sweet potato if, say, I had a plain broiled steak with them. I am talking about maybe 1/4 cup. Could there be something about the peppers that I am not seeing, that would combine with the sweet potato - maybe the peppers themselves - to bring me to a high carb level? I bet there is, but I will find that out eventually, though.

So that is how I am doing it and it seems the only way to get a handle on how various foods affect ME, whether they are 'allowed' or not, even though at times I have to take a chance just to know the result. Interestingly, I experimented this morning with oatmeal. I am a nut for little dogs and I have 4 rescues, by the way - and I spoil them rotten, like making them warm oatmeal once in awhile for breakfast. Today I did that and it looked so tempting, I had perhaps 1/2 a cup with cream. BIG mistake! I was 5 hours getting my BG down from that little fiasco!

Will this get easier? Will I eventually know instinctively which things I can put together or not, or which foods have to be absolute no nos? How did you all do it?

[eddiemcm]

Foods that affect BG are similar for T2,slightly different for T1
and slightly different for prediabetic.No Carb diet helps but
does not heal diabetes.You must profile yourself by BG testing-
find out what you can eat and what you can't.Your doctor can
help you with meds but it's rare to find a doctor who actually
can tell you what you can eat-the best doctors are those who
actually have diabetes themselves.
Good luck on this-it takes a lot of work
Eddie

[v-effect]

I log. I carb count everything with a scale. I mark down how much insulin it required. For new foods, I test one two three four five six seven and eight hours out. Just a question of getting your carb count precise and testing!
I have also recently started using a CGMS so that I can better track BG excursions from food and exercise.
V.

[Nancy LC]

Sweet potatoes I'm not surprised give you a spike. They're pure starch with sugar.

[RobLL]

Rose - sounds like you are doing a good job

[Rose1942]

Thanks for all the comments, they are helpful. Eddie, I know that I can't heal or cure diabetes, but I am convinced that I can have it under good control with proper diet if I am careful. That is why I am trying to get a good profile going. My current doctor doesn't seem to care, and in fact gets a funny tone in his voice and a 'look' when I try and discuss it. That tells me that I am soon going to be seeing someone else......

The diet that his office prescribes, through their dietician, is the same one that the ADA uses, completely wrong and even dangerous. So we will never be on the same page, he and I.

We are now having the cholesterol and statin tug of war and I want to win that one too if I can. My lipids are borderline, but don't forget that my blood sugar has been too high for a long time (undiagnosed for who knows how long), which can affect the HDL/LDL ratio, and I want to wait a bit to see if they improve with this diet, while he wants me to go on a statin now. I'm afraid of them unless absolutely necessary, because they can mess with the liver, especially in a diabetic. So yet another difficulty where it seems that I am an uncooperative patient. I'm not, just cautious.

[jeanmarie]

Hi All!
Rose, you sound like me! I am very carb sensitive and am doing much better since testing to see just what I can safely eat! I can not eat more than a 1/2 slice of bread so I don't. I do enjoy my homemade cheesecakes which does not raise my numbers much and they go right down. Have a good day everyone!

Jean

[Rose1942]

Jeanmarie - thanks for the comments. But you simply MUST tell us how to make that homemade cheesecake! I will pay dearly for that recipe (well, virtually so:)

I love ricotta and find that mixing 1/4 cup of it with 2 T Greek yogurt, adding a 1/2 packet of Splenda, and a good dash of cinnamon gives me a dessert that is luscious, almost as good as a cannoli filling! No real spike in the BG either. Try that too. But a lo-carb cheesecake recipe would be right up my alley. Thx in advance!

[jeanmarie]

Hello! Rose, That recipe sounds yummy!

Please bare with me! I made up this basic recipe. It depends on how big you want your cheesecake. For each 8 oz. cream cheese add 1/4 cup Splenda, 1/4 cup sour cream, one large egg. I also add some Davici sugarfree vanilla syrup which can be found in the coffee section in the grocery store. I add about a tablespoon. Also I add a touch of cinnamin. If I make chocolate cheesecake I add about a tablespoon of unsweetend coco powder per 8 oz mix. Make sure you mix it with the splenda first. With chocolate you will need to add more splenda. I taste the batter to check. When making pumpkin I add 1/4 cup can or fresh pumpkin, extra cinnamin or pumpkin pie spice per 8 oz cream cheese mix. You can change the flavor DaVinci syrup(they have many),in these cheesecakes, add vanilla or lemon or both extract. Also good is adding a little melted butter to the mix! You can also add 1/2 regular 1/2 light cream cheese. Play with it! I usually make it in a small springform pan using:

3 8 oz cream cheese (always at room temp)
3 Large eggs ( always at room temp)
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup Splenda
1/4 DaVinci Vanilla Syrup, Shake of cinnamon

Set oven at 300. with mixer on medium low mix cream cheese and sour cream. add splenda, add eggs, one at a time. (I break them in a bowl first) Next a syrup & cinnamon. Just mix till well blended. DO NOT OVERBEAT AFTER ADDING THE EGGS! Pour into pan and bake on a cookie sheet on lower shelf. at 300 for 45 min - 1 hour or until it is a little wobbley in the center. Take out of oven and let it get cold before eating. Next day is better. If you make a larger cheesecake it will take longer. If you double the recipe it will take about 1 1/2 hour. Sometimes it cracks, most times no. Did I leave anything out? I really like the no sugar added cherry pie filling on top. So pretty! Sorry this is so long! Happy Holiday!

Jeanny

[jeanmarie]

Take a peek at the end product in my gallery.

[Rose1942]

Jeanmarie - thank you so much for that cheesecake recipe - and I looked in your gallery too. WOW they are beautiful, I could eat the pictures! I will be printing your instructions out as soon as I get a new ink cartridge for my printer (grrr, they never last long enough). Your other recipes look divine too, so I am saving your gallery to pilfer your stuff, LOL.

[RobLL]

I've made pumpkin cheese cakes with 3 3/4 cups pumpkin (large can) to 1 pound of Cream Cheese, and 6 eggs, Splenda 1 1/2 or to taste, and typical pumpkin pie spices. In fact one in the fridge now. Its custardy right out of the oven, and more like cheese cake affter being chilled overnight. I suspect you can varry ingredients at will. I also make this, pumpkin included, adding in inordinate amount of chocolate, Nestle Premelted baking plus 1/4 cup of cocoa powder.

Its one of the few vegetables one of my grand kids will eat!

[Rose1942]

RobLL, thanks to you also for the recipe, sounds wonderful. I would have to adjust it a bit due to the number of eggs, though. My husband is sensitive to custardy things made with a lot of eggs - not allergic, just somewhat intolerant. But I love the pumpkin flavor so will keep this in mind too:)

[KiaKaha]

Rose - You might start testing the low G.I (Glycaemic index) foods as you will be more likely to tolerate them and it sounds like by trial and error that is what you are finding. (There are lists around for most basic foods if you google)

Having said that some of the low GI foods like lentils and baked beans dont agree with me at all but mostly the lower the GI of the food, the more I am able to tolerate them. That being said - now that I am L/C - I dont eat anything that has more than about 6 Carb grams/ serving so I still cant eat many low GI foods as I need to lose weight.

[cappie]

I tweaked by testing at least 8 times a day, before & after meals & before bed & getting up.

If trying new foods I always tested several times after eating to find the true peak & if I found it not acceptable I never ate them again.

In the beginning one needs A LOT of strips. Now with by control stable after 6 yrs I only test 2 or 3 times a day.

cappie