sugar and diabetes
Hi,
I’m new to group. got diagnosed feb 07. been taking byetta for 2-
1/2 months now (up to 10 this month, and yes had worse side effects
when i went from 5 to 10).
can sugar doesn’t spike me but enriched flour, pasta and rice do.
also i can’t have any artificial sweeteners because i have a bladder
problem (interstitial cystitis) which is making what i eat even more
difficult to manage. oh include allergies to some foods and it’s a
real challenge.
anyway… just wanted to know who else has been told no sugar?
thanks, lisette
May 16th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Lisette, when I was Dx’d last summer, I was told no sugars, starches, or
alcohols. Then I went to diabetes education and was enlightened to the fact
that there are no foods that I diabetic person can not eat. True, some of
us react to certain foods differently than others (my nemesis is rice) but
it just takes a little self-education to learn how to eat these foods in
moderation without throwing your glucose totally out of control. I’m being
treated by my GP and find that I’m often more up on diabetes than he is
thanks mainly to my incessant quest for more information.
> anyway… just wanted to know who else has been told no sugar?
May 16th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Hi Lisette,
Unfortunately there are still doctors/medical professionals that offer the
Welcome to the group!
advice, ‘just don’t eat sugar’ and your numbers will go down but they never
mention what else to consider being careful of. But the foods you mentioned you
have a bit of trouble with turn into sugar in our bloodstream pretty quickly,
thus the spike in your numbers, so there really is no difference between eating
a spoonful of sugar or pasta to some folks’ body. Some fruits are higher in
carbs, meaning they get into our blood stream and turn into sugar much more
quickly, some foods are more complex carbs, they break down slowly in our body
so the sugar in them (carbs) doesn’t spike our blood sugar levels.
Items such as black beans etc. may appear high when you look at a bulk bin in a
store or on the back of a pkg. but if you look at the fiber count and learn abit
more about Glycemic Index and how complex carbs work vs. simple carbs in our
bodies, things will begin to make more sense. There is lots to learn but
reading articles online that teach what foods are simple carbs etc. will help us
better understand how they break down in our bodies. Perhaps the women’s doctor
is of the old school of ‘just don’t eat any sugar’ or there may be something
more to him telling her not to eat it, an allergy or who knows what. I’m not
much of sugar person anymore, I apparently get the ’sugar’ I need now from foods
that break down into sugar, such as bread etc.. I pick a good quality bread
(Best by Orowheat) with some cashew nut butter and about 1/4 of small banana
sliced and it’s better than any chocolate I ever ate! lol I know it’s healthy
for my body, gives me incredible energy and I won’t get a sugar drop like with
straight sugars like in the past.
Though I do eat some artificial sweeteners in food once in a great while, I try
to steer clear of them as they really are just chemically derived and who knows
what they are doing to our bodies. Just my thoughts on the matter, I try and
eat whole foods, not processed foods, but everyone has their own way of doing
it.
Always something to learn as a diabetic.
Look through the archives and I’m sure you’ll come across many a link to sites
that are very good on learning more about which foods will fit into your
lifestyle even with allergies.
Hi,
I’m new to group. got diagnosed feb 07. been taking byetta for 2-
1/2 months now (up to 10 this month, and yes had worse side effects
when i went from 5 to 10).
can sugar doesn’t spike me but enriched flour, pasta and rice do.
also i can’t have any artificial sweeteners because i have a bladder
problem (interstitial cystitis) which is making what i eat even more
difficult to manage. oh include allergies to some foods and it’s a
real challenge.
anyway… just wanted to know who else has been told no sugar?
thanks, lisette
May 16th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
anyway… just wanted to know who else has been told no sugar?
Hi Lisette:
I have diabetes type 2 for over thirty years now and wish I’d been more
active in taking care of myself after I was first diagnosed. Perhaps I
wouldn’t
have the neuropathy in my feet and hands that I have now. It’s been my
expereince that, odd as this sounds, the mainstream medical establishment knows
very little about nutrition and is only slowly coming to understand how diabetes
is affected by what and how we eat. Higher than normal blood sugar and
obesity changes the hormonal functioning in our bodies and even when we eat very
well, we are not getting the same nutritional value from food that people
without diabetes seem to get. An occasionally sugary desert at Christmas or
Thanksgiving won’t do much harm if your blood sugar is in good control but it’s
not something I would do more than once or twice a year. Some recent studies
say that high fat is just as bad for diabetics as too many carbs, so I try
to eat a balanced diet of protein, whole grains, vegetables and small amounts
of fruit; usually blueberries or strawbwerries with some goat yogurt, my
favorite desert. I buy bread, pasta, brown rice, cereal, carbs that has at
least five fiber grams per serving and stay away from most dairy
products…Goat
cheeses are good for you….and for protein I eat fish several times a week
and occasionally natural chicken or turkey and lots of miso and tofu.
I figure if I’m dieting and eating small amounts of food which the Byetta
allows me to do, everything I eat should pack a nutritional punch….I swim
three times a week and take a fistful of vitamins with lunch and even with all
of that I feel like at my age (I’ll be 63 next week) I’m fighting for my life;
fighting for my sight, for my circulation, fighting to not be plagued by
the diabetic ulcers my mother had in the last two decades of her
life….fighting for my kidneys, my heart. I don’t mean to be scary but the
damage comes
on so slowly; it’s hard to notice until one day, there it is, irreparable
damage…..There’s a lot to learn about food, a lot of new research coming out
all the time. The official advice on food and nutrition coming out of the
Diabetes Association is really lame. I was in the hospital this time last year
because of some chest pain and they brought me the same deadly, high carb,
high fat, excessively salty and nutritionally empty white bread food they
brought everyone else… and when I later complained I was informed they have
licensed nutritionists that recommend the diet for diabetics….
Anyway, take good care of yourself…