Newly diagnosed, need help!

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-13-2004
Newly diagnosed, need help!
3
Wed, 09-03-2008 - 8:07pm

Hi, my husband was just recently told that he is borderline diabetic.  I have always been a fairly healthy eater, but now I have to change our diets.  I have learned that managing his diet has a lot to do with couting carbs and eating less sugar, but I'm not sure what else to watch out for.  I understand that carbs are broken down by the body into sugars, but I don't understand how fatty foods tie in.  DH has been told to stay away from red meat as well as carbs.  


So I guess what I want to know is, would an Atkins or South Beach type diet be the same as a diabetic diet?  And if so, why?   


Thanks for any help!


Chelsea

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Avatar for cl_maryfrances40
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Wed, 09-03-2008 - 8:23pm

http://health.ivillage.com/diabetesthy/di/0,,pz7h,00.html


Hi and welcome to the board. My name is Mary Frances and I am one of the community leaders for this board. I am a registered nurse and a type 2 diabetic and married to a type 2 diabetic. Any advise I may give is not a substitute for seeking medical advise from a health care practitioner of your choice.


First off, and I don't mean to sound shrill here, there is no such thing as borderling diabetes anymore. Do you know what his blood sugar level was? Did he have an A1C test done? If his fasting blood sugar was between

Avatar for cl_coldfingers
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Wed, 09-03-2008 - 8:33pm

Hi and welcome to the board.


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
Thu, 09-04-2008 - 8:40am

Hi there. There's really no such animal as a 'diabetic diet' any longer. South Beach and Atkins are both low carb but can sometimes tend to be higher in fats and that's something that needs watching (particularly since you've been warned off red meats already anyhow). The key is reading the labels and knowing what you're looking at: carbs, sugars, fiber numbers then also look for where sugar is listed in the ingredients and recognizing sugar by different names - a sugar by any other name is still sugar. So, basically any "syrup" or anything ending in -ose are sugars right off. Anything ending in -itol is a sugar alcohol which is used often as a sugar substitute, is suitable for diabetics, BUT you need to watch it because some people are sensitive to -itols and get nasty intestinal symptoms (gas, diarrhea, etc). Sugar substitutes (Nutrasweet, Splenda, etc) are doable but again, some people are sensitive to the chemical substitutes so go slowly. Not to mention many people dislike the chemical aftertaste.

An easy rule of thumb (which hasn't been mentioned yet as far as I can see lol) is If it's white, don't bite. White sugar, white flour, white rice, white potato, white pasta are all simple carbs which digest rapidly into sugar and elevate the blood sugar. There's nothing in there to slow down the digestion. That's where fiber comes in. Fiber slows down the digestion of foods so brown rice is preferable to white, whole wheat bread and pasta to white (as long as it is real whole wheat where the first ingredient says WHOLE wheat) and so on. Similarly, fruit juices have no fiber so they are basically like shooting fructose directly into the blood stream. That morning glass of OJ is now considered medicine and should only be taken as needed, not all the time. Whole fruits and veggies are preferable to mashed which is preferable to juice. So, for example, a whole apple is better than apple sauce which is better than apple juice.

Some things can be okay in small quantities and/or when combined with other higher fiber items - for instance, breakfast cereal likely needs to be a smaller portion than you're used to AND you'll probably need to add protein and fiber (for example, a small handful of pecans) so that it slows down the digestion.

Good luck
--Deb