Welcome...

You may not be a Usenet newbie... but you picked a food and recipe
newsgroup to post in. You'll find a lot more support and technical info
at alt.support.diabetes and misc.health.diabetes.

The traffic here in food is light and usually recipe related.

The traffic in asd and mhd is brisk, and put on your flame suit cause it
gets crazy sometimes... but the people are great and the info is invaluable.

But since you've started here, I'll post my advice to all diabetic newbies:

Sounds like you're planning a move to take control of your diabetes... good
for you.

There is so much to absorb... you don't have to rush into anything. Begin
by using your best weapon in this war, your meter. You won't keel over
today, you have time to experiment, test, learn, test and figure out just
how your body and this disease are getting along. The most important
thing you can do to learn about yourself and diabetes is test test test.

The single biggest question a diabetic has to answer is:

What do I eat?

Unfortunately, the answer is pretty confusing.

What confounds us all is the fact that different diabetics can get great
results on wildly different food plans. Some of us here achieve
great blood glucose control eating a high complex carbohydrate diet.
Others find that anything over 75 - 100g of carbs a day is too
much. Still others are somewhere in between.

At the beginning all of us felt frustrated. We wanted to be handed
THE way to eat, to ensure our continued health. But we all
learned that there is no one way. Each of us had to find our own path,
using the experience of those that went before, but still having
to discover for ourselves how OUR bodies and this disease were coexisting.

Ask questions, but remember each of us discovered on our own what works best
for us. You can use our experiences as jumping off points, but eventually
you'll work up a successful plan that is yours alone.

What you are looking to discover is how different foods affect you. As I'm
sure you've read, carbohydrates (sugars, wheat, rice... the things our
Grandmas called "starches") raise blood sugars the most rapidly. Protein
and fat do raise them, but not as high and much more slowly... so if you're
a T2, generally the insulin your body still makes may take care of the rise.

You might want to try some experiments.

First: Eat whatever you've been
currently eating... but write it all down.
Test yourself at the following times:

Upon waking (fasting)
1 hour after each meal
2 hours after each meal
At bedtime

That means 8 x each day. What you will discover by this is how long
after a meal your highest reading comes... and how fast you return to
"normal". Also, you may see that a meal that included bread, fruit or
other carbs gives you a higher reading.

Then for the next few days, try to curb your carbs. Eliminate breads,
cereals, rices, beans, any wheat products, potato, corn, fruit... get all
your carbs from veggies. Test at the same schedule above.

If you try this for a few days, you may find some pretty damn good
readings. It's worth a few days to discover.

Eventually you can slowly add back carbs until you see them affecting your
meter.

The thing about this disease... though we share much in common and we
need to
follow certain guidelines... in the end, each of our bodies dictate our
treatment and our success.

The closer we get to non-diabetic numbers, the greater chance we have of
avoiding horrible complications. The key here is AIM... I know that
everyone is at a different point in their disease... and it is progressive.
But, if we aim for the best numbers and do our best, we give ourselves the
best shot at heath we've got.
That's all we can do.

Here's my opinion on what numbers to aim for, they are non-diabetic numbers.

FBG under 110
One hour after meals under 140
Two hours after meals under 120

or for those in the mmol parts of the world:

Fasting Under 6
One hour after meals Under 8
Two hours after meals Under 6.5

Recent studies have indicated that the most important numbers are your
"after meal" numbers. They may be the most indicative of future
complications, especially heart problems.

Listen to your doctor, but you are the leader of your diabetic
care team. While his /her advice is learned, it is not absolute. You
will end up knowing much more about your body and how it's handling
diabetes than your doctor will. Your meter is your best weapon.

Just remember, we're not in a race or a competition with anyone but
ourselves... Play around with your food plan... TEST TEST TEST. Learn what
foods cause spikes, what foods cause cravings... Use your body as a science
experiment.

You'll read about a lot of different ways people use to control their
diabetes... Many are diametrically opposed. After awhile you'll learn that
there is no one size fits all around here. Take some time to experiment
and you'll soon discover the plan that works for you.

Best of luck!

Jennifer


MoPaMaN wrote:

> I'm not a Usenet newbie as I have survived the famous noosegroop wars of the
> early 80's and still have a copy of Pine 1.0. I work for one of the major
> war machines, Northrop Grumman. About 2 months ago I was having some minor
> chest pains and went to get it checked out. Seems I've got high cholesterol
> 200 plus, almost no good cholesterol, triglycerides laughed at me too; high
> blood pressure, and a 7.5 on the A1C blood work.
>
> I had been on the Adkins diet off and on for 3 years and when not on that I
> saws trying the soy thing. I just finished my 4 weeks of diabetes newbie
> classes and have my averages in the good range 90-120 most of the time. Now
> that I've got it lowered some, I seem to be getting too low every so often
> and test at 75 to 80. At 80, I feel dizzy so I can tell it's low without
> testing. I've lost from 250 to 225 pounds in 6 weeks. So I'm doing something
> right. My Dr. wants me below 200 pounds so, I've got a ways to go.
>
> I've seen the eye doctor already and got new glasses and he says things look
> good.
>
> My feet are better than most men's. I do have some tingling feeling,
> especially late in the day. I was gonna try some of Jobst socks and see if
> that help some????
>
> As far as medication goes, I take a bunch, but nothing for the diabetes yet.
> We are trying the diet and exercise program first. I do have troubles with
> cardio exercise as I've had a hunting accident and have had my left hip
> replaced due to avascular necrosis(sp). I do have a Crossbow machine that
> I've been using about 6 months.
>
> I'm usually a pretty big Texas redneck, a U.S. Army veteran (1970-1978), an
> avid hunter (bow/rifle/spears/and chuck rocks on occasion). A lousy speller
> and donut care, I have retrained my spellchecker so my way is right
> regardless of what eggheads might think.
>
> That's about it......
>