On Wed, 1 Oct 2003 15:47:55 +0100, "Linda" > wrote:

>I know it must sound silly, we live in England and my husbands diabetic
>nurse just tells him to cut right down on sugar and stay of off sauces in
>foods.We know there are carbs in food such as potatoes,pasta and bread but
>do not know how much is good or too much.
>Thankyou for all your replies.

You've been getting some good advice here, I'll just chime in with my
experience. Always remember that what goes for your husband could be
different and that's why it's so important that he start keeping track of
his BG levels himself.

I generally am higher in the mornings than I like. I range between 115 and
120, I could probably exercise more to bring that down, but my life isn't
cooperating at this point, so I'm making do by eating fewer carbs in the
morning. I'll have 10 or less total grams of carbs in the morning
(remember, fiber doesn't count as it doesn't impact BG). Lately I've been
having around a half cup to a cup of cottage cheese for breakfast (with
nice hot tea sweetened with Splenda [sucralose]). Some mornings I go for
no carbs and just have pork rinds. To me they taste sorta bacony. When I'm
at home for breakfast I often have eggs and bacon (and contrary to the
results I was told I'd get, when I stopped worrying about the fat intake
and focused on my BG, my cholesterol numbers actually went *down*,
something they hadn't done for 10 years). Anyway, I shoot for a very very
low carb breakfast.

Then for lunch I have between 20 and 50 carbs. This is usually some
"plastic lunch" (frozen, prepared TV dinner type thing) that I just nuke at
work. I buy them when they're on sale because I'm cheap. I might round
that out with some nuts (I find that nuts do not give me any sort of
serious spike at all and I can munch them happily as a snack). I usually
walk for 10 to 15 minutes after lunch.

For dinner I can usually get away with up to 100 carbs if I take a good
half hour walk within an hour after eating. Though I usually eat more like
30 to 50 carbs for dinner and walk for more like 10 to 15 minutes after.

I can usually get away with a lot of carbs at dinner, but if we're having a
special meal where I really splurge (like our anniversary on Monday) and
didn't pay any attention to carbs at all (couple of small slices of bread,
four-onion soup with a crouton and cheese, barbecue wild boars ribs and
carmelized onion pirogies, beef wellington and mash, then we shared *two*
desserts, a chocolate mousse cake and a cream cheese brownie thing, both
with berry coulis), I take a good strenuous walk afterwards. My two hours
post dinner was 103, and three hours was 119 (dinner took a while to eat,
it was at a fancy place, so I tested at 2 and 3 instead of 1 and 2). But,
the next morning my fasting was 131. So I usually pay for those splurges
in a higher-than-normal-but-still-not-completely-off-the-scale morning
spike.

This is why it's so important for your husband to start doing his own
testing and figuring out what foods do what to him. And really, I can't
stress this enough, because this is how we got our numbers (we're both
diabetic) under control within three months (my husband went from an A1c of
12.3 to one of 5.4 in six months). We walk after every meal. HE walks for
half an hour after every meal. He doesn't dawdle but he's not power
walking either. But he *has* been doing it for nearly a full year now,
after every meal with only a very few times when he had to walk before.
He's not missed for nearly a year. I am not so vigorous about it (like
last night I was too tired, but then I only had 8 carbs for dinner). You
need to just get up and move around, do chores, do dishes, vaccuum. Save
those things for after a meal. Then do them within an hour or so after
eating. It just makes a huge difference in the numbers.

--
Siobhan Perricone
"Ok, I know a whole generation has been raised on a notion of
multiculturalism. That all civilisations are just different.
No, not always. Sometimes things are better. Rule of law
is better than autocracy and theocracy. Equality of the
sexes - Better. Protection of minorities - Better. Free
speech - Better. Free elections - Better. Free appliances
with large purchases - Better. Don't get so tolerant that
you tolerate intolerance." - Bill Maher