Diabetes meals/eating Plans?

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justh, Jun 14, 7:15am
Where can I find free Diabetes Meal Plans or guides, Thanks

cookessentials, Jun 14, 7:22am
http://www.diabeteslibrary.org/freeaccess. aspx? at=1763

cookessentials, Jun 14, 7:23am
http://www.diabetes.org.nz/food_and_nutrition/healthy_food_c
hoices__and__tips/food

uli, Jun 14, 9:14am
Depends firstly if you are diabetes 1 or 2 - completely different plans apply.

Depends secondly if you are insulin dependend or no - which means that you are most likely diabetes 2 and can get away with diet.

Depends thirdly which plans you'd like to follow justh (I am thinking here that you might be D2 and not needing insulin) - there are obviously two options: eat carbs and medications - or try a low carb diet and not need medications.

But without all that info no-one can (or wants to) really give any advice.

Take care!

justh, Jun 14, 10:37pm
Thank you all for your suggestions, I am enquiring on behalf of a friend who doesn't have time to look for them. He's not sure which Diabetes he has, but says he doesn't need insulin injections, but takes pills.

cgvl, Jun 15, 12:38am
justh he's type 2 then. The diabetic baking thread has ideas in it and I see raewyn gave you the link. Our local library has some excellent cookbooks for diabetics ... main meal ideas.
Just remember cut down on the sweet stuff, watch the carbs and fats and exercise if at all possible.
Tell him/her to check out the nearest local diabetic support group, they are a minefield of good information and often you can get stuff through them at a discount.

uli, Jun 15, 4:04am
As a diabetic you have to watch the carbs but NOT the fats ... the idea to "watch" fats comes from the idea that fats make you fat - which they do NOT - in absence of carbs - which is what you do not want to eat anyway - except if you listen to the diabetes nurse who will tell you to eat porridge for breakfast...

Unfortunately in NZ you cannot sue said nurse - but I am sure it is not long to go and someone in America will do just that - as basically it is murder to tell someone who cannot metabolize carbs to eat carbs ... I could go on but won't - you need to work up an appetite to find out the truth yourself - and I cannot give you that - happy researching :)

cgvl, Jun 15, 4:54am
Well - maybe ask your doctor and don't "believe" in cgvl's "diagnosis" ... would worry me actually ...

Well Uli same could be said for the incorrect and scaremongering info you give at times.

elliehen, Jun 15, 4:56am
I suggest that your friend joins the local Diabetes Society (it's not just a 'support group') and then he will be entitled to receive the local society's newsletter, attend meetings with speakers etc and also to receive the National Diabetes New Zealand quarterly magazine.

I believe it's unwise to look for medical advice (that includes dietary advice for medical conditions) on an internet message board where the contributors are anonymous and their qualifications unknown and untested - no matter how well-intentioned they might be.

Later on, when your friend understands more about the condition, he might feel able to exchange recipes and meal ideas with others who have the same condition and understand it from the perspective of personal experience.

kay141, Jun 15, 5:27am
Uli- from your pontificating you seem to be an expert on all manner of things from food to sunscreens. What are your qualifications?

uli, Jun 15, 6:00am
I don't give any "scaremongering" info - if you'd like anything to be spelt out in more detail I am happy to do so - otherwise please use mrs google ...

uli, Jun 15, 6:02am
What do you mean by "pontificating"?

And my qualifications would not interest you in the least I am sure ... LOL :)

jasandkt, Jul 1, 6:32am
Uli- Im not sure where you got your information from about carbs/fats and diabetes. Yes you have to watch them but you MUST check fat content as fat is also classed as sugar, and pending on age eg 6yr old must have 15grms of carbs per meal/snack going up with age an weight

uli, Jul 1, 7:56am
jasandkt - Please do inform yourself of the realities of how the body works. Fat is not going to make any insulin response in your body. You can eat as much as you like - while carbs are the stuff you do not want. Nobody with diabetes needs to eat carbs - no matter what age.

It is an absolute myth - and you would be well set to find out more about it. Why not start with Dr. Bernsteins book?
http://diabetes-book.com/

He has survived diabetes 1 and had to find his own solutions despite stupid advice like "... a 6yr old must have 15grms of carbs per meal/snack... "

Get it from your library and inform yourself.

Good luck!

amiri1, Jul 1, 9:18am
I like this site for info, http://www.diabetesdaily.com/and they have recipes.
Less carbs whoever you are is better for you, it means less insulin whether you make it yourself or have to inject it. Less insulin means less weight is gained (and other stuff which my brain can't think of at the moment but is out there in info-land)! Good luck with your search! :)

buzzy110, Jul 1, 9:59am
OMG. Since when was fat classed as a sugar. You must know something every scientist in the world doesn't. Though I wouldn't be surprised if that sort of rubbish was disseminated by the Diabetes Society.

For your own information, your body will produce insulin when your small intestine is stretched. This means that if you ate stones, your body would still produce insulin. However, no amount of saying that stones are a form a sugar, will make that statement true and the same goes for fat.

Fat is metabolically inert. All it does is slow the rate of digestion in the stomach. This is a good thing, because when fat is eaten with carbohydrates, it actually slows the transport, into the blood stream of the glucose which the sucrase, produced by the small intestine, extracts (putting it too simply here) from CARBOHYDRATES.

Why is it a good thing? Well this means that instead of a sugar spike, which a type 2 cannot adequately deal with, sugar is released slowly into the bloodstream so that what insulin is produced is more able to handle it.

What is even better, is if less than 30grams of carbs(6 + 12 + 12) is consumed per day by any diabetic, whether they be T1 or T2.

elliehen, Jul 1, 10:03am
A generation or two ago ill-informed people followed this advice, and children with diabetes suffered from stunted growth.

buzzy110, Jul 1, 10:25am
Unfortunately, most of the damage that can occur to the body from ingesting too many carbohydrates, can also occur when ingesting fat with too many carbohydrates. This is why the conventional wisdom is to advise not to eat fats. However, this is the wrong advice. The advice should be to eat less carbohydrates whilst continuing to eat the same amount of fat.

To complete the picture, the sort of fats eaten should come from animal sources or vegetable sources such as cold pressed olive oil and coconut oil. Fish oils should also figure high on the list of priorities.

Carbohydrates are the things that cause the body to over produce insulin in the first place. They cause the body to become resistant to insulin. Insulin is anabolic so if you eat too many carbohydrates you become fat, until you are so resistant to insulin, your body begins to lose weight, rapidly.

buzzy110, Jul 1, 10:30am
Incorrect ellihen. Prior to the mid forties t1 diabetics where advised to eat an extremely low car, no carb diet. This negated the need for medication. Post mid 1940s they changed to advising children to eat a carbohydrate diet. Doctor Bernstein was in the latter group and his growth was stunted.

He now advises all his patients, and anyone else who will listen that they should eat only 6, 12 & 12 grams of carbohydrates at each meal.

He has nothing good to say about the Diabetes Society of his country and blames them entirely for his poor physical condition and the fact that all of his T1 contemporaries died in their 40s.

Your advice, as always is pure and unmitigated rubbish, just like your attempts to discredit uli and I by inferring we were alcoholics and smokers. As I said in that thread, your advice is beneath contempt.

elliehen, Jul 1, 10:39am
Very unsafe advice to give the parent of a child who is about to run on to the football field or netball court. The child must eat a carbohydrate boost snack MINUS the fat (e. g. a muesli bar WITHOUT the chocolate) so that fat content does not slow the glucose from getting to where it's needed.

buzzy110, Jul 1, 10:47am
Yada yada ellihen. Dr Bernstein, someone infinitely more experienced and a thousand times better qualified than you would say differently. However, in this case we are talking about an adult so why not answer the question, like you always are telling me to do.

elliehen, Jul 1, 11:04am
Anyone seeking advice on a medical condition as finely balanced as IDDM or NIDDM would do well to stay away from anonymous self-appointed experts, especially those breathlessly excited about the latest thing they've read.

firob, Jul 3, 2:05am
Very true words elliehen, No person with type 1 or 2 should be taking on board advice from an anonymous source such as on this site. Lots of information is freely available on good eating/ recipes etc from any local Diabetes organisation. They have a wealth of information available for all people with Diabetes.

yjeva, Jul 3, 2:17am
If this person has been diagnosed by a doctor he should already have been referred to a diabetic clinic and have access to a qualified diabetic nurse for advice.
For this person to say that he doesn't have time to look for the information he needs for his health is foolish in the extreme.

pixiegirl, Jul 3, 2:57am
Hi poster #1 - diabetic here - type 2 on insulin - I would honestly recommend the Dr Bernstein book as well. I borrowed it from the library and so impressed I actually bought it and his cookbook from his website. It IS written by a diabetic who is living proof of the way he lives. A lot of the information diabetics are given here are not written by diabetics - personally I would rather read something by someone who has lived and is still living the disease. My reading of the book was like reading a book about me in detail. He nails all the issues on the head basically. I was sort of following the diet the diabetes society recommended diet and was still having enourmous readings after eating what they recommended. So what I have done is reduced my carbs intake and am now getting single figure readings mostly which is what I am after. What I am looking for is to have readings without the super huge spikes you get from eating excess carbs. Example I eat weetbix for breakfast - 2 hours later I am sitting at about 15 - I have bacon and eggs for breakfast and I am about 8 - go figure! My advice to you would be to get hold of this book and have a read (or your friend), get a meter and do trial and error - that is how you will work out what is going to work for you or not. Keep a diary and record what you eat and the reading that way you will have your own person record. Discuss this also with your doctor or nurse. Take a step towards taking control of your own health. I am not saying cutting carbs out completely - just reduce them down and you will be amazed by the readings you will get. Also one thing you have to watch out for is some of the diabetic medication goes hand and hand with carbs - eg I take glipizide as well and my diabetic nurse told me to cut this back if I was eating less carbs so just double check with your health professional first to make sure. Oh and I unashamedly eat butter, olive oil etc - dont touch low fat products or artifical sweeteners. I wont use margarine or any like that - it just tastes wrong these days. No low cal soft drinks - these days they taste like either pure syrup or poison. this was someone who was drink a 1. 5litre of coke zero a day - if I feel like something sweet these days will have half glass of it and remember why I dont drink it any more - yuk.
Also poster one please encourage your friend to take time out for his health sake - the complications of this disease are not nice and he needs to get it under control now rather than later.