Carb crazy wife is now diabetic, advice....

merlin

merlin

merlin

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My wife is (was) a snack monster - constantly eating/snacking during the day (and no - she's not fat - she's 5ft 5 and 7.5 stone) - high metabolism so she burns it off in no time, also having young children helps as you never get a minute peace. She's from the "eat little and often" school of thought.

Last week she was diag as type 1 - seems a virus has triggered auto-immune type 1 diabetes - pancreas = fried so she's now struggling with the hunger for carbs (carbs that she can't now have) - the high carb snacks have to stop and she's now carb counting everything. Sad times.

There must be a few diabetics here - what carb sensible snacks/meals have you discovered?

Any advice welcomed.

She's just constantly hungry. :(
 
Veg, meat, cheese, like eat healthy?

When you say you wife snacked often, and on high carbs snacks, do you mean crisps, biscuits and stuff? (junk)

My friend from the states doesn't eat carbs, the 10 days we were together, ate every meal together, her diet is practically carb free. I don't recall she eating a single slice of bread, piece of cake or biscuit, nor pasta. The only carbs she ate was off my food - a single piece of sushi here or there, that's it.
 
Raymond Lin said:
When you say you wife snacked often, and on high carbs snacks, do you mean crisps, biscuits and stuff? (junk)
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She eats healthy meals. The snacks were either fruit (which crazily she now has to moderate because of the high natural sugar content) or stuff like crisps/flapjack/croissant/brioche roll/toast/muffin etc - high carb stuff.

I wonder if her constant 'hunger' is in fact just in her head because she's not consuming carbs like she was?
 
merlin said:
The snacks were either fruit (which crazily she now has to moderate because of the high natural sugar content) or stuff like crisps/flapjack/croissant/brioche roll/toast/muffin etc - high carb stuff.
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Your description of "high carb stuff" is what I call junk.

I still eat them, but like 1 muffin a week or I have a croissant for breakfast, and that is it. At 9am, I eat nothing until 1pm. There is no snacking in between.

I doubt it's she crave "high carbs stuff", its just she is used to snacking all the time.
 
merlin said:
Last week she was diag as type 1 - seems a virus has triggered auto-immune type 1 diabetes - pancreas = fried so she's now struggling with the hunger for carbs (carbs that she can't now have) - the high carb snacks have to stop and she's now carb counting everything. Sad times.

There must be a few diabetics here - what carb sensible snacks/meals have you discovered?

Any advice welcomed.

She's just constantly hungry. :(
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Sorry to hear that dude. It's a pain for sure, but the good news is it's not the end of the world.

Once she's settled down a bit with her insulin, get her to pester the consultant to get her on the DAFNE programme. Her current insulin is probably a medium acting that she takes 2 or 3 times a day. DAPHNE is two types of insulin - a slow acting and a fast acting. You take two shots of the slow acting which works as a background insulin, then top up with the fast acting every time you eat. The amount you take is based on the number of carbs you eat and that's written on all food. It's more injections but it's a great system because you're then free to eat what you like when you like.

If you get really lucky, she might be able to get herself an insulin pump - no more injections - she just wears a little pad on her leg and there's a little pump that she just programmes how much insulin she needs. The pump does the rest for her :)
 
Raymond Lin said:
My friend from the states doesn't eat carbs, the 10 days we were together, ate every meal together, her diet is practically carb free. I don't recall she eating a single slice of bread, piece of cake or biscuit, nor pasta. The only carbs she ate was off my food - a single piece of sushi here or there, that's it.
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A life without bread is a life not worth living.
 
Protein keeps you feeling fuller for longer, problem is (which is so twisted and I don't understand) that carb foods are cheaper, and so people buy them instead.

Low Gi carbs are possibly better for her as a diabetic? Either way she'll still need to inject when she eats no?
 
Find all the veg she likes and eat it raw. Watch the sugar content of some stuff.

- Carrots
- Cellery
- Cucumber
- Pepper
- Courgette
- Mini Sweetcorn
- Suger Snap Peas/Mangtout
- Mushrooms
- Cherry Tomatoes

How are nuts for carbs? The fat can be filling.

Meat!

- Sliced meats; I like beef and pastrami, costs a bit though

The ready cooked chicken and things all taste of nothing so you're better off cooking a batch yourself, you can then flavour it up, make some tandori chicken with yoghurt and spices, in the oven and it is a great snack.

Tuna as well, tins are easy.

Eggs too, get some boiled up in the morning to snack on in the day.

Also things like jerkey.

Only problem is this is all really expensive compared to carb and sugar filled snack foods.
 
Just posted this - my advice would be the same here too, Primal or Paleo (low carb, no 'safe starches') really help control blood glucose levels. People have strange reactions to the idea at first, but once you realise how rubbish bread and other grain based foods actually are, it's easy and you feel a lot better.
 
Jonny69 said:
Sorry to hear that dude. It's a pain for sure, but the good news is it's not the end of the world.

Once she's settled down a bit with her insulin, get her to pester the consultant to get her on the DAFNE programme. Her current insulin is probably a medium acting that she takes 2 or 3 times a day. DAPHNE is two types of insulin - a slow acting and a fast acting. You take two shots of the slow acting which works as a background insulin, then top up with the fast acting every time you eat. The amount you take is based on the number of carbs you eat and that's written on all food. It's more injections but it's a great system because you're then free to eat what you like when you like.

If you get really lucky, she might be able to get herself an insulin pump - no more injections - she just wears a little pad on her leg and there's a little pump that she just programmes how much insulin she needs. The pump does the rest for her :)
Click to expand...

I would get this I am type 1 and on the long and short acting stuff changed it 1 1/2yr ago and it makes eating what I fancy a bit easier than a set dose that can vary with activity and food, Get her to see her GP and talk through it as it is upto 4 injections a day, But I found it a much better way for me personally as I like my food. :D
 
You Will find masses of info on dukan or Atkins diet type websites lowcarbfriends.com comes to mind

I also recently discovered shirataki noodles. There almost too good to be true, low calorie 0 carb noodles, and very tasty
 
I made a stirfry yesterday - god damn regular noodles are super high carbed!

Sent her blood sugars through the roof.
 
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