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Diagnosed Prediabetic: Does honest, practical info exist?
Beltaine
BOO BOO DOO DE DOORegistered User regular
BOO BOO DOO DE DOORegistered User regular
So, I got diagnosed, and given a couple prescriptions. Am also really overweight and don't want to end up a full diabetic.
Purchased a book, "The Blood Sugar Solution" by Mark Hyman.
Reading through it, I cannot afford to do what this book wants me to do. The first chapter instructs me to do a questionnaire on the book's website, which then suggests nearly $500 in nutritional supplements for me to buy.
The diet is also beyond my means. I can't afford organic, free-range, gluten-free, etc. etc. everything. I also don't see me being able to logistically carry things like Salmon Salad in Steamed Collard Wraps to work everyday for lunch.
Is there any info out there from someone NOT trying to sell me something? Something practical that someone living on a tight budget can afford?
Purchased a book, "The Blood Sugar Solution" by Mark Hyman.
Reading through it, I cannot afford to do what this book wants me to do. The first chapter instructs me to do a questionnaire on the book's website, which then suggests nearly $500 in nutritional supplements for me to buy.
The diet is also beyond my means. I can't afford organic, free-range, gluten-free, etc. etc. everything. I also don't see me being able to logistically carry things like Salmon Salad in Steamed Collard Wraps to work everyday for lunch.
Is there any info out there from someone NOT trying to sell me something? Something practical that someone living on a tight budget can afford?
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Diet, that means: no sugar, no fatty meat, and no carbohydrates.
Exercise, exercise, exercise.
I was recently diagnosed as diabetic myself, so I can relate somewhat to what you're going through. For me, the diagnosis was actually a very positive thing but I'm well aware that many diabetics (or pre-diabetics) don't have all or some of the advantages I have. My experience isn't your experience and I don't want to suggest that you should be feeling better about it. For me it was good because it put into context a number of health problems I'd been experiencing for years, and now armed with the knowledge that I'm diabetic and with medication, I have the tools to much more effectively manage my health and I already feel better than I did before I was diagnosed.
From what I know as a diabetic, I'd say the three biggest things you're probably going to need to change from a lifestyle perspective is watching the amount of carbs you eat every meal quite carefully. Assuming 3 meals a day, I've been told to keep my carbs down to 45-60 grams per meal for weight loss. Keep in mind that I'm not that overweight (5'11"/205 lbs), so your situation may be rather different. But you'll want to watch closely the amount of carbs you're taking in at each meal, not just for the day as a whole, because you're trying to keep your blood glucose fairly stable.
The other thing is that you'll really want to try and lose weight so you'll want to watch the total calories you're taking in. That means more fiber as fiber not only has health benefits itself, but also satiates you better and longer than fat or carbs do. I want to emphasize that you don't want to avoid carbs or fat completely. Some of both is healthy. You'll just need to watch the amounts.
The other crucial step to losing weight will be exercise. Regular exercise. I realize that can be a challenge on a tight budget. You may not be able to afford a gym membership. But it's important that you get regular exercise whether it's walking or cycling or skating, get out and get active on a regular basis. Of course, you'll need to take it easy at first. Be patient, it'll take some time to get in shape.
Keep in mind this is just some basic, general advice because first of all I'm not a doctor obviously and I also don't know the specifics of your situation. I'll try to answer any questions you have. Do you have health insurance that's covering your prescription and your Dr. visits?
And remember, at least you caught it before it's actually diabetes. You can act now and improve your health!
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
I am assuming that if you stay away from carbs and loose weight you will hopefully get out of the pre-diabetic risk zone and you will be able to start eating a wider variety of foods again. You should probably swear off soda and other sugared drinks for the rest of your life though. Those are the worst.
do a pubmed lit search and get educated for free
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
He and the other nurses in his office all started on a program called "Sugar Busters". It's a great book, and a great cookbook. Dad lost a significant amount of weight when he stuck to the diet, as did one of the nurses, and their blood sugar levels were fantastic.
It basically consisted of low-carb dieting, replacing white pasta/bread with whole wheat and keeping an eye on the amount of sugars.
Dad didn't do much exercise other than being a doctor working 9 hour days at the clinic, but it still helped his health a lot.
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Careful, what I said comes from a true doctor, do I have to assume you are a doctor?
But perhaps you'd like to take it up with the Mayo Clinic and argue with their diabetes management advice and how some nameless doctor told you otherwise.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/diabetes/HQ00384
From diabetes.org:
More info on where you're at and what gives you the most trouble with motivation or whatever would help hone any further advice, but for blind advice I'll say that the Couch to 5k program is widely praised and has a lot of success stories.
This is pretty much right on. Remove "empty" sugar, like soft drinks, reduce overall carb intake, and switch to whole grain, fiber rich carbs. That, plus oral meds, reduced my A1C by nearly two full points.
45 - 60 grams per meal is dead on, too. At the clinic I go to, 15 grams is considered a carb unit. Meals should be approximately three carb units, with one carb unit snack/desert.
Another thing to consider is the space between meal components. If you eat something, then wait a bit (say, 20 minutes) before resuming, your sugar will be higher than if you ate it all at once. You'll basically get a double spike, as you'll spike once due to part one, and while your body is busy dealing with that, a new infusion of sugar comes along, affecting and adding to the already elevated level. That makes going to restaurants a bit harrowing. If you're going to eat a meal, try to eat everything at one sitting. Otherwise, leave 3+ hours between meals.
Let me back up Druhim here because I work for doctors that specialize in this stuff, my dad is diabetic, and my girlfriend has kidney disease (which is sometimes a result of diabetes) so I'm actively involved in this world.
Even diabetics don't cut out carbs. They cut out stuff like soda, and sweets but carbohydrates (which is essentially sugar) are essential to your body to function (blood-brain barrier for instance). Glucose (which comes from carbohydrates) is basically brain food, and one of the few metabolites that can cross that blood-brain barrier.
Cut down on soda, sweets, baked goods, cut out adding sugar to foods, increase things like vegetables (fruits should be kept lower) and a more protein heavy diet.
Oh yeah, lower your blood pressure too. Which means nothing with salt and keep your diet low sodium in general (no diet soda either), start an exercise regimen, and start checking your blood pressure regularly. Your goal is 120 or under, anything higher and you're bordering on hypertension which is a real danger to someone with diabetes (even pre-diabetes). Heart disease, kidney failure, and the whole host of issues come from it, including potentially pushing yourself into diabetes if you're almost there but not quite.
definitely work on improving your diet. like has been mentioned, cut out crap like soda and candy, but stay balenced with carbs, protein and good fat. things like fish are great and loaded with good fats. I would suggest sticking to water for most drinking needs.
definitely definitely see about getting on an exercise regime. there are main ways to clear glucose out of your blood. insulin and exercise. insulin really just clears it out and shuffles it to other place where it is stored or broken down. yet exercise clears it out and always breaks it down, so its less likely to get converted to/stored as fat.
added bonus in that it will help you loss weight which in turn will help your glucose control.
You don't need supplements, outside of maybe a multi-vitamin.
Me and some friends have had some results with myfitnesspal.com Its basically a way to track your calories and exercise, there's smartphone apps. And basically anything you eat with a barcode is in the database, along with tons of entries for other stuff. You can friend people on the site and/or have it post to your FB for a little extra motivation, and to help keep yourself honest.
Heres a simple question, What is your normal breakfast?
My parents have a home gym they don't use that I'm working to get moved to my place, and one of the coaches at the school I work at has offered to help me with some exercise. Doc didn't seem too interested in exercise when I brought it up.
At one point I weighed 350 lbs. and started to cut my portions and exercise a little and had lost 65 lbs within a year. Then I hit a brick wall and couldn't seem to get below 285. So I got discouraged and eventually stopped watching what I was eating. When I went back to the doc this time, I was up to 305.
My normal breakfast is pop-tarts and a diet coke.
Lunch is whatever the high school cafeteria is serving.
Dinner is usually something light like a turkey sandwich or something like spaghetti, a pork chop, or crock-pot meatloaf. When I eat at home. When I eat out, which is usually 2-3 times a week, I don't do so good.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
Carbohydrates refer to the molecular structure of many things. In your diet we're talking sugars and starches usually. It all ends up the same amount of blood glucose, it just takes a different process. It is energy and is not something you need to cut completely, but as a prediabetic / type 2 you need to control your intake. The insulin that your body can still produce and use correctly is what determines how much of the carbohydrates you can handle, and going over that threshold is what causes hyperglycemia and health issues.
Fiber is also a carbohydrate but one that our bodies cannot break down into glucose. It goes right through you, hence all the conventional knowledge of fiber re: pooping. This is why high fiber versions in your diet is recommended, since if you have a grain item that is say 20g carbs and 2g fiber your body will break down 18g of that into glucose, but another high-fiber grain item might say 20g carbs and 8g fiber so only 12g gets used up. That's 50% more "counting carbs" in the low-fiber variant. (This is just some bullshit numbers used to illustrate the math, and differences like this are probably not going to be found in straight one-to-one flipping to "high fiber" stuff but changing what you eat to higher fiber items.)
Fiber also affects how your digestion works in a way that helps regulate blood sugar levels, as a bonus.
There is no reason that you should break the bank here. Assuming you aren't really watching what you eat all that much now, you might find you start spending less on food, as you control your intake and plan ahead better. There is nothing healthier about healthy/green/fuck-off marketing foods for a diabetic. It is about control and the chemistry/digestion.
I know more about the nutrition stuff, as a type 1 diabetic with a microbiology background, but exercise helps non-type 1s like yourself a good bit with insulin reception.
So, controlled diet (i.e. monitor your intake and count your numbers) and simple regular exercise to maintain your levels.
Most "doctor" doctors aren't very informed on diabetes, sadly. When I got diagnosed it was a clusterfuck of opinions.
Fortunately my family doctor didn't try to pretend they knew enough to recommend more than the "obvious" stuff and sent me to a nutritionist. If you can see a diabetic nutritionist (I'm in Canada so that's just automatic and free I think of a reference, but it is a good idea if you can find something) do so. The nutritionist and my endocrinologist had all the answers I needed to get started, and I learned a lot on my own outside that as I went.
re: the rest, that doesn't sound so bad.
Are the poptarts a time issue? A bowl of cereal is inexpensive and less sugar-skewed than a poptart. If you need to slam something in a toaster, keep dressing, and then run out the door with something in hand then try switching to whole wheat toast or bagel etc.
If it's served by a school then lunch is likely not too horrible, from my experiences working at a school division and doing the same thing anyway.
Dinner sounds pretty good. A portion for meat/protein time, if you do the counts you'll probably see you're fine as-is, unless you're drinking a bunch of sugar or some other source of too much crap that you don't realize yet.
Working at a school can give you some opportunities for a bit of exercise. The most important thing is just doing something, and doing it frequently. At a school you'll find plenty of activity if you look for it usually. Noon hour student activities, staff walk/running groups. I ended up joining in on the tennis club activities while doing IT at a high school, for example, if you can find an activity that you can coach/supervise that gets you exercise and lets the students have more to do then everyone wins!
My mom has had Type 2 for 26 years; she was diagnosed with it when I was born. "NO" carbs is definitely not necessarily correct. Some medications require you to consume carbs immediately after taking them so you don't pass out because they are meant to drop your blood sugar so you are able to eat without it skyrocketing in the other direction.
Diabetic diets are not always a "no carb" diet. They are a LOW carb diet. No more than 45g of carbs per meal, including sugars. I can only guess that a prediabetic diet is a bit more lenient.
And yeah, exercise! My mom wasn't over weight, she was actually under weight (below 100lbs) when she got Type 2, but her diet/lifestyle were not helping her at all. Now she's healthy and happy and needs very little instruction or scolding from her doctor. Even if it means something simple - exercise doesn't have to mean high impact, 5 days/week torture. Is the weather nice? Enjoy a walk outside for free. Going once a week is still more progressive than not going at all.
Eating healthy can definitely be pricier than eating cheap crap, but if you can work out your budget it should still be affordable. It doesn't mean you have to buy organic foods. It just means choosing something like lettuce instead of a box of mac and cheese.
You can do it! (:
Once you are comfortable with making scrambled eggs, try using your frying pan for other things, Like boneless chicken breast and other types of meats. The internet and youtube are full of cooking guides and recipes. Look up some simple low carb ones.
A bit of planning and you'll be saving money.
She's the only pre-diabetic I know, but the point is she didn't do anything fancy or invest in any major diet programs. I think she and her husband still eat out a lot because they work near each other and like to get together for lunch, but she's careful about what she orders and watches her salt.
It will be very helpful if you get into the habit of preparing all of your own meals. Eat a decent breakfast. Brown bag it to work, maybe having prepared and frozen meals in advance on the weekend if time is an issue for you in the evening. Make your own dinner. Take control of what you put in your body so that you become more invested in and knowledgeable of your eating habits.
Feel free to ignore all that gluten-free homeopathic wizard-blessed quantum new-agey crap in your book. The word organic is mostly junk that doesn't mean as much as most people would like it to in terms of their health. Free range means a lot to the well-being of cows, but not to you as much. Advice about gluten can be ignored unless you decide to take up celiac disease as a hobby one day. In short, that author is trying to milk his readers for all they are worth.
Ceres is right (if you're in the range of a type 2 diabetic), higher sodium diets are going to be the tipping point, rather than carbohydrates. Though you should still cut down on candy and baked goods, and stick to fruits like apples. Hypertension is the name of the game and keeping your blood pressure low, coupled with exercise should see an improvement in your overall health at the very least.
technically pre-diabetes is hyperinsulemia with normal glucose. since the normal ability of insulin to exert its effect is compromised, whether it be genetic, or lifestle effects. however the beta cells can compensate so you maintain glucose levels but have elevated insulin. once you cant produce enough insulin you start getting elevated glucose you are diabetic
type 1 is when you can't make any insulin and requires injections, type 2 generally is lifestyle related, mostly caused by obesity though it has been shown to be inherited
Start living primal, fix your health issues, enjoy a healthy and delicious life. Marksdailyapple.com or just google it. Eat meat (fatty meat, actually), eggs, vegetables, some fruits, nuts - just get rid of the sugars and refined carbohydrates, really. Anyone that tells you eliminating those two things is a *bad* thing is legitimately ignorant. "Whole grains" and things like rice aren't necessarily the worst but they aren't very useful either and gluten is a huge issue for a lot of people, and definitely doesn't help out a diabetic. There is nothing, at all, redeeming or useful from sugar and refined foods for your average person. If you start doing triathlons we might start allowing some Gatorade or something.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha what.
Stop with the diet coke and poptarts for breakfast. That shit would be bad news bears for Anyone.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
This is our go to for something we have in the fridge as leftovers for a quick, healthy, delicious breakfast, lunch, or even snack.
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/02/chana-masala/
I don't know what your tastes are, so I'm just tossing out one option we like.