# The right food for pre diabetics



## Kevin Hart (Sep 4, 2018)

Hi, my name is Kevin and I am diagnosed pre diabetic.
My passion in life has been amongst other thing eating and cooking food so it came as a great shock to be told I must give up all things sugar and maintain a low carb diet.
So, after I got over the shock I started to rewrite and sometimes scrap the recipes that I had painstakingly put together over the years and rethink them and come up with alternatives.
Well, I think I have at least started to understand this complex subject and proceeded to re-write them.  A friend of mine liked what I was doing and suggested I make a website of my recipes, so that is exactly what I did, I used recipes that were sugar free but balanced with low carbs and high in the right kind of vegetables which were high in fibre. I must point out that these recipes are aimed at pre diabetics but I am sure there will be those that will be suitable for full blown diabetics but if you have the slightest doubt please consult your doctor before trying them, thanks. I not sure if I should divulge the name at this juncture but if I am allowed and you fancy taking a look the name of the site is cookwithkev.net


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## Martin Canty (Sep 4, 2018)

Thanks Kevin, taking a look.... Kinda promising so far.

One suggestion is to emphasize that it's carbs, particularly refined carbs that should be reduced rather than just sugars.


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## Kevin Hart (Sep 4, 2018)

You are quite right Martin, refined carbs are the pits, as is anything food wise that has been “Refined”, it usually spells disaster for everyone and most of all,  those of us who have to be very wary, so we should only eat Carbs that are high in fibre like whole foods.


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## Martin Canty (Sep 4, 2018)

Kevin Hart said:


> You are quite right Martin, refined carbs are the pits, as is anything food wise that has been “Refined”, it usually spells disaster for everyone and most of all,  those of us who have to be very wary, so we should only eat Carbs that are high in fibre like whole foods.


As a fully qualified T2, I tend to avoid things labeled as Wholefood, but then again, your target audience is pre-D... I do like the emphasis on green veggies.


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## Kevin Hart (Sep 5, 2018)

Hi Martin, I found this article on whole foods foe T2 that you might find interesting:  https://www.ehe.health/blog/insulin-resistance


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## CathyB (Sep 5, 2018)

Hi Kevin, thanks for sharing, some interesting reading and the food looks amazing!  Unfortunately I have chosen a very low carb approach so don’t touch potatoes, pasta or rice of any kind and only eat veg that grown above ground.  If you fancy a real challenge you might consider expanding your selection to include those of us that have made this choice....there are a LOT of us


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## Kevin Hart (Sep 5, 2018)

Hi Cathy, interesting.  My recipes don’t include much potato and when they do they are usually mixed with something low carb like Swede.  We all need carbs I believe to maintain over all health but they must be the high fibre kind however I would be glad to take up the challenge but would need to know a little more.  For instance, a Swede is finally formed above ground but obviously a root vegetable where as  a potato is not.  Do you for instance ever eat Whole Foods? Do you eat meat?  A short list of what you can eat would be beneficial if I am going to stand any chance of providing a suitable recipe but as stated I am up for the challenge.
Please give me a little help with the ingredients and I will try and give you good food that you will enjoy.  Meanwhile I shall carry out some research.


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## Martin Canty (Sep 5, 2018)

A lot of us follow the guidelines of cutting or reducing carb sources such as bread, pasta, rice, cereals & starchy vegetables such as potatoes, instead replacing them with green leafy vegetables grown above ground (noticed that in your "Best Practices" section).

Not that we can never have these foods, but there may be consequences if reintroduced as part of our regular diet.

As far as baked foods go (and pastry) members have had success with alternate flours to wheat (flaxseed, soy, oat and so-on) to make low carb alternatives


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## CathyB (Sep 5, 2018)

Kevin I am still learning myself so at the moment I’m clear what I don’t eat and willing to consider reasonable suggestions, I have eaten swede and been ok with it as an alternative to mash.  I avoid peas, but eat green beans, avoid sweet corn, love cabbage, asparagus and any other greens.  As summer comes to an end I will need to think about soups and casseroles as I blow the dust off my trusty slow cooker, so would love some ideas?


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## Kevin Hart (Sep 5, 2018)

Hi again Matin, I stated that you should only eat Wholemeal pasta bread and rice and for a pre diabetic there is some quite compelling reasons why we should but I honestly don’t know if the same can be said for  T1 and T2 but will make it a priority to genned up on the subject ASAP.  Thanks for your input as I obviously don’t know enough about T1 and T2 but am more than willing to find out and produce some good recipes that fulfill all criteria.


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## Martin Canty (Sep 6, 2018)

Kevin Hart said:


> I honestly don’t know if the same can be said for T1 and T2


The route I went & was very successful at controlling My D was to cut them, but my stock advice is to "Cut or Reduce".... We are all different in what our bodies can tolerate & what they can't so unfortunately there is no "One Size Fits All"


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## Drummer (Sep 6, 2018)

I'm afraid that the idea that wholemeal whatever is a good idea as it is slow release is totally wrong - at least it is for me - if I take a mouthful of carbohydrate and just allow my saliva to get to work on it, then in a few seconds I get a sweet taste in my mouth as the amylase breaks down the starch to simple sugars.
I would then spit it out - as I do not want to eat anything to elevate my blood glucose levels above normal.
The idea that we need carbs is also wrong - of course many people find that they can eat and enjoy up to 50 gm of carb a day and still keep their blood glucose levels in the normal range, but the essentials are proteins and fats.
I appreciate that your recipes are for prediabetics, but repeating the errors about carbs is not going to helpful in the long term if they guide people into full blown diabetes with the wrong idea about carbs.


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## Kevin Hart (Sep 6, 2018)

Well the story so far


Drummer said:


> I'm afraid that the idea that wholemeal whatever is a good idea as it is slow release is totally wrong - at least it is for me - if I take a mouthful of carbohydrate and just allow my saliva to get to work on it, then in a few seconds I get a sweet taste in my mouth as the amylase breaks down the starch to simple sugars.
> I would then spit it out - as I do not want to eat anything to elevate my blood glucose levels above normal.
> The idea that we need carbs is also wrong - of course many people find that they can eat and enjoy up to 50 gm of carb a day and still keep their blood glucose levels in the normal range, but the essentials are proteins and fats.
> I appreciate that your recipes are for prediabetics, but repeating the errors about carbs is not going to helpful in the long term if they guide people into full blown diabetes with the wrong idea about carbs.


Hi Drummer, are we talking white bread type carbs or the complex high fibre carbs of whole foods?  Diabetics daily states that "Some people with diabetes on a low-carb diet eat as few as 15 grams of carbohydrates per day while others may eat many times that," so there is a very fairly broad range.  In a nutshell everyone is different to their tolerance to carbs but a pre diabetic improves their diet by eating them. I have not any recipes as yet down to 15g but have some as low as 35g a main course meal as in my Chicken and vegetable stir fry.  I will be listing the amount of carbs in each recipe and have completed some but they are all relatively low carb meals and perfectly safe and good for the pre diabetic and some but not all obviously diabetics.  Your feedback to me is essential for understanding the complexities of food in conjunction with the disease, thanks.


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## Kevin Hart (Sep 6, 2018)

Martin Canty said:


> The route I went & was very successful at controlling My D was to cut them, but my stock advice is to "Cut or Reduce".... We are all different in what our bodies can tolerate & what they can't so unfortunately there is no "One Size Fits All"


I feel that removing processed carbs e.g. white bread and replacing with wholemeal and reducing the amount eaten per day would be a sensible start if you are able to process the carbs in the latter.


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 6, 2018)

Hi Kevin and welcome to the forum - and thanks for posting your recipes 

Changing to brown bread/rice/pasta is good advice if you're pre-diabetic trying to stop becoming diabetic, and it's also good advice for type 1 diabetics like me - I can get away with eating granary bread, brown rice or pasta, and potatoes because I'm injecting insulin to cover the carbs.  Type 1s can eat most things, but have to avoid things which spike our blood sugar too quickly, which varies from person to person - it might be white bread, or it might be dried fruit or bananas or cornflakes, or it might be chocolate fudge cake (in my case, very weirdly, it's eggs, which are obviously not carbs at all!).

Unfortunately changing to brown bread/rice/pasta is not enough for many type 2 diabetics, who often find that wholemeal alternatives are not much better than processed carbs, and can't tolerate them at all.  A lot of type 2s here follow a very low carb diet - instead of using carbs for energy they eat healthy fats, and also eat a lot more protein than I would.  So if you want a challenge you might want to think about some completely carb-free recipes which replace carbs with healthy fats or proteins!

Good luck, and I hope you manage to stave off the diabetes - it sounds like you're doing the right things so far by switching to lower carb alternatives and doing your research


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## travellor (Sep 6, 2018)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> Hi Kevin and welcome to the forum - and thanks for posting your recipes
> 
> Changing to brown bread/rice/pasta is good advice if you're pre-diabetic trying to stop becoming diabetic, and it's also good advice for type 1 diabetics like me - I can get away with eating granary bread, brown rice or pasta, and potatoes because I'm injecting insulin to cover the carbs.  Type 1s can eat most things, but have to avoid things which spike our blood sugar too quickly, which varies from person to person - it might be white bread, or it might be dried fruit or bananas or cornflakes, or it might be chocolate fudge cake (in my case, very weirdly, it's eggs, which are obviously not carbs at all!).
> 
> ...



I think it's fair to say we follow many varieties of diet.
Personally, I have never low carbed, even when I successfully reversed my type 2, so I son't entirely agree with the validity of the statement that you made.
Also, I now avoid processed food where possible, as I used to find processed food has high GI, and was digested a lot faster than low GI wholefood, which obviously didn't spike as much.

I adopted a low fat diet initially, and now as you say, eat healthy fats, so I avoid saturated fats, but am still low fat overall.

The best route I found was to test different foods with a meter, and to accurately establish the effect foods had on me, as you have found, we all react differently.


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## Kevin Hart (Sep 6, 2018)

Great feedback on what for me is turning out to be a very variable and complex subject with everyone being so different.
It makes writing recipes almost imposible but not imposible.  Maybe I should write recipes for healthy fats say on one day then maybe a recipe for low carbs on another or just to keep writing recipes for pre diabetics which after all is what my site is about but I still care enough about T1 and T2 , so if anyone has any requests I will do my best to cater for them as individuals.


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## Martin Canty (Sep 6, 2018)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> brown bread/rice/pasta is not enough for many type 2 diabetics, who often find that wholemeal alternatives are not much better than processed carbs,


That was one of the real eye-openers when I first started testing for my food, even small amounts would spike me sky high so, to this day,  I generally avoid them. Mind you, in those days I was pretty much on the ADA recommendations (low fat, moderate carbs etc).


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 6, 2018)

travellor said:


> I think it's fair to say we follow many varieties of diet.
> Personally, I have never low carbed, even when I successfully reversed my type 2, so I son't entirely agree with the validity of the statement that you made.
> Also, I now avoid processed food where possible, as I used to find processed food has high GI, and was digested a lot faster than low GI wholefood, which obviously didn't spike as much.
> 
> ...



Sorry if I gave the impression I was talking about all type 2s, travellor - I didn't mean to - I realise we are all different.  I said _many_ type 2s because a lot of the type 2s on this forum do eat very low carb and have found it helpful.  I was trying to explain that for some, changing to wholemeal alternatives just isn't enough to lower blood sugar sufficiently, but it's great that it worked for you!


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## travellor (Sep 6, 2018)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> Sorry if I gave the impression I was talking about all type 2s, travellor - I didn't mean to - I realise we are all different.  I said _many_ type 2s because a lot of the type 2s on this forum do eat very low carb and have found it helpful.  I was trying to explain that for some, changing to wholemeal alternatives just isn't enough to lower blood sugar sufficiently, but it's great that it worked for you!



I think it depends on how much insulin is produced, and how much insulin resistance is present.
As said, some find any carbs may cause a spike, for me, that was totally wrong, whereas for others, addressing the type of carbs can have a beneficial effect.
Slow release, low GI, and I worked with the NHS to tune their diet specifically to suit my meter readings, and found low fat was the optimum for me to lose weight, decrease my insulin resistance, and eventually reverse my type 2.

I know some do advocate low carb, but for me, it's not a diet I wanted to commit to for life, as I found it too constrictive, so I looked at methods other than diet control.
It was more difficult originally possibly, but the overall gain outweighed that for me.


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## JMyrtle (Sep 7, 2018)

Sorry but I agree with Dodo here.
I cannot tolerate refined carbs like white bread, white flour, rice or pasta.
I can " get away with" have a slice of wholemeal toast at breakfast, whole grain pasta provided I cook it , allow it to go completely cold and then reheat it, six chips provided they are made from real potato and triple cooked ( no frozen) and three small new potatoes straight from the garden.
I cannot tolerate old potatoes in any form, rice however it's cooked, anything using wheat, rice or potato flour or potato crisps.
I know all this because I test and keep a food diary so it's my choice if I eat them or not.


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## Drummer (Sep 7, 2018)

Kevin Hart said:


> Well the story so far
> 
> Hi Drummer, are we talking white bread type carbs or the complex high fibre carbs of whole foods?  Diabetics daily states that "Some people with diabetes on a low-carb diet eat as few as 15 grams of carbohydrates per day while others may eat many times that," so there is a very fairly broad range.  In a nutshell everyone is different to their tolerance to carbs but a pre diabetic improves their diet by eating them. I have not any recipes as yet down to 15g but have some as low as 35g a main course meal as in my Chicken and vegetable stir fry.  I will be listing the amount of carbs in each recipe and have completed some but they are all relatively low carb meals and perfectly safe and good for the pre diabetic and some but not all obviously diabetics.  Your feedback to me is essential for understanding the complexities of food in conjunction with the disease, thanks.


Well - if it is fibre, we do not digest it - we can't as we are not ruminants.
All the other naturally occurring carbs are easily digested - and so there is not much benefit to anyone wishing to eat a lower carb diet to eating wholegrain or wholemeal rather than the white form - if they eat X amounts of carbs in a meal, that is how many they digest.
It is really good that you will be listing the carb content of your meals - though do be aware that there can be differences which are quite significant in the reported amounts. I do not know how to resolve that. Personally I tried out various meals which seemed quite low carb and then tested how they affected me. I seem to react more to legumes than would be thought from the amount of carbs they contain.


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## Cornelia49 (Sep 8, 2018)

Kevin Hart said:


> You are quite right Martin, refined carbs are the pits, as is anything food wise that has been “Refined”, it usually spells disaster for everyone and most of all,  those of us who have to be very wary, so we should only eat Carbs that are high in fibre like whole foods.


Hi Kevin, great idea to publish your recipes, I'll take a look. I've just been diagnosed as prediabetic, but also have the problem of being underweight!  BMI 17.5 Virtually everything I have read so far is about cutting down on carbs, when I intuitively feel I need to *increase *them! I know "empty" carbs are bad, but I certainly don't need to lose more weight  so have to find a balance. And I'm *really *confused about fats! 

HbA1c 42


Kevin Hart said:


> You are quite right Martin, refined carbs are the pits, as is anything food wise that has been “Refined”, it usually spells disaster for everyone and most of all,  those of us who have to be very wary, so we should only eat Carbs that are high in fibre like whole foods.


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## CathyB (Sep 9, 2018)

Kevin Hart said:


> Great feedback on what for me is turning out to be a very variable and complex subject with everyone being so different.
> It makes writing recipes almost imposible but not imposible.  Maybe I should write recipes for healthy fats say on one day then maybe a recipe for low carbs on another or just to keep writing recipes for pre diabetics which after all is what my site is about but I still care enough about T1 and T2 , so if anyone has any requests I will do my best to cater for them as individuals.


Kevin I would br really interested in ideas for casseroles, I work long hours so as the colder weather comes in, I rely a lot on my slow cooker, I’m struggling to thing what veg to use that won’t turn to mush, at the moment I mainly eat cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and lots of asparagus....not the best casserole veg!  I try to stick to veg growing above the ground but I can tolerate swede.  Any ideas you have would be fantastic?


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## SkinnyLiz (Sep 12, 2018)

Kevin Hart said:


> Hi, my name is Kevin and I am diagnosed pre diabetic.
> My passion in life has been amongst other thing eating and cooking food so it came as a great shock to be told I must give up all things sugar and maintain a low carb diet.
> So, after I got over the shock I started to rewrite and sometimes scrap the recipes that I had painstakingly put together over the years and rethink them and come up with alternatives.
> Well, I think I have at least started to understand this complex subject and proceeded to re-write them.  A friend of mine liked what I was doing and suggested I make a website of my recipes, so that is exactly what I did, I used recipes that were sugar free but balanced with low carbs and high in the right kind of vegetables which were high in fibre. I must point out that these recipes are aimed at pre diabetics but I am sure there will be those that will be suitable for full blown diabetics but if you have the slightest doubt please consult your doctor before trying them, thanks. I not sure if I should divulge the name at this juncture but if I am allowed and you fancy taking a look the name of the site is cookwithkev.net


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## SkinnyLiz (Sep 12, 2018)

hello Kevin,
as a newly diagnosed prediabetic, with slightly raised cholesterol levels am going to need a low fat, low carb diet.  Will be checking out your site.  Have had a whole lot of conflicting advice so far and still very confused.
There is familial hypercholesterol in my family, but not sure if i have inherited that bogeyman.
Also excercise, which seems to be very important, in some places am reading to excercise before meals and in others its after ???
Liz


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## Drummer (Sep 13, 2018)

SkinnyLiz said:


> hello Kevin,
> as a newly diagnosed prediabetic, with slightly raised cholesterol levels am going to need a low fat, low carb diet.  Will be checking out your site.  Have had a whole lot of conflicting advice so far and still very confused.
> Liz


I was eating low fat high carb for almost two years and then was diagnosed as a full blown diabetic. A few months on low carb high fat sorted out the diabetes and also lowered my cholesterol, improved my ratios - and the food is so much more palatable.


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## travellor (Sep 13, 2018)

Drummer said:


> I was eating low fat high carb for almost two years and then was diagnosed as a full blown diabetic. A few months on low carb high fat sorted out the diabetes and also lowered my cholesterol, improved my ratios - and the food is so much more palatable.



Many of us react badly to saturated fats, my cholesterol goes through the roof.


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## Drummer (Sep 13, 2018)

travellor said:


> Many of us react badly to saturated fats, my cholesterol goes through the roof.


Oh you are unlucky then - is it familial hypercholesterol - thingy - these thing usually run in families.


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## travellor (Sep 13, 2018)

Drummer said:


> Oh you are unlucky then - is it familial hypercholesterol - thingy - these thing usually run in families.



No, it's simply saturated fat.
No issues otherwise.

It's not uncommon.


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## Kevin Hart (Sep 20, 2018)

Here is a great casserole recipe for most of you, it is extremely low carb but is full of different types of beans and lean lamb, tell me what you think:
https://cookwithkev.net/marrakech-hot-and-spicy-lamb-and-vegetable-soup/


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## Kevin Hart (Sep 20, 2018)

I think this is my best diabetic friendly (Mostly) recipe for a dessert to date, see what you think of this Recipe for a sugarless granola.


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