# Prediabetic and confused!



## Cornelia49 (Sep 1, 2018)

Hello! I've just been told I'm prediabetic, not been given my "numbers" and confused! I'm actually underweight - BMI of 17.5 and have always been a sugar addict! I'm switching to sucralose, have a problem with rice - my go to supper is risotto! ☺ and need to gain weight ,not lose it! Any advice very much appreciated! I've been referred to a Diabetes Prevention Programme, but they keep trying to send me to venues virtually inaccessible without transport, which is not very helpful! Thanks for having me


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## HOBIE (Sep 1, 2018)

I actually Hate sugar ! Being T1 since being 3 might have something to do with it ? You are getting a gifted go. Please make use of it & keep them carbs LOW. Welcome


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## Martin9 (Sep 1, 2018)

Hi @Cornelia49 welcome to the forum, people with type 2 diabetes have trouble with carbohydrates that’s not only the simple sugars found in anything sweet like cakes, chocolate,  biscuits etc but also the more complex starches found in breads,rice, potatoes, wheat products such as pasta etc.
Carbohydrate starches are readily converted by our bodies into sugars, so you may as well have yourself a spoonful of sugar, conversely contrary to intuition, fats and proteins do not raise blood sugars too much.
What is generally advised here is what we call low carb, higher healthy fat diet so limit the amount of carbs in your diet and raise the amount of fats and proteins in diet.
You particularly will need to increase the amount of fats and protein to prevent further weight loss,
Many foods that are presented as healthy such as weetabix and muesli are in fact high carb foods and should be eaten sparingly if at all.
I’m also afraid that rice (risotto) is also carb laden and should be held back for a treat occasionally, I miss my pizzas too..
However as youre only at the prediabetic stage , cutting back a little should probably be enough to bring your blood sugars back into more normal levels
I would also advise getting hold of a BG meter so you can monitor your body’s response to certain foods and stop blood glucose spikes the Codefree & Tee2+ are cheap and more importantly so are the testing strips.
Anyway hope this helps and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to get back to us here...
Many regards..


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## Cornelia49 (Sep 1, 2018)

HOBIE said:


> I actually Hate sugar ! Being T1 since being 3 might have something to do with it ? You are getting a gifted go. Please make use of it & keep them carbs LOW. Welcome


Thanks, Hobie!


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## Cornelia49 (Sep 1, 2018)

Martin9 said:


> Hi @Cornelia49 welcome to the forum, people with type 2 diabetes have trouble with carbohydrates that’s not only the simple sugars found in anything sweet like cakes, chocolate,  biscuits etc but also the more complex starches found in breads,rice, potatoes, wheat products such as pasta etc.
> Carbohydrate starches are readily converted by our bodies into sugars, so you may as well have yourself a spoonful of sugar, conversely contrary to intuition, fats and proteins do not raise blood sugars too much.
> What is generally advised here is what we call low carb, higher healthy fat diet so limit the amount of carbs in your diet and raise the amount of fats and proteins in diet.
> You particularly will need to increase the amount of fats and protein to prevent further weight loss,
> ...


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## Cornelia49 (Sep 1, 2018)

Martin9 Thanks so much, that's really helpful! Not sure what I'll do without my rice dishes but will try. Interesting about fat, I assumed it was a no-no! I'm thinking of getting a monitor, though will struggle to understand it! Thanks again for all the advice


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## Martin9 (Sep 1, 2018)

We were all told for ages that fat was bad, and carbs were good, whereas in the past diabetes was much less prevalent than it is now, complications of diabetes are now one of the UKs biggest drain on the NHS.
Children are now being diagnosed with diabetes 2 due to the horrible processed carb laden diet they are being fed nowadays whereas before it was predominantly an affliction of the more elderly...


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## CathyB (Sep 1, 2018)

@Cornelia49 i have the code free meter and honestly, it’s idiot proof (the fact that I worked it out first time proves that ).  Testing is SO important so you can see what foods your body reacts to and what works best for you, then you tweak, try again, example being a lot of diabetes are fine with a few raspberries, so I tried them with my Greek yoghurt and was gutted to see my bg spike up to double figures, I swapped the raspberries for a splash of sugar free caramel syrup and things were fine  I had my sweet treat  
A food diary will help you see clearly.
How about swapping your risotto for a stir fry?


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## Cornelia49 (Sep 1, 2018)

CathyB said:


> @Cornelia49 i have the code free meter and honestly, it’s idiot proof (the fact that I worked it out first time proves that ).  Testing is SO important so you can see what foods your body reacts to and what works best for you, then you tweak, try again, example being a lot of diabetes are fine with a few raspberries, so I tried them with my Greek yoghurt and was gutted to see my bg spike up to double figures, I swapped the raspberries for a splash of sugar free caramel syrup and things were fine  I had my sweet treat
> A food diary will help you see clearly.
> How about swapping your risotto for a stir fry?


Thanks so much, CathyB - just looked at the Code free meter and it certainly is a lot more affordable than some I've seen! Not sure if I need one just yet, still trying to get my head round stuff (confusing! ) but will certainly keep it in mind  thanks! I'm thinking of trying to make my risottos with quinoa though whether that will work remains to be seen! Thanks for all the support,, greatly appreciated


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## Ljc (Sep 2, 2018)

Hi @Cornelia49 .   As you need to put some weight on, you need to put the extra calories in and ones that won’t spike you BG (blood glucose). This is why self testing is so important, as many foods that are considered healthy actually are not. Good fats imo are the obvious choice , butter, cream, cheese, some nuts are low carb with good fats , pork scratchings, I am making myself feel hungry here lol.
Can I ask how did you come to be dx (diagnosed) and have you always tended to be a bit underweight or did it start happening for no apparent reason .


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## Eddy Edson (Sep 2, 2018)

Cornelia49 said:


> Thanks so much, CathyB - just looked at the Code free meter and it certainly is a lot more affordable than some I've seen! Not sure if I need one just yet, still trying to get my head round stuff (confusing! ) but will certainly keep it in mind  thanks! I'm thinking of trying to make my risottos with quinoa though whether that will work remains to be seen! Thanks for all the support,, greatly appreciated



I've started to eat quite a lot of quinoa recently - good protein, fats & fibre, and good for BG levels as far as I can work out. Hadn't thought about risotto - I miss risotto! - but Mr Google has a bunch of different recipes. I'd be cautious about the amount of butter though - not for BG but just for the normal satfat concerns.

But just because it's good for my BG it doesn't mean that it would be for yrs - everybody's different & as everybody here says, it's very difficult to get a handle on how you personally handle it without testing before & after eating.


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## Martin9 (Sep 2, 2018)

Cornelia49 said:


> Thanks so much, CathyB - just looked at the Code free meter and it certainly is a lot more affordable than some I've seen! Not sure if I need one just yet, still trying to get my head round stuff (confusing! ) but will certainly keep it in mind  thanks! I'm thinking of trying to make my risottos with quinoa though whether that will work remains to be seen! Thanks for all the support,, greatly appreciated


Quinoa while slightly less carbs than rice is still fairly heavy carbs...fraid to say


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## Eddy Edson (Sep 2, 2018)

Martin9 said:


> Quinoa while slightly less carbs than rice is still fairly heavy carbs...fraid to say



But good fibre & protein => low GI/GL, and for me it works as advertised in really keeping BG under control. 

For now, unless it's something else etc etc etc


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## Drummer (Sep 2, 2018)

You might find that cauliflower will substitute for rice - I steam and roughly chop rather than go for the rice sized option, but it seems to work. I have bags of frozen cauliflower and broccoli available for whenever needed - though I do tend to make cauliflower cheese more these days - cook the cauliflower add cream cheese and a layer of grated cheese then keep warm until the cheese melts. A bit of paprika or other spices or herbs can be good - but these days I often eat it plain as it is delicious as it comes.


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## Northerner (Sep 2, 2018)

Cornelia49 said:


> Hello! I've just been told I'm prediabetic, not been given my "numbers" and confused! I'm actually underweight - BMI of 17.5 and have always been a sugar addict! I'm switching to sucralose, have a problem with rice - my go to supper is risotto! ☺ and need to gain weight ,not lose it! Any advice very much appreciated! I've been referred to a Diabetes Prevention Programme, but they keep trying to send me to venues virtually inaccessible without transport, which is not very helpful! Thanks for having me


Hi Cornelia, welcome to the forum  Apologies in advance, but I'm going to ask you a lot of questions which may help us to provide better advice and support 

Can you tell us how your diagnosis came about? Have you been given any medication for it? Have you had the symptoms of diabetes for long? Clearly, all the general advice about weight loss is not relevant in your case, but have the doctors given any possible explanation for your very low BMI? Is there any history of diabetes in your family? I would agree that getting a meter would help you to find out what foods you tolerate well and what you may need to reduce or exclude - people can have very different tolerances for the same things, so it's important to discover your own particular reactions. Have a read of Test,Review, Adjust by Alan S which explains how to test efficiently and effectively. You may find that some things you thought you had to exclude are actually OK for you, so you can retain maximum flexibility in your diet  Read  Maggie Davey's letter for some general guidance, and do let us know if you have any questions, we'll be happy to help!


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## JMyrtle (Sep 2, 2018)

We are all different but what works for me is to pre-cook the carbohydrate, let it go completely cold and then reheat.
Ideal for pasta, and I always triple cook my chips from those brown nobbly things called potatoes not the frozen ones, although I suppose the theory should work as they are precooked to some degree before freezing.
What I cannot tolerate under any circumstances is white bread, any kind of rice or boiled or mashed  old potatoes although two or three new potatoes straight out of the garden are fine.
But what is really odd is that I can eat any number of apples straight from the tree during the course of the day ( three yesterday afternoon while working in the garden) but even one small apple eaten in the evening sends my sugar thru the roof.
Answers to that one on a postcard please.


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## Cornelia49 (Sep 2, 2018)

Thank you all for all the support and advice   I have an eating disorder (although my doctors don't seem to think so!) but I just find eating difficult  not helped by very very bad IBS! Atm I'm just confused - I'm not even sure how they diagnosed me, cos I didn't have a fasting blood test,, just an ordinary one, and don't know my figures,, not that I'd understand them anyway  Not good atm, but that's mainly IBS which makes eating anything difficult!  Think for the moment I need to concentrate on eating *something! *I'm substituting sugar with sucralose, I think  that's the best way to go atm, otherwise I won't be diabetic  I'll be dead!  This forum is brilliant, I'm so grateful for all your support and advice - thank you so much


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## Martin9 (Sep 3, 2018)

JMyrtle said:


> We are all different but what works for me is to pre-cook the carbohydrate, let it go completely cold and then reheat.
> Ideal for pasta, and I always triple cook my chips from those brown nobbly things called potatoes not the frozen ones, although I suppose the theory should work as they are precooked to some degree before freezing.
> What I cannot tolerate under any circumstances is white bread, any kind of rice or boiled or mashed  old potatoes although two or three new potatoes straight out of the garden are fine.
> But what is really odd is that I can eat any number of apples straight from the tree during the course of the day ( three yesterday afternoon while working in the garden) but even one small apple eaten in the evening sends my sugar thru the roof.
> Answers to that one on a postcard please.


Does the cooling work for rice as well ?


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## Northerner (Sep 3, 2018)

Martin9 said:


> Does the cooling work for rice as well ?


You need to be very careful about reheating rice as it can cause food poisoning:

https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/can-reheating-rice-cause-food-poisoning/

From memory, it doesn't have the same effect as reheating pasta.


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## Martin9 (Sep 3, 2018)

Northerner said:


> You need to be very careful about reheating rice as it can cause food poisoning:
> 
> https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/food-and-diet/can-reheating-rice-cause-food-poisoning/
> 
> From memory, it doesn't have the same effect as reheating pasta.


Thanks @Northerner !


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