Pre-diabete****

Hello and welcome back. I had asked you a couple of questions back in January about what she is eating for meals and if there you have other members in your family with diabetes. That is helpful information. Do you have a blood sugar meter? If not, I believe it would be in her best interest to get one. If you can do this through your insurance, that's great. If not, you can buy inexpensive ones at WalMart and their test strips.

I'm going to post a couple of links for you to consider and then I'll write what meal plans/food work for anyone who has diabetes.

First, please read the two stickies at the top of the Diabetes Forum. Next, here is a comprehensive site that discusses everything about blood sugar. www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/

Next is a site dedicated to all things regarding diet and low carb food: forum.lowcarber.org/index.php? You will find different forums there that talk about food and recipes, etc.

In short, our blood sugar rises because of the carbs in food so the food that makes it really high would be anything made with flour (cereal, pasta, bread, crackers, cakes, cookies, breaded food), potatoes, rice, corn and anything made with sugar, honey or maple syrup.

The best meal plan would be any protein like beef, chicken, pork, fish and vegetables that are not corn or potatoes. Also food good to eat would be, nuts, yogurt, and cheese. Food that can be part of a meal or salad or snacks would be celery, peanut butter, cream cheese, hummus (in moderation), radishes, olives. Leafy greens for salads are really good: lettuce, spinach, parsley, cilantro. Instead of a sandwich, you can wrap any luncheon meat in a large lettuce leaf.

You can get a lot of breakfast ideas from the Lowcarber website but what works out well are eggs in any form, Canadian bacon, a breakfast quiche of broccoli, cheese, ham....

Our problem is that we do not find this food in a box or package because it's natural and we have to prepare it, so it does take planning. You can make a small casserole of cheese, vegetables and chicken (for example) in muffin tins and freeze them for another time. Take one or two out and pop them in the microwave or oven to eat.

It could be a fun project planning out the week of meals and snacks. Have cheese sticks or cheddar cubes with mixed nuts in little baggies ready to eat. Or, make up celery sticks with peanut butter and cream cheese or hummus.

I hope this helps. Do you think this can work for her?

Thank you all for your comments.

BookRead, can you write what kinds of food are eaten in your house for meals?

The first step to success in this is realizing there needs to be steps taken, period. Ignorance of what to do is where I started and I had to learn from the onset at the age of 57. I had no idea about food and blood sugar/diabetes ten years ago even though diabetes is in my immediate family. So, it's really great and important that you are here asking questions. And, like you, I did not find good information or help from a dietitian.

Excess weight as well as heredity contributes to blood sugar and diabetes problems, so as I wrote, eating carbs makes this worse. Looking at your list of food, the following are making things worse or at the very least not improving the situation: cereal, oatmeal, toast, fried potatoes, pancakes, french toast, pizza, mashed potatoes, taco shells, sun chips, bread, pasta. That is the food that you write she is now eating.

If you buy any food in a package at all, check the carbs. The higher the carbs, the higher the blood sugar.

For breakfast ideas, check out the Lowcarber site. School lunches may not be the best choice so if she brought her lunch from home, that would be a good start. She could take large leaves of lettuce and some slices of any kind of meat (even meatloaf) and eat lettuce wraps. Baggies of nuts and cheese and other snack food I mentioned above are also good to have in the bag. (My husband likes meatloaf and he takes a slice of frozen meatloaf leftover from dinner and it defrosts by the time he eats lunch.)

Fresh vegetables would always be the first choice to eat but I also have bags of frozen vegetables which are easy to take what I need and lightly saute or quickly boil/steam. Drizzle some butter and lemon juice on them for taste. Very often I put a small plate of salad food on the table for anyone to pick from as we eat dinner: cucumber pieces, small tomatoes, olives, cheese cubes, celery pieces, springs of cilantro, some baby spinach leaves, plain walnuts or other nuts. Picking from this plate helps fill you up and does not add to higher blood sugar (unless you're wolfing down everything insight on the table).

Broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, mushrooms, carrots (limited) can all be eaten cooked or raw. Zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers, mushrooms, green onions can be sauteed alone or combined for tasty sides.

Fresh and frozen vegetables are cheaper than buying prepared food in boxes and they are healthier.

Changing how your daughter is eating may help you too! Has she seen an endocrinologist?

Also, it might be more interesting to take a 30-minute walk if the weather is getting better where you are than to walk on a treadmill. Around your house, in a park, around a shopping center. If you're all watching TV, stepping in place during commercials or even during the show will make the time pass quickly, too.

BookRead, a plant-based diet is not necessarily beneficial for blood sugar. In fact, it may make it harder to control blood sugar because even the vegetables I've mentioned have carbs. Fruit has many more carbs. I think she should have some kind of protein from meat/poultry/fish as well as nuts and peanuts.

If you want to do some further reading, look for books by Drs. Michael and Mary Eades and Dr. Richard Bernstein. Bernstein wrote Diabetes Solution.

Great info, acquiesce! Thanks!

Hi all:

Interestingly, I have seen several books on diabetes by doctors who say the ADA "meal plans" are actually bad and are not helpful for those interested in actually reversing diabetes. I am hoping that if I can get the right meal plan in place and then have her exercise up to 60 minutes a day, the excess weight will come off, her numbers will improve, her Acanthosis nigricans will fade, energy go up, and cholesterol go down.

So, for breakfast, I assume, eggs are going to be the primary protein source? Cereals are out due to high carbs. Toast too. Perhaps a vegetable egg omelette?

If her calories are too restricted though, and she does not get enough exercise, I guess she can continue to gain weight? That may be the case right now.

Hi Lanie:

My daughter also has acanthosis nigricans. Will that go away? And, what is a good target for weight loss each week? Creating a meal plan is so hard, to get her good calories that fill her up. She says she is so hungry all the time. I will be implementing your suggestions though. Thank you. She is at 160 lbs right now. I would love to see her at 110 and not so fatigued, etc.

We all need to be in the habit of reading the nutrition statement on any packaged food we buy. What we may think is a package of healthy frozen green beans can contain a lot of additional ingredients that could include carbs. It's also important to look at the saturated fats and trans-fats, as well as sodium. And remember, any ingredient ending in -ose is a carbohydrate.