Tim Tam writes about meal ideas:

He posted: "OK, what if I wanted to eat a can of carb-free soup, such as tomato, cream of chicken, celery soup, brocculi cheese soup, pea soup, etc., at the same or the next lunch?

And what do you think of cottage cheese with cut tomato (not fruit which has fruitous, or fruit sugar)?

Also, I've heard that many low fat products have added sugar, to make up for less taste in the low fat items. As a diabetic, why do I want more sugar in a low fat product?

Do you believe you should always get low fat items?"

Lanie,

Thanks for the information.

Do you make your own soup? Do you home cook all your own food? Are you on a mission?

Pork and beans, and canned fruit, I can wash out the sugar by opening the can 9/10ths of the way, putting the can under the tap water, letting it fill up and draining it out a couple of times, by holding the top down.

How do you drain the sugar out of cottage cheese and soup cans?

The same way?

Took Lanie's advice and went carb free today for breakfast and for lunch.

Took blood sugar reading about 2 1/2 hours after both meals, I think you said it should be 2 hours after a meal, and both times had a reading of 107.

I was impressed, with 111-125 being pre-diabetic, I read in my notes.

Now, for supper, my health care person has brought me a free meal that has carbs.

2nd issue is, I'm about to fall on the floor from no carbs, and the lower calories from that. So, I'm going to have to break down and eat the free meal, I guess.

(Although, I know I'm now capable of eating another carb free meal. Don't know if I could make it without my usual carb snack of cold cereal and fruit.)

But I have shown myself that I can get below diabetic, by following Lanie's advice.

You said you were on a low carb diet. Can I have the first two meals of the day with no carbs, and then have a supper which has carbs?

Also, for lunch, I needed something else to eat, so I put some Cottage Cheese (not the low fat kind which has added sugar for taste, I'm thinking) in a food container which has a top.

I filled the container with water, put the top 9/10ths on, then poured out the water, without pouring out the cottage cheese. Did this 2 or 3 times.

I was satisfied that it had gotten out the 6 grams of sugar, or reduced the sugar level to 1 or 2 grams, and ate the cottage cheese, with some tomato (not with fruit, which has fruit sugar, or fructose).

I found at lunch, I need the extra food type like cottage cheese to fill up, but I also found I can rinse out most of the sugar by putting a portion of it under the tap water.

I got through the lunch meal, without fainting, by taking Lanie's advice of cutting celery in advance and putting it in a plastic bag, so all of that work is done before lunch starts.

Then, I put pimento cheese on the celery and ate a couple of stalks.

I still wasn't filled enough, so Lanie said it was OK to eat peanut butter (although it has high cholesterol, and I have high colestoral), and just eating the peanut butter by itself.

Without that, I would have fainted.

Concerning putting fruit on cottage cheese or cereal, I've read on the net where blackberries and strawberries (both 7 grams per helping) and raspberries (with only 5 grams) are the lowest in fruit sugar.

Bananas, pineapple, pears and blueberries (at about 17 grams each), are the highest in fruit sugar.

Raisins are the absolute worst, with 86 grams of sugar. I ate bananas and raisins on my cereal for years without noticing on the back of the box, that it had 86 grams of sugar, while bananas had one of the highest counts of 17 grams.

It was like eating maple syrup. But since it was fruit sugar, it was OK. No it wasn't.

So I don't have t to have any fruit on my cottage cheese, tomatoes are great, but if I do, I can have a lower fructose one like raspberries (5 grams) or blackberries or strawberries (7 grams each). But not bananas, or other higher ones listed above.

I've done this so far by using Lanie's advice above, and in her advice to "mscoleman4" and myself on 4-30-2017, which is now just above this post.

Post Edited (Tim Tam) : 5/2/2017 6:11:13 PM (GMT-6)

Lanie: I am diabetic, but not on insulin, but controlled with diet.

I ate the carb supper last night, after eating carb-free the 1st two meals of the day.

One of the amazing things was, after going carb free the 1st 2 meals yesterday, when I went to eat supper last night, I had reduced appetite. It was macaroni and cheese, with a veggie, not very tasty to begin with.

I ate about 2/3 of a meal of macaroni, and I didn't want to eat any more. So I figured I would eat my regular 2 snacks. I had no appetite e for either of my two usual snacks.

I went to bed thinking, yeah, I'm going to wake up at 2 a.m. staving, because the supper was so small. I didn't wake up hungry.

I've heard carbs make you more hungry. I'm wondering if having no carbs the first two meals of yesterday, made me less hungry for supper?

My blood sugar fasting this a.m. was 116, and the reading 2 1/2 hours after carb free breakfast today was 124.

Do you find eating less carbs reduces your appetite?

Could a low-carb diet, like you say you're on, include no carbs 1st 2 meals, then a carb supper?

Or, also a no-carb supper, but carb snack like cereal and fruit?

I had said that I was not on insulin, but was supposed to be controlling my diabetes with diet.

Yet, in a way, I've never actually ever done anything to change my diet. In a way I have, in that I had already cut out sugar because of another health problem.

But I was trying to reduce that sugar intake even more. But I didn't really know what to do about really controlling the diabetes with diet.

But when you kept talking about a no or low-carb diet, and there was that suggestion for meals that you gave on this and the post to myself and "mscoleman4" on her post for 4-30-2017
I thought I would give that no or low-carb diet a try.

Also, your suggestion to take readings after various meals, carb and no-carb, etc., to see what effect those meals are having on your blood sugar count, was a great help.

When I could see on my b/s tests that a couple of no-carb meals in a row really brought my b/s down, and also reduced my appetite, it really had a reinforcing effect on me.

I had never put all of that together.

So, I do thank you for that. I would like to put some of what you said in a post, to see if others may benefit from that.

I do appreciate your knowledge and your generous spirit.

Lanie, I don't learn from reading. I've heard that some people learn from their eyes, some people learn through their ears.

I learn through my ears, but not sitting in a classroom. I learn from one on one, where I can ask questions. I might also learn through my senses, where I sense the person is not only knowledgeable but also compassionate.

I also have a learning disability.

I also learn from brevity. Don't tell me the history of the world. Tell me specifically what I need to do.

I onced asked you a week or two ago what would be good meals for no or low carb diet. You said, read the literature on this forum.

I looked at it but so much I couldn't formulate a plan from all of that information.

But I kept coming back to you.

I read what you told "mscoleman4" on the post by her name on 4-30-2017 or so, it was your first response to her first question, something about meals. You responded:

"We need to have a food plan and also do some sort of exercise on a regular basis. Food with carbohydrates will raise our blood sugar. The more bread, potatoes, rice, food made with flour and sugar that we eat, the higher our blood sugar will go. You will know this because if you test your blood sugar right before you eat and then about two hours after you finish, you will see how your blood sugar rises when you eat any of that food.

"What can you eat? Meat, chicken, fish, vegetables (but not potatoes or corn), lettuce and other leafy greens, peanut butter, eggs, milk products with no sugar added, cheese, nuts. Corn is a grain and has a lot of carbs."

"Chicken salad or tuna salad wrapped in a couple of lettuce leaves can be lunch."

So, in two paragraphs, you've told what takes some people 150 pages.

That was what got me interested, into realizing I could do this, also. I could do, chicken and lima beans for one supper, and then take my blood sugar two hours later and see what my numbers are.

I could do pork and string beans for another supper, then two hours later take a reading. I could do fish and peas the next night, and then take a reading two hours later.

From that tip, the next morning from reading that, you had flipped me to trying a non-carb meal, starting with breakfast. Then lunch, no carbs, two meals in a row, and 2 hours later, like you said, I took a reading. 107.

Whoa, some instant feedback. All of that in 3 paragraphs of data, not 150 pages.

Then lunch: "Chicken salad or tuna salad wrapped in a couple of lettuce leaves can be lunch."

Breakfast: An egg, bacon or sausage or balony or spam. A tomato. To fill up, some nuts, and wing it until lunch.

That's what flipped me: that simple 2 or 3 paragraph answer to "mscoleman4" about, what can you eat for typical meals for low or no carp meals.

You say, "I am surprised that your doctor hasn't given you more information about how food (and what food) affects your blood sugar."

My doctor did give me a few pages on lowering blood sugar. I lose it after the 3rd paragraph of blather.

And a piece of paper is not a warm human being. And a teacher standing in front of 10 or 20 students is not the same thing as communicating one on one with a compassionate, knowledgeable person.

You said, "So, that's my mission! Avoiding complications! And I hope you do, too!

I knew you were on a mission. It shows.

And with me, it's mission accomplished.

Well, I just hit the wall, as predicted.

I've always said I do very well on a diet for one or two days, and then I have to eat the house down.

I can only do two pieces of lettuce for so long.

After yesterday I think going no carbs for breakfast and lunch, I tested my blood sugar 2 1/2 hours after lunch. It was 107. I had conquered the world. Maybe.

Today, the dreaded day 2 of the no or low carb diet, I hit the wall.

My body two hours after my first lunch said, you're either going to eat something, or you're going to fall on the floor. So, I started out with my favorite meal: peanut butter sandwich dipped in tomato soup.

That was for starters. Then I followed up with my favorite snack: popcorn, which you said drives you blood sugar sky high.

Hey, forget the blood sugar, we're trying to survive here.

I'm pretty sure I already know what it is. A shaking attack, from, low blood sugar.

107 is low blood sugar. Hello. My wife called them, shaking attacks, where your body begins to shake if you don't get some carbs, sugar preferably.

I rem. my mind going almost blank from low sugar to the point where I couldn't make a decision, and standing in the kitchen and asking my wife what I should eat, because I can think or make a decision. She probably suggested orange juice.

We had a service person over here one time, and she started showing sings of low blood sugar, and said something like, "What should I do?" and we suggested let us get you some orange juice, which we got for her, she drank it, and the shaking attacks stopped.

My now deceased wife's mother was shopping with my wife one time, started having a shaking attack in a drug store, and just started unwrapping and eating candy.

I've heard of diabetics being cautioned to take candy with them in case they start having a shaking attack.

So, low blood sugar and shaking attack seem to go together, and to me it's understandable. You need sugar/carbs, or you can have a low blood sugar situation and go into a coma.

Isn't that why they give some diabetics insulan? It raises their blood sugar, it lowers it, I don't know what it does. Maybe it balances their blood sugar, and doesn't let it get too high or too low.

Too high and they can black out, too low and they can go into a coma. I don't know.

But maybe the answer for me is to moderate, as you say you're doing with a low carb diet. Maybe I should be having some carbs with every meal, every other meal.

One meal a day for me, supper, with carbs, didn't do it for me. This second day of my low carb diet, I crashed after my first lunch, when I took a walk, came back, and I was weak as pond water.

I didn't have any mental or physical energy, which think carbs provide. I guess I'm going to have to start eating some carbs, some fruit, bread, with every meal, to keep my carb level, like insulan, to a certain level.

I think I'm going to have to settle for not a low of 107 b/s count on no carb meals, but around 115 or 120, better than 140.