Yep generally speaking it's about the balance between carb intake and the amount of insulin required in theory 1 unit for every 10 carbs should be the plan. But of course it's not that easy as other factors come into it such as the persons activity levels for any given day.Stooo wrote:Holly wrote:I have a next door neighbour who is also a very dear friend. He has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. His last blood test reading said 46,today it read 51 and he was told to urgently change his whole diet, which he seems to find very difficult. He's one of this old school fellas, if you all know what I mean.
I really like to help him by giving him some down to earth advice. He's pretty helpless and hasn't got a clue what to do...Here is the thing...he loves his chocolate, bread, spuds, cheese, fried food and definitely his BEER and Whisky !!! He is aware that he has to cut out chocolate and most sweets.
I told him that bread shouldn't be on the menu on a daily basis either. Anyway, my question is to anyone who might have type 2 diabetes, and who likes the good things in life, but had to adjust without too many OTT sacrifices. He just loves going to the pub...telling him he can't go to the pub anymore for his beers, might as well be like telling him his life is over.
Can anyone please give me some hints which I could pass on??? Something that worked without making huge changes??
I can only really speak about type 1 because of my son but I guess that similar advice works in both conditions.
He's obviously going through a bit of denial at the moment because his life has been turned upside down and he can't do the stuff that he's been doing up until now. It's really important that he keeps in touch with his diabetic team and fights to get that blood sugar down before he starts losing eyes or limbs, it's shit but you need to nag him. Get a diabetic cookbook and try some of the recipes leaving aside a portion for him (the diabetic diet is good for anyone and as much about measurement of ingredients as it is the food itself) and perhaps get him to start going out with you when you walk your dogs. By the sounds of it you're going to have to start with baby steps but you have to start somewhere, good luck!
And some people have a bit of a nightmare due to dawn phenomenon everyone gets this between 4 am and 8 am or so but obviously with a non-diabetic person their bodies will just adjust on the fly before breakfast.