I am wondering if anyone can give me some dietary advice.
I am type 2 diabetic, so need to avoid sugars. I have had heart attack, stents and bypass surgery, and was advised to follow a low carb, high protein diet. But now I have developed a gall bladder problem and am told I need to go on a low fat diet. Getting balanced information on what that means is difficult. My 3 specialist nurses all seem to give conflicting advice. Basically i want to get back to being able to live as normal a life as possible. I would be pleased to hear any suggestions for a sensible diet or even recommendations of a good book / reference material which combines the needs for all three conditions.
Thanks.
Tony
Diet. 
Diet
Mediterranean Diet...
Potassium in the diet
Many people here would recommend the Mediterranean diet for heart purposes, and it’s liked for diabetes, too, but that tends to be quite high in fat, which is no good with a dodgy gallbladder. Low carb, high protein, low (saturated) fat, low sugar is what I followed alongside exercise to lose 10 stone, continue to follow to a greater or lesser degree now, and a low carb diet is generally what’s recommended in the U.K. for type 2 diabetes, not just low sugar. Low carb is also not no carb, it just means restricting carb intake, usually to a level below 130g a day (or whatever the medics have recommended if they’ve suggested a figure to you). This link may be somewhat useful to you:
diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-di...
What you would have to watch with that menu though is the fat content, and they don’t actually list those values, but substitutions/alternative methods of cooking can help there. I would also struggle with the menu because I’m a bit of a fussy eater, but there are some good ideas there.
I personally found the easiest way to facilitate a diet like the one you want is to cook from scratch - there aren’t that many things you can buy off the shelf that fulfil every need, particularly when it comes to sugar and fat (and salt), and reading packets will be the only way to determine which things are ok, and which aren’t. It can be a real eye opener when you start reading them, but also when you realise that low fat things can be just as unhealthy as regular when you take hidden sugar into account. Cooking doesn’t have to be fancy, and probably better if you don’t try to be too fancy, because the more you add to food other than herbs or spices, the more calories/carbs/fat you’re adding: an example of a really basic meal would be grilled chicken breast (or two), *small* amount of boiled or mash potato if you can’t not have any at all, veg of some description. A small jacket potato with tinned tuna and a salad on the side. Tinned tuna and white meat are all good, easy sources of lean protein, as are meat alternatives like quorn, and you can substitute things like beef mince or meatballs for chicken or Turkey versions. Most supermarkets do chicken and turkey mince that you can use to make things like bolognese now. It won’t be exactly the same as using beef, but it turned out that we much prefer Turkey meatballs as a household. We also use meat alternatives on a regular basis. Eggs are a really good source of protein, and I make Not-chicken egg ‘fried’ rice once a week on average. I use a tiny amount of olive oil, garlic quorn pieces, wholegrain rice, frozen peas and sweetcorn, two eggs, and reduced salt soy sauce to feed two of us. It is relatively carb heavy, but the whole portion is less than 500 calories, with 23g of protein and 11g of fat, which is less than a quarter of my daily maximum, and I always plan when I’m going to cook it so I can factor the carbs into my eating for the day. It also only takes about 20 minutes from start to finish.
Don’t fry food, don’t add extra fat, just grill, oven cook, poach or boil (or microwave), and use only a very small amount of something like olive oil if fat is absolutely required for cooking purposes (like to fry off some garlic). Avoid processed carbs like bread/cakes/pastries, and reduce how much potato and pasta etc. you eat. Switch from white varieties to wholegrain/wholemeal, including rice. I like to use the microwave pouches of wholegrain rice mixed with other grains: one pouch serves 2 people, but it is about a third of my daily carbs: the only way to successfully know how much you’re eating, will be to weigh your food and track what you eat to begin with. From experience, a 100g portion of oven chips in reality, is nowhere close to what my brain thinks 100g of oven chips looks like. This was true of every single food I ate, and if you’re trying to track how much carbs or fat or whatever, you need to have accurate information about the portion sizes you’re eating. The good thing, though, is that there are free apps out there that have databases of food included along with the composition: you tell it how much of something you ate, it will work out the fat, protein and carbs against target values it gives you based on whether you want lose, maintain or gain weight.
Switch to skimmed milk, and if like me you’re a dairy fiend, look at low fat cheese alternatives (leerdammer, Edam, weight watchers), buy slices rather than a block, and look at quark or skyr based yogurts. They’re usually very high in protein, but low in fat and sugar, and often almost zero carbs. I often have one for breakfast. These kinds of things are often more expensive, but are better for you and easier to track as you’ll know how much each is for fat and protein etc. You can still have some of what you want/fancy, but you just need to think about it a little bit to make sure you’re keeping your diet on track and not suffering with your gallbladder as a consequence of too much fat.
I realise all this sounds like effort and faff, but it quickly became second nature, and it is living ‘normally’. Other than weighing my food where necessary to work out my macros (and that’s a choice I make because my primary reason to diet originally was obesity, which means I automatically have a slightly squiff relationship with food in relation to my emotions), it’s no different to what anyone does each day. I’m no longer trying to lose any weight as I’m down to a bmi of 24, but I stick to the same principles as a result of the various health problems I have including my cholesterol, insulin resistance and liver issues.
Thank you so much for taking time to write such a comprehensive reply. My gall bladder problems arrived out of the blue, no previous history, and it was a surprise to find myself being rushed to hospital overnight. Even more of a surprise to be chucked out a few days later being told I’m likely to need an operation soon and to eat low fat, without any documentation advice or guidance to help with what that meant. Its all a bit bewildering at the moment. I know I could do with shedding around a stone so will set that as a starting target and see how things develop. T