Hi everybody, I am new to this site. My husband is 74 and has recently been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. He has never been overweight and in fact has been underweight most of his life. He has always walked regularly too. He does have a brother with type 2 diabetes so I am assuming his diabetes has a genetic cause.
My problem is where to look for help with recipes to reverse this. There are several books claiming you can reverse pre-diabetes with the right changes. Most of them seem to be American and their recipes use cup measurements rather than weights. I also wonder if the ingredients they use would be readily available over here. I tried to download recipes from the diabetic society website but it failed. Can anyone tell me if it is possible to reverse this disease and suggest somewhere to find suitable recipes? Thank you in advance for your help.
Written by
puppywalker
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
It is begining of type 2 diabetes . It could be because of genetic or even poor life style with poor diet. In your case it seems to be genetic. T2 does not understand whether you are obese or underweight. It can attack anybody- yes if some one is obese , he carries a risk . If someone's blood relative is a Diabetes, he carries a risk too.
Type 2 is because of (1) Inadequate insulin production by pancreas or/ and (2) Body Cells not able to use the blood sugar adequately due to the nature of the disease itself.
The modern medical treatment aims at medicines both for whipping the pancreas to produce adequate insulin and also medicines that work in cellular level.
Due to whipping of the pancreas by medicines to produce insulin during the progression of the disease, the pancreas finally stop producing insulin gradually and finally coming to a halt. It no longer works.
Therefore all type 2' s are destined to get converted to type1 ultimately unless one changes the life style and diet .
Type 2 is not a disease by itself and so it may not get cured by medicines.
Since your husband is already walking, please ask him to continue- brisk walk 2-3 times a day- aiming 10000 steps a day which means walking at least 30 minutes -3 times , remain active , avoid long sitting. Every one hour get up and walk a while at your office , home and wherever you can. Don't take a lift. Walk 1-2 floors if possible . Take a walk to your nearby grocery store or a vegetable vendor. Take proper diet which does not call for insulin response, it could help minimising medicines. Normally Carb based food requires insulin. Your husband needs to minimise all kinds of Carbohydrates. Main calorie intake would be from Healthy FAT and protein, Diet known as LCHF.
Hey, I know I'm younger - 34. I recently was diagnosed with prediabetes - about 8 months ago now. I was told all this info for diabetes, I already eat healthy so I couldn't figure out what could cause it but I do have a family history of diabetes type 2 and a pre existing medical condition (endometriosis).
Anyway I went away with all the info and simply kept an eye on what I ate, recorded it. I got a blood sugar tester ("code free" from amazon) to test how quickly my sugar reduced after eating (the 1 hour later) and what my normal level was. I think the biggest change was simply drinking a lot more water and doing a bit more exercise; from 1 hour intense exercise to 3 hours per week; a combination of HIIT, yoga, bodyweight training, and core strength. My test about 4 months after that one was back in the normal range as if I've never had any issues.
Increasing the high intensity stuff, so like namaha says a brisk walk; something to get a bit of a sweat out, and increased heart rate, will help. Also reducing the amount of hidden sugars such as fruit juices. Swap out red meat for more fish. Try reducing the amount of wheat - ideally aim for a low fodmap diet (fermentable oligo-, di-, mono-saccharides and polyols) i.e. foods that don't irritate the stomach so don't cause digestive issues - this can contribute to slow gut movement and more sugar reabsorption. There's a few books / websites out there.
Prediabetes doesn't mean diabetes will happen; it's a good indicator for "caution". The test uses the HBA1C indicator which measures the average blood sugar level in red blood cells, as these live for 3 months, it's used to show the history of blood sugar over the past three months. Obviously statistically speaking this means the most recent peaks will have a greater effect on the average. The test doesn't state which "average" is used; mean, mode or median, so although it's great scientifically it doesn't help much. I did quiz my GP on it and she agreed; however it's what they use and it does work at "predicting" those at risk.
As for foods; some translation is required! Cup measurements; we invested in some from amazon; we got the "Tala Kitchen Measuring Set" from amazon uk. It does take a bit of searching to find cup to weight conversions out there but you'll need to do it for each item on the ingredients.
Thank you. My husband had a blood test followed by a call from the doctor to tell him he was pre-diabetic but he was given no advice about what to do to improve his health. I am reading as much as I can to learn what he should be eating etc. So thank you again for your reply.
Yes, Gut Microbiome is the latest research which could give some solution to all metabolic syndrome diseases.
It may be worth supplementing with fermentable fiber which is now available in Amazon and 1000's people in USA are using . The feedback seems to be quite good.
It is difficult to get all these soluble fibre from natural food sources.
(1) FOS- Fructo-oligosaccharide
(2) Inulin
(3)Pectin
(4) Beta Glucan
(5) GOS- Galacto-oligosaccharrides
(6) XOS - Xylo-olligosaccharides
(7) Bacterio-static fiber- the latest research on good vs bad bacteria in our guts
Prediabetes in the UK means your HBA1C is close to diabetic levels, it's a range that GPs use where studies show you can still reverse the effects - part of a pre screening program to pick up those "at risk" and provide sufficient support so they can change their lifestyle - preventative - like an "early warning". Which is good but unfortunately we aren't all given sufficient advice about what that means and what we can do to be back in the "normal" range, and most importantly stay that way.
Also I feel as this is an advice site; it isn't medically right to be telling someone to not take medication - that is their decision, we are not medical experts!
It is important you give the correct advice; carbs come in three categories; starchy, sugars and fibres. For a healthy diet including diabetes management we should aim to reduce the amount of processed starchy (complex) carbs and processed sugars (simple carbs). We cannot eliminate them altogether as our body still needs some form of energy. However fibre isn't digestible and will not affect blood sugar levels but this is needed for a healthy gut and good transit times (stool movement).
In the UK we don't have it defined for men and women, it's just a range of 42 to 47 (6.0 to 6.4). If we have been diagnosed by the HBA1C blood test as over 47 (over 6.4) then we get referred to a diabetes clinic for other tests / support / maintenance, with medication discussed if needed - or no other methods such as diet are working / other medical conditions have an impact.
Changing lifestyle doesn't always work for everyone to reduce blood sugar - some medical conditions have a knock on effect with it / some other medications can change the way those hormones work / some people will just have it as they have a predisposition to it. So saying it's simple isn't always a fair approach x
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
NHS to offer 800 calorie meals to reverse type 2 diabetes.
Gestational Diabetes
