About Diabetes, for those recently diagnosed as diabetic

First the diagnosis

From my own experience of being a diabetic for many years, and having faced the several situations and questions that confront you now, and those that will occur in the future, I offer here a few comments and observations that will, I hope, provide some general guidance for you in these early times. And there is abundant information available on the internet when you know where to look.

After first hearing the diagnosis “You are a diabetic” it comes as quite a shock, however gently conveyed. When you learn from your doctor that you have diabetes, most often type-2 diabetes, it is unlikely you will know much about the disease. The diagnosis will probably come after a blood test and a follow up visit to your doctor and being then told of the situation. You may be pre-diabetic, a condition in which the glucose levels in your blood are rather high but not yet into the diabetic range.  Or your condition may be confirmed as diabetes, which means that the levels of glucose in your bloodstream do exceed the level considered as acceptable. As is explained elsewhere, the glucose in the blood is a normal situation and the result of the food you have recently consumed.

Your physician will explain the facts of diabetes and give advice on the subject, and tell you what you have to do and the life style changes you may have to make to manage your newly identified disease condition. These might include such things as diet, exercise, and possibly medications that will be prescribed if eventually your actions are unable to control your blood sugar levels and your diabetes worsens over the course of time, as is often the case with diabetic patients, perhaps a short time later or in some cases after several years.

There may be referrals to dietitians to help establish an appropriate dietary routine that incorporates your own personal food and life-style tastes and is tailored to your current health and physical condition(s). There are other health care professional who will advise and help you navigate your path through the complications of diabetes if they occur, but that will probably be later if the condition deteriorates.

The early reaction to learning of your diabetic condition
But after that early meeting you will probably leave the doctor’s office with many thoughts, questions and uncertainties still whirling around in your head. In the ensuing days there may be the desire to learn more about the disease, the causes, the treatments, the cures. Actually there is no cure right now according to mainstream medical practitioners, although reference will be made here to that group of qualified, respected and quite well known physicians who disagree and provide their solution in reversing diabetes.

You soon learn that much of the day-to-day control and management of the diabetic condition is in your own hands. It is left to you to find out about many aspects of the disease, you may wonder about the role of insulin and glucose and blood testing and alternative dietary approaches, what foods and beverages, including alcohol are acceptable and when to consume them while always attempting to stay as low on the scale of being diabetic as possible.

For much more on diabetes, check out the List of  Topics on our companion website at Normal Blood Sugar Levels and Diabetes.

And additional diabetes related material can be found at Diabetic Menu Guide

Return to Introduction Page and Articles List for this website.

This blog is called Diabetic Food List + Plus

Our objective is to provide information regarding a wide range of foods and how they can fit into a diabetic meal plan and a diabetic lifestyle. And the Plus in the title indicates that our intention is to cover not only foods that apply to an appropriate diabetic food list but to also discuss other topics that are  relevant to us and our life-styles as diabetics. Those topics will include, weight-loss, exercise, symptoms and types of diabetes and the complications that can occur in some cases if and when the disease advances, especially if not properly controlled and managed.

Articles on this site, click to access:

Posted to date, 2011

Chocolate! Is This Good News forf the Diabetic or What?

A Sort of  Salsa Recipe, Now On My Diabetic Menu

Salsa, An Addition to the Diabetic Food List to treat the Pain of Neuropathy

Tumeric, An Age-Old Food to Add to the Diabetic Food List

Vinegar — An Addition for the Diabetic Food List?

Pecans — More Nuts for the Diabetic Food List with Reference to Fats and Vitamin E

Brazil Nuts and Selenium, Additions to the Diabetic Food List, and a Note On Cancer

Soy Milk for the Diabetic Food List

Oatmeal and the diabetic menu

Additions to the Diabetic Food List – Part 1 of 4, Alpha-lipoic Acid

Additions to the Diabetic Food List – Part 2 of 4, Gymnema Sylvestre

Posted October and November, 2010:

Dietary Fiber for the Diabetic Food List

Episodes of Low Blood Sugars

Previous articles:

How to Manage the Diabetic Condition For the Newly Diagnosed Diabetic  – Read this First

About Foods and Diabetic Food Lists

Establishing Food Plans – Considerations

Diabetes, the Diagnosis and After

About Diabetes, A Simple Explanation

The Glycemic Index and the Glycemic Load

Low Carb Foods

Diabetes Juicer Recipes for Managing Blood Sugars

My Diabetic Food Plan – Part 1

My Diabetic Food Plan – Part 2

My Diabetic Food Plan – Part 3

Body Mass Index (BMI) Chart

Men . . . Listen Up,  and Take Warning

Some Non-regular Items for Your Diabetic Food List

ALMONDS in the control of Diabetes and High Cholesterol

Other supplementary food items to consider

Cinnamon – Does It Help Combat Diabetes?

Flaxseed Chia Hempseed Fenugreek Flavinoids

Omega-3′s Onions-and-Garlic Vinegars Mulberry-Leaf

Discussing more than just food We are not limiting ourselves to the discussion of diabetic foods and diabetic food lists as was originally intended. We also want to provide more general information on the entire subject of diabetes, including links to our other diabetes sites where more than food is discussed. We do this because it can be useful, especially to the newly diagnosed diabetic who may have questions about the disease and uncertainties regarding what they will now be facing. And that will certainly include matters relating to food, exercise, perhaps weight loss and perhaps medications, topics that we have written about and are linked to this site. I am a type-2  diabetic myself, for more than 20 years now, so I can anticipate many of the questions and topics that are of interest.

Caution: If you are a diabetic you must be under the care of a physician. Your doctor and health care team will monitor the progress of your diabetes and advise you on what must be done to control and manage the condition. But the day-to-day management is in your own hands and the actions you take may affect the outcome, beneficially or otherwise.

For those newly diagnosed, here is an introduction to being Diabetic. And for a description of how it works, see About Diabetes.

Before discussing Diabetic Foods and Diabetic Food Lists, a general comment: There are several factors we might consider, including selection of food items and their preparation for consumption that meet the individual’s personal tastes and preferences, most of us have grown up with family meals reflecting regional, and perhaps cultural influences, foods that are commonly available in one area may not be so elsewhere, those who live in towns near the sea are likely to favor fish more so perhaps than those growing up in farm country. Otherwise, in the matter of foods for diabetics, the general approach is to select foods with  properties that as much as possible do not add to the problems of high blood sugars that are always with us. There are abundant nutritious and varied food items that meet that requirement, no foods are “off-limits” but portion size and frequency may need to be restricted for good blood sugar control.

Go to our post for a Food List with nutritional and other information. In an accompanying post on this site, there is reference to dietary approaches recommended by: The ADA (American Diabetes Association)  – a high carbohydrate version. The anti-ADA approach  – a low carbohydrate version. and brief references to the Vegetarian and Vegan versions. Check out the  Vegetarian Approach to a Diabetic Menu for more details.

Other articles and topics to consider: Special requirements concerning the need to lose weight that will require dealing with total calories and some reference to weight loss strategies and exercise – and let’s add cholesterol and cardio-vascular references too. On this site we will also make reference to  Supplements, Vitamins and Minerals and to food items that have properties that are said, by some, to be beneficial to diabetics, we will refer to and describe those items, and give some reference sources, with links if possible, for such things as: Flaxseed, Cinnamon, Mulberry leaf, Fenugreek, Bilberry, Onions and Garlic, Apple Cider Vinegar, Flavinoids + others and to Minerals such as Chromium, Co-Q10, Magnesium, + others.