For those who don't like to cook, buy a crock pot, throw in some meat, pour Lipton Onion Soup dry mix on the meat, top it with vegetables, and plug it in.
There are easy chicken recipes for the crock pot. It can be a casserole meal on the counter. Try it. Dorisena
I will try hard to not play doctor here because that is not something I can do. I have never read about fats turning to sugar so I don't know that there is any problem with salmon. I have not worried about fat content of a meal but it is good that your cousin has lost weight. I have many years experience with developmentally challenged students and employees living with us, so I know it is sometimes difficult to keep the inspiration going for good eating. Salmon is leaner than beef and pork so it is an excellent choice as ir provides omega-three benefits which are important for good health. 6;1 is a good number for A1C but unless you are disciplined, it may creep up over time without you noticing it, as mine did until I worked harder on my diet. At this point, skip the expensive apparatus and test in the morning so you know what to cook, or test at night to see how much you have overdone on the carbs. I have the Mayo diet book and understand that they also have a diabetic book which I think would be a good reference to follow.
I don't know your cousin, but your biggest issue, from my experience is he will tend to develop bad eating habits for comfort food and can easily sneak behind everyone's back to make it happen. Most handicapped people I have worked with or taught at school smoked. It is a stress thing and everyone knows that eating comfort food can ease stress for a short while. And then you eat some more.
The number I learned is that anything over 126 is diabetes and under that is pre-diabetes. Even then, it is a number most diabetics would love to reach and many do not. It is the really high numbers that do damage over time,, as I witnessed with my late husband.
It has been my experience with elderly people I know that they think diabetes is a funny joke and a result of doing what you want to do, so they think they are entitled to eat desserts because they worked hard all their life and now can enjoy eating without damage. I left a church full of elderly who focused on fat foods and desserts as a reward in their life, and they didn't appreciate my discipline or respect my attitude toward good health. So diabetes was not a social concern for them and I was the odd person out of the social circle.
I understand about your epilepsy because it is not a disease of choice, but diabetes can be a choice it you do not eat well. My number one issue is that people eat balanced meals and snacks, with protein, veggies, fruit, dairy, and whole grains for good health. The Mayo Clinic diet book does an excellent job of explaining in practical terms how to eat.
Remember to reward your cousin with anything but food. He always needs praise for doing well. And he is doing well right now.
Checking the blood sugar guides you on how to cook. Your doctor may not have confidence that you will do the discipline with daily testing and he prefers a machine which records the body function. It has done wonders for me to become knowledgeable about keeping my body healthy since I have so much garden produce to use. The test strips are outrageously priced these days but Medicare pays for mine now. In the beginning I paid for them myself because it is so helpful in knowing how to eat. I don't need to test to confirm that I have eaten the wrong foods or eaten too much at a meal. And I never eat a sweet snack alone with nothing else at 4:00 p.m. No No!
I consider myself at well person, not a sick person, and I use food wisely to extend my life. It is a little harder with your cousin but I admire your respect for him to do the right thing with food to extend his life. Mozart died before the age of 40 from diabetes. He was ignorant of how to make the choices for a longer life. But he was a brilliant musician and wealthy so he indulged badly. Think about it.
Dorisena
For years I walked into the pharmacy and purchased diabetic test strips without a prescription and paid the cost. Then the price jumped from over $ 1.00 per strip to $178.oo for 100 strips. I was furious so I got a prescription from my doctor and Medicare pays. If you have insurance, find out what they will pay for the test strips. Also I can say as a former teacher, that some doctors are not teachers at all and you are left to educate yourself about how to handle chronic health issues. If you get too educated, you might get well and then the doctors won't have as much business. I know that is a harsh thing to say, but doctors were not trained to educate us. Dorisena
I can't produce a list of foods and say that is the food to eat because our family has always eaten what the garden produces when it is in season. We vary what we plant each year to widen our tastes and our diet so we tend to eat a wide variety of foods, and cut some we don't prefer off the list if they are not popular. The weather makes some food taste good one year and not so good another. The two foods we have given up on are sweet corn, not only for the high glycemic value, but also for the high cost of production. And it is so much work to preserve for the winter. We gave up on white potatoes partly because of beetle infestation and the hard work of spraying. Then the beetles also destroyed our raspberry patch one year. Now we deliberately grow something new every year and if one of us doesn't eat it, another family may like it. The variety and the hard work growing food helps with our good health. Three of us have survived cancer and two of us are dealing with diabetes. It is very important to us to eat for good health and to avoid obesity. I can't list all the steps we take but we are having a measure of success. Living in the country helps, but the weeds and bugs are a constant problem. Right now we have turnips growing.
Yuck. I might eat one….raw, as I did when I was a kid. We lost part of our onion crop so I will have to purchase onions soon. It's a lifestyle. Dorisena
@dorisena
Hello there,
I have read quite a few of your posts and you seem very knowledgeable on the subject.
I have a developmentally delayed cousin who was just diagnosed with diabetes. I have been told by his young caregivers he was pre-diabetic but the doctor said that’s not true. His HbA1C was 6.0 initially and now is 6.1. Isn’t six considered to be over 120? Isn’t anything 100 or over bad? The doctor says its well controlled but I’m wondering if it really is. He doesn’t take any medication for it and I’d certainly like to keep it that way.
The doctor has never mentioned anything about checking his blood sugar. Do you think he should should? I checked into one of those devices that you just put on your arm with no needle gadget and are they ever expensive, $130 a month and an $80 one time upfront fee.
I absolutely hate cooking and am a lousey one at that. With him here I have no choice but therein lies the problem, choices. I give him fish and his favorite is salmon but although the fats are supposedly healthy I know they will turn into glucose but even at a slower rate what is the max fat content for a meal? He weighed 224 pounds but has lost 11 pounds since being with me. I saw “no sugar ice cream” and sugar free candy. Could he have either of those?
Is there a diabetes cookbook you’d recommend? Is there a diet that you’re aware of for people with diabetes. My main concern is what feed him. I also have another question this one has to do with being called diabetic. I have epilepsy myself and I don’t mind if they say a person with epilepsy or an epileptic neither one bother me but it’s a major deal for some people to be called epileptic so I was wondering if the same thing applied in the diabetes world?
I appreciate any help you’re able to give me.
Thank you very much in advance,
Jake
Jake: I thought I'd just answer a part of your post I didn’t see addressed; of course it’s kind of difficult to follow the posts, so I may have missed it.
You asked: “ I saw “no sugar ice cream” and sugar free candy. Could he have either of those?”
What matters when you have diabetes is the carbs, which is what will send blood sugar high. I myself keep to around 40-45 carbs per meal. If you look at most labels, the low sugar or no sugar version of candy, ice cream, etc often has higher carbs than the sugar version.
Many of these snacks have over 20 carbs per serving or higher, so would you rather have a bowl of ice cream and not eat a meal? That’s what I thought.
It doesn’t mean all snacks are off limits. I ofter have a hard candy like Werthers, Brachs, etc before exercising to give me a little energy boost, as most have only about 4 to 5 carbs per piece. And there are a few low-carb ice cream types; Breyers Carb-Smart chocolate covered ice cream bars have 11 g carbs minus 3 g fiber (8 net carbs) which is a nice snack.
Learn to read the label before you buy, take into account how many servings per pack, carbs per servings, etc. Often the numbers highlighted on the front are come-ons, as a normal piece would be counted as multiple servings.
Jake: I thought I'd just answer a part of your post I didn’t see addressed; of course it’s kind of difficult to follow the posts, so I may have missed it.
You asked: “ I saw “no sugar ice cream” and sugar free candy. Could he have either of those?”
What matters when you have diabetes is the carbs, which is what will send blood sugar high. I myself keep to around 40-45 carbs per meal. If you look at most labels, the low sugar or no sugar version of candy, ice cream, etc often has higher carbs than the sugar version.
Many of these snacks have over 20 carbs per serving or higher, so would you rather have a bowl of ice cream and not eat a meal? That’s what I thought.
It doesn’t mean all snacks are off limits. I ofter have a hard candy like Werthers, Brachs, etc before exercising to give me a little energy boost, as most have only about 4 to 5 carbs per piece. And there are a few low-carb ice cream types; Breyers Carb-Smart chocolate covered ice cream bars have 11 g carbs minus 3 g fiber (8 net carbs) which is a nice snack.
Learn to read the label before you buy, take into account how many servings per pack, carbs per servings, etc. Often the numbers highlighted on the front are come-ons, as a normal piece would be counted as multiple servings.
You are right on target, Howard. It also helps to think about not having a sweet snack and having a balanced meal instead. If I cut one carb during a meal, I can have the Breyer's bar at the end of that meal. I have it aft the end of lunch and then if I am active during the afternoon, I am ready for a balanced dinner and forget to stop for a late afternoon snack. Giving up the habit of "grazing" on snacks really helps. Of course, you could nibble on raw veggies which is fun to do. My frresh tomatoes are almost gone. I will miss them. Dorisena
Jake: I thought I'd just answer a part of your post I didn’t see addressed; of course it’s kind of difficult to follow the posts, so I may have missed it.
You asked: “ I saw “no sugar ice cream” and sugar free candy. Could he have either of those?”
What matters when you have diabetes is the carbs, which is what will send blood sugar high. I myself keep to around 40-45 carbs per meal. If you look at most labels, the low sugar or no sugar version of candy, ice cream, etc often has higher carbs than the sugar version.
Many of these snacks have over 20 carbs per serving or higher, so would you rather have a bowl of ice cream and not eat a meal? That’s what I thought.
It doesn’t mean all snacks are off limits. I ofter have a hard candy like Werthers, Brachs, etc before exercising to give me a little energy boost, as most have only about 4 to 5 carbs per piece. And there are a few low-carb ice cream types; Breyers Carb-Smart chocolate covered ice cream bars have 11 g carbs minus 3 g fiber (8 net carbs) which is a nice snack.
Learn to read the label before you buy, take into account how many servings per pack, carbs per servings, etc. Often the numbers highlighted on the front are come-ons, as a normal piece would be counted as multiple servings.
There are lists on the web with glycemic index on the veggies and fruits. Eat the ones you like that are lower on the list. Count the grams. 15 grams is one serving. Count dairy as one serving, and it is slower to spike, so that helps. Bread is one or two servings. A bun is two servings. My nutritionist said to eat about ten servings of carbs a day. Some say 12 is the max. I have cut down on the fruits so I eat less than that now. Some people are happy with three servings of carbs per meal. I cut out my snack most days. Then I must eat an earlier dinner. I haven't had macaroni and cheese for years now. When I get really hungry I have soup with some beans in it. It gets better as time goes by, you feel better, and you are more active. I wrote down my carbs every day at first, but now I can mentally count how much I have and not overdo. I stay away from junk food junkies. Some of them stay away from me. Dorisena
@dorisena @howardm
Hello,
I just wanted to thank you both for all the information that you have given me. I was concentrating more on sugar than I was carbohydrates so I appreciate that information.
My biggest problem is that he doesn’t really
understand how serious Diabetes can be.
So Howard, your suppose to stir microwaved food? Go figure. Learn something new all the time. You sound like a gourmet cook compared to me.
Dorisena, you were sure right about sneaking food. I had a dozen or so 1 ounce packets of raisins in a bowl on the counter and also I have 1 ounce packets of nuts some larger bags of pecans. I found 11 empty packets of the raisins on the table and he had a lot of pecans which I confiscated all but an ounce or two. Thank you for the diabetes cookbook recommendation. I ordered two of the Mayo Clinic cookbooks. I hope his caretakers use them faithfully. We live 300 miles apart so this ordeal is going to be a challenge.
Thanks again kids, your help was invaluable.
Jake
Jake, you are taking on a somewhat hopeless job but I support your efforts in trying to make a difference. Whatever small successes you have will be good for your cousin. I taught my employee, who ate with the family, to eat veggies if they had cheese on them. He particularly liked broccoli with cheese and if I skipped it to make the calories less, I told him I was out of cheese that day. Remember to "catch them doing well and reward them" but not with food, as I learned in my graduate education classes. You need his doctor to dictate to his caregivers and even that won't completely get the job done. Take comfort in the fact that you are doing the right thing and hope for better success every day. Get out and be active. At least it will help your health. Dorisena
@dorisena @howardm
Hello,
I just wanted to thank you both for all the information that you have given me. I was concentrating more on sugar than I was carbohydrates so I appreciate that information.
My biggest problem is that he doesn’t really
understand how serious Diabetes can be.
So Howard, your suppose to stir microwaved food? Go figure. Learn something new all the time. You sound like a gourmet cook compared to me.
Dorisena, you were sure right about sneaking food. I had a dozen or so 1 ounce packets of raisins in a bowl on the counter and also I have 1 ounce packets of nuts some larger bags of pecans. I found 11 empty packets of the raisins on the table and he had a lot of pecans which I confiscated all but an ounce or two. Thank you for the diabetes cookbook recommendation. I ordered two of the Mayo Clinic cookbooks. I hope his caretakers use them faithfully. We live 300 miles apart so this ordeal is going to be a challenge.
Thanks again kids, your help was invaluable.
Jake
Jake:
I think you can give as much help as you want, but if someone’s not willing to receive it, it’s a losing cause and discouragement to you.
In my opinion, he needs motivation. For myself, my motivation is my family and grandkids. My grandson has some special problems, and I want to be around as long as God will let me to help him through it. Find the motivation “sweet spot” in his life, and why he would want to live.
Some people are afraid of the complications unchecked diabetes can bring, as it can affect almost everything in the body: eyes, heart, kidneys, liver, leading to blindness, amputations, and on and on. Others are motivated by a particular reason for life, but if you find it for him, you can give him and those who care about him a gift of life.
Howard
Try to impress upon the doctor just how serious you are about changing your eating and activity to improve your health with this diabetes. He may be reluctant to give your strict instructions because many of his patients will not go as far as some of us, and he thinks his patients won't follow instructions with eating. Some doctors aim for an easier program because they don't want to scare you. Obesity can be deadly but most of my friends think it is a joke, and they laugh about it. Let him know you believe you can do the job. Dorisena
Create an account to connect with other patients and caregivers like you. Ask questions, get answers, and give and get support. Also follow blogs from Mayo Clinic experts.
MayoClinic.org
For those who don't like to cook, buy a crock pot, throw in some meat, pour Lipton Onion Soup dry mix on the meat, top it with vegetables, and plug it in.
There are easy chicken recipes for the crock pot. It can be a casserole meal on the counter. Try it. Dorisena
For years I walked into the pharmacy and purchased diabetic test strips without a prescription and paid the cost. Then the price jumped from over $ 1.00 per strip to $178.oo for 100 strips. I was furious so I got a prescription from my doctor and Medicare pays. If you have insurance, find out what they will pay for the test strips. Also I can say as a former teacher, that some doctors are not teachers at all and you are left to educate yourself about how to handle chronic health issues. If you get too educated, you might get well and then the doctors won't have as much business. I know that is a harsh thing to say, but doctors were not trained to educate us. Dorisena
I can't produce a list of foods and say that is the food to eat because our family has always eaten what the garden produces when it is in season. We vary what we plant each year to widen our tastes and our diet so we tend to eat a wide variety of foods, and cut some we don't prefer off the list if they are not popular. The weather makes some food taste good one year and not so good another. The two foods we have given up on are sweet corn, not only for the high glycemic value, but also for the high cost of production. And it is so much work to preserve for the winter. We gave up on white potatoes partly because of beetle infestation and the hard work of spraying. Then the beetles also destroyed our raspberry patch one year. Now we deliberately grow something new every year and if one of us doesn't eat it, another family may like it. The variety and the hard work growing food helps with our good health. Three of us have survived cancer and two of us are dealing with diabetes. It is very important to us to eat for good health and to avoid obesity. I can't list all the steps we take but we are having a measure of success. Living in the country helps, but the weeds and bugs are a constant problem. Right now we have turnips growing.
Yuck. I might eat one….raw, as I did when I was a kid. We lost part of our onion crop so I will have to purchase onions soon. It's a lifestyle. Dorisena
Jake: I thought I'd just answer a part of your post I didn’t see addressed; of course it’s kind of difficult to follow the posts, so I may have missed it.
You asked: “ I saw “no sugar ice cream” and sugar free candy. Could he have either of those?”
What matters when you have diabetes is the carbs, which is what will send blood sugar high. I myself keep to around 40-45 carbs per meal. If you look at most labels, the low sugar or no sugar version of candy, ice cream, etc often has higher carbs than the sugar version.
Many of these snacks have over 20 carbs per serving or higher, so would you rather have a bowl of ice cream and not eat a meal? That’s what I thought.
It doesn’t mean all snacks are off limits. I ofter have a hard candy like Werthers, Brachs, etc before exercising to give me a little energy boost, as most have only about 4 to 5 carbs per piece. And there are a few low-carb ice cream types; Breyers Carb-Smart chocolate covered ice cream bars have 11 g carbs minus 3 g fiber (8 net carbs) which is a nice snack.
Learn to read the label before you buy, take into account how many servings per pack, carbs per servings, etc. Often the numbers highlighted on the front are come-ons, as a normal piece would be counted as multiple servings.
Hope that helps.
Howard
You are right on target, Howard. It also helps to think about not having a sweet snack and having a balanced meal instead. If I cut one carb during a meal, I can have the Breyer's bar at the end of that meal. I have it aft the end of lunch and then if I am active during the afternoon, I am ready for a balanced dinner and forget to stop for a late afternoon snack. Giving up the habit of "grazing" on snacks really helps. Of course, you could nibble on raw veggies which is fun to do. My frresh tomatoes are almost gone. I will miss them. Dorisena
That's what I'm trying to learn how that goes with the counting carb and such
There are lists on the web with glycemic index on the veggies and fruits. Eat the ones you like that are lower on the list. Count the grams. 15 grams is one serving. Count dairy as one serving, and it is slower to spike, so that helps. Bread is one or two servings. A bun is two servings. My nutritionist said to eat about ten servings of carbs a day. Some say 12 is the max. I have cut down on the fruits so I eat less than that now. Some people are happy with three servings of carbs per meal. I cut out my snack most days. Then I must eat an earlier dinner. I haven't had macaroni and cheese for years now. When I get really hungry I have soup with some beans in it. It gets better as time goes by, you feel better, and you are more active. I wrote down my carbs every day at first, but now I can mentally count how much I have and not overdo. I stay away from junk food junkies. Some of them stay away from me. Dorisena
Well my first doctors visit is tomorrow trying to think of questions I need to ask
@dorisena
@howardm
Hello,
I just wanted to thank you both for all the information that you have given me. I was concentrating more on sugar than I was carbohydrates so I appreciate that information.
My biggest problem is that he doesn’t really
understand how serious Diabetes can be.
So Howard, your suppose to stir microwaved food? Go figure. Learn something new all the time. You sound like a gourmet cook compared to me.
Dorisena, you were sure right about sneaking food. I had a dozen or so 1 ounce packets of raisins in a bowl on the counter and also I have 1 ounce packets of nuts some larger bags of pecans. I found 11 empty packets of the raisins on the table and he had a lot of pecans which I confiscated all but an ounce or two. Thank you for the diabetes cookbook recommendation. I ordered two of the Mayo Clinic cookbooks. I hope his caretakers use them faithfully. We live 300 miles apart so this ordeal is going to be a challenge.
Thanks again kids, your help was invaluable.
Jake
Jake, you are taking on a somewhat hopeless job but I support your efforts in trying to make a difference. Whatever small successes you have will be good for your cousin. I taught my employee, who ate with the family, to eat veggies if they had cheese on them. He particularly liked broccoli with cheese and if I skipped it to make the calories less, I told him I was out of cheese that day. Remember to "catch them doing well and reward them" but not with food, as I learned in my graduate education classes. You need his doctor to dictate to his caregivers and even that won't completely get the job done. Take comfort in the fact that you are doing the right thing and hope for better success every day. Get out and be active. At least it will help your health. Dorisena
Jake:
I think you can give as much help as you want, but if someone’s not willing to receive it, it’s a losing cause and discouragement to you.
In my opinion, he needs motivation. For myself, my motivation is my family and grandkids. My grandson has some special problems, and I want to be around as long as God will let me to help him through it. Find the motivation “sweet spot” in his life, and why he would want to live.
Some people are afraid of the complications unchecked diabetes can bring, as it can affect almost everything in the body: eyes, heart, kidneys, liver, leading to blindness, amputations, and on and on. Others are motivated by a particular reason for life, but if you find it for him, you can give him and those who care about him a gift of life.
Howard
Try to impress upon the doctor just how serious you are about changing your eating and activity to improve your health with this diabetes. He may be reluctant to give your strict instructions because many of his patients will not go as far as some of us, and he thinks his patients won't follow instructions with eating. Some doctors aim for an easier program because they don't want to scare you. Obesity can be deadly but most of my friends think it is a joke, and they laugh about it. Let him know you believe you can do the job. Dorisena