Hi all
Help would be appreciated from any one with knowledge and experience.
As I posted a few weeks ago my 18 year old boy has got type 1 diabetes sadly.
He's on the basal bolus insulin.
Slow acting insulin at night and morning. Novorapid before meals and as correction.
Any one suggest foods that are good nutrition but sensible carbs as he lost about 3 stone. He's slowly getting the blood levels correct but all pulses potatoes and pasta are huge in carbs.
He is eating these but I think he's still hungry. Snacks of meat and low to nil carbs are ok but would like to give him some larger meals within his carb allowances to fill him up more. These being 40-70 per meal or 200-250 per day as we've read up on.
Sorry for waffling but hope you could help us out. We have learnt so much but experience puts our searching to bed.
Thanks for any advice in advance.
Cryrst

I just posted about carbs in the bread making thread. My neighbour is a GP she put me on a low carb diet I was a "chips with everything guy" This is the diet info she sent me I hope this helps.

Further to our conversation about low carbs diet, the idea is to reduce carbs to a minimum: apart from exclusion of obvious sweets: biscuits, cakes, chocolates, jams and puddings, you need to stop all grains ( inc. cereals and cereal bars and rice), bread, pasta and potatoes. However, you can eat any proteins, inc fish/chicken, pork, beef, lamb... as well as nuts. You are free to eat any natural fat, in fact, it is better for you to have full fat products rather than low fat as those which are low fat normally contain more sugar than those that are full fat. Also you can eat any other veg ( apart from potatoes) : they are carbohydrates as well but they are more difficult to release energy from and they also contain a lot of necessary vitamins.

There are a few menu suggestions:

- start your day with a half a glass of warm-to-hot ( not cold or tepid) water with a slice of lemon ( or a few drops of lemon juice (sold at Sainsbury’s)) taking in a few sips about 15-30min before breakfast : this is known to clean your system and your liver in particular;

- breakfast: eggs in any form or shape; there are various types of omelette or scrambled eggs with addition of various veg to keep you interested ( tomatoes, mushrooms, peas, runner beans); ham and cheese slices; avocado and smoked salmon; goat cheese, nuts and dates;

-lunch- any soup with no grains or potatoes; salad leaves with chicken slices and nuts; salad leaves with tomatoes and tinned tuna and olive oil; avocado and smoked salmon; melon and parma ham ( or equivalent); ham and cheese and nuts and dates; smoothie: use base of ground nuts and spinach, then add coconut water or coconut milk or almond milk and add any fruit you like;

- dinner: this is probably the easiest dish of the day: fish/chicken/pork/beef in oven ( in foil or without) with olive oil or coconut oil or ghee and steamed/boiled broccoli/carrots/cauliflower/runner beans/peas; add some herbs for flavour: tarragon for fish or chicken, thyme or rosemary for chicken/pork/beef or lamb; use mint sauce or red current jelly ( if desperate) for lamb;

- pudding: full fat plain yogurt ( greek is the best version, with live bacteria if pos) with natural fruit of your choice: blueberries, strawberries, black berries, kiwis..., sprinkle with cinnamon which tends to fool your brain into thinking that this is sugar as cinnamon activates the same brain areas as sugar does; apples/ baked apples stuffed with nuts or/and raisins;

- mid-afternoon snack: nuts and/or dates; any fruit ( use grapes in moderation as they are very sweet); apples are very good...

also try to develop taste for fruit tea/green tea: makes you feel full, provides antioxidants and helps to stimulate your taste buds...

Good luck this worked for me

One more point

Pulses aren't too bad as "they don't give sharp rises to blood glucose levels compared to other carbohydrate-containing foods. The make-up of the carbohydrates in pulses, the fibre content and the fact that they are high in protein slows down the breakdown of the carbohydrates into glucose in the blood."

There are a number of quite decent cookery books for diabetics around and if you look at shops like The Works or in garden centres you can pick them up quite cheaply

oats for breakfast with fruit like bananas.

each person is different so you will need to try out few things some people can't tolerate some foods or diet types (diabetics i know cut out dairy which made big difference)

disagree with Badger11 you don't need to stop grain the key is wholegrain and control how much you have.

There is different types of carbs/sugars understanding them is the key not just removing them all otherwise you end up relying on high fat diet which is really not good in the long run.

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Hi DD
Carb counting gets easier and having a limited diet with what food he likes is helpful.
He's not very experimental with new types of food so that helps.
Sadly 6 months ago he was diagnosed with celiac disease which is an intolerance to gluten.
Hes what is called a silent celiac as he has no illness when he eats it.
It does go with diabetes in some cases and his was found with blood tests and a camera down the throat.
Bloody expensive food though but as needs must for him.
That's another side of his issues though so back to the type 1.
Tell your friend it isn't the end ( easy said I know I dont have it ,but as stated would take my kids off him tommorrow).
Carb counting is just checking the carbs in a certain food and calculating either the items or the weight.
There are apps online but as we have used different foods we have written it down in a book.
High carb items are starchy like potatoes and rice etc.
Low carb are fresh meat and veg.
Be too high rather than too low though then trim it down.
If he has a hypo (low sugar) it can be very dangerous.
High for longer periods isn't good but once he gets his blood test meter it will be calculated to which ratio he needs of insulin to carbs.
You can inject before or after meals so fussy eaters may be better to have after as once you inject you can't take it out.
My boys a greedy git so no chance of him over injecting
Anyhow I'm not a pro on the subject but have a basic understanding.
I would advise he gets some rubber bracelets stating type 1 to wear though and maybe a necklace with it on. (Ebay)
It's what medics look for in an emergency if he has a hypo whilst out and about.
Also 3 satchets of sugar or a mini pack of sweets as it needs about 20 carbs to bring sugars up if in a hypo.
My boys not had a wipeout one but gets the shakes and sort of knows so he chucks a couple of biscuits down his neck and then checks the blood sugars.
Tell your pals boy to keep the faith as that's all he can do.
In time it may be curable but for now it's just do the best you can.
At least all his prescriptions are free from now.
Also get the doctor to prescribe the 5 litre sharps bin for his needles as it saves having loads of little ones about.
PM if you feel you need to ok.
I can give the little advice I have.
R