Healthy Eating advice.

[NorthernZel]

Thank you! Great advice on the veggies. I admit I don't eat enough of them. I like them but lack prep time. Need to work on that.

You can start with some easy veggie snacks:

Peel/rinse some carrots/fresh cucumbers/celery and cut them out in fries-sized bits. You can eventually do that in the morning or evening, and keep them in an air-tight container filled with water to keep'em fresh.

Mix up a dip made of lo-fat sour cream, lemon, garlic, a small amount of olive oil and other spices/seasonings of your choice (personally I like to add a teaspoon of mustard) and let it set for about half an hour in the fridge.

Another choice of dip could be bean dip or hummus, but it may screw up the carb balance since beans and/or chick peas contain a lot of starch.

[Seshat]

If JPD is on metformin, he (sorry about talking about you in the third person!) needs to be talking to a nutritionist or dietician, not a group of internet folks - however well-informed or well-intentioned we may be.

As for the carbohydrates (sugars, starches, and more complex molecules); that issue is a lot more complex than anyone can express in a forum post. The best 'general audience' information that I - personally - am aware of on the topic is the research that's come out of the 'glycaemic index' then 'glycaemic load' studies.

The last I looked, most of the Diabetes Associations for the first world countries were recommending information based on those; in some cases, recommending specific books.
So I suggest either checking out the websites for Diabetes Associations, or checking your local library, and following up there for the carbs issue.
I recommend learning the amount of information that it takes an entire adult-targetted book to communicate, whether you do that via websites, videos, documentaries, online lesson series, or books.

I got my baseline information from a book, and I update it with the websites. (regular patches!)

[Food Lady]

You can start with some easy veggie snacks:

Peel/rinse some carrots/fresh cucumbers/celery and cut them out in fries-sized bits. You can eventually do that in the morning or evening, and keep them in an air-tight container filled with water to keep'em fresh.

Mix up a dip made of lo-fat sour cream, lemon, garlic, a small amount of olive oil and other spices/seasonings of your choice (personally I like to add a teaspoon of mustard) and let it set for about half an hour in the fridge.

Another choice of dip could be bean dip or hummus, but it may screw up the carb balance since beans and/or chick peas contain a lot of starch.

What do I do if I hate raw veggies? Well, I guess I could roast them and then eat them out of the refrigerator. BTW, I do full-fat everything.

[Akasa]

My dr basically put me on a diabetic diet when I asked for help loosing weight.
"No white foods, no fruit. Protein and veggies only."

So I found a couple web pages with a bunch of recipes. Can't hurt to look and see what catches your eye.

http://www.diabetes.org/mfa-recipes/
http://allrecipes.com/recipes/739/ev...iets/diabetic/
http://www.diabeticlivingonline.com/diabetic-recipes
http://www.dlife.com//

[Kittish]

What do I do if I hate raw veggies? Well, I guess I could roast them and then eat them out of the refrigerator. BTW, I do full-fat everything.

Veggie hummus- Steam and puree them in a food processor, along with a (drained) can of chickpeas. Season to taste. Use this as filling/spread for sandwiches and wraps and as dip for crunchy snacks.

I'm with you, I don't do low-fat. I do reduced sugar in most of my baking, but don't use artificial sweeteners.

JPD- Need to redirect snacking away from sugars and carbs. Get whatever kinds of nuts you like, dried fruits, and M&Ms. Mix them together in about equal ratios and package it up in small baggies, 1/4 cup (measure it out) per baggie. Make enough so you can carry 3 or 4 of these with you every day for a week or so. When you get hungry, munch on some snack mix instead of buying a candy bar or chips or something.

My main suggestion would be to do a shopping run dedicated to buying ONLY healthier food stuffs that you will actually eat (hey, look, there's M&Ms on that list!), then spend 2 or 3 hours getting it prepped so it's as easy as possible to grab and go. The 2 or 3 hours of prep is going to be a weekly thing. The little pizza kits sound like a great idea for setting up in advance. Keep in mind that you need to look at having at least 5 snack packs per day plus meals for at least the first couple of weeks, you can trim that back to one or two per day without adding other snacks over a few months.

[JPD]

Its been a few months since I tried, and I keep failing, but I'm still trying. I had a doctors apt at the beginning of the month. A1C was still at 6.0. She did give me a referral to a nutritionist, but the only apt they have is in April, on a day I know I'm not available, and than June.

My iron was finally in normal range, which is weird, as I had been forgetting to take my iron pills, but the week before I had a bunch of meals with red meat, so it probably is a diet issue. (iron saturation was a tad low, but higher than previously)

I start student teaching Mid January, so I'll only be at the grocery store one day a week, so hopefully away from that temptation will help.

[Food Lady]

My dr basically put me on a diabetic diet when I asked for help loosing weight.
"No white foods, no fruit. Protein and veggies only."

This is kind of what I'm doing with occasional fruit. I do have dairy every day, but I count the carbohydrate. As far as bread I choose the high-fiber options with no more than 15 grams carbohydrate (excepting fiber) per serving. There are even low-carb tortillas available. The major brands make them, but I found that they come in Target's store brand for a much better price. I generally don't eat rice, pasta, or potatoes and I don't really miss them. I let myself have fries a couple of times a year. I can totally live without the other 2.

[AccountingDrone]

My dr basically put me on a diabetic diet when I asked for help loosing weight.
"No white foods, no fruit. Protein and veggies only."

So I found a couple web pages with a bunch of recipes. Can't hurt to look and see what catches your eye.

http://www.diabetes.org/mfa-recipes/
http://allrecipes.com/recipes/739/ev...iets/diabetic/
http://www.diabeticlivingonline.com/diabetic-recipes
http://www.dlife.com//

LOL i had friends who went insane when they saw some of my diabetic nutritionist suggested diet =) I am a bit boring because I get lazy, I almost always do the same breakfast and lunch [oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon with a dab of real butter and a tablespoon of heavy cream, and a chopped salad based on cabbage, spinach, carrot, onion and celery with various proteins depending on what is on hand] and a rotating selection of snacks [3x day, mid morning, mid afternoon and bedtime, the bedtime one being the one with a few carbs like hummus with celery and carrot sticks] My snacks tend to the protein - hard boiled eggs, tuna salad, pepperoni or some other hard sausage. I have been eating like this for about 30 years, though. My only real 'wild card' meals are dinner in the evening as that is what I share with Rob. I do a modified 3 plop [in cooks terms] of a meat and 2 different vegetables - I eliminate the third plop of starch that would normally in restaurant terms be rice, mashed potatoes or something like that by adding a small salad of romaine, butter lettuce or spinach. While I bake bread twice a week, mainly for Rob I will do one or two pieces as toast on sunday as we do a special breakfast [omelets toast and bacon or sausage or something like that] that is my weekly 'treat' - I did have a sweet tooth growing up but after 30+ years of being diabetic it is pretty much gone. I do use splenda in coffee and tea, and in making desserts that I will eat [pumpkin custard or apple pie for holidays] and in my oatmeal if I decide the raisins and cinnamon aren't doing it. I dislike stevia, it has an anisey taste I find horrid.

I did start losing weight summer before this past one, the doc added invokana to the metformin, lantus and victoza, I am now down about 100 pounds with 75 to go til I hit my target weight. One thing all the diet mavens who say decrease your calories - Dudes - I have been eating the same 1800 cal diet for 30+ years, sometimes you can't remove any more calories without risking malnutrition and putting yourself into famine mode. Not everybody overeats and gorges on junk foods ... sometimes it *is* metabolic or medically driven. And some people can't exercise, if I could trade in my wheelchair and crutches for the ability to *walk*, don't you think I would? I *dream* I am walking and dancing and wake up crying because I would love to be able to dance with my husband one more time, or go for a simple walk in the freaking mall just to be able to walk [and anybody who knows me knows how much I detest malls]

[Aria]

I would second all of Mooncat's suggestions. My only addition is this... you need to start preparing things ahead of time. When I had to go into the office, I would make a curry or stew the night before, stick it in the fridge, and just pull it out and take it with me. Sometimes I would make a great big salad and dump a can of salmon on it and take that with me.

Remember, the convenience stores are both expensive and not your friend. Nearly everything they sell is crap. Those hot pockets are awful. The only 'healthy' things at those stores might be the basic groceries, if they have them... tinned meat, canned soup, etc. Other stores aren't much better, Subway commercials aside. Strive to eat what you make at home.

[Seshat]

Another thing to be aware of is that individual 'gardens' of gut flora seem to mean that individual people benefit from entirely different diets. THIS IS STILL IN THE EARLY STAGES OF RESEARCH.
Note the huge disclaimer there. Early stages. Seem to mean.

But what it means is that if you can't stand red meat and your best friend can't stand white and her husband thrives on vegan and a fourth friend tolerates only dairy protein - well, that might be down to your gut flora, or some other metabolic process that we only barely understand. And it might be very, very real.

So.

Some things all humans must be careful to acquire from our diets:

Vitamin C.
The proteins we can't make for ourselves.
Calcium.
Iron.
Vitamin D IF we don't get adequate sunlight for our skin colour. (high melatonin skin shields not just the body in general, but the vitamin-D-forming cells, so skin colour does matter. Sorry.)

Any raw fruit and veg will provide vitamin C, but cooking reduces or removes it. Saurkraut will also provide vitamin C (and is the reason Dutch seafarers were less bothered by scurvy than British or Iberian-peninsula seafarers).
Fortunately, vitamin C is easy to manufacture, and easy to add to things like reconstituted orange juice. If you don't like raw plant matter, take the artificial stuff. It's just as suitable for our bodies.

Proteins: animal matter, almost any of it, will provide a full range of proteins we need. If you want to go with plant matter, have a mix of grains and legumes-or-pulses. Legumes-or-pulses being anything from the peas, beans, lentils, and related-stuff family.
If you're going full-vegan, please consult with a nutritionist. I have no problems with people who want to go full-on vegan! It's just very, very easy to miss one tiny thing and end up with a deficiency.

Calcium: Dairy is the obvious source. If you can crush eggshells up finely enough that you don't mind eating them, you can use (cleaned!) eggshells. If you eat small fish bones and all, chew the bones well and you can use that. You can use a calcium supplement. I don't know of a plant-matter source of enough calcium, off the top of my head.

Iron: the easiest way is red meat, or stuff like blood sausage. Other than that, I recommend asking experts - check to see if your pharmacist has sources of nutritional advice regarding iron, or look for reputable information online.

So.

One or two serves of protein per day.
As many serves of non-protein plant matter per day as you want, except for oily plant matter. If you cook the plant matter, try to do so with an eye to what you're cooking it with: eg, deep fried plant matter winds up including a lot of fats or oils. But roasted, steamed or boiled plants are pretty much just the plant.
One or two serves of calcium-intake per day.
If you intend to lose fat, limit your oily plant matter so that you don't exceed a teaspoon or two of oil per day. But do have at least a teaspoon - you need essential fatty acids.
Proteiny plant matter you might be able to have as much as you want, but monitor your status and adjust accordingly. Some metabolisms efficiently store up proteins as fat for later use as energy.

Keep an eye on sweet plant matter, and on stuff like honey. Our bodies just LOVE sugar and its relatives. Great stuff. Grab as much as we can and shove it into the fat-bank for safekeeping for when times are bad....

Try to have a variety of plant matter colours and types: some leaves, some stems, some tubers, some bulbs, some flowers.