Diabetic - Indian or Chinese Takeaway?

BlackEdelweiss

I am a newly diagnosed diabetic, only found out last month. I still dont know which type I am, the nurse thinks I will be a type 1 but they havent started me on insulin yet, just diamicron.
I have changed a lot of my diet, completely cut out all the sweets and crap and cut down my portion size by almost half. But I want a take away tonight and I just dont know if it is safe for me to eat one, are chinese and indian foods bad for me? I only found out rice isint good which is a bit of a problem with both of these cusines.
Has anybody any advice? Should I just leave it?

dragona

Hi - I am not diabetic, but my advice would be to eat something you know is ok, and then seek advice from your GP. A bit too risky to do otherwise, methinks.

taram

I avoid chinese because I used to love the sweet sauces, like plum sauce which are obviously a bad plan, and a lot of it is fried/in batter. Indian should be better for you, if you go for something cooked in a tandoori oven, it'll just be meat, veg and spices, either oven cooked or steamed. Avoid the rice (or potato dishes like aloo gobi, and ofc naans/popadoms!) if you're not sure. Better safe than sorry.

mike65

Chinese takeaways are a carbo motherlode esp the sauses as mentioned.

robinph

No problem to eat either as a diabetic ...

... but probably best to wait until you have more details from the doctor and how they want you to deal with the diabetes before touching anything loaded with carbs. As mike65 suggests the Indian would likely be the safer easier option for now of those choices.

BlackEdelweiss

Well I went for a Chinese, I thought I might as well experiment with a few things myself to see how I react, I cant wait for a doctor or dietitian for every question I have. I know I cant just go around eating everything just to see but my diet has been pretty good for the past month so I said I would treat myself, my life has been taken over by this in the past month, I suppose I just want to grab onto things from my past way of life to cheer me up a bit.
Anyway, I had a beef chop suey and a tiny bit of rice, I ordered noodles but they gave me rice which was probably a good thing as I ate less in the end. My blood sugar only went up to 9.4 after 2 hours which was a lot less than I expected and it was back at 5.4 at 12.30.
I'm not going to make a habit of it but I just have so little information about what is happening to me yet it is hard to know what to do. I am not old and fat enough to be type 2, I am not young enough to be a type 1, I dont know where I stand and I think that is making it all seem a little unreal in my mind. I dont even know what is meant to happen if I do eat too much of something.
Anyway, I'll stop there.

Alanstrainor

You can't really complain with those kind of results. 5.4 is normal, and 9.4 is a tiny bit above normal, but not high enough to cause any concern at all. If your sugars were 13.0+ then maybe, but 9.4 is fine, especially seeing that it only lasted for an hour or so.

graflynn

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

I only found out rice isint good which is a bit of a problem with both of these cusines.
Has anybody any advice? Should I just leave it?

Why do you think rice is bad for you?

BlackEdelweiss

graflynn wrote: »

Why do you think rice is bad for you?

I'm not sure what you mean by that question!
from what I have read and from what the diabetic nurse told me last Tuesday, rice is meant to increase your blood sugar reading. Apart from that I dont know why it is bad for me. Do you?

graflynn

I know you are newly diagnosed so I'm conscious of not overloading you with information. Here is a link to the American Diabetes Association's page on "What can I eat"

Any food that contains carbohydrate will raise your blood sugars but the insulin (whether it's injected or your pancreas still makes it) brings your sugar readings down. The fact that you have diabetes means your blood sugar reading will go up & down and you will learn how to manage it so that your readings don't go too high or too low.

In my opinion, rice wouldn't be that bad, a 100g portion would be equalled to 30g of carbs. Obviously, brown rice is better because it has more fibre and therefore you can have a little more than 100g and still only be getting 30g of carbs.

I hope this has helped you understand your diabetes a little better. I know you probably want to know everything all at once but that amount of knowledge is just too overwhelming. And we've (i.e. other people with diabetes) been there too:)

Good luck - hope you enjoyed the take away!

Any Double !

graflynn wrote: »

I know you are newly diagnosed so I'm conscious of not overloading you with information. Here is a link to the American Diabetes Association's page on "What can I eat"

Any food that contains carbohydrate will raise your blood sugars but the insulin (whether it's injected or your pancreas still makes it) brings your sugar readings down. The fact that you have diabetes means your blood sugar reading will go up & down and you will learn how to manage it so that your readings don't go too high or too low.

In my opinion, rice wou ldn't be that bad, a 100g portion would be equalled to 30g of carbs. Obviously, brown rice is better because it has more fibre and therefore you can have a little more than 100g and still only be getting 30g of carbs.

I hope this has helped you understand your diabetes a little better. I know you probably want to know everything all at once but that amount of knowledge is just too overwhelming. And we've (i.e. other people with diabetes) been there too:)

Good luck - hope you enjoyed the take away!

Afraid I joined the type 2 club just 2 days ago. Must lose lot of weight. Head wrecked since trying to figure out what and when to eat. Bought lot of food yesterday .... low fat food, skimmed milk etc but reading labels today nearly all have sugar. Have lot to learn but above link great...thanks

BlackEdelweiss

Thanks for that link, its still a lot of information to take in but at least its all in one place. It still seems like a bit of a science project trying to work out amounts etc but I'll not worry too much about that for now.

lucernarian

mike65 wrote: »

Chinese takeaways are a carbo motherlode esp the rice and noodles as mentioned.

For your pleasure.

The great proportion of carbs are going to come from the likes of that. Sauces are too insignificant in many meals to make a lot of difference in total carbs.



OP, your results after the chinese sound good. But you seem to lack a lot of confidence, along with some of the education in diabetes. Get on to the doctor you're dealing with for some sort of referral to a dietician. If the doc doesn't know if it's type 1 or 2 then s/he should bloody well find someone who can make that distinction. You're the one who will lose out if you're on the wrong meds. Ironically, you have to be more careful with diet if you are Type 2 as you can't inject extra insulin to make up for the appropriate amount of carbs as per many Type 1's. So at this early stage, get in touch with the specialists as soon as you can.

BlackEdelweiss

I was in with the dietician about 3 weeks ago but at that stage it was all too new and I dident know what to ask her, I still dont have much idea what to ask but I have a few more definite questions for her.
I think the reason I still havent been classed either type 1 or 2 is because my blood seemed to respond well to the tablets they gave me so the consultant said he will give it another month. The diet and excercise seemed to be working good aswell. I honestly dont know which diagnosis I would be happier with.

FermanaghAnna

as far as i know - basmati rice is a low GI food and is fine for diabetics to eat- i use it all the time and the blood sugar behaves itself

Any Double !

FermanaghAnna wrote: »

as far as i know - basmati rice is a low GI food and is fine for diabetics to eat- i use it all the time and the blood sugar behaves itself

Thanks, delighted to hear that as I love curries and stir frys.
Have been trying to find out as much as I can since recently getting T2 and just yesterday dietician listed Basmati along with wholemeal rice as acceptable. I use Oyster and Soya sauces when cooking at home.

FermanaghAnna

and do you know - the walking is a good as anything for keeping the BS down - throw in the odd hill and it works wonders!

lucernarian

I've read that basmati rice has lower GI. It's my favoured rice anyway so I'm happy out. But I've taken that and I've taken long grain rice on various occasions, and the blood sugar measurements both start to rise rapidly by half an hour or so. My insulin dosages would be the same for both rice types gram-for-gram.

My point is that using basmati rice is definitely not a panacea and should be regarded like all foods with a higher concentration of carbohydrates. Dilligence is fully deserved in both cases.

Any Double !

FermanaghAnna wrote: »

and do you know - the walking is a good as anything for keeping the BS down - throw in the odd hill and it works wonders!

Walking ..... Mmmmm ..... I think I just about remember that

Any Double !

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

I've read that basmati rice has lower GI. It's my favoured rice anyway so I'm happy out. But I've taken that and I've taken long grain rice on various occasions, and the blood sugar measurements both start to rise rapidly by half an hour or so. My insulin dosages would be the same for both rice types gram-for-gram.

My point is that using basmati rice is definitely not a panacea and should be regarded like all foods with a higher concentration of carbohydrates. Dilligence is fully deserved in both cases.

I wonder if the wholemeal is any better ??

FermanaghAnna

i don't know i just can't bear the thought of brown rice - although the wholemeal pasta is grand. i find eating a lot of protein - chicken, fish etc with any meal keeps the BS down quite nicely. It's hard to motivate yourself to get out walking in this weather!

lucernarian

Yeah, if I eat meals that have a good mixture of protein, fats, digestible and undigestible carbohydrates, the sugars that result are much slower to appear. Mixed meals like that take more time to digest than something that is simply a form of dietary carbohydrate which is more difficult to break down than simple carbohydrates. (e.g. brown bread, wholemeal stuff etc. IMO)

These are my own experiences with them, most likely the results are different for other people. So talk to a dietician that knows your case history, or at least arrange to see one as part of your outpatients appointment.

robinph

As others have said it is definitely worth asking to speak to the dietitian at the next appointment. I'd have questioned the usefulness myself before, not even sure when the dietitian became available where I go, but have seen them a few time this year on several visits now and it has actually been very useful in making slight changes to the way that I was doing things and paying a bit more attention to what I was eating. I hadn't actually asked to see the dietitian myself, but they just sent me along to them on one previous visit. Last dietitian I had seen regarding diabetes was when I was in hospital when I was diagnosed 13 years ago.

FermanaghAnna wrote: »

It's hard to motivate yourself to get out walking in this weather!

It can be chuffing cold out there at the moment. I'm currently in training for another marathon in April and it always seems to be raining when I go out for a run, and running into a head wind is no fun either.

FermanaghAnna

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

These are my own experiences with them, most likely the results are different for other people. So talk to a dietician that knows your case history, or at least arrange to see one as part of your outpatients appointment.

That's very true everyone's different so what works for me may not be the best for someone else. Although if someone could just let me have the magic weight losing formula i'd be very grateful!

BlackEdelweiss

I have had another chinese since and had much the same result, nothing over 10. I only have a spoonfull of rice which is a big change for me, I used to go for the whole tin plus a bag of chips. It is actually quite a refreshing change to enjoy it with a small bit of rice and not be completely stuffed at the end.
As for the weight loss, I just bought my first pair of size 32 jeans since I was 21(35 now) and they are falling off me. I was a 34 or 36 for the last number of years. I have completely cut out crap like sweets, chocolate etc, I eat the odd bag of doritos at the weekend. I do 45 minutes on the wii fit 5 days a week and have cut my portion size down by almost half, I also stopped eating the end of my wifes dinner, and the kids. The diabetic nurse actually told me to increase my portion size a bit as I was still going low a few times a week. I am only on diet and exercise now so I am looking more like a type 2 but she thinks I am probably going to develop into a type 1 in time. According to the Wii I am almost at a healthy BMI, something I have been trying to get to unsuccessfully for years.
I know having a long term illness is not a great thing but I have to say that so far I am almost happy I got it as it has given me the kick I needed to give up all the crap and lead a healthy lifestyle and hopefully be around to see my kids and grandkids grow up. I still have an awfull lot to learn about how to do that though.

Any Double !

BlackEdelweiss wrote: »

I have had another chinese since and had much the same result, nothing over 10. I only have a spoonfull of rice which is a big change for me, I used to go for the whole tin plus a bag of chips. It is actually quite a refreshing change to enjoy it with a small bit of rice and not be completely stuffed at the end.
As for the weight loss, I just bought my first pair of size 32 jeans since I was 21(35 now) and they are falling off me. I was a 34 or 36 for the last number of years. I have completely cut out crap like sweets, chocolate etc, I eat the odd bag of doritos at the weekend. I do 45 minutes on the wii fit 5 days a week and have cut my portion size down by almost half, I also stopped eating the end of my wifes dinner, and the kids. The diabetic nurse actually told me to increase my portion size a bit as I was still going low a few times a week. I am only on diet and exercise now so I am looking more like a type 2 but she thinks I am probably going to develop into a type 1 in time. According to the Wii I am almost at a healthy BMI, something I have been trying to get to unsuccessfully for years.
I know having a long term illness is not a great thing but I have to say that so far I am almost happy I got it as it has given me the kick I needed to give up all the crap and lead a healthy lifestyle and hopefully be around to see my kids and grandkids grow up. I still have an awfull lot to learn about how to do that though.

Yes I too had many chance to change lifestyle and avoid getting Type 2 but have only began to make changes now once diagnosed. I too have an awful lot to learn and am picking a lot of conflicting info along the way but with very helpful sites like this and a good doctor I will hopefully get it regulated. I'm a long long ways from a 32 waist jeans though :(

BlackEdelweiss

I think I was getting a bit too cocky with my Chinese takeaways. I thought my body was good enough to handle them so when we couldent get shopping yesterday I decided to treat myself to another one. I ordered something that I had never had before from a new takeaway and it turned out to be a chilli based dish, sweet chilli sauce I would presume being one of the main ingredients. I also said I would treat myself to a bit more rice and had over half a tub along with a few of my wife's chips. My blood went up to 13.9 after 2 hours and was at 16.7 by the time I went to bed at 12.30. It was still at 9.5 this morning when I got up.
I'm not as good at this as I thought I was, I'm going to have to cut back on the takeaways for a while, no more till after christmas. Its going to be hard enough getting through christmas anyway without eating any sweets or overdoing the other food. I dont mind not eating sweets, it hasent bothered me at all so far but I did enjoy eating my way through a few tins over the holidays. I'll just have to stick to the turkey sandwiches instead.

kowloon

I prefer Indian takeaways to Chinese, but I never go for creamy curries, the tomato based ones are better.