I just had to reply to you, because your questions remind me exactly of how I felt just a few weeks ago. Getting newly diagnosed as a diabetic is really frightening, and some doctors don't feel that it's necessary for you to see a nutritionist (because everyone knows how to deal with diabetes, right?) You mentioned that you're on Gluc but not Insulin...I am not on Insulin, either, and my doctor said that if I am vigilant about keeping my sugars in a good range, there is a good chance that I'll never have to take the shots. Good news, and a good motivator to constantly check sugars and eat correctly! For what it's worth, here is what I've found to be helpful, just so you can have some guidelines until you can (hopefully) see a nutritionist:
1) Sugar is your biggest enemy. Although you CAN still eat some things with sugar in them, the best thing to do is to steer away from them in general and find good sugar-free substitutes (believe it or not, there are sugar-free cookies, popsicles, even ice cream and they don't taste bad at all). In general, read nutrition labels and look at the sugar grams...steer away from things that are sugar-laden (like breakfast cereals, even the ones that seem okay like Honey Nut Cheerios) - you can't eat much sugar now and what you can eat needs to be saved for natural sugars and sugars that come from carbs.
2) Carbs are a source of contradiction among a lot of diabetics. It's true that they break down in your body as sugar, but diabetics can't go without them (low carbing is not safe for diabetics). The slow release of sugar from carbs is what gives you energy and keeps you from going hypoglycemic. In general, you CAN eat carbs, but you need to watch portions. I have been put on a plan to eat between four and five diabetic exchanges of carbs a day (an exchange, if you haven't learned yet, is 15 grams of carbs. Anytime you eat 15 grams, that's one exchange.) So I eat between 60 and 75 grams of carbs per day - but I can't eat that all at once. I usually eat one exahange at breakfast, one at lunch, one for my afternoon snack, and either one or two at supper. If we have spaghetti for supper, I can eat some (watch portion sizes!) but I fill up the rest of the way with salad.
3) In general, sugar is sugar. Fruit contains sugar, but fruit is essential for vitamins and minerals...my nutritionist told me to eat fruit only in either the morning or evening, which is when I take my Gluc. In the middle of the day, Gluc isn't in my system so strongly and the fruit can make my sugar go high.
5) You will need to eat more often - although doctors claim that Gluc does not cause low blood sugars, my doctor said that it will if I don't eat regularly. That just means a morning and afternoon snack...no big deal, a bit of cheese and crackers or some sliced veggies.
4) Other than that, I would definitely recommend testing your blood sugar. I posted on here a few days ago after having a really scary blood sugar emergency - my sugar tends to run really low now that I'm on the Gluc and it's made me feel really powerful to know exactly what number my sugar is at. When mine gets to about 68, I begin to feel weak and know that it's time to test and take some immediate sugar to raise it above 70 (most convenient are glucose tabs that are really cheap in the medicine section - just carry them around, one has four grams of sugar). Testing just randomly helps me avoid such situations, though.
In general, I have learned that the key to living with diabetes is MODERATION. You can still eat sweets sometimes, but you can't "have that little slice of pie because it won't hurt." It will - the effects of letting your blood sugar run high over a long period of time are devestating. If you must have a piece of chocolate, make sure you eat it when your sugars are lower - midddle of the afternoon, maybe? The "diabetes diet" is really nothing of the sort - if everyone in America would eat this way, which is essentially just a balanced and varied diet, the need for more drastic diets would be greatly reduced...it's just a healthy way of eating. It's really overwhelming at first because it's a new way of reading labels and thinking about things. Once you get your sugars back in balance, however, you will feel much better (thinking of this helped me a lot, because I had felt sick for so long!).
Hope I helped! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask and I'll pass on what I know.
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Dx w/PCOS in 1998
Dx w/Type II Diabetes in March, 2002
Started Glucophage (1000 mg) and blood sugar monitoring March, 2002
Engaged to DH Tim, wedding will be June 7, 2003! (So Excited!)
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