And yes, our food bill went up when I found out I had Diabetes. By quite a bit.

I started using Splenda - the least bad of the artificial sweeteners. I don't have any great recipes - except I did perfect making a low carb cheesecake for special occasions. The main thing is to get moving...and eat as healthy as possible. Watch your portion sizes scrupulously. I measure/weigh everything.

Can you see a nutritionist/diabetes educator on your insurance? That helps with the first few months, which can be completely overwhelming. I used to cry a lot because I couldn't seem to figure out what would cause my blood sugar to spike. Having someone I could call to calm me down helped.

It's great that you have your wife as a support person, too. Many people don't. My husband is not Diabetic, but he's the cook in the family and has sat down to dinner every night for over 12 years with "The fish has 3 carbs, the green beans none and the potato has 25 carbs" He is my biggest advocate and just having someone to give me a hug sometimes really helps. I've joined support boards in the past (not DU) that have legions of people whose spouses are completely unsupportive, which sucks.

Thanksgiving is no longer the glut-fest that it once was. But, I'm OK with that

but do you know that Splenda is chlorinated sugar? That's not a healthy choice in my book. Agave is lower on the glycemic index than sugar and so is coconut sugar (actually the flower of the coconut plant.) Applesauce sweetens in cooking and raisins are great to sweeten smoothies.

I recommend http://www.atkins.com/Home.aspx and http://yourlighterside.com/. And I love cookbooks by Dana Carpender and George Stella.

There are lots of great posts here about eating healthy and how to make the most of what you've got.

Some areas have community gardens. Do you have access to one of those?

There are some good cookbooks out there for diabetics. It's hard to make a big change, I know, but it's worth it.

Hope this group helps.

However, I disagree with your statement that "Lean meats, fresh veggies, and fresh fish are a hell of a lot more expensive than cheap cuts, canned veggies, and canned tuna" because the statement doesn't acknowledge the value of the food.

Fresh veggies give a lot more nutrition than canned and if cooked right, they taste way better. I wouldn't think of using canned vegetables--not canned corn, beans, or anything else. I even dislike the idea of canned tomatoes, though even my resident gourmand says they are acceptable. He uses them all the time (though selective about the brand), but I won't.

Dried beans are wonderful (huge variety, inexpensive, high fiber) and way better for you than canned, so you are right on target with that. Did you know canned beans raise your glycemic level in a big way? They are a poor value.

Here's a tip on how to cook dried beans: Wash them. Then soak them overnight with an onion cut in half and into which you have stuck a clove. Add about 10 peppercorns and about a half cup of olive oil. Put in sliced carrots, too. Maybe some celery, if you have it. Then cook however you want (I prefer the slow cooker).

You don't sound too happy about the changes you're having to make, but your health will be way better for the change. People who have lost weight sometimes lose diabetes II, also. Exercise helps and it can be fun, too.


Cher

p.s. read up on canned tuna. Not good. Use sparingly.

You need to be the master of your palate and open yourself to new options. Eating fresh vegtables as the largest part of your plate doesn't have to be the most expensive way to go if you eat what is in season. It also takes planning and discipline to only buy what you can reasonably eat in a few days. You need to go to the store more often.

Get to know your produce and meat guy at the store. Ask them what days they do their biggest mark downs and shop then. There is nothing wrong with the marked down meat as long as you use it that day or freeze it. Same goes for bananas. Frozen bananas in the blender make a great occasional snack!

Depending where you live this is a great time to buy winter squash, brussel sprouts, yams and greens. Also don't over look the sales on frozen veg. Every week my local stores have coupons or sales on frozen veg. Oftentimes the store brands are a little cheaper.

Don't forget to try to score a few turkeys too this time of year. I try to get two or even three into the freezer.


Read your store circulars or check out their websites for specials. Don't forget to get one of the stupid plastic membership/rewards cards. You will save money using them. I Know safeway allows you to go on line and add their weeklly coupon specials on to the card so you don't have to think about it.

I usually check out my three local store flyers on Tuesday night for the sales that start on Wed. and plan my meals and shopping around what is on sale.

You don’t have to drastically change everything all at once. Changing things more slowly will ensure that you make changes you can stick with. Don’t rush out to buy new things; figure out which of the things you already have that can be useful.

The most important thing I learned at first is to get rid of the “white” stuff: white bread, white pasta, white rice, white potatoes, and of course, white sugar. Use whole grain bread and pasta, brown rice and sweet potatoes instead. Just doing that was a challenge at first. I’m afraid there is no real substitute for white sugar, you can try things like Splenda but start out using it sparingly. I found out the hard way that all the Sugar Free “diabetic” stuff on the grocery shelves are not necessarily healthy. I went through a lot of gastric upsets checking out sugar free candy and things, (especially gummy bears).

Then, get a good carb counting book and use it. I use the CalorieKing site and books a lot. http://www.calorieking.com/ I carry the small paperback copy with me for reference when eating in restaurants. I found it at a half price book store, which is where I found a lot of low carb cook books too.

Keep educating yourself and researching recipes and it will begin to make sense. You can eat better, just try something new every couple days and eventually carb counting will become second nature. Good luck!

My wife and I have been doing exactly that. We have given up what we feel we can. We allow ourselves small and infrequent jolts of our decadents to avoid binging. So far so good. Her levels have gone from 358 to 162 with 1000 mg of Metformin. I have gone from 207 to 122 with 500 mg of Metformin.

I am still VERY pissed at her VA doctor regarding her sugar levels. Two years ago she had a fasting level of 167. Her doctor told her only to watch her weight.

I had not been diagnosed diabetic at the time so did not understand the numbers and put them out of my mind.

A few months after I had been diagnosed my wife told me she was having diabetic symptoms. We took a random blood sugar and she was at 358. She called and made several appointments with the next day.

Why would any doctor think that a reading of 167 at ANY time of day should not be monitored or controlled is beyond me.

Sorry for the venting. I just feel that this doctor may have taken time away from my wife and I.

A year and a half before I was diagnosed, I had a fasting level of 171. They just warned me to watch what I eat. I thought I was doing the right things but apparently I wasn't cause I ended up getting diagnosed after going to the emergency room for an infected wound in my leg and they said I had BG of 366.
I kick myself for not insisting that they do more testing back at the 171 BG stage, but like you, I wasn't aware of what that meant.
I ended up getting a different doctor.

Most general practitioner doctors will know plenty about low fat diets. They might not know about the low carb diet needed by diabetics. My wife and I were given lots of bad diet orders from our doctors before we talked to our nutritionist.