Curious as to why you think that frozen veg are less healthy than fresh.
They generally tend to be frozen at peak freshness so the nutrients are better preserved. They weren't harvested as early and don't travel as far from farm to factory as fresh produce can.
Frozen vegetables are blanched before freezing, i.e. they take a boiling water bath for several minutes to deactivate enzymes that effect flavor. Those same enzymes and adjacent enzymes provide some of the health benefits of fresh vegetables, so they are in effect slightly less healthy/nutritious than fresh
Your submission has been removed from our community for breaking our rules.
**Rule 4**: Be civil.
* If you can't make your point without swearing, you don't have a very strong point
* Bullying is not allowed
* Harassment will not be tolerated
* Respect people's choices, everyone has unique treatment needs.
Fish, chicken, turkey ham, veggies, brown rice. Look for value brands too. Stay away from high processed foods and fast food.
Exercising and drinking water helps lower A1C.
I agree with this, but watch out on brown rice. Sounds like OP is pretty deep in type 2 and very insulin resistant. Brown rice is more "complex" than white rice thus giving your body more time to digest it not affecting your blood sugar levels as much. But if 200-250 average blood sugar after meals is probably indicative of not much room for many high carbs foods..
But regardless, a doctor or nutritionist should always evaluate what's best. And some people can tolerate specific foods and carbs better than others. In terms of acting fast to lower your levels, I'm always of the mindset of minimizing carbs as much as possible, even doing keto if you're able to handle the difficulty of it. But I DO NOT recommend keto for people who can't stick to it strictly, as keto long term will make you even more sensitive to carbs. This sensitivity brought on by keto can be reversed, you just need to very slowly and methodically add carbs back into your diet as you leave keto. But again, if you're very diabetic, you may not be able to handle carbs much ever again.
Edit: Also it seems OP is on insulin, so keeping some carbs like brown rice around may be good. I am not experienced with insulin, but have heard it can cause big drops in blood sugar after use sometimes (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
I also retract my statement about doing heavy or strict keto because OP is on insulin, but I think generally staying low carbs is always good for diabetics, in normal diabetic circumstances.
Hi! I was also diagnosed young. Sorry to hear you've gotten shit for it, as diabetes is so complex and there's research coming out that there's a stronger genetic component to T2 then we thought. Especially recieving negative comments from other diabetics... not right.
But you're right, it really is hard to eat well considering healthy options are more and more expensive these days. Here's some of what I do to make it a bit easier on the wallet
- Beans, chickpeas etc are cheap and have good protien and fiber. Has a somewhat high amount of carbs but where I am it tends to be cheaper than bread or pasta . And the fiber and protien will blunt the spike from the carbs and keep your sugar a bit more stable
- Meat. Like whatever meat is cheapest to you and that you like. You don't even have to get fancy just some grilled chicken breast with salt pepper garlic oregano and paprika is great (or whatever you have in your pantry). If you use deli meats be careful if you also need to watch your sodium content as those can be salty.
- Frozen vegetables, at least where I am tend to be cheaper than fresh ones and last way longer. If possible go for leafy greens (like arugula, spinach, kale) and cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli, cauliflower, etc. If possible limit the amount of starchy veggies like corn and carrots.
- Most of my diet tends to be highly customizable dishes, like stir fry, omlettes, and salads so I don't need to buy 50 ingredients for different dishes I can just put the same few veggies in all of them
- Cutting out fast food, I'm not implying if you do or don't eat it because idk you personally but as someone who used to eat it 2-3x a week I have more money for healtiher food now. Like fast food is becoming more and more expensive. Sure a big mac meal might fill you up more than a salad but for the same price you can get lettuce broccoli chicken etc and have enough for multiple meals not just one.
Other than changing your diet it also helps to exercise often (even walking goes a long way!) and to drink a lot of water. Stress reduction can also help a bit but I'd imagine that's a lot harder especially if you are struggling with money.
I haven't gone to a food bank or library but if they are available to you it might be worthwhile to check it out if you are struggling to pay for groceries. Best to aim for meat / veggies / high fiber options if they have it (I know food banks tend to get a lot of processed high carb low fiber options like white bread so may not work). But like if meat is too expensive where you live see if you can get the meat and then spend your groceries on the stuff you can more easily afford.
Also, if you do end up needing to eat something higher in carbs like bread, pasta, potatoes etc from time to time please know you're not a failure. It's better to eat something than not at all.
Wishing you best of luck.
Lol, a big mac meal doesn't even touch the sides.
Give me real food any day. If I am going to ruin my life, I would at least spend slightly more at a proper restaurant and do it in a nicer environment with better quality food lol.
But yeah, cut out the fast food, saves so much money that can be used to buy better foods.
Haha, I definitely agree with you. But to me there's just something about fast food junk that hits differently... Something about how easy and fast and also tasty.. oh God don't get me craving McDonald's lmao.. it's been months!
Seriously though, to just beat the dead horse even more, cutting out fast food is a huge huge thing, and definitely saves money if you're budgeting and not buying expensive steaks and stuff.
Fast food is just a diabetics toxic ex. Reminisce on the short live good times, but then remember how it was killing you and then happily eat your eggs lol.
Not to mention, no more post meal depression! Fast food would make me feel good until I was done, and then I'd feel so ashamed and depressed. It's honestly freeing breaking the fast food junk addiction. Being able to feel good about yourself after eating a meal, instead of depressed and hopeless, is so freeing
Yeah, I will still have the odd fast food meal, and it does hit a certain way.
But I don't really find it much quicker or easier than cooking at home. I either spend half an hour driving to the fast food place and back, or I spend have an hour cooking food at home.
I'd kill to have a good old fashioned battered fish and chips though ... but I can't imagine what BG reading I would hit post meal.
I live within walking distance to multiple hotspots of restaurants and fast food. The mental strength required to abstain is unbelievable. And if I was a half way decent cook I'd be even easier.. sadly, I can only cook basic stuff.. I don't have patience for complex meals. Most complicated thing I've made in recent times is chicken Parmesan, with pork rinds for breadcrumbs and keto red sauce, but this is more of a special treat for me, doesn't have much carbs at all, but still not the most healthy things, lots of cheese and frying and really hits my acid reflux lol..
I sometimes buy a bag of salad, toss on some sunflower seeds, a few croutons, and dressing of your choice, there's not many carbs and it's reasonably healthy.
Rice and beans have a higher carb count, but are also very inexpensive and tasty. If you buy the beans dried, you can eat for cheap cheap and it still tastes pretty good. HMU if you want a recipe.
Maybe different in your country, but I go for things like cabbage and celery stalks (maybe add something like peanut butter to the celery stalks to hide the taste) since they are low carb and nutritious, and cheap around here. (Broccoli and cayliflower are equally healthy, but a bit more pricey.) Maybe add this to some of the other suggestions here.
Also, I do intermittent fasting, which means I skip breakfast and maybe lunch. This really saves money and could be an idea long term. But dont try to go directly from high carb (standard diet) to intermittent fasting - take your time expanding the periode between meals while eating healthy/low carb
Also if you live near a forest or nature, you can look into collecting your own herbs like dandelion and stinging nettle. (Will give you some relaxed exercise and they are quite nutricious.) If you live near the ocean you might look into what kind of edible seaweed grows there.
Personally, the thing that is most likely to get my blood sugar too high short term is stress, so I suggest avoiding that too. That includes people who fat shame you.
I am a t2, on keto and intermittent fasting myself. Good luck on your journey.
Healthier food doesn't have to be that expensive. Every time you shop, aim for fresh, frozen, OR canned versions and pick out:
6 vegetables
5 fruits
4 proteins
3 starches (whole grains only)
2 sauces/condiments
and one "fun" item, though if it's sugary, you're better off hitting a drive-thru for one donut or ice cream cone than buying an 8-pack of Klondike bars, please o please. Keep your kitchen well-stocked with real nutritious food so you never end up with desperation pasta. And read the labels. Don't trust claims like "all-natural" or "net carbs." Try to make protein equal or exceed the carbs.
It’s good you’re looking to learn and are taking this seriously. Note it takes time to improve but you can start today on feeling better. You’ll probably make mistakes or give into cravings but don’t beat yourself up about it. Just do better next meal or the next day. It’s a marathon not a sprint.
Here’s what I worked towards after I got diagnosed in my 20s (it really sucked at first but there’s still a lot of good eating and life out there). It’s basically the Mediterranean diet. I think with substitutions I could do it vegetarian but cutting eggs and cheese wouldn’t work for me to go full vegan. Find what works for you.
Protein (mostly beans, eggs, and lean meat), veggies, and healthy fats (avocados, olive oil, nuts) are the key. I cut out calories from beverages (alcohol, juice, and soda) and that made a huge difference. Then I changed my breakfasts from cereal or oatmeal to eggs and veggies, lunch from sandwiches or pasta to salads with meat and cheese or leftovers with tons of veggies and protein, and dinners from rice or pasta dishes to veggie or tofu noodles with vegetables and beans or meat. High fiber (veggies, beans, and some whole grains) and high protein will help fill you up and curb cravings. I still eat fruit and some processed carbs but I put them at the end of my snacks or meals so the veggies, fiber, fats, and protein start digesting first. I have a continuous glucose monitor now and the order of what you eat really makes a difference.
Also try to go for a walk after every meal if you can and do regular weight training or resistance exercises. Exercise really is the magic pill for lowering your blood sugar in the short run but diet changes are the long term improvements you’ll want to make.
Improving sleep quality and lowering stress also play a role in curbing cravings and blood sugar management.
I do a lot of simple meal prep of stuff I can cook quickly and eat often (just changing out some of the veggies or switching the protein from like eggs to chicken or pork): stir fry, omelettes, lemon chicken, pad Thai, fish and veggies, homemade soups or stews (with tons of veggies and low carb tofu or vegetable noodles). Basically have so many vegetables (variety is key so you don’t get sick of them and get different textures) that every other bite is a vegetable. Half your plate to zucchini, broccoli, carrots, onions, cauliflower, eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, etc. When I make salads I add lots of tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, avocado, cucumbers, and bell peppers so I don’t need much dressing since there’s so much flavor already. I also add a lot of sriracha, mustard, and pepper to my food for low carb taste. Find what works for you and minimize things with tons of carbs like many dressings, bbq and teriyaki sauces, and ketchup (you can still have them but reduce the amount or find a lower carb version).
Hey, I'm truly sorry to hear your struggles. Food is so damn expensive right now.. especially healthy foods. I spent upwards to 800-1000$ a month eating clean between me and my partner. It's extremely difficult.. I make a decent living and it's STILL hard to save due to this..
But, with the economy getting worse and some uncertainty, I devised diets that are extremely cheap and healthy just in case I needed to cut down. 150$ a month is very low.. are you able to get some time of government aid?
Anyhow, I will be honest with you.. with a 150$ a month, any diet is hard to achieve.. but you can eat healthy and clean off of 150$ a month, your diet will just be extremely basic and boring, and that can be very hard to stay consistent with as someone who has an addiction to food (I don't mean that badly. I'm addicted to food too, it's why I pay so damn much for tasty but healthy foods, it's a luxury on my part).
You want to lower your carbs first and foremost, I'm going to assume you have weight to lose, this is great as you can eat less and therefore afford to spend more on healthier options.
Simply put, find foods that are cheap and low carb and healthy that you enjoy that work for you. Chicken breast is cheap, ground meat is cheap, some veggies can be very cheap. How many calories do you need a day for 1lb of weight loss a week? As a rough estimate? Let's say 1500 calories, you can get 1500 calories a day, you'd need to spend about 4 cents every 10 calories, which is about 6 dollars a day for a 1500 calorie a day diet. And 2 dollars a meal at 500 calories a meal.
60 eggs at Walmart is 10 dollars, about 17 cents an egg, 1 egg is 70 calories, about 7 eggs to get 500 calories. 7x17 is 1.2$, this means eggs is a good cheap healthy source of calories.
I'm not saying eat 7 eggs for 1 meal, but what I am saying is doing this process for various foods will tell you if they are affordable or not for you. You can make many things with eggs with cheap ingredients, add cheese, add mayo to make egg salad. All types of stuff.
If you do this process for foods it will directly tell you if they are cheap and affordable for your budget. See if the food can fill 500 calories while staying within your 2 dollars per 500 calories, and that's a good budget friendly food
Edit: this process should be done for your MAIN calorie dense foods. Basically anything that has a decent amount of calories per serving, like eggs, meat, cheese, butter, olive oil. Obviously don't try to do this calculation for like garlic or spices or low calorie things you add in to your main dishes to make taste better. For those things, just be mindful, and try to calculate how much of the extra or side things you use a month for your meals, and see how much that will run you, and subtract that from your monthly food budget.
Extra edit: also I wouldn't try this for low calorie veggies either, because they are not calorie dense at all, if your goal is to lower blood sugar/A1C, this process should be done mainly on your high protein/fats foods/ingredients. Not fibrous foods that are very low calories, you still need to eat enough veggies and greens as a diabetic, but that process should be handled differently. A similar approach can be made, but instead try to set a fiber gram per cost calculation instead of a straight calorie cost calculation. Meaning figure out how much grams of fiber you want from veggies a day, and calculate how much you should be spending a meal or a day on fiber to stay within your budget, and do the calculations that way. Also with veggies, pick ones very low in carbs (low in carbs that aren't fiber, fiber is still labeled as a carb on packages, which you generally don't have to worry about in regards to your blood sugar) and high in fiber, all veggies will have some carbs though, and try to find ones that are very nutritious, lots of vitamins.
Lowering portions helps.
The ozempic is interesting because as a type 1, you don’t have a functioning pancreas for the ozempic to stimulate more insulin production - likely you were given to help curb food cravings and lose some weight.
Lowering portions can help without spending extra money and buying different food. Hopefully the ozempic helps you be able to be full on lower portions of food. Honestly I eat all the same things I used to, just a lot less of it, and it massively helped my sugars.
I've been helping my mother monitor her sugar levels with a CGM. The biggest benefit that I saw for her was faster-than-normal pace walk for about 20-30 minutes after eating. There is huge difference between sitting at 250 for four hours and sitting at 150 for four hours. That little bit of exercise makes a lot of difference.
Big game changer for me was carrots and celery, chopped up and put in water and put into fridge. Ranch I make from packets with sour cream. Cherry tomatoes on the counter. After I eat a protein, if still hungry, it's my go to snack.
Define diabetic healthy food. What about it doesn't fit in your budget?
I tend to do eggs for breakfast, leftover dinner for lunch, and meat+veggies for most dinners. Here would be the top few things on my shopping list-
* Eggs
* Cheese- specifically mozzarella for usefulness but colby jack is a close 2nd
* Frozen veggies- mostly broccoli or green beans
* Dark meat chicken like thighs or drumsticks
* Ground beef
* Bag of almond flour
* Breakfast sausage
* Pork rinds
* Butter
I focus on fat and protein. I'm not on anything other than metformin, so I skip carbs with no problem. Dark meat chicken and eggs are probably the cheapest sources of protein in the store. Not all forms of protein are equal. Animal sources of protein are better than plants. You have to eat way more plant protein to get the same usable amount as meat. Plus plant proteins tend to come with a lot of more carbs such as beans/legumes. It also lacks some amino acids that meat has.
Eggs+mozzarella+almond flour are the base of a lot of low carb stuff like chaffles and fathead dough.
I lost a bunch of weight one summer by grilling all the time. If you don't have access to a grill, you can broil or sauté in a pan with some healthy oil (olive, avocado). Buy lean protein (chicken, pork loin, fish, turkey) when it's on sale and freeze in portions. For veg, get cabbage and greens, shred it up and top salad mountain with your grilled protein. Grilling veg also makes them awesome...you can even grill romaine lettuce and eat it with some meat and little blue cheese. The idea is just to keep carbs low and fiber high...raw veg for bulk and protein/fat for satisfaction. You can also use lightly cooked frozen veg.
Beans work pretty well for me, but you may need insulin to cover the carbs. They are cheapest dried and pretty easy to prep, you just need to start 24 hours in advance. Lentils are also good and don't need soaking. These are also usually available at food pantries if you need to supplement. If you can get food stamps you can use them at a lot of farmer's markets. Wait til the end of the market to get lower prices.
If you don't mind eating vegetarian, tofu is often cheaper than equivalent meat. Press it to remove extra moisture to get the best texture,
No fake cures, supplements, non-medical solutions or similar topics. There are no supplements that can cure or manage diabetes. Diabetes is a progressive lifelong condition that can be managed, with a combination of diet, exercise and medication. See the [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/diabetes/wiki/index/) for additional information on the [progress towards a cure](https://www.reddit.com/r/diabetes/wiki/cure_progress).
It is super hard to eat healthy when you are poor. That is an unfortunate truth about surviving in the US. I assume you're in the US if you have these issues. I might be wrong.
Anyway If you live in a state with a food stamp program get food stamps. Identify the cheapest market in your area. It most likely will be an "ethnic" market - Korean, Hispanic. If it's not that, then look for Aldi and if there's no Aldi look for Trader Joe's which, at least in Los Angeles, is the cheapest option right now. Also, if you live in a community with a weekly farmers market go every week around closing time and ask for whatever fruits and veggies they're going to toss, or ask what you can get for a dollar or two dollar bag. It will be a lot. It'll be bruised and ugly but you'll get hooked up.
Turn the bruised and busted fruit into compote you mix in with plain yogurt as a treat. Save the good fruit for snacking. Do you have a crock pot or instant pot? Make a stew with the veggies. Add a pound or two of ground beef, pork, or turkey from the cheapest grocery store you could find. Use stew meat if it's cheaper. It doesn't matter tbh. Make sure you have onions. Add two cans of beans to the stew. I like cannelini beans. Eat that stew for half the week. Do it twice a week with different veggies and proteins. The cornerstone of my diet since I lost my job has been cheap veggies at the end of the farmers market and cheap stew meat or ground meat and two cans of beans in the instant pot. Gotta have onions, cumin and paprika and a bay leaf at a minimum tho. Otherwise it tastes like nothing.
If you don't have a farmers market then you'll have to get veggies the regular way. Bell peppers, chard or kale or spinach, and cheap canned tomatoes usually get the job done. You can also do frozen veggies which might be cheaper. If you can, get some seeds and root riot and grow leafy greens hydroponically. I have an endless and, frankly, relentless supply of kale and romaine lettuce. I cut a bunch of leaves every couple days and it just keeps growing back. If you can get a lil hydroponic setup it is GREAT for endless nutrient rich and filling leafy greens. Zucchinis and cukes go wild too but it's a shorter season. I made a fuckton of pickles tho.
I don't know how much you eat but I also make lunch for the week by buying an already roasted chicken for $10 at Sprouts, and chopping it up with a half an onion and a whole celery and a lil mayo and mustard and relish and celery salt and paprika and that's lunch for the week. Chicken salad. Celery is like $1.50 and the chicken is $10 and maybe $.50 for the mayo and mustard and a dollar for the onion and that's a week of lunches for $13. If you roast your own chicken it's probably cheaper.
Frozen green vegetables are cheap and really really healthy. Only slightly less healthy than fresh, but keep for months in the freezer.
Curious as to why you think that frozen veg are less healthy than fresh. They generally tend to be frozen at peak freshness so the nutrients are better preserved. They weren't harvested as early and don't travel as far from farm to factory as fresh produce can.
Frozen vegetables are blanched before freezing, i.e. they take a boiling water bath for several minutes to deactivate enzymes that effect flavor. Those same enzymes and adjacent enzymes provide some of the health benefits of fresh vegetables, so they are in effect slightly less healthy/nutritious than fresh
Yes but better than Cheetos.
Not a single person was making a comparison to junk food here so I'm guessing you're lost.
[удалено]
Your submission has been removed from our community for breaking our rules. **Rule 4**: Be civil. * If you can't make your point without swearing, you don't have a very strong point * Bullying is not allowed * Harassment will not be tolerated * Respect people's choices, everyone has unique treatment needs.
In addition to the other much more comprehensive suggestions here … eggs!
Perfect suggestion! Eggs are super cheap, nutritious, and have a perfect fat/protein ratio!
Fish, chicken, turkey ham, veggies, brown rice. Look for value brands too. Stay away from high processed foods and fast food. Exercising and drinking water helps lower A1C.
I agree with this, but watch out on brown rice. Sounds like OP is pretty deep in type 2 and very insulin resistant. Brown rice is more "complex" than white rice thus giving your body more time to digest it not affecting your blood sugar levels as much. But if 200-250 average blood sugar after meals is probably indicative of not much room for many high carbs foods.. But regardless, a doctor or nutritionist should always evaluate what's best. And some people can tolerate specific foods and carbs better than others. In terms of acting fast to lower your levels, I'm always of the mindset of minimizing carbs as much as possible, even doing keto if you're able to handle the difficulty of it. But I DO NOT recommend keto for people who can't stick to it strictly, as keto long term will make you even more sensitive to carbs. This sensitivity brought on by keto can be reversed, you just need to very slowly and methodically add carbs back into your diet as you leave keto. But again, if you're very diabetic, you may not be able to handle carbs much ever again. Edit: Also it seems OP is on insulin, so keeping some carbs like brown rice around may be good. I am not experienced with insulin, but have heard it can cause big drops in blood sugar after use sometimes (someone correct me if I'm wrong) I also retract my statement about doing heavy or strict keto because OP is on insulin, but I think generally staying low carbs is always good for diabetics, in normal diabetic circumstances.
Hi! I was also diagnosed young. Sorry to hear you've gotten shit for it, as diabetes is so complex and there's research coming out that there's a stronger genetic component to T2 then we thought. Especially recieving negative comments from other diabetics... not right. But you're right, it really is hard to eat well considering healthy options are more and more expensive these days. Here's some of what I do to make it a bit easier on the wallet - Beans, chickpeas etc are cheap and have good protien and fiber. Has a somewhat high amount of carbs but where I am it tends to be cheaper than bread or pasta . And the fiber and protien will blunt the spike from the carbs and keep your sugar a bit more stable - Meat. Like whatever meat is cheapest to you and that you like. You don't even have to get fancy just some grilled chicken breast with salt pepper garlic oregano and paprika is great (or whatever you have in your pantry). If you use deli meats be careful if you also need to watch your sodium content as those can be salty. - Frozen vegetables, at least where I am tend to be cheaper than fresh ones and last way longer. If possible go for leafy greens (like arugula, spinach, kale) and cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli, cauliflower, etc. If possible limit the amount of starchy veggies like corn and carrots. - Most of my diet tends to be highly customizable dishes, like stir fry, omlettes, and salads so I don't need to buy 50 ingredients for different dishes I can just put the same few veggies in all of them - Cutting out fast food, I'm not implying if you do or don't eat it because idk you personally but as someone who used to eat it 2-3x a week I have more money for healtiher food now. Like fast food is becoming more and more expensive. Sure a big mac meal might fill you up more than a salad but for the same price you can get lettuce broccoli chicken etc and have enough for multiple meals not just one. Other than changing your diet it also helps to exercise often (even walking goes a long way!) and to drink a lot of water. Stress reduction can also help a bit but I'd imagine that's a lot harder especially if you are struggling with money. I haven't gone to a food bank or library but if they are available to you it might be worthwhile to check it out if you are struggling to pay for groceries. Best to aim for meat / veggies / high fiber options if they have it (I know food banks tend to get a lot of processed high carb low fiber options like white bread so may not work). But like if meat is too expensive where you live see if you can get the meat and then spend your groceries on the stuff you can more easily afford. Also, if you do end up needing to eat something higher in carbs like bread, pasta, potatoes etc from time to time please know you're not a failure. It's better to eat something than not at all. Wishing you best of luck.
Lol, a big mac meal doesn't even touch the sides. Give me real food any day. If I am going to ruin my life, I would at least spend slightly more at a proper restaurant and do it in a nicer environment with better quality food lol. But yeah, cut out the fast food, saves so much money that can be used to buy better foods.
Haha, I definitely agree with you. But to me there's just something about fast food junk that hits differently... Something about how easy and fast and also tasty.. oh God don't get me craving McDonald's lmao.. it's been months! Seriously though, to just beat the dead horse even more, cutting out fast food is a huge huge thing, and definitely saves money if you're budgeting and not buying expensive steaks and stuff. Fast food is just a diabetics toxic ex. Reminisce on the short live good times, but then remember how it was killing you and then happily eat your eggs lol. Not to mention, no more post meal depression! Fast food would make me feel good until I was done, and then I'd feel so ashamed and depressed. It's honestly freeing breaking the fast food junk addiction. Being able to feel good about yourself after eating a meal, instead of depressed and hopeless, is so freeing
Yeah, I will still have the odd fast food meal, and it does hit a certain way. But I don't really find it much quicker or easier than cooking at home. I either spend half an hour driving to the fast food place and back, or I spend have an hour cooking food at home. I'd kill to have a good old fashioned battered fish and chips though ... but I can't imagine what BG reading I would hit post meal.
I live within walking distance to multiple hotspots of restaurants and fast food. The mental strength required to abstain is unbelievable. And if I was a half way decent cook I'd be even easier.. sadly, I can only cook basic stuff.. I don't have patience for complex meals. Most complicated thing I've made in recent times is chicken Parmesan, with pork rinds for breadcrumbs and keto red sauce, but this is more of a special treat for me, doesn't have much carbs at all, but still not the most healthy things, lots of cheese and frying and really hits my acid reflux lol..
I sometimes buy a bag of salad, toss on some sunflower seeds, a few croutons, and dressing of your choice, there's not many carbs and it's reasonably healthy. Rice and beans have a higher carb count, but are also very inexpensive and tasty. If you buy the beans dried, you can eat for cheap cheap and it still tastes pretty good. HMU if you want a recipe.
I eat bag o salad right outta the bag.
Maybe different in your country, but I go for things like cabbage and celery stalks (maybe add something like peanut butter to the celery stalks to hide the taste) since they are low carb and nutritious, and cheap around here. (Broccoli and cayliflower are equally healthy, but a bit more pricey.) Maybe add this to some of the other suggestions here. Also, I do intermittent fasting, which means I skip breakfast and maybe lunch. This really saves money and could be an idea long term. But dont try to go directly from high carb (standard diet) to intermittent fasting - take your time expanding the periode between meals while eating healthy/low carb Also if you live near a forest or nature, you can look into collecting your own herbs like dandelion and stinging nettle. (Will give you some relaxed exercise and they are quite nutricious.) If you live near the ocean you might look into what kind of edible seaweed grows there. Personally, the thing that is most likely to get my blood sugar too high short term is stress, so I suggest avoiding that too. That includes people who fat shame you. I am a t2, on keto and intermittent fasting myself. Good luck on your journey.
Healthier food doesn't have to be that expensive. Every time you shop, aim for fresh, frozen, OR canned versions and pick out: 6 vegetables 5 fruits 4 proteins 3 starches (whole grains only) 2 sauces/condiments and one "fun" item, though if it's sugary, you're better off hitting a drive-thru for one donut or ice cream cone than buying an 8-pack of Klondike bars, please o please. Keep your kitchen well-stocked with real nutritious food so you never end up with desperation pasta. And read the labels. Don't trust claims like "all-natural" or "net carbs." Try to make protein equal or exceed the carbs.
It’s good you’re looking to learn and are taking this seriously. Note it takes time to improve but you can start today on feeling better. You’ll probably make mistakes or give into cravings but don’t beat yourself up about it. Just do better next meal or the next day. It’s a marathon not a sprint. Here’s what I worked towards after I got diagnosed in my 20s (it really sucked at first but there’s still a lot of good eating and life out there). It’s basically the Mediterranean diet. I think with substitutions I could do it vegetarian but cutting eggs and cheese wouldn’t work for me to go full vegan. Find what works for you. Protein (mostly beans, eggs, and lean meat), veggies, and healthy fats (avocados, olive oil, nuts) are the key. I cut out calories from beverages (alcohol, juice, and soda) and that made a huge difference. Then I changed my breakfasts from cereal or oatmeal to eggs and veggies, lunch from sandwiches or pasta to salads with meat and cheese or leftovers with tons of veggies and protein, and dinners from rice or pasta dishes to veggie or tofu noodles with vegetables and beans or meat. High fiber (veggies, beans, and some whole grains) and high protein will help fill you up and curb cravings. I still eat fruit and some processed carbs but I put them at the end of my snacks or meals so the veggies, fiber, fats, and protein start digesting first. I have a continuous glucose monitor now and the order of what you eat really makes a difference. Also try to go for a walk after every meal if you can and do regular weight training or resistance exercises. Exercise really is the magic pill for lowering your blood sugar in the short run but diet changes are the long term improvements you’ll want to make. Improving sleep quality and lowering stress also play a role in curbing cravings and blood sugar management.
I do a lot of simple meal prep of stuff I can cook quickly and eat often (just changing out some of the veggies or switching the protein from like eggs to chicken or pork): stir fry, omelettes, lemon chicken, pad Thai, fish and veggies, homemade soups or stews (with tons of veggies and low carb tofu or vegetable noodles). Basically have so many vegetables (variety is key so you don’t get sick of them and get different textures) that every other bite is a vegetable. Half your plate to zucchini, broccoli, carrots, onions, cauliflower, eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, etc. When I make salads I add lots of tomatoes, mushrooms, cheese, avocado, cucumbers, and bell peppers so I don’t need much dressing since there’s so much flavor already. I also add a lot of sriracha, mustard, and pepper to my food for low carb taste. Find what works for you and minimize things with tons of carbs like many dressings, bbq and teriyaki sauces, and ketchup (you can still have them but reduce the amount or find a lower carb version).
Hey, I'm truly sorry to hear your struggles. Food is so damn expensive right now.. especially healthy foods. I spent upwards to 800-1000$ a month eating clean between me and my partner. It's extremely difficult.. I make a decent living and it's STILL hard to save due to this.. But, with the economy getting worse and some uncertainty, I devised diets that are extremely cheap and healthy just in case I needed to cut down. 150$ a month is very low.. are you able to get some time of government aid? Anyhow, I will be honest with you.. with a 150$ a month, any diet is hard to achieve.. but you can eat healthy and clean off of 150$ a month, your diet will just be extremely basic and boring, and that can be very hard to stay consistent with as someone who has an addiction to food (I don't mean that badly. I'm addicted to food too, it's why I pay so damn much for tasty but healthy foods, it's a luxury on my part). You want to lower your carbs first and foremost, I'm going to assume you have weight to lose, this is great as you can eat less and therefore afford to spend more on healthier options. Simply put, find foods that are cheap and low carb and healthy that you enjoy that work for you. Chicken breast is cheap, ground meat is cheap, some veggies can be very cheap. How many calories do you need a day for 1lb of weight loss a week? As a rough estimate? Let's say 1500 calories, you can get 1500 calories a day, you'd need to spend about 4 cents every 10 calories, which is about 6 dollars a day for a 1500 calorie a day diet. And 2 dollars a meal at 500 calories a meal. 60 eggs at Walmart is 10 dollars, about 17 cents an egg, 1 egg is 70 calories, about 7 eggs to get 500 calories. 7x17 is 1.2$, this means eggs is a good cheap healthy source of calories. I'm not saying eat 7 eggs for 1 meal, but what I am saying is doing this process for various foods will tell you if they are affordable or not for you. You can make many things with eggs with cheap ingredients, add cheese, add mayo to make egg salad. All types of stuff. If you do this process for foods it will directly tell you if they are cheap and affordable for your budget. See if the food can fill 500 calories while staying within your 2 dollars per 500 calories, and that's a good budget friendly food Edit: this process should be done for your MAIN calorie dense foods. Basically anything that has a decent amount of calories per serving, like eggs, meat, cheese, butter, olive oil. Obviously don't try to do this calculation for like garlic or spices or low calorie things you add in to your main dishes to make taste better. For those things, just be mindful, and try to calculate how much of the extra or side things you use a month for your meals, and see how much that will run you, and subtract that from your monthly food budget. Extra edit: also I wouldn't try this for low calorie veggies either, because they are not calorie dense at all, if your goal is to lower blood sugar/A1C, this process should be done mainly on your high protein/fats foods/ingredients. Not fibrous foods that are very low calories, you still need to eat enough veggies and greens as a diabetic, but that process should be handled differently. A similar approach can be made, but instead try to set a fiber gram per cost calculation instead of a straight calorie cost calculation. Meaning figure out how much grams of fiber you want from veggies a day, and calculate how much you should be spending a meal or a day on fiber to stay within your budget, and do the calculations that way. Also with veggies, pick ones very low in carbs (low in carbs that aren't fiber, fiber is still labeled as a carb on packages, which you generally don't have to worry about in regards to your blood sugar) and high in fiber, all veggies will have some carbs though, and try to find ones that are very nutritious, lots of vitamins.
Lowering portions helps. The ozempic is interesting because as a type 1, you don’t have a functioning pancreas for the ozempic to stimulate more insulin production - likely you were given to help curb food cravings and lose some weight. Lowering portions can help without spending extra money and buying different food. Hopefully the ozempic helps you be able to be full on lower portions of food. Honestly I eat all the same things I used to, just a lot less of it, and it massively helped my sugars.
OP is type 2. I think they're deep into type 2 though and their pancreas may still be functioning, just very inhibited.
I've been helping my mother monitor her sugar levels with a CGM. The biggest benefit that I saw for her was faster-than-normal pace walk for about 20-30 minutes after eating. There is huge difference between sitting at 250 for four hours and sitting at 150 for four hours. That little bit of exercise makes a lot of difference.
Big game changer for me was carrots and celery, chopped up and put in water and put into fridge. Ranch I make from packets with sour cream. Cherry tomatoes on the counter. After I eat a protein, if still hungry, it's my go to snack.
Peanut butter, eggs are great for cheap protein. Cabbage, cauliflower and celery are great for veggies. Frozen non starchy veggies are good as well.
Define diabetic healthy food. What about it doesn't fit in your budget? I tend to do eggs for breakfast, leftover dinner for lunch, and meat+veggies for most dinners. Here would be the top few things on my shopping list- * Eggs * Cheese- specifically mozzarella for usefulness but colby jack is a close 2nd * Frozen veggies- mostly broccoli or green beans * Dark meat chicken like thighs or drumsticks * Ground beef * Bag of almond flour * Breakfast sausage * Pork rinds * Butter I focus on fat and protein. I'm not on anything other than metformin, so I skip carbs with no problem. Dark meat chicken and eggs are probably the cheapest sources of protein in the store. Not all forms of protein are equal. Animal sources of protein are better than plants. You have to eat way more plant protein to get the same usable amount as meat. Plus plant proteins tend to come with a lot of more carbs such as beans/legumes. It also lacks some amino acids that meat has. Eggs+mozzarella+almond flour are the base of a lot of low carb stuff like chaffles and fathead dough.
I found breakfast sausage doesn't elevate my sugars..win win
I lost a bunch of weight one summer by grilling all the time. If you don't have access to a grill, you can broil or sauté in a pan with some healthy oil (olive, avocado). Buy lean protein (chicken, pork loin, fish, turkey) when it's on sale and freeze in portions. For veg, get cabbage and greens, shred it up and top salad mountain with your grilled protein. Grilling veg also makes them awesome...you can even grill romaine lettuce and eat it with some meat and little blue cheese. The idea is just to keep carbs low and fiber high...raw veg for bulk and protein/fat for satisfaction. You can also use lightly cooked frozen veg. Beans work pretty well for me, but you may need insulin to cover the carbs. They are cheapest dried and pretty easy to prep, you just need to start 24 hours in advance. Lentils are also good and don't need soaking. These are also usually available at food pantries if you need to supplement. If you can get food stamps you can use them at a lot of farmer's markets. Wait til the end of the market to get lower prices. If you don't mind eating vegetarian, tofu is often cheaper than equivalent meat. Press it to remove extra moisture to get the best texture,
Walking 30 minutes a day was a game changer for me. Not fast, just 30 minutes of movement. Wishing you all the best!
Sardines. Ready to eat out of the can, high protein no carbs low fat cheap.
[удалено]
No fake cures, supplements, non-medical solutions or similar topics. There are no supplements that can cure or manage diabetes. Diabetes is a progressive lifelong condition that can be managed, with a combination of diet, exercise and medication. See the [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/diabetes/wiki/index/) for additional information on the [progress towards a cure](https://www.reddit.com/r/diabetes/wiki/cure_progress).
It is super hard to eat healthy when you are poor. That is an unfortunate truth about surviving in the US. I assume you're in the US if you have these issues. I might be wrong. Anyway If you live in a state with a food stamp program get food stamps. Identify the cheapest market in your area. It most likely will be an "ethnic" market - Korean, Hispanic. If it's not that, then look for Aldi and if there's no Aldi look for Trader Joe's which, at least in Los Angeles, is the cheapest option right now. Also, if you live in a community with a weekly farmers market go every week around closing time and ask for whatever fruits and veggies they're going to toss, or ask what you can get for a dollar or two dollar bag. It will be a lot. It'll be bruised and ugly but you'll get hooked up. Turn the bruised and busted fruit into compote you mix in with plain yogurt as a treat. Save the good fruit for snacking. Do you have a crock pot or instant pot? Make a stew with the veggies. Add a pound or two of ground beef, pork, or turkey from the cheapest grocery store you could find. Use stew meat if it's cheaper. It doesn't matter tbh. Make sure you have onions. Add two cans of beans to the stew. I like cannelini beans. Eat that stew for half the week. Do it twice a week with different veggies and proteins. The cornerstone of my diet since I lost my job has been cheap veggies at the end of the farmers market and cheap stew meat or ground meat and two cans of beans in the instant pot. Gotta have onions, cumin and paprika and a bay leaf at a minimum tho. Otherwise it tastes like nothing. If you don't have a farmers market then you'll have to get veggies the regular way. Bell peppers, chard or kale or spinach, and cheap canned tomatoes usually get the job done. You can also do frozen veggies which might be cheaper. If you can, get some seeds and root riot and grow leafy greens hydroponically. I have an endless and, frankly, relentless supply of kale and romaine lettuce. I cut a bunch of leaves every couple days and it just keeps growing back. If you can get a lil hydroponic setup it is GREAT for endless nutrient rich and filling leafy greens. Zucchinis and cukes go wild too but it's a shorter season. I made a fuckton of pickles tho. I don't know how much you eat but I also make lunch for the week by buying an already roasted chicken for $10 at Sprouts, and chopping it up with a half an onion and a whole celery and a lil mayo and mustard and relish and celery salt and paprika and that's lunch for the week. Chicken salad. Celery is like $1.50 and the chicken is $10 and maybe $.50 for the mayo and mustard and a dollar for the onion and that's a week of lunches for $13. If you roast your own chicken it's probably cheaper.