Bonkers GP appointment

It’s actually sound advice. Helps with glucose balancing. I try to eat a small green salad to start.

and then you have those of us that are allergic to raw fruit and veg - pollen food syndrome - oh how I miss being able to eat salad, mine kicked in with the menopause.

Whilst it seems to be advice based solely on the pre-diabetes, if your sugars are higher, this puts your triglycides up which affects your cholesterol reading so you will be killing two birds with one stone.

So can you put eg balsamic vinegar and olive oil on the salad?

To me this sounds like a fad, and I hope you like salad.

I detest salad, so no-one would persuade me to eat one before any meal, and I never eat breakfast either.

Can't you get a referral to a clinical dietrician?

I had a pre-diabetic blood reading during Covid and was referred to the 'Healthier You, Preventing Diabetes' progamme.

Along with low carb eating (just reduced carbs, not keto) the advice to eat salad first was also a big theme. My blood sugar was normal 3 months after I started the programme.

I do eat nuts and thought about putting them in the salad but I'm still just getting on with it. Maybe it is mind over matter but I am feeling better- I'm sleeping later and don't feel so tired in the daytime. Also I'm not eating any rubbish.

I don't think I could maintain it long term and I have been invited out for lunch at least once this week- but I going to stick with it as much as I can.

I forgot to add - what about a handful of nuts ( unless you are allergic) before breakfast

Remember a salad need not be cold. it could be hot vegetables too.

Thankyou

keepingquiet If it works for you and you're losing a bit of weight, do it.

At least you're not calling yourself the "Glucose Goddess" and making loads of money out of it.

I absolutely agree with you Mollygo. It really irritates me when people claim things like it's better to have cottage cheese. No, it's not, if you don't particularly like cottage cheese (which I don't) and know you won't enjoy it. The theory is that a little fat with carbs slows down the digestion of carbs and helps prevent sugar spikes in diabetics. If it works - and you like it - do it. I rarely eat potatoes anyway, but if I do, I'll have a few small pieces alongside a plate of protein, healthy fats and a mound of veggies or salad.

I've read so many times that porridge is good for people, so I've tried it a number of times. It's cheap too, so I'd love to eat more of it, but I know I can't. My plasma blood glucose levels two hours after eating porridge are sky high and it takes 24 hours for them to settle, even if I don't eat any carbs for the rest of the day. However, if it works for you, eat it!

When I was diagnosed with diabetes in my 30s, most people (including GPs) were clueless. I must have been diabetic for a while and nobody really knows why. I wish I'd known earlier what I know now because I might have had a chance to put diabetes into remission, but it's too late now. My pancreas is worn out and I have no option but to control the symptoms, which I know how to do with lifestyle. Not eating starchy carbs seems to cause people problems and I have been accused of eating a fad diet. No, I don't - I eat what is right for me and I can prove it's right with constant testing and my routine blood tests. So when people suggest eating a spoonful of something or adding an expensive supplement - or even going to the faff of making a green salad to eat before all the other salad and veggies I eat routinely, I just smile grimly and vow not to listen to that person again.

There are so many different things that are good for you/not good for you e.g. porridge, appears on my pre diabetic advice, lowers cholesterol advice, then I hear it causes a spike for some.
I love advice like “putting butter on jacket potatoes” is good for you, when last week it was better to have cottage cheese.
If it works for you, whatever you’re working to improve, e.g diabetes, weight, cholesterol and doesn't make you stressed, it’s a good diet.

Growstuff I do eat eggs too, and fruit and yoghurt for breakfast. It isn't porridge every day...

Coconutty

That sounds very faffy to me. I think I’d just incorporate salad into my meal.

I think the point is to prepare your tummy for the carbs after? I'm not really too sure tbh but my cravings have definately lessened.

The salad isn't hard to make- a few leaves, tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, a little grated carrot and a spoon of olive oil- I have just made it in a bowl, eaten about half and it's in the fridge for morning. You can still eat salad with your meal...

I think because it isn't your meal makes all the difference to me. I eat it about 30 minutes before my meal is ready...

Exactly Coconutty and Mollygo. I really can't imagine falling out of bed and making myself a green salad (and the original claim is about green salad and nothing else) every morning for the rest of my life. It's a fad like mumbo jumbo bean supplements (or whatever).

Coconutty

That sounds very faffy to me. I think I’d just incorporate salad into my meal.

I do that most of the time too. At restaurants abroad, we often get given une salade de bienvenue, which usually includes lettuce, sweetcorn and tomatoes whilst we’re looking at the menu. It’s easy when someone else is serving.

That sounds very faffy to me. I think I’d just incorporate salad into my meal.

Celieanne I'd carry on with what you're doing. It's a daft idea. Your food sounds similar to mine, except I wouldn't have the potatoes or the honey, but if you enjoy them and you're only taking two tablets at 88, you don't have much to worry about.

TwiceAsNice

I guess a salad does much the same but My daughter and I eat a helping of green veg on its own before our main meal, that is to help regulate blood sugar. I am diabetic, she is not . I take oral medication but I’ve been diabetic for 13 years and my levels are very well controlled

The advice from the (dodgy) Glucose Goddess is to have a leafy salad before every meal (including breakfast). It is not science-based. It has long been known that if you are diabetic, it's a good idea to eat anything loaded with carbs at the end of the meal because the digestive process is already in motion. That's very different from eating a green salad before every meal. The research was only based on 11 participants anyway.

The danger of glucose spikes in non-diabetics has been debunked by respected scientists. If your insulin is working properly, the spike won't last long. The problem is if you're diabetic and your BG remains high for much longer.

It's a fad from a non-scientist, who has books to sell and seems to have got herself on to TV. In any case, if you're diabetic and keeping blood glucose down really matters, it's not something to be done for a few months - it's for life.

keepingquiet If you're serious about keeping your blood glucose down, swap the porridge breakfast for an egg-based one. Some people can eat porridge without too much effect, but I can't. My blood glucose shoots up and stays up all day. I've experimented a few times with testing every two hours and the results are always the same. My breakfasts include scrambled egg on a big, grilled mushroom/poached egg on spinach and rye bread/boiled eggs/omelette/Greek yoghurt with nuts.

I have no intention of not enjoying my food, so I sometimes have something sweet at the end of a meal. One of my favourites is a mini chocolate brownie or home-made chocolate mousse.

I have no more than three small (20g) portions of starchy carbs a day, so rarely eat potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, pastry etc. I have healthy fats with most meals. I make dishes such as cauliflower cheese with cream rather than a flour-based sauce because it has fewer carbs. Half my plate is usually green veg anyway, so eating a salad beforehand would be silly.

Lifestyle changes are for life, so I make sure that I eat food I enjoy and don't feel deprived.

I get quite cross with faddy solutions because they're not sustainable and somebody is usually making money out of them.

Well how do I manage this as at least three or four times a week a salad is part of my main meal. This evening I had poached salmon, baby potatoes and a massive salad of lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onion, radishes, mushrooms and more green leaves followed by stewed apple, no sugar just a spoonful of honey. Honestly I don’t fancy having a salad before my morning weetabix and berries. I’ve been a T2 diabetic for
25 years, unfortunately it runs in the family, my mother, brothers and sisters all the same. I managed very well for quite a few years with diet but as I’ve got older 88 I now have two tablets to keep my count level, my doctor is excellent and keeps a close check on me.

I guess a salad does much the same but My daughter and I eat a helping of green veg on its own before our main meal, that is to help regulate blood sugar. I am diabetic, she is not . I take oral medication but I’ve been diabetic for 13 years and my levels are very well controlled

There was a documentary on TV recently and I am sure the presenter/healthy diet guru advocated something very similar to what you were told by the GP. I will see if I can find the programme name.

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My favourite hotel in Italy always serves a salad before the rest of the 3 courses- none of which are huge.