I have been pre-Diabetic for a while now (dx in 2010). I would suggest that you let your meter be your guide. Many pre-Ds can have a small serving of starch or sugar (brown rice, fudge, fruit, small potato) with a meal with only a small rise of blood glucose (BG). If you are measuring your BG 1 and 2 hours after a meal, and it doesn't rise above 140, whatever you had in that meal can be considered fairly "safe" for you (so long as you keep the portions small).
But no matter how healthy something is SUPPOSED to be, you have to figure out if it works for you. Oatmeal is great; oatmeal is wonderful. But even a small serving of it will spike me above 140. So it's not on my approved list for foods anymore.
I found the that easiest way to figure out what I COULD eat was to begin with breakfast. For a week or so, I measured before and after eating (1 and 2 hours), and came up with four or five breakfasts that I know are "safe" for me. Now I pretty much just eat those: protein shakes, cottage cheese, eggs, etc.
Then I moved to lunches, since I usually eat many of the same things over and over again for lunch, too. I continued eating safe breakfasts, and began testing around various lunches. I found I can eat up to about 30 grams of carbs for lunch before I get much of a spike. So now I have a portfolio of "safe" lunches (including ones for eating out).
Dinners are harder, because they can be SO much more varied, especially when eating out. But by this time, three years after diagnosis, I have a solid list of things I can eat in almost any situation. But that list was created by testing how my body reacted to various foods.
Exercise can help a lot, too. But I think it's easier to limit the carb (starch/sugar) that I eat so that my glucose doesn't spike, rather than exercise after the fact to bring it back down. (Don't get me wrong; regular exercise is also very important for overall glucose control. But I don't use it for specific after-meal glucose lowering, like some do.)
As to "reversing" pre-D... that's a tricky question. Some folks believe very strongly that you can't ever "reverse" Diabetes, no matter where you are on the spectrum from pre-D to D2, and whether you're using meds or not. You can control it; you can use diet and lifestyle to keep your numbers low and in "normal" ranges. But the broken metabolism is still underlying your efforts. If you went back to eating a high-carb eating plan, your BG would react by spiking and dropping... so it's not really "reversed". You're just avoiding the things that spike it in the first place. You're "controlling" your Diabetes.
But as I said, it's a huge debate point on the Diabetes boards.
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