Hello everybody! A good friend of mine just got diagnosed with Type II diabetes last week. Her diet has always been fairly decent and she only needs to lose about 20 pounds. She is going to start an exercise program and has cut out most sugar and alcohol from her diet. She is on oral medication twice a day. Do you have any advice I can give her for weight loss and managing her disease? What are some good snacks for diabetics? I want to prepare a gift basket full of snacks and goods that are healthy for her. Also, can you recommend any good books on this disease? Thank you in advance for your help.

Send your friend to the American Diabetes Assn web site...it has all kinds of information and advice and recipes, etc.
http://www.diabetes.org

And tell her that the key is to eat smart, eat healthy, eat balanced, learn to try new foods, have a protein or dairy with each of 3 meals and an evening snack (no-sugar puddings, yogurt, etc. are good ones)...and avoid or limit processed carbs (i.e., breads, pastas, cakes and cookies)...and get in some exercise (walking is just fine).

My mom was a 2-shot a day insulin diabetic for 20 years and never got her sugar under control, and passed away at age 70...her mom lived til she was 89, so we can't say it was her genes. I'm an idiot; I've had a diagnosed sugar problem (low blood sugar) since my early 20's, yo-yo dieted just like mom, and only in the last two years have tried to get things under control. WW is a savior. I'm 48, but it's never too late to learn and help yourself.

My staff once gave me a basket of cheer when it was my birthday! nuts, cheeses, packets of diet pudding, etc. ... instead of cake! And flowers.

I say, it's great! Help your friend and go healthy!

Trina, thank you so much for your reply. My friend has her first appointment with a nutrionist next week and she has already taken great strides on her own. When she was diagnosed a couple weeks ago her sugar was out of control. Two weeks after taking her meds daily, eating healthy and cutting out sweets she had her blood re-tested and her docotor was extremely impressed with how well she did (apparently her suagar was much closer to the normal limits). I'm very proud of her and want to "reward" her good efforts with a little surprise. I like the idea of what your friends did for you instead of b-day cake.

Good luck with your quest for health and thank you again for your reply.

Hi Iam posting this message hoping some one can help I am after the healthy diebetic eating plan You know like the cans and cants I have been advised to follow it to make sure I dont put on more weight with my third pregnancy. I am currently 95kg any help would be of assistance my Email address is [email protected]. Thank you for you help.

GENESIS, she may want to look into following the SUGAR BUSTERS WOE. Many Doctors are recommending patients try this "diet" as it's truly healthy and has helped many oral diabetics to go off the medicine.

Many people think it's a low carb diet, like ATKINS, which is the farthest thing from the truth-it's not low carb and it's nothing at all like Atkins.

Basically, you cut out refined sugars, white potatoes, white pasta, white bread (no white flour) white rice (though you can have sweet potato, brown rice and WW pasta and bread made with whole grains), some fruits high on the glycemic index (that make your blood sugar go up rapidly) and some root veggies - this is putting it in a nutshell.

Tell her to try to get the book from the library and she the Schwarzbein Principal, she did an interesting study with diabetics and their diet, at least have her read the preface.

Good luck to her!

Debbie