Okay so I got the news yesterday, I know from the information I have on a personal and educational level that I basically have to go on a low-carb/low-sugar diet and watch my fruit intake. So what should I do? I feel like I'll be limited to what I can eat.

Princess: I'm sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis! A lower carb diet is definitely recommended to help control diabetes.

A good resource for ideas is the American Diabetes Association, which offers a section in regards to meal planning and ideas for vegetarians, depending on whether you eat dairy and eggs, etc.

http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fit...r-vegetarians/

Diabetic Living and Diabetic Gourmet will also add a lot of ideas and recipes.

I think I read in another thread that you have an appointment with a nutritionist? The nutritionist and your doctor should be able to give you some guidelines in regards to how many carbs/fiber/sugars/etc you should be eating, but I would stick to legumes, nuts and soy, whole grains, and lots of vegetables. I would also stay away from processed and/or starchy foods (white pasta, white bread, white potatoes, white rice, etc)

It may also be worth doing some research into a low glycemic index diet.

Best of luck!

I am not veg*n, but I collect cookbooks and diet books, so I'm always browsing my amazon and my local library for books I might want to buy. There are several low-carb vegetarian cookbooks and diet books out there..

But first you need to find out whether you need to know whether and how far you need to reduce your carb intake.

You may know this already, but for those who don't, low carb diets aren't recommended for all type ll diabetics, and even when they are, how low is often debated by recognized experts in the field.

My mother was told 100g of carbohydrate per day. My husband was given an exchange plan booklet that assigned about 200g to women and a little more to men.

Our doctor told us that we might have to experiment a little.

If you're taking insulin or other blood sugar lowering medications, you may need more carbs than if you aren't.

If you have medical insurance, check with your insurance provider about diabetes education classes. Often you will be alotted a number of hours every year. Hospitals generally provide these, but different educators have different beliefs and can make different recommendations.

Do you eat cheese and eggs or are you vegan? Vegan low-carb is more challenging than lacto-ovo vegetarian low-carb.

There are several vegetarian low-carb diets and cookbooks that you can find on amazon. You can put all that you're interested in, in a wish list aand then print the list to take to your library to help you find and order the books through inter-library loan.

You may want to buy several, but borrowing them first is a nice way save money and only buy the books that truly appeal to you.

E-books are convenient, but anyone can publish an ebook, so the quality is quite unpredictable, especially if the book is only available electronically.

Exercise also lowers blood sugar. Many diabetics can control their bloodsugar by only cutting out refined sugar and exercising regularly.

You could look into Dr. Barnard's program for Reversing Diabetes. It is a vegetarian plan focused on whole grains, fruits, veggies, legumes, etc with limited amounts of high fat foods.

Dr mcdougal (sp?) Feels that its the dietary fats that contribute more to diabetes than carbs. I am an intermittant lurker there on his forum and have read peoples accounts of supposexly controlling and even (their words not mine) reversing diabtes by eating a starchbased low fat vegan diet.

I've had a touchscreen phone for a year now and I still can't use it properly lol. Supposexly is suppose to mean supposedly. Like supposedly this diet makes you supposexly

hopebewild, I'm not much of a fan of Dr McDougal but I have read Dr Neal Barnard's Diet for Reversing diabetes book. It is a higher carb diet focusing on whole grains, legumes, veggies, etc. The book shows those that went through the study were mostly able to show no signs of diabetes and those that did still have diabetes were able to control it. It seems since people with diabetes do well with either a low fat, higher carb diet or a higher fat, lower carb diet that maybe there is something about mixing fats and carbs that don't do well for diabetes.

Il have to check that book out. My mother was diagnosed w/ type 2 few years back and I'm fearful of going down that same path.

Yes! Check out 'Physician's Committee on Responsible Medicine' website. Lots of free info & excellent.

Everything I always though about what to eat has been blown away by the latest book I am reading. "the end of diabetes' joel furhman. I don't have diabetes, but am overweight,so i'm considered pre-diabetes. This book comes to the point pretty fast,and it isn't going to make the lovers of food too happy…BUT,if your serious about losing,and willing, it's worth it to at least read. I got my copy from the library…so no $$ outset to learn. Take care.