Lars, I assume you are talking about refined carbs? There are lots of good carbs and I found it easiest to switch to brown rice and whole wheat pasta rather than avoiding rice and pasta. I now prefer brown rice, but I'm still struggling with whole wheat pasta. I don't mind it in a baked pasta, but on it's own, I don't care for the texture. I recently bought some brown rice ramen noodles, which are really good. Fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans, eggs, chicken, beef and fish all have carbs, but "good carbs." I think that Mexican food generally speaking is fairly low carb, I just sub brown rice for white and now I use whole wheat tortillas. From what you post, you seem to have a healthy diet to begin with, so I'm sure you won't find the transition difficult. My big downfall is bread. I love to bake it and I love to eat it. I just go by the old adage, everything in moderation.

I normally bake all of the bread we eat and make 100% whole wheat, which I like.

I actually prefer whole wheat dried pasta and like the texture, but when I make fresh pasta, I make it with no more than 50% whole wheat, as it is more difficult to roll out if it is 100% WW.

As for rice, we buy Basmati rice in 10# bags, and so we have a lot of that on hand. I'm not really sure how bad Basmati rice is with regard to carbs. I do buy brown rice as well, but I just don't like it as well, and I do have a problem with its texture.

Sometimes I forget to buy whole wheat tortillas, but I often make my own flour tortillas. I don't make more than five or six at a time, as they do not store well. It is easy enough to cut down a recipe to make only a few tortillas at a time, and it take much less time to make just a few. The main labor in making them is rolling them out. It takes me longer to roll one out than to cook it, and I try to do both tasks at the same time, so that I am rolling one out while I am cooking one.

I think I am going to concentrate on more bean recipes, and I'm going to try to think of some new ones. I can easily get into the rut of making the same bean recipes over and over. I also think I should try to make falafel more often, even though the doctor today told me to avoid fried foods. I will ignore that advice when it comes to falafel. Sometimes I make falafel with fava beans and sometimes with garbanzos, but I do keep garbanzo flour on hand to control the wetness.

I'll also second getting a glucose meter. They are available at Walmart for around $10 to $20. Using a meter is a good way to see where you are at and if you are making any progress.

Experimenting on myself, I've found it quite easy to lower my fasting glucose level significantly below the pre-diabetic level (100 mg/dl). It's difficult to maintain and harder around the holidays. By "very easy" I mean it's not complicated. Maintaining is the hard part.

If you are concerned and want to lower quickly, "simply" give up all foods that are white - flour, rice, potatoes, sugar and anything made with them (bread, cookies, cakes, etc.) and anything containing corn syrup and also booze. That also means all the brown varieties (brown sugar, whole wheat flour, etc.) Once you get your fasting glucose level lower, you can introduce different carbs one at a time and see how you react using the glucose meter.

Forgot, to mention - get a digital kitchen scale if you don't already have one. They are available on Amazon for around $10. IF you are going to have any carb, weigh it out to get the correct portion size. Where I was really losing it was pasta. The nutrition label on a box of dry pasta that buy has portion sizes at 2 oz. When I first started weighing, I found I was typically making around 8 oz. of dry pasta. Cutting back to only 2 oz. helped.

For fruit, better to limit yourself to 1 piece a day and something like Granny Smith apples - they aren't that sweet. Grapes would be a definite no-no. If you want to get your glucose down quickly, skip all fruit for a while.

Berries and citrus are also lower carb fruits. And yes, portion control is huge. I also always way overdid it on carbs. Apparently a serving of rice is 1/2 a cup!

I don't shop at Walmart (there aren't any close to me), but I found these glucose monitors on Amazon. Which one would you recommend? It looks like you have to buy replacement glucometer strips and also prick yourself, which I'm not good at. It looks like the test strips could get expensive. This meter is the cheapest, but the test strips cost $26.58 for 70 [38¢ ea]. For this one, the test strips cost 23¢ each, and that will add up quickly.

On Nov 29, my glucose level was 105, which I know is a bit high, but it is lower than it was a year ago. I'm not sure that I need to watch my glucose levels that closely just yet.

I have two scales at each house - a general one that measures accuracy to ± 0.1 oz, and then a jewelry scale that measures to ± 0.05 g. When cooking pasta, I have always considered 2 oz to be one serving, and I do weigh pasta before cooking it so that I won't have leftovers.

I'll have to look for kelp noodles and shirataki noodles the next time I am at a Japanese market - at Marukai, they are called Konjac. I'm particularly fond of kelp although my brother Kevin is not. I always add lots of kelp to my bowl of Japanese noodle soup that I make and leave it out of his.

Fruit is the one thing I do like that is sweet, and I have fruit trees in the back yard: apple and cherimoya. I have citrus trees also, but they are not sweet, except for the oranges. I have a dragon fruit plant also but don't get that much fruit from it - probably only one fruit this year, although we pollinated three flowers.

Any are good; you can probably go by the ratings. I wouldn't spend more than $10 to $20. You can also try Diabetic Warehouse. Meter test kits are also available at Walgreens and CVS.

Regarding getting blood for the test, most of them have a spring loaded device that takes sterile, disposable lancets. One cocks the device, presses it against the finger and releases it. No need to worry about going too deep or not deep enough.

You don't have to monitor yourself that often. I'd suggest testing upon rising in the morning since you are fasted at that point. 105 is not too bad. I was at 112 and was able to get it down to 65 - 72 in the morning. With the holidays, I'm definitely not there now. If you modify your diet, only test about 2 or 3 times a week.

I concentrated on getting my fasting glucose down. The other variable is glucose response after a meal. As I recall, the guideline is 140 mg/dl or less 2 hours after a meal. Of course, that's a general guideline but doesn't account for what type of meal was eaten.

Another option is a glucose tolerance test administered in the hospital or doctor's office. Have to be careful with those, especially if you give up carbs and get your fasting level down low for awhile because that in itself can cause you to fail the test, which is counter intuitive.

I agree with the scales. Portions of carbs are just too big. Italians live off pasta but they don't eat the quantities that many people eat. Fruit and veg are important.

Why don't you find a good nutritionist and tell them what you like eating and see if they can't come up with a good regime that will satisfy your needs and be healthy for you?

I've seen a nutritionist and she wasn't very helpful - maybe she wasn't a good one.

You asked about pears. Most fruit eaten by itself will cause your sugar to spike. it is recommended that diabetics, when they eat fruit, pair it with a fat such as a small piece of cheese. As to portion size, probably 1/2 pear would be a serving size.

This book stuck with me for many reasons. Then went viral, ten years ago, Michael Polan,

"Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA), I ordered a book by Michael Pollan, but I ordered In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. It had better reviews, more pages, and was much cheaper at $1.27 plus shipping for a used hardbound edition.

I think I do already eat mostly plants plus seafood, and so my biggest problem is learning to not eat too much. I do tend to slip off my diet during holidays when people give me candy. My sister is bad about sending me chocolates.

I had half a pear at breakfast and gave the other half to Kevin. It was really quite sweet. Yesterday I made some soba noodle (<roasted buckwheat groats), which are gluten free, but I did add some celephane noodles that I thought were bean threads, but when I read the package, it said that they were made from Japanese potato starch. I think I need to pay more attention to packages when shopping. I definitely keep track of sodium when I am in Japanese markets.

Following because I gained weight due to menopause (as did all of my female relatives!)

I haven't tested diabetic yet, but a sister (very overweight) and a brother (not so overweight) have tested positive, so I'm being very careful!

I'm finding alterative pastas like black bean (hubby rolls eyes, but they taste fine!) and other alternatives. Some might be in the gluten free area!

I do low carb/sugar when I need to lose weight. Or I HAVE done it. I went to a doctor who specialized in weight loss and he put me on such a diet. It was easy, but sometimes inconvenient and unsatisfying. (not in a hunger sense but in that sense that nothing can compare to a good carb fest on a bad day)

Basically, he said stick to whole foods as much as possible. No protein shakes or bars, real food. Protein and veggies. No fruit, grains, potatoes, pasta, or sweets. Honestly, after a few very un-fun weeks of resisting them, I no longer craved them. I did drink Atkins protein shakes as meal replacements sometimes, against his advice, but stopped eventually in favor of real food. He also advised against things like beans and corn as they are starchy.

When I started that diet I was at my heaviest, my blood pressure and cholesterol were high, and I was really unhappy. All that improved on that diet.

As far as favorite meals on that plan:

I usually stuck to scrambled eggs, sometimes an omelet for "breakfast" food. Sometimes with cheese, sometime with meat, sometime with neither. For other meals grilled or roasted chicken with non starchy veggies. Steak and a big salad on the side. Tuna or egg salad. Stir fries. Big salads with lots of veggies and lean protein. Meatballs or meatloaf (homemade with no breadcrumbs. Turns out they are not really needed.) I tended to avoid low carb substitutes for carby foods.

I will admit that even though my diet at the time was low carb and low sugar, it was high fat and probably high sodium. Or if not high salt, it was NOT low salt. But you seem to cook most of your food yourself anyway and can control the salt that goes into it. I salt most of the foods I cook for myself. But again, my blood pressure got back into a healthy range while eating this way, so who knows.

I do not eat this way now. Once I got my weight and those numbers under control I went back to eating what I want, just less of it less often. I also slip during the holidays, but I do not get upset at myself anymore about it. I drink my eggnog and eat my Christmas treats and then worry about it after my birthday in January, after my cake is gone.

Good luck. I hope you find a balance that you enjoy.

That's very helpful information, Amylou - I think you are better at this than I am. I would have a very hard time giving up beans and corn, especially beans. I even eat bean thread pasta.

For me, the best I can do (at least so far) is the reduce carbohydrates rather than eliminate them altogether.

I do often eat omelets with cheese and meat, but I generally have a tortilla or a piece of toast with it. I also drink protein shakes, as that is part of the diet I was put on.

I also like to make tuna or egg salad and put lots of vegetables in it - mostly pickled vegetables from an Italian giardina mix.

I received the Michael Pollan book yesterday and have only glanced at it so far, but the mantra "Eat ... mostly plants," seems to have some problems with it, mainly that it's too simplistic. For example, I have slight allergies to almost all grains (including wheat, corn, barley, rice, etc), not to mention soy, and all of these are plants. I do best with a high protein diet, and that cuts down on plants. A vegan diet is probably the worst for me, from my experience so far.

A few years ago, I had my doctor check for food allergies, and that's when I learned about the slight allergies to grains and soy. I did find out that I am not allergic to dairy or eggs, but I might be slightly lactose intolerant, as milk always upsets my stomach, but not all dairy does that. Hard cheese do not bother me.