Hello,

Thank you for your query. I understand your concerns.

Random blood glucose value of 149 indicates that your blood sugar is in the Pre-diabetic range. You do not yet have diabetes, and if you control your blood glucose levels by appropriate diet and exercise, the chances of developing diabetes are reduced.

For a person to be in non-diabetic range, their fasting blood glucose levels should be less than 106, their 2 hour post prandial blood glucose/random blood glucose should be less than 140.

Your doctor has been correct in telling you to cut down on sugars and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are needed for the human body to function – without carbohydrates we can’t get strength to our daily tasks. But the important thing to remember here is we need to consume only that many carbohydrates as needed by the body and not more. We also need to exercise so that our energy input=energy output.

I do not think that at this time you need more vigorous anti-diabetic regimen.

My advice would be:
1)     Restrict all sugar food items – cakes, chocolates, cookies etc.
2)     Avoid/restrict food items made from plain flour.
3)     Use whole grain products – for e.g. use brown bread, consume unpolished rice/brown rice, millets, wheat, oats, quinoa etc.
4)     Eat plenty of vegetables – but restrict potatoes a they have mainly carbohydrates
5)     You can eat fruits as they have anti-oxidants and vitamins – avoid mango, chikoo, custard apple, jackfruit
6)     Honey, Molasses, Unrefined sugar are all equally bad
7)     Restrict high fatty food – cut down on saturated fats like butter, cheese etc.
8)     You need to include protein in your diet every day, this is present in pulses/lentils, eggs, non-vegetarian (restrict mutton-chicken and fish are good)
9)     You can take nuts: 5-7 cashew nuts, almonds, walnuts etc.
10)     Exercise at least 45 min-60 min for at least 5 days of a week. It should be moderate exercise – jogging, cycling, brisk walking etc.
11)     If you are obese/over weight-you have to reduce weight, by following the above diet and exercise you can lose weight. Target weight loss should be 1.5-2 kg/month.

Measure your blood glucose levels in 2-3 months. It should have reduced. Keep checking your blood glucose levels every 6 months. You can also check your HbA1C(which is your average blood glcuose over the past 3 months - non-diabetic value is less than 5.6%).

I wish you good health.


I hope this answer has been helpful to you.
Regards
Dr Sunita Sayammagaru