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War on Diabetes Newsletter 6th July 2025

Welcome to the fourth War on Diabetes newsletter, your weekly tips and ideas from someone who has had diabetes for five years and learned a lot about it. It's a practical and actionable guide to details your doctor probably won't have time to tell you about.

War on Diabetes Newsletter 6th July 2025
View of Glossop from a 4 mile trek around Derbyshire Level, Moorfield, en route to my mineral water epiphany.

This week I've had some (297 foot) heighs with the kick of Diabetes UK's One Million Step Challenge which I've made a good start on... and some junk food lows.

I managed to spend 4.5 hours shopping for trainers and managed to get some jogging in even after a pint and 4 glasses of wine, all after getting up at 3am so don't let anyone tell you that a low carb diet will leave you feeling tired.

Last Saturday we had a nice walk around Glossop and had a late lunch where I got all excited about electrolytes in mineral water which inspired my in-depth breakdown of food sources of electrolytes.

What I learned this week

Diet Coke gets analysed and I needle the details on electrolytes and why yoghurt, nuts and berries is one of my top breakfast options.

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How to screw your blood glucose up with take away and liquid food - see this week's progress update for what went wrong.

Progress Update

I get started on my 500 mile walk to reach 1 million steps, some new sneaks and my CGM gives me nowhere to hide from some bad food decisions.

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This week's food heroes:

Nuts for walking snacks

I prepped a selection of nuts to take with me on a countryside walk round the Derbyshire hills. A good way to boost electrolytes without any of that sports drink nonsense.

Nuts make a great brain and energy boosting hiking snack.

Bone broth elixir

This is a ChatGPT recipie I've expanded. It packs a bucket of electrolytes, is a great source of insulin sensitivity-boosting fatty acids, will keep you full for a few hours and won't budge your blood-glucose.

Quick recipe:
1 tsp concentrated organic grass-fed beef bone broth dissolved in approx 300ml hot water and add the following...
1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, 1 thin slice of ginger, small piece of cinnamon stick, 1/4 tsp tumeric powder, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 3g of chopped spring onions, finely sliced green bean/other green veggies.

You can mix the recipe up a bit. Sometimes I add chilli powder and this week I added some natto & kombu mix (not for the faint-hearted)

It tastes a lot better than it looks

Cheese and cherry tomatoes

Nice and simple dinner after a late and glucose-spiking lunch after our big walking day. This just hit the spot after a few wines and didn't raise my glucose levels at all after they'd spent a few hours coming back to baseline.

Wensleydale, Red Leicester and some tangy cherry toms.

New Recruit Tip

Drinks have the quickest impact on blood glucose levels so it's worth planning a step-by-step strategy to reduce the impact of your drinking habits. See this week's 2 part videos on how to make small changes that can help to improve glucose levels without being overwhelmed.

Get started with drinks

Diabetes Veterans

Pub drinks... do you find this is a nightmare? Ordering red wine in a Bolton pub is daunting enough, as you're seen as a class traitor. Non-alcoholic options are even worse. Imitation cocktails and 0.0% beers are just going to be sugar bombs and usually taste grim. Trying to find water that isn't served lukewarm straight out of a tap, tasting of cholorine and despair is a real challenge. I've gone through loads of things: lime cordial, blackcurrant cordial (both taste foul and usually come with an unwarranted glucose spike as well as furry teeth). I just can't enjoy a Diet Coke anymore, now I've weaned myself off it and have anxiety about the health implications. Lemonade is always the full sugar version so shandy is off the menu. I just find it less hassle getting an alcoholic drink even if I don't want one. My latest non-boozy option is a single whisky and soda as at least it takes the edge of the "pondy" taste of tap water and at 1 unit doesn't get me wasted. A recent rat study found that rats in ketosis have a 5x elevated blood-alcohol level than that of rats on a normal diet who were plied with the same amount of booze. I've defitiely noticed my alcohol tolerance has waned since getting into ketosis and I usually fall asleep after about 4 drinks which can be a bit inconvenient... Watch Dr. Chris Palmer on the rat study and how ketogenic diets are helping people reduce mental health symptoms via the Huberman Lab podcast.

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I'm walking a million steps this summer to help Diabetes UK fund research and support for people living with diabetes in the UK. If you're able to make a donation, I'll be made up and have one more reason not to back out 😅

I struggled to find where to buy non-homogenised milk locally and eventually found The Modern Milkman. Their organic whole milk in my area is non-homogenised so I've been getting milk and eggs from them for two yeas now. Use this link to get 50% off your first two weeks and they'll give me 50% off my next delivery as well. Cheers!

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