Getting Started

Unsure where to Start?

Following the 5 rules below will stop a lot of sugar from entering your circulation. Depending on how high your sugar levels are you may even only need to do a few of these to make a significant difference to your HbA1c.

On medication for Diabetes (apart from Metformin)?

You should check with your doctor or nurse before making a significant change to your diet.

On medication for high blood pressure?

A low carb diet can reduce your blood pressure and you will need to keep an eye on this.

Stop drinking sugar

When you drink it is easy to consume a lot of sugar very quickly, you don't even need to chew! Some of the sugar can even enter the bloodstream before you swallow with levels in the blood rising quickly after drinking.


The main offenders are fruit juice and fruit smoothies along with any non-diet soft drinks.

  • Fruit Juice & Smoothies
  • Non-diet soft drinks
  • Sweet Wine
  • Beer & Cider
  • Water
  • Black Tea
  • Black Coffee
  • Herbal Tea

Check out our drinks page for more detailed information.

Eat fruit from closer to home

Fruits can contain large amounts of sugar but there is a wide variation in how much different fruits contain. As a rule fruits grown in more tropical environments contain more sugar per portion. Therefore, eating fruit grown in colder climates will tend to mean consuming less sugar.


Dried fruits have most of the water removed and so contain highly concentrated sugar and should be avoided.

  • Banana
  • Pineapple
  • Grapes
  • Dried Fruit
  • Raspberry
  • Strawberry
  • Apple

A page showing the sugar content of various fruits can be found here.

Start by looking at breakfast

Bread and breakfast cereals are broken down to significant amounts of sugar. Even porridge is not a great option as although the sugar is released more slowly it still enters the bloodstream. High sugar levels after breakfast cause increased insulin levels which then make you hungry mid-morning. It can be great to break this cycle to aid with weight loss.

  • Bread
  • Cereals
  • Porridge
  • Tropical Fruit
  • Fruit Juice
  • Natural Yogurt
  • Nuts/Berries
  • Egg
  • Mushroom
  • Bacon

Check out our breakfast page for more detailed information.

Avoid "double carb" meals

Some traditional meals contain significantly more carbohydrates than others. Remember that all carbohydrate is broken down into sugar. Double carb meals are things like battered fish and chips, pie and mash/chips, curry with rice and naan bread.


By replacing one of these carbohydrate portions with something else like a green vegetable or salad you will reduce the amount of sugar consumed significantly.

  • Pie & Mash
  • Rice & Naan
  • Battered Fish & Chips
  • Green vegetables
  • Cucumber and yoghurt
  • Salad

Check out our alternatives page for ideas of potential switches you could make.

Reduce and replace other carbs

Meals don't have to include a portion of potatoes/rice/pasta and nobody actually needs bread to survive. Why not try substituting rice or pasta for strips of cabbage or finely cut broccoli or cauliflower.


Having a salad for lunch instead of a sandwich would reduce your sugar intake significantly, as long as its not a potato or pasta salad!

  • Rice
  • Pasta
  • Bread
  • Potatoes
  • Green vegetables
  • Meat/Fish
  • Salad
  • Low carb products

Check out our products page for examples of lower carb pastas and breads.

Freshwell low carb app

Freshwell Heath Centre in Essex have launched an iPhone app all about the use of a low carb diet. It is a great free resource which we would strongly recommend downloading.

We would love your website feedback

We are hearing from many people getting amazing results having visited our website from around the world. It would be great to shares some of these anonymous stories on this site to inspire others to take the plunge into lower carbohydrate eating.


We are also keen to hear how you think we could improve.


You can use this form to contact the Health & Wellbeing team at New Forest PCN.

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This website does not provide personal medical advice.

New Forest PCN take no responsibility for the content of external links.

New Forest PCN has no commercial relationship with any of these products and takes no responsibility for their perceived quality.