Hi Mama-
My husband has type 2 diabetes. It was a hard dietary switch for us because we were used to eating on the fly. Then it was a little pricey, testing foods to see if we liked them, throwing away what we just couldn't stomach, etc.
I have it down to a pretty basic diet. No more pasta (it's just too hard to eat only 1/2 cup of pasta!), only heavy grain or sandwich thins breads, dried fruit and nuts, yo baby yogurt, chicken, almost no red meat, and raw veggies...sometimes cooked, like squash, etc. We eat some pureed veggie soups, too, and some turkey bacon. He has lost 70 pounds in the last year and a half, and looks amazing, especially compared to our swollen bodies 7-8 years ago.
I keep snack bags of dried cranberries, raw almonds (or pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, walnuts...any mixture, really), and a pinch of sea salt for snacks. There is also yo baby yogurt and pumpkin seed flax granola, apples, etc that he can cut up and mix together. He likes peanut butter and jelly, so I buy the sandwich thins (it's like the carbs from one slice of bread, but for a whole sandwich), the no salt, no sugar all natural peanut butter from trader joe's (cheap! only $1.79 a jar), the low sugar jam (apricot and strawberry have the least amount of sugar), and he loves that. It does take some taste bud adjusting, but in the end, he likes it and the physical results, too.
I also buy ALOT of Cliff Mojo trail mix bars (target). They are low in calories, high in complex carbs, great for circulation (granola and your blood stream are GREAT friends in small quantities), and they taste really good, too. He can eat low sugar oatmeal or plain meuseli for breakfast, he can eat whole grains like barley, wild rice, etc., as bases for his meals with chicken and veggies, you can puree carrots or zucchini or squash into his mashed potatoes..... and add powdered cinnamon into his ground coffee before turning on the pot. Cinnamon regulates blood sugar. You can even get it in capsules, and take two in the a.m. and two in the evening.
The thing is, the better he feels, the less meds he can take, and the lower his blood pressure should be. But being amped on meds with high sugar and what not....i watched my husband suffer through a diabetic coma, and that was no good...but it took the coma and then a blindness scare to change his mind about his health....and the doctor telling him that they still amputate limbs on diabetics.That seems extreme, but even basic diabetes that is slightly out of control can damage eye sight, liver function, limb use, etc. It made me want to force a change that I could not control...and it took a near death experience for my hubby before he decided to change his ways.
Hey, if you do the market shopping, like I do, then you have the power to limit what food is available. If he refuses to attempt to take better care of himself, then treat him like a man on his death bed. When I tell my hubby he is acting like an old man, he looks at me almost indignantly, then crunches his carrots and broccoli as loud as possible. It's comical, but also gets him to do what he needs. =)
Good luck mama. Just keep telling him how much you love him and want him to be around for you and your son. He will eventually see the truth and love in your ways.
-E.