"Testing" foods: One at a time or with a meal?

[Ann Rose]

Hi everyone. I was dx'ed in December of last year with T2 and have been trying to determine which carbs most affect my glucose levels, in which amounts. In talking with my GP (I'm in the US), he recommended I try long grain brown rice, as his other db patients have generally tolerated it as a carb source much better than white rice, bread, or other usual grain-based carb sources. So, i tried one half cup of long grain brown rice with a pat of butter (1 tsp?) for dinner. Before eating, I was at 5.9, then 7.6 at 1 hr, and 9.3 at 2 hrs. I know that folks rarely eat just one food at a sitting, but I wanted to isolate the specific food as an experiment. So, is my experiment flawed, or should i just approach long grain brown rice very cautiously? (My fasting level this morning was 5.9 -- best in a while, actually! -- so I guess my body recovered a bit overnight, but I've been trying to stay in a tighter post-prandial range of under 7.8 and the 9.3 was disappointing and more than a little worrying.)

I recently upped my dose of Metformin SR from 1 850 mg tablet in the evening to one tablet in the evening AND one in the morning, so i attribute my drop in fbg to that and increasing my moderate-level exercise to try to get 30-45 minutes of brisk waling or stationary bike use most days of the week. It's a learning process, I know, and I am doing what i can to improve my eating and exercise habits, but I am a little worried by these surprises (ambiguity can be fun, but not so much when it comes to the possibility of long-term db complications). My GP sent me for an intro to diabetes class last month, but most of what i heard I already knew, and the nutrition info was nearly all rubbish, so learning from y'all (or "yin's" as some say here in in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is my best and most valued source for getting healthy.

All bests,
Ann

 

[jack412]

For you, you're right, the Dr is wrong. also when testing, if the 2 hr is higher than the 1hr, retest at 3hr to make sure it didn't spike higher.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I am a novice at this but tend to think your experiment was flawed unless you normally eat a bowl of rice on its own, which I doubt. It is the complete meal that counts as it is the complete meal that is digested. Whilst the rice may have spiked quickly, eaten with other non-carb or very low carb foods would slow down the conversion to glucose and therefore the spikes.

 

[mo1905]

I would just experiment with your usual meals as a whole. Your BG will react differently to food combinations, not just single foods, a cupful of rice on it's own may not give you the same result as a cupful of rice with chicken for example. It may take longer to digest etc. If a certain meal gives you higher readings than you'd like, reduce carb content and try again.


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[Totto]

I think it is brilliant to test a single food item like you did with the brown rice to get to know how it works on its own. Then you can go further and test what half a cup does if taken with proper food as part of a meal. Or a quarter of a cup.

And keep testing every hour or even half hour if you are that curious, until bg is down to baseline. I did that with glass noodles and was sort of happy the one hour reading was 6.4. Problem was it went up at three and four hours to over 7 and didn't get close to baseline until after five hours. And it wasn't a large helping.

So long as you know what you want to know and test I say keep doing it.

 

[andcol]

they must have a low glycemic index if they took that long to digest. Ice cream for me peaks between 2 and 3 hours. Goes to show we are all different as an ounce of brown rice for me has a one how peak of 7 and it is down below 6 at 2hours (that was with chilli con carni). I have no idea how the compares to half a cup.

 

[Totto]

they must have a low glycemic index if they took that long to digest. .

Yes, that is the problem with low GI foods. Everybody should have a meter and free test strips.

 

[Brunneria]

I find that fibre (veg) and fat in a meal slows the rise a lot.

If I ate a small portion of any form of rice by itself I would probably go over 11! But if I ate it in a high veg curry, with coconut cream, I wouldn't go over 9.

But personally, I think both those levels are too high - so I don't eat rice at all.