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Takeaway Meal Causing High BLood Sugar

L

longtime

Newbie
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2
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi, new member here,

I've found that restaurant meals and takeaways are causing an unusually high spike in my blood sugar readings. Tonight for example I collected a takeaway at 9pm and took my normal dose for a main meal - 14 units of humalog 30 minutes beforehand. The meal was an Indian take away with a naan bread. Testing my blood afterwards revealed the following:

20:30 Blood 5.5, 14 unit of humalog taken
21:00 meal eaten
22:57 Blood 11.2 - 5 units taken
00:00 Blood 12.2 - 3 units taken
01:13 Blood 12.2 - 5 units taken
01:50 Blood 12.3 - 3 unit taken
03:00 11.5 no units taken

So for my takeaway meal I have effectively taken 30 units and blood sugar is still at 11.5, so 16 units of humalog taken between 2 and 5 hours after eating have had next to no effect on my blood levels. Is this a common scenario when eating restaurant/takeaway food? I'm not noticed anything similar even when I cook up a curry from scratch at home. I've also noticed a similar trend when I had food out of a fast food place recently. I wonder is there are some slow acting sugar stuff in play in the catering world that are messing things up for me here. Any ideas?
 
Is 14 units a fixed dinner time dose or are you carb counting? If you're carb counting what is your insulin to carb ratio and how many carb did you think were in the take away?

How are you doing this morning @longtime ? I'm a bit concerned after all that insulin stacking, 4 corrections with less than an hour between each is really a bit of a rage bolus scenario...
 
longtime said:
So for my takeaway meal I have effectively taken 30 units and blood sugar is still at 11.5, so 16 units of humalog taken between 2 and 5 hours after eating have had next to no effect on my blood levels. Is this a common scenario when eating restaurant/takeaway food? I'm not noticed anything similar even when I cook up a curry from scratch at home.
Click to expand...

That is a lot of insulin.

I noticed in your timings that you've injected quite close together and not given the insulin time to work, insulin peaks at around 90-120 mins and can still be active for up to 4-5 hours, like catapillar I'd be concerned about the stacking effect of taking so many doses so close together.

If your currys don't have the same result at home then maybe you are eating more when consuming takeaway/restaurant food or there's hidden sugars in the dishes which you've not accounted for.
 
noblehead said:
insulin peaks at around 90-120 mins and can still be active for up to 4-5 hours
Click to expand...
This depends on the type of insulin you are taking and there is a lot of variation/range. It is useful to know the "profile" of the insulin you are taking. For example, Novarapid peaks at 1 to 3 hours and lasts 3 to 5 hours.
 
helensaramay said:
This depends on the type of insulin you are taking and there is a lot of variation/range. It is useful to know the "profile" of the insulin you are taking. For example, Novarapid peaks at 1 to 3 hours and lasts 3 to 5 hours.
Click to expand...

Yes it does depend on the insulin, but the OP says they are using Humulog.
 
longtime said:
Hi, new member here,

I've found that restaurant meals and takeaways are causing an unusually high spike in my blood sugar readings. Tonight for example I collected a takeaway at 9pm and took my normal dose for a main meal - 14 units of humalog 30 minutes beforehand. The meal was an Indian take away with a naan bread. Testing my blood afterwards revealed the following:

20:30 Blood 5.5, 14 unit of humalog taken
21:00 meal eaten
22:57 Blood 11.2 - 5 units taken
00:00 Blood 12.2 - 3 units taken
01:13 Blood 12.2 - 5 units taken
01:50 Blood 12.3 - 3 unit taken
03:00 11.5 no units taken

So for my takeaway meal I have effectively taken 30 units and blood sugar is still at 11.5, so 16 units of humalog taken between 2 and 5 hours after eating have had next to no effect on my blood levels. Is this a common scenario when eating restaurant/takeaway food? I'm not noticed anything similar even when I cook up a curry from scratch at home. I've also noticed a similar trend when I had food out of a fast food place recently. I wonder is there are some slow acting sugar stuff in play in the catering world that are messing things up for me here. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Hi @longtime ,

Welcome to the forum!
You've already met some of the helpful, experienced crew.

Did you acompany your meal with alcahol? There can be a lot of hidden carbs in somethings like beer...
I also noticed you were testing till 3am. What time do you normally inject your basal? (Long acting insulin.)
 
I have the same problem and stay high all night after a curry or Chinese. It maybe because the food is fried which always spikes me personally.
 
And thickened with strange starches. I always have issues when I don't eat at home. No matter what the cuisine. The first time I had Indian I went to the moon though keeping portions small

Don't shoot me but I didn't like Indian, at least that Indian so no love lost. I mostly stuck to trandorri chicken ( dry and shriveled compared to mine ? Salad with yogurt sauce for dressing and some veggies in sauce but left as much sauce as I could. It was red and didn't look too thickened. No naan , rice etc.

Eating out I'm safest with a salad and my own oil / herb dressing. Even resteraunt dressings ( bad oils ) can spike me. Once that happens I have three bad bs days no matter what I eat or don't eat. Not worth it anymore.
 
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