10g carbs raising sugar.....

Indy1282

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...from 5.8 to 13.2 in two hours! With 3 units of insulin!

It was a 9g cereal bar, just had peanuts,milk,soya,barley and oats.
 

Spl@

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513
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Prediabetes
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Diet only
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Humans that only take.
9g bar or 9g of carbs.

With milk, barley and oats plus whatever they stick it together with its probable 90% will be carbs.
 

brassyblonde900

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331
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Sometimes in this controlling blood sugar game the sum of the parts, end up greater than the whole.
I am type2 and I have found that there are whole swathes of stuff I stay well away from.
when you factor in that there are food intolerances that you could be unaware of, going on with certain foods.
Or that somebody could dump a bit more stuff into a batch. Afterall the difference between 100g and 1000g is just one 0:bag:
No matter what is posted on a manufactured food, I am a walking St Thomas.
Fallstaff (Shakespeare) and I are in lockstep with each other... Discretion is a better part of valour
 
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There are many things that affect our BG, not just food.
Our BG can also rise if we feel ill or stressed or exercise, for example.
 
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kitedoc

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4,783
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Pump
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black jelly beans
Hi @Indy1282 , each one of the components of the cereal bar mentioned can raise BSLs.
Depending on labelling laws the manufacturer may only have to list carbs from glucose whilst ignoring the lactose in the milk, the carbohydrate in the peanuts, barley and oats, and about 50% of the protein in the bar maybe converted to glucose but to be fair may not have had much effect on the 2 hour BSL reading. So assuming the 9 g refers to the "declared carb" content the actual full carbs that your body will convert to glucose plus the 9 'declared' grams might equal 25 maybe 30 grams. So despite your ratio of one unit of insulin (short-acting I assume) to 3 g carb the BSL is high. On that ratio and let us say a refigured carb total of 21 grams, you would have been taking 7 units not one.
And ratios of units to grams of carb can alter through the day so, for example, if you were taking this cereal bar for breakfast the ratio is often closer e.g. 1 unit to say 2 g than later in the day ? 1 unit to 4 g to 6 g etc.
And as @helensaramay, rightly points out there may be other factors affecting the BSL level.
Of course , a photo of said cereal bar wrapper with list of contents on it may help ease conjecture !!
 
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9g bar or 9g of carbs.

With milk, barley and oats plus whatever they stick it together with its probable 90% will be carbs.
Please bear in mind the OP has type 1 diabetes (as indicated by the sub-forum this is posted in).
Many people with type 1 diabetes do not find they need to restrict their carb intake.
 
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Scott-C

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2,474
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Type 1
Just wondering about the wider context in which it was eaten, @Indy1282 ?

Some possibilities spring to mind:

Maybe early morning, when many of us get a "foot on floor" rise anyway just by getting up, so perhaps the insulin was dealing not only with the carbs in the bar, but also the foot on floor rise?

Or maybe if eaten as a mid-afternoon snack, bg was maybe on an upward trend anyway from a possibly underbolused lunch?

One of the things I've started paying a lot more attention to since gettting libre is not just the straight carb/bolus count for that particular meal/snack, but also looking at what's been happening more generally in the last few hours, whether level is trending up or down or is level, and how much IOB I've still got working.

Taking those other factors into account can radically alter the picture.
 
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Indy1282

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60
Just wondering about the wider context in which it was eaten, @Indy1282 ?

Some possibilities spring to mind:

Maybe early morning, when many of us get a "foot on floor" rise anyway just by getting up, so perhaps the insulin was dealing not only with the carbs in the bar, but also the foot on floor rise?

Or maybe if eaten as a mid-afternoon snack, bg was maybe on an upward trend anyway from a possibly underbolused lunch?

One of the things I've started paying a lot more attention to since gettting libre is not just the straight carb/bolus count for that particular meal/snack, but also looking at what's been happening more generally in the last few hours, whether level is trending up or down or is level, and how much IOB I've still got working.

Taking those other factors into account can radically alter the picture.

Thanks for replying.

I rarely eat in the mornings as my insulin resistance it not great do I had it just before lunch. Also I'm very mindful of protein raising my BS and am aware of my different ratio depending on what time of the day. I'll just stop eating these bars!!

Another thing that ALWAYS spikes me no matter what time I eat it is Weetabix, even if I over bolus I still spike massively
 

Scott-C

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2,474
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I am type2 and I have found that there are whole swathes of stuff I stay well away from.

T1s have considerably more latitude in relation to carbs.

With us, while there are certainly some no-nos (and even those can vary amongst individuals), if we do not want to low carb/keto, our aim is to find the correct dose of insulin and timing of it, rather than avoid the carb altogether.
 
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slip

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3,523
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Type 1
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Insulin
It's not often I have wheetabix but last time I did I weighed 2 biscuits and checked the nutritional panel on the pack, I'm not entirely convinced of either their maths or their biscuit size/density etc it said 2 biscuits (one serving) are Xg of carbs, yet I had 2 in my bowl that weighed what ever it was and using the per 100gs column came to a different X number of carbs - go figure!

Why though?? What's in it??? Honestly I had it last night when my insulin requirement is at its lowest- I was 7.4mmol before and 2 hours after 17mmol!!! I even gave extra insulin

Correct I:C ratio and insulin timing are key - and a bit of luck too!
 

Scott-C

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2,474
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Why though?? What's in it??? Honestly I had it last night when my insulin requirement is at its lowest- I was 7.4mmol before and 2 hours after 17mmol!!! I even gave extra insulin ;)

Like @slip says, ratios and timing. DAFNE says 1u for 10g but for many of us, that just disnae work. Also, pre-bolusing, injecting a while before the meal to let the insulin get to work, can make a huge difference, otherwise the insulin is playing catch-up with the food.

If neither of those work, my take on it is that, we're T1, we can technically eat whatever we want, but, in practice, some meals are just more bother than they're worth.

I think a lot depends on the carb type, how it's mixed with other food types, and individual biology.

With me, for example, I know that white rice and rice noodles are really unpredictable, so I tend to avoid them, but brown rice and egg noodles are absolutely fine, they actually keep me really steady for hours on end. The rate at which they are absorbed just seem to match my insulin patterns.

Likewise, chips and boiled potatoes are a mine-field, but baked potatoes keep me very steady, for me.

As I say, though, that's just me - others might find the same or the opposite.

With weetabix, I suppose with it being made from wheat, that's absorbed quite fast, so maybe the insulin is just not keeping up with the rate of absorption if not pre-bolusing.

I suppose it's just a case of experimenting and seeing which carbs "work" and which don't.

Good luck!
 

Indy1282

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Messages
60
Like @slip says, ratios and timing. DAFNE says 1u for 10g but for many of us, that just disnae work. Also, pre-bolusing, injecting a while before the meal to let the insulin get to work, can make a huge difference, otherwise the insulin is playing catch-up with the food.

If neither of those work, my take on it is that, we're T1, we can technically eat whatever we want, but, in practice, some meals are just more bother than they're worth.

I think a lot depends on the carb type, how it's mixed with other food types, and individual biology.

With me, for example, I know that white rice and rice noodles are really unpredictable, so I tend to avoid them, but brown rice and egg noodles are absolutely fine, they actually keep me really steady for hours on end. The rate at which they are absorbed just seem to match my insulin patterns.

Likewise, chips and boiled potatoes are a mine-field, but baked potatoes keep me very steady, for me.

As I say, though, that's just me - others might find the same or the opposite.

With weetabix, I suppose with it being made from wheat, that's absorbed quite fast, so maybe the insulin is just not keeping up with the rate of absorption if not pre-bolusing.

I suppose it's just a case of experimenting and seeing which carbs "work" and which don't.

Good luck!

I'm pretty spot on with my ratios and used to pre bolusing before meals. I think weetabix just doens not work with me! I'm ok with potatoes cooked all ways but still limit to 30 -40g per meal. Rice is so ok, pasta a bit more tricky but manageable.
 

brassyblonde900

Well-Known Member
Messages
331
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Why though?? What's in it??? Honestly I had it last night when my insulin requirement is at its lowest- I was 7.4mmol before and 2 hours after 17mmol!!! I even gave extra insulin ;)
I think there is something about wheat that makes it problematic.
When I was just newly Dx, and still trying out different foods and their BG impact, I found that equal amounts of carb in a wheat product and non wheat product will give massively different BG values.
 

Jc3131

Well-Known Member
Messages
325
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I'm pretty spot on with my ratios and used to pre bolusing before meals. I think weetabix just doens not work with me! I'm ok with potatoes cooked all ways but still limit to 30 -40g per meal. Rice is so ok, pasta a bit more tricky but manageable.
When I have Weetabix I take my insulin about 20 mins before I eat it. Somedays I spike quite high and others I hypo with the same doses.

I have decided to give Weetabix a miss for now as it's too unpredictable, instead I have porrige and I seem to manage it better using the same regime.