Oat porridge

elsalisa

Active Member
Messages
32
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Help! My daughter (she’s 11, type 1) loves oat porridge and she’d love to eat it in the morning before school but... there is always a spike. No way to avoid spikes? Or maybe there are brands of porridge you could recommend please?
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KK123

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3,967
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Help! My daughter (she’s 11, type 1) loves oat porridge and she’d love to eat it in the morning before school but... there is always a spike. No way to avoid spikes? Or maybe there are brands of porridge you could recommend please? View attachment 38378


Hi there, how much of a spike and for how long? x
 

MeiChanski

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2,992
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Help! My daughter (she’s 11, type 1) loves oat porridge and she’d love to eat it in the morning before school but... there is always a spike. No way to avoid spikes? Or maybe there are brands of porridge you could recommend please? View attachment 38378

Hello, what insulins is your daughter on? Is it just plain porridge or do you mix other foods in there?
 

Juicyj

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Hello @elsalisa Unfortunately porridge is porridge regardless of the brand, it's the carb content you need to keep an eye on.

She could have cream in it however this would only delay the spike and she would require insulin later on to correct the resulting high, which would be tricky unless she knows what she's doing, maybe mix with desiccated coconut to bulk it out and reduce the volume of porridge perhaps as well as a dollop of cream or coconut cream ?

Personally I find mornings the worst time to eat carbs or any kind, so cereals/bread are all a nightmare to deal with, I can cope better later in the day when active, but find I am more insulin resistant in the morning so avoid carbs then. Some t1's cope ok but have heard others are similar to me and go high, taking till lunchtime to get down to single figures again, I do eat the diet doctor coconut porridge as suggested by Jo above and take insulin for it, but mix it with blueberries and yoghurt too.
 

therower

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3,922
Type of diabetes
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@elsalisa . I love oats. Best I’ve found to date are. M&S Whole Scottish porridge oats.
I go one part oats to two parts milk. Leave to soak overnight ( this seems to have an affect the next morning)
Microwave or warm in a saucepan the next morning.
I tend to pre bolus about 15 mins beforehand and 90% of the time I have a minimal spike, maybe 2 or 3 m/ mol
If I don’t soak the oats overnight I find I get a bigger more unpredictable spike. I have no idea why, so I stick with the overnight soak.
 

TardisDee

Member
Messages
17
Porridge is probably my biggest carb load at a meal. I have recently started making oat pancakes for breakfast. The recipe I use is 30g oats, 125ml milk (I use lactose free milk as it os lower in carbs than normal milk) and egg. I soak oats overnight in milk and beat in egg next morning. Just fry like a normal pancake. I use a larger pan and this makes 2 pancakes. If having porridge I would eat more oats than this. I find the egg helps keep me fuller than if I just have porridge. You could possibly reduce the oat amount a bit.
 

Quinn1066

Well-Known Member
Messages
283
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I am type 2, but eat porridge every morning. I find adding fat in the form of peanut butter or full fat yoghurt, and a form of protein, both peanut butter and yoghurt have protein delays/mitigates a spike. 1 hour peak spike for me is 1.4 after and a 2hour hour peak of 0.6. This is for 52g rolled oats cooked in water, and left to cool for half an hour, with 100g yoghurt, 20g peanut butter and 70g blueberries.
 

Sosgez

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Messages
54
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
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Being bitten by cats. And women.
I am type 2, but eat porridge every morning.
Me too. I like 10g of sultanas or a small amount of blackcurrant jam (OMG), because its more colourful and ads much needed flavour. Another nice flavour is coconut yogurt instead of milk. It becomes a thick paste.
Yet another option I like is mandarin segments with oats. No milk.

I gather steel-cut oats are more slowly digested than the very common rolled oats. But I don't see them in any shops.
 

Quinn1066

Well-Known Member
Messages
283
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Me too. I like 10g of sultanas or a small amount of blackcurrant jam (OMG), because its more colourful and ads much needed flavour. Another nice flavour is coconut yogurt instead of milk. It becomes a thick paste.
Yet another option I like is mandarin segments with oats. No milk.

I gather steel-cut oats are more slowly digested than the very common rolled oats. But I don't see them in any shops.
Steel cut oats are available here in Australia, but they are a pain to cook, take 30min or more and the benefits are like two points lower GI ranking. I tried to cook a batch but failed. So I stick with a very well know brand here in Australa called Uncle Toby's traditional rolled oats, and the fact that I let them cook I think allows some more resistant starch to develop. Plus cooking them on the stove in plain water according to my testing slows down the peak spike compared to using the microwave. I stick to dairy products and yoghurt and diary yoghurt makes my tummy happy with all the pro-biotics.
 
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ringi

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3,365
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Does your daughter walk to school, if not, have she tried it as an option to reduce the BG spike?
 

elsalisa

Active Member
Messages
32
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi there, how much of a spike and for how long? x

Hi, even if she has about 5.5 before meal, gives 3 units for 29 carbs of porridge - she’ll get spike of 12 or 16 in about 30 minutes or so. :( But she buys Sainsbury’s ready porridge - maybe that’s why?
 

elsalisa

Active Member
Messages
32
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I am type 2, but eat porridge every morning. I find adding fat in the form of peanut butter or full fat yoghurt, and a form of protein, both peanut butter and yoghurt have protein delays/mitigates a spike. 1 hour peak spike for me is 1.4 after and a 2hour hour peak of 0.6. This is for 52g rolled oats cooked in water, and left to cool for half an hour, with 100g yoghurt, 20g peanut butter and 70g blueberries.

Thank you, it’s a great idea!
 

elsalisa

Active Member
Messages
32
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Does your daughter walk to school, if not, have she tried it as an option to reduce the BG spike?

She travels by bus as it’s safer for her, she’s 11. Walking would take around 30 minutes, with a heavy backpack (what do they put in there these days? ).
 

AlanaPerrin

Active Member
Messages
31
I don’t know if you’re still looking for advice, but to eat porridge for breakfast I need two things - a pre-bolus of 20-25 minutes, and an extra half unit to counteract my usual morning rise.
I weigh out 40g oats (24g carbs) and use almond milk with no carbs, and add 20g Nutella. The whole lot comes to 37ish g carbs. This would normally be 2 units of Fiasp for me, but I know I need 2.5 to avoid the spike.
This is my tried and tested method!
 
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