Do large volumes of low carb foods increase blood sugars?

resander

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Dr Bernstein suggested many years ago that they do (Chinese Restaurant Effect). The increase in blood sugar is proportional to the amount of stomach 'stretching' caused by larger portions. Larger volumes of anything, even sawdust, water and keto-diet meals would result in increased blood sugar values. Hmmm... would never have guessed that.

https://www.diabetesforum.com/diabetes/27657-chinese-restaurant-effect.html
https://kickincarbclutter.blogspot.com/2007/09/chinese-restaurant-effect.html

I have tried to ketodiet for about a year, but have dropped out of ketosis about four times suffering keto-flu for 4-10 days. When in ketosis I felt much better, so I really want to continue and reduce number of drop outs or at least make the recovery time shorter.

I have observed higher carb readings at 6pm dinner for large volumes of beef and boiled chicken each with no sauce. These meats contain 0 carbs/100g according to the food labels.
Had the meals with 100g celeriac mash and 50g cooked broccoli (about 5g carbs) and measured the following blood sugars after 2 hours on several occasions.

Beef 140g + vegs -> 6.4mmol/L
Beef 220g + vegs -> 7.5 mmol/L
Boiled chicken 140g + vegs -> 6.6mmol/L
Boiled chicken 220g + vegs -> 7.7mmol/L

show that larger meat volumes result in higher blood sugar values.

I think I dropped out of ketosis at least once after a large portion of chicken, but do not recall if I did for beef.

Have you been affected by or noticed the Chinese Restuarant Effect too?
 
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Antje77

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show that larger meat volumes result in higher blood sugar values.
Wouldn't that have been the protein? I know that T1's on low carb diets need to inject for protein. Not a subject I know a lot about though, so I may be completely wrong in my reasoning!
 

HSSS

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The after food readings mean little without knowing what they were before. Perhaps the starting figures were lower beforehand. And the meters aren’t consistently perfectly accurate either. And it might be the protein rather than food volume.
 

DCUKMod

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Dr Bernstein suggested many years ago that they do (Chinese Restaurant Effect). The increase in blood sugar is proportional to the amount of stomach 'stretching' caused by larger portions. Larger volumes of anything, even sawdust, water and keto-diet meals would result in increased blood sugar values. Hmmm... would never have guessed that.

https://www.diabetesforum.com/diabetes/27657-chinese-restaurant-effect.html
https://kickincarbclutter.blogspot.com/2007/09/chinese-restaurant-effect.html

I have tried to ketodiet for about a year, but have dropped out of ketosis about four times suffering keto-flu for 4-10 days. When in ketosis I felt much better, so I really want to continue and reduce number of drop outs or at least make the recovery time shorter.

I have observed higher carb readings at 6pm dinner for large volumes of beef and boiled chicken each with no sauce. These meats contain 0 carbs/100g according to the food labels.
Had the meals with 100g celeriac mash and 50g cooked broccoli (about 5g carbs) and measured the following blood sugars after 2 hours on several occasions.

Beef 140g + vegs -> 6.4mmol/L
Beef 220g + vegs -> 7.5 mmol/L
Boiled chicken 140g + vegs -> 6.6mmol/L
Boiled chicken 220g + vegs -> 7.7mmol/L

show that larger meat volumes result in higher blood sugar values.

I think I dropped out of ketosis at least once after a large portion of chicken, but do not recall if I did for beef.

Have you been affected by or noticed the Chinese Restuarant Effect too?

It couldn't be a number of factors, from quantity to proportion of fat, same cooking or eating seasonings to whether the veg you mention in passing were always the same, and always the same amounts, or even how full or overly full you were after eating those meals

If you are only testing 2 hours after eating, to get any insight into this, in my view, you need to test more intensively (or invest in a Libre), so that you are tracking before eating scores, then the direction of travel of your blood glucose scores, half hourly until you get back to your starting score.
 

ianf0ster

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Just be aware (as every Type 1 knows) , that lean protein in large quantities once digesting can raise Blood Glucose. They normally account for it as needing half the insulin that the same weight of carbs would require.

Keto isn't just extreme low carb - you can't just eat unlimited amounts of lean protein and expect to stay in ketosis.
 

Oldvatr

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Just be aware (as every Type 1 knows) , that lean protein in large quantities once digesting can raise Blood Glucose. They normally account for it as needing half the insulin that the same weight of carbs would require.

Keto isn't just extreme low carb - you can't just eat unlimited amounts of lean protein and expect to stay in ketosis.
This is a basic description of what may be happening due to the protein (i,e, amino acids)
https://teachmephysiology.com/basics/atp-production/gluconeogenesis/
 

Resurgam

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I have always found, and also read that low carb and low fat don't really work well.
 
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resander

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When I started this thread I did not know protein can push up blood sugar values.

Now I am beginning to think the blood sugar increase was caused by a larger amount of protein in the portions, not by volume increase and the Chinese restaurant effect.

I just searched for 'Chinese Restaurant Effect' on Google but could not find any entries describing recent research. Maybe it is called something different now? Anyone knows?
 

Bheki81

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I was disappointed once when ate avocado (low carb, high unsaturated fat) but felt surge in first 1-2hours range for carbs
 

mike@work

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When I started this thread I did not know protein can push up blood sugar values.

Now I am beginning to think the blood sugar increase was caused by a larger amount of protein in the portions, not by volume increase and the Chinese restaurant effect.

I just searched for 'Chinese Restaurant Effect' on Google but could not find any entries describing recent research. Maybe it is called something different now? Anyone knows?

Jupp - gluconeogenesis does this to me, but then I am a T1...
Doesn't really matter for me, if it is lean or fat meat. After about 3-4 hours I'm starting to get a relatively slow but steady peak, if I eat some more proteins.
 

LaoDan

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I was disappointed once when ate avocado (low carb, high unsaturated fat) but felt surge in first 1-2hours range for carbs

Interesting, I eat a large avocado daily, testing shows it doesn’t raise my BG at all. I guess some people respond differently