Effect of porridge on blood sugar

[Retrorokit]

My experience is that oatmeal porridge first thing in the morning is that it raises my blood sugar quite a bit - from say 5.1 to 8.5 or even 9.5 at one hour. If I eat it in the evening it might add +1.5 or +2. I have now basically decided to avoid it.

I first realized that I had a issue with glucose intolerance when I had a blood test for something else and a (non-fasting) glucose was also taken at the same time. I had eaten a big bowl of oatmeal porridge with apple and dates about an hour before. My “random” glucose came back at 8.5. That was quite a shock since my fasting glucose previously had been in the upper 4s to mid 5s and my A1c was 5.0%.

I am trying to figure out how to eat low carb enough to keep my blood sugar from spiking over 6.5 most of the time and never over 7.8 while not losing any weight. (I need to gain weight.) If I have eaten a carb and checked at one hour and my blood sugar is over 7.8 then it goes on a black list of things I just shouldn’t eat - even if it is much lower at 2 hours. I check at one hour because I find that when eating carbs my blood sugar is higher at one hour than at two hours. My understanding is the really short peaks like at 20-30 minutes aren’t that relevant for health but elevated blood sugar for more than an hour starts to do damage.

Interestingly porridge and sweet potatoes that have the reputation to be “healthy” cause me problems, but a dense whole grain and seed bread doesn’t seem to raise my blood sugar much - and everyone says avoid bread.

Hi I am new here I hope you don’t mind me commenting! I notice you said you were eating porridge with apple and dates. Dates are renowned for creating sugar spikes. They are roughly 75grams of carbs per 100gms! Dates are high in fructose which though a fruit sugar is still a sugar. If you removed dates from your porridge this mayhelp.
It’s a shame as they are delicious but they are also big and heavy especially medjool dates is easy to not realise how much extra carbs you are adding in if judging by eye and not the scales!

 

[bellapodus]

I love porridge. It's my comfort food.
Sadly, it spikes my BG so much. I had some yesterday as I wanted to see if it still did this. Yikes! 2 hours after and it had risen by 10. Not to 10 but risen by 10! Seriously, not going to try it again

 

[kvetiny]

Even a single Weetabix will spike my sugars so had to give that up and porridge. I eat little in the day or very low carbs and I can keep my blood sugars in the normal range until tea time then it jumps right up. Trying to reduce my carbs at tea time but I miss them and I'm starving by tea time and eat a proper meal.

 

[MrsA2]

I love porridge. It's my comfort food.
Sadly, it spikes my BG so much. I had some yesterday as I wanted to see if it still did this. Yikes! 2 hours after and it had risen by 10. Not to 10 but risen by 10! Seriously, not going to try it again

There are quite a few low carb 'porridge' recipes out there, some are even quite edible. Try googling keto porridge and try a few, perhaps?

 

[Ricmel]

I am 5 months in and the two food items that I have found that really spike my BS are white bread and porridge.

 

[bellapodus]

There are quite a few low carb 'porridge' recipes out there, some are even quite edible. Try googling keto porridge and try a few, perhaps?

Will give it a go. I don't have it often but sometimes, it just hits the spot

 

[JohnEGreen]

I am 5 months in and the two food items that I have found that really spike my BS are white bread and porridge.

Ummm I'm trying to imagine what a porridge sandwich tastes like

 

[ultradad]

2 shredded wheat put my bloods up by7-8 points so didnt even look at porridge but i used to enjoy it when i was a kid

 

[Vint64]

My fasting glucose levels are around 5.9-6.2 yet after a bowl of porridge (a 27g portion made with 180ml of semi skimmed milk) with a half desert spoonful of honey it drops to around 4.9. As a newly diagnosed diabetic I would welcome any insights for more established members. How is the porridge doing this, especially with the small amount of honey I put in.

 

[Hopeful34]

Hi @Vint64

Welcome to the forum. In order to answer your question, it would be helpful to know how long after your first mouthful of porridge you tested your blood sugar, and what your level was pre breakfast on that particular day?

 

[Vint64]

As an example my levels this morning taken just after I got up were 5.7. I usually take my medication with my breakfast and test 2 hours later.

 

[plantae]

2 shredded wheat put my bloods up by7-8 points so didnt even look at porridge but i used to enjoy it when i was a kid

In Australia we have Weet-bix and 2 Weet-bix with either skim or full fat milk (125 g) spike my bloods up to 11 or 12 mmol/L from about 5. They're supposed to be "low-gi" but the spike is very sudden and obvious. I've tried adding fibre in the form of psyllium husk but it makes little difference (for me). Different breakfast cereals behave very differently for me (e.g. All-bran which has about the same amount of carbs per serve but higher sugars results in a gradual peak... the peak is also not as high). So I guess I'll just stop eating weet-bix once the box runs out or until I'm more experienced. Edit: I should add that 2 weet-bix doesn't even fill me up... when I was a kid I'd have at least 4, maybe 8 hahah