What's the worst I can eat?

[JoKalsbeek]

As part of my battle with my surgery to get my diabetes recognised, I'm currently using a Libre2.
What is the worst thing/meal that I could eat to show a high and persistent rise in BG?
I only want to do it once, and nothing too addictive. I will be strict low carb before and after.
Well, that's the plan. Will it work? What food would guarantee the rise I need?

Pizza Hawaii with lava cakes as a dessert, and either coke or a milkshake. That should keep you up for hours. (Pizza's bad enough, but with pineapple it should make it that much worse.)

Good luck with the experiment!

 

[Bluetit1802]

Be careful. For a normal low carb eater not on medication, a sudden influx of lots of carbs will give you a huge rise, but this may be followed by a big drop after maybe 4 hours. You will force your pancreas to produce a massive surge of insulin which will "clear" the glucose in approximately 4 hours. By the time you arrive at your next meal you may find you are much lower than you would normally expect at that time. If you don't eat again your liver should kick in to raise the levels back to your personal normal and thus prevent a hypo. Insulin spikes like that are likely to cause as much damage to your system as glucose. As a T2 we should aim not only to keep our glucose levels down but also our insulin levels.

Lots of carbs mixed with loads of fat may not produce a peak at 2 hours as the fat slows it down. It could many hours later. This is known as the Pizza Effect.

 

[lessci]

Jacket potato with beans & cheese, with fruit crumble for pudding?

 

[ShortStuff]

I would just need to look at a cheese toasted sandwich.

 

[AndBreathe]

@MrsA2 , my suggestions would be that you go back to your earliest days of testing to think about what you saw your highest and/or sustained rises from. Thing about diabetes is we're all different. Some people find they can handle sugary foodstuffs better than potatoes, or pasta. For some bread is their kryptonite.

Personally, for me pasta was troublesome, but actually it was never really a favourite anyway, but on the few times I ate it, I found my rise wasn't massive, but it was very sustained, but that could be due to unknown (at that time) issues with gluten.

If you can identify those foods, they might be a good place to start? Alternatively, I might be inclined to consider a good old favourite like a portion of fish and plenty chips, or an Indian curry, with rice and naan. Many find those meals give a decent (undefined by me) rise, and thanks to the fatty elements it can be sustained, or even in many cases, reported as showing more than one rise from the meal.

 

[SuNuman]

I see your McVitees & raise you cornflakes

Only 86% carbs . . . nice

Link to famous Stanford University CGM trial with 57 students.

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2005143

Actual CGM profiles from the trial using common carb meals

Brilliant.

 

[MrsA2]

Thank you for all the replies so far.

I am trying to get my monies worth out of this Libre by testing some foods I didn't when I went cold turkey so am now thinking I can combine both experiments, ie try a particular carb and when I have identified those that really give me high and long spikes, to , towards the end of the libre, have 2 or 3 of these over a day to get the one snapshot I want, and yet to keep a eye on any rapid decreases too.

Today I had Shreddies for breakfast with a small flat peach and yoghurt. Sure enough up from 5 to 10 but only for about 3 hours before back down. Then lunch was 2 cheese pastry rolls, again up to 10 but for the 4 hours. Dinner was eggs. Massive headache this evening (but that might have been 4 hours on the M1 as well)

I'll have a "clean" day tomorrow to rest my pancreas , then try bread and pasta in separate meals the day after. Then repeat but with different carbs.
Should do the full test Sunday or Monday and still have a couple of days libre to monitor I can come back down again.

I do stress this is a once only experiment, killing 2 birds with one libre, I don't want to have to repeat it ever again

 

[MrsA2]

As an aside, what has been interesting is how few of these foods I actually want to eat. My tastes and habits have changed so much for the low carb better. The Shreddies this morning I could hardly eat the whole bowl, but was hungry 2 hours later.
Trying to hold on to the positives

 

[Ronancastled]

The Shreddies this morning I could hardly eat the whole bowl, but was hungry 2 hours later.

Shreddies was my go to meal to test my progress.
I used chart my responses to a full bowl.

The black line was 5 months post diagnosis.
The red line was 5 months later, shows you what's possible for lucky responders over time.

 

[Oldvatr]

Special fried rice from the takeaway? Vegan curry with chickpeas and couscous was my nemesis, and it put me in A&E, so beware.

 

[Dandelade]

Shreddies was my go to meal to test my progress.
I used chart my responses to a full bowl.

The black line was 5 months post diagnosis.
The red line was 5 months later, shows you what's possible for lucky responders over time.

I love your graph and it is very motivating! I’m not intending in anyway to go back to a high carb diet but knowing that a reasonable intake every now and again could eventually be possible is inspiring.

 

[Dandelade]

Hi @MrsA2, hope you’re well. Did you ever take your results to your gp as you intended and if so how did it go?!

 

[MrsA2]

Hi @MrsA2, hope you’re well. Did you ever take your results to your gp as you intended and if so how did it go?!

Although I tried having various carbs I was too scared to do more than one meal with carbs a day so didn't get very high spikes. Worst was about 12 but it went down quickly and I was exercising a fair bit walking a friends dogs so I didn’t get a distinctive enough graph so I haven't done another letter .
I don't rate the local dn, and our surgery is currently without a permanent GP so have chickened out at this point in time as I don't think I'll get any better care than I can give myself.

 

[Dandelade]

Although I tried having various carbs I was too scared to do more than one meal with carbs a day so didn't get very high spikes. Worst was about 12 but it went down quickly and I was exercising a fair bit walking a friends dogs so I didn’t get a distinctive enough graph so I haven't done another letter .
I don't rate the local dn, and our surgery is currently without a permanent GP so have chickened out at this point in time as I don't think I'll get any better care than I can give myself.

On the upside you’ve clearly got a handle on managing your blood sugar levels now!