Carbs!......

[Pollylocks]

.....am diabetic type 2, have been for fourteen years, diet for twelve then metformin SR twice a day for the last two...

....my query is about carbs....I keep reading carbs are carbs are carbs bbbut if they don't affect your blood sugar levels does it matter...?

...I cannot even look at a potato, especially mashed [yum love it ] without it spiking my levels but I'm fine with any pulses and can eat a pile of rice with no effect at all, so might seem like a very dumb query but does that mean I'm okay to eat them or should I still avoid them...?

 

[Andy12345]

hi, im of the opinion that eating to your meter is the way to go, if your meter says its ok, then its ok, im surprised it dosent affect you but heyho

 

[CollieBoy]

Agree with Andy, Eat to your meter.
It may be that the pulses are converted slowly enough for your body to cope with the carbs released allowing the insulin to deal with the glucose, hence no spike!
The mash however lets out glucose too fast and too copiously for your body to deal, causing the spike.

 

[volorg]

Hi, just to agree with everyone else, testing and seeing what your particular bug bears are is a good idea. Its bread with me so I have cut it out but kept rice and potatoes in my diet and my HbA1c has come down.

Good luck

 

[Yorksman]

I keep reading carbs are carbs are carbs bbbut if they don't affect your blood sugar levels does it matter...?

Carbs come in two main types, alpha carbs and beta carbs, and they both come with sets of saccharides: monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, of which one is starch.

Virtually all humans cannot digest any beta carbs. The only ones who can have a lactase persistence gene. Lactase is an enzyme which some human adults produce but most human adults don't. Foods contain a mixture of carbohydrate types and wholegrains contain both alpha and beta carbs. You don't digest a portion of what you eat. Of the alpha carbs, some of the oligosaccharides cannot be broken down by enzymes, only by bacteria in the intestine. Typically these give you wind and are found in pulses.

Carbs are not equal and are often made up of a few different saccharides and you need different enzymes to break these down. How the body does this can vary considerably as we are afterall, all different. Commonly, most diabetics will have problems with the simple carbs but there is quite a variation with the more complex carbs. The only sure way to tell is to test.

Or possibly learn how to look into a crystal ball though I am personally agnostic on this approach.

 

[2christine]

Carbs come in two main types, alpha carbs and beta carbs, and they both come with sets of saccharides: monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, of which one is starch.

Virtually all humans cannot digest any beta carbs. The only ones who can have a lactase persistence gene. Lactase is an enzyme which some human adults produce but most human adults don't. Foods contain a mixture of carbohydrate types and wholegrains contain both alpha and beta carbs. You don't digest a portion of what you eat. Of the alpha carbs, some of the oligosaccharides cannot be broken down by enzymes, only by bacteria in the intestine. Typically these give you wind and are found in pulses.

Carbs are not equal and are often made up of a few different saccharides and you need different enzymes to break these down. How the body does this can vary considerably as we are afterall, all different. Commonly, most diabetics will have problems with the simple carbs but there is quite a variation with the more complex carbs. The only sure way to tell is to test.

Or possibly learn how to look into a crystal ball though I am personally agnostic on this approach.

Thank you for that explanation its very interesting to me and explains a lot ,for example my uncle and aunt, ate the same thing, yet he was fat and she was thin ,he was diabetic t2 in his 50s she died from gastric ulcers in her 60s. could this have been linked.

 

[Pollylocks]

.....thanks for your replies..... and yorksman, a very informative post, interesting to know...

 

[Yorksman]

Hi Christine, We have only just scratched the surface of the genetics behind most of what goes on in the human body. Why one person produces more of one enzyme than another person does or why one person puts weight on whereas soneone with a similar dietwill be something to do with the genetic make up, but we don't know why. We know the basics of blue eyes, brown eyes for example, have some idea why green eyes occur but someof the more subtle colours, hazel etc is still not understood. Mostly these things are the result of several genes on several separate chromosomes.

Type 1 diabetes for example involves 12 separate gene groups. Only one of them has been studied in depth. Who knows what they will discover when they do more work on the rest.

I seem to recall that you are just down the road from Grimsby? There are still a handful of good fish merchants there. Seafood seems to really work for type 2 diabetics, except the stuff in breadcrumbs or batter I may even buy a paella dish and stock up at the old fish docks.

 

[2christine]

Hi Yorkman, I don't really live near Grimsby,although I know it's about 30 miles away I have only been there a couple of times and yes,I did visit the fishing heritage museum.
This is well worth a visit,and the fish is very good in this area,caught by local fishermen.
The fishing industry is not what it was 50years ago in ,it's all caught by big container type vessels and the fish is collected ,cooked,frozen,and allsorts done to it before it's even bought ashore.
I could live on fish, all sorts but not raw,so I don't think I have a lot of Eskimo in my gene pool lol.
I think what you say about genes is very true,and I wonder if people with Viking blood are more prone to diabetes.

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