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What should I have as a healthy supper?

J

Jjoshh

Member
Messages
6
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I've been diagnosed as type 1 for 9 months now and my nurse said that I should have supper at night.
I'm never really hungry at night but feel like I have to have something incase I have a hypo through the night.

I've also noticed that my bloods seem to be higher when I wake up if I don't have supper?

Should I be having supper? and if so what is an ideal healthy snack I could have for supper?
 
I personally don't think as a type 1 that you should eat for the sake of eating, if your not hungry don't eat. You should test you BG before bed and if your below 5 then yes a small snack of 10g carbs is fine if your worried about a hypo, otherwise no.
 
My typically dinners would be some roasted or steamed veggies, and some type of fish (fresh, no breading, or very light breading), and usually a salad with some cheese and almonds. I try to keep the entire meal under 20g of carbs, and at least 3 hours before i plan on sleeping in case i need to adjust my insulin before bed.

I never eat just because its 'meal time' I only eat when i am hungry, and whenever i eat i do my best to keep it between 20-30g of carbs, and inject at least 15 minutes prior to eating to avoid spiking my blood sugar.

Diabetes is all about normalizing blood sugar, so don't listen to people (doctors and nurses included) who tell you that you 'have to eat 3 meals a day' - do everything you can to keep you BS flat around 5.5, and only eat when you are hungry. Be sure you are getting enough vitamins and minerals, but eating for the sake of eating is just plain wrong, diabetic or not.

Eat when you're hungry and eat efficiently - That means no junk, eat food that serves a purpose (high in vitamins, source of protein, fat, bump your sugars up a bit, etc...)
 
Before we talk about whether you need to have supper, what insulin regime are you on? That will be leading the recommendations of the nurse.
 
tim2000s said:
Before we talk about whether you need to have supper, what insulin regime are you on? That will be leading the recommendations of the nurse.
Click to expand...

I'm on multiple daily injection. So I inject bolus insulin 3 times a day (before meals) and then basal every night at 8:30.
 
In the old days of nph insulin, it was recommended that supper was eaten before bed due to a peak in the insulin action after about four hours that could result in a hypo. You didn't want this before bed.

The newer long acting insulins have a much flatter profile, so you don't need to eat before bed to stave off a hypo, if you have your basal level correct. To confirm this a basal test is recommended.

Your issue with bg levels rising in the mornings when you don't eat late is likely to be caused by one of a couple of things.

Either: a) you are suffering from dawn phenomenon and this only kicks in when you don't eat; or

b) When you don't have supper your basal insulin is too high and is causing a hypo which your body then reacts to by releasing glucagon and pushing your blood glucose level up higher.

Either way, it would benefit you to do an overnight basal test where you awake every two hours and check your bg levels, both when you do and when you don't eat. That should reveal what is happening and while it is painful getting up through the night, it will really help you to understand what is happening.
 
Jjoshh said:
I'm on multiple daily injection. So I inject bolus insulin 3 times a day (before meals) and then basal every night at 8:30.
Click to expand...


Once you nail down your basal insulin to the point where your levels dont change over long periods then you won't NEED to eat to stay level, because your basal will level you, and you can just eat whatever, whenever.

Its totally possible to accomplish on a long acting. I found that a 1/2 unit lantus pen was super helpful. I was using a Solostar Junior pen because i could inject 10.5Units every night and stay perfectly level all 24 hours.

You will have to test before bed and then again mid night (like 2-3am) and again when you wake up to see if you do drop over night, if you don't then you dont have to eat anything! If you are going up, then perhaps you could use a bit more basal.

Its all about experimenting.
 
Agree with juicyj, if not hungry and BGL is ok don't eat.
 
Jjoshh said:
I've been diagnosed as type 1 for 9 months now and my nurse said that I should have supper at night.
I'm never really hungry at night but feel like I have to have something incase I have a hypo through the night.

I've also noticed that my bloods seem to be higher when I wake up if I don't have supper?

Should I be having supper? and if so what is an ideal healthy snack I could have for supper?
Click to expand...

Just means that your basal insulin needs adjusting if your waking to high bg levels when you don't eat supper, maybe some of the bolus dose with your supper is making up for the shortfall in your basal insulin.

On a basal/bolus insulin regime there's no need to eat 4 meals a day, if anything you could eat two meals should you choose, provided your bg levels are in range pre-bed and your basal insulin is set at the right dose there is no need to eat when your not hungry.
 
Diamattic said:
Once you nail down your basal insulin to the point where your levels dont change over long periods then you won't NEED to eat to stay level, because your basal will level you, and you can just eat whatever, whenever.

Its totally possible to accomplish on a long acting. I found that a 1/2 unit lantus pen was super helpful. I was using a Solostar Junior pen because i could inject 10.5Units every night and stay perfectly level all 24 hours.

You will have to test before bed and then again mid night (like 2-3am) and again when you wake up to see if you do drop over night, if you don't then you dont have to eat anything! If you are going up, then perhaps you could use a bit more basal.

Its all about experimenting.
Click to expand...

I'm going to do this tonight and tomorrow with no supper

And then next weekend with supper and i will post the results.

Thank you everyone for their help so far!
 
Do you bolus your supper or have you been told to eat so you don't go hypo? Apparently there are different viewpoints - most think that supper is unnecessary but others believe supper prevents you going hypo through the night.
 
dancer said:
Do you bolus your supper or have you been told to eat so you don't go hypo? Apparently there are different viewpoints - most think that supper is unnecessary but others believe supper prevents you going hypo through the night.
Click to expand...

No I don't bolus with my supper, i was just told to have supper. I suppose it might of been a precaution to prevent a hypo through the night when I was first diagnosed

I have regular 3 month checkups with the nurse so I will do the tests over a few nights to test my blood with and without supper and show her the results too
 
If you waken to a higher blood sugar when you haven't had supper, this suggests that you are going hypo through the night which in turn suggests your basal is too high. Basal checks should confirm this.
 
dancer said:
If you waken to a higher blood sugar when you haven't had supper, this suggests that you are going hypo through the night which in turn suggests your basal is too high. Basal checks should confirm this.
Click to expand...

I don't follow this logic :/

If you wake up high, it means your basal is too low and you need more insulin. if you wake up at any point with a low then your basal is too high.

If you are implying that if his sugars go low at some point in the night that his body will just pump out glucose on its own to save him, then you maybe have to be very careful with that advice as its not the case for everyone, myself included. I go low when i have to much insulin, my body doesn't push my sugars back up unless i ingest glucose and if i just never got out of bed and waited for my liver to save me i would be waiting a very long time lol
 
@Diamattic, dancer is referring to the Somogyi Effect and from what I can see he/she isn't trying to imply anything, it's just another possibility for the OP to consider.
 
I eat Greek/ Turkish yogurt before I go to bed usually. Just about half a cup full. It doesn't have a lot of carbs, though. I almost invariably wake at 66-70 mg/dl, which is 3.7-3.9. I know some type 1s don't like to go below 4, but my readings is in the "non-diabetic", still not a real hypo range (which is below 2.2) so I like it. I also have no dawn phenomenon or morning insulin resistance if I start at this level.
 
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