Newbie with a couple of questions

[Countryside_Yoyo_]

Hi, I'm new to this forum with a couple of questions, so please bear with! It might be a bit long.
54 year old female, BMI 26.0 so a bit overweight.
I had an Hbac1 of 41 in May 2015. When I was tested again in mid January this year, it had risen to 45, so I was told by my doctor I am prediabetic. With this most recent test it of course included Christmas where my eating pattern was much less healthy than my usual. In normal circumstances, I rarely eat chocolate or anything sweet, although I do like my (always wholegrain) carbs,which I eat a lot of, but it's really hard to avoid everything extra that's being offered to you at that time of year, canapés, party food, mince pies, alcohol etc and the endless Christmas work dinners. Could this have skewed my result in any way? If so, they are testing me again in 12 months, so should I avoid the Christmas period? Or should a "normal" person be able to handle all of that?
My surgery sent me a prediabetic "pack", in reality just a list of do's and don'ts. I had read up about this already, and was alarmed to be told I should have cereal, bread, potatoes, rice, grains, or pasta, with EVERY meal and to cut down on fat. Eat plenty of fruit.
Reading your excellent forum, and buying a low blood sugar diet book that's recently had a lot of attention in the press, I was shocked that the advice I'd been given was so clearly wrong. I KNEW from times in the past when I had lowered my carb intake, I'd had much more energy.
Anyway I decided I should get a handle on all of this and start understanding which foods I can and cannot eat, so taking the advice of many on here, I ordered the SD Codefree BG monitor. I'm very pleased with it, and it seems easy to use.
I've only been going a day, but wonder if it's working properly. Here are the results so far -

Pre-lunch yesterday - 6.0 lunch was salad at home (the usual lettuce, cucumber, onion, radish, tomato and peppers) with smoked salmon, ham, oil and vinegar dressing
One hour after 6.0
Two hours after 6.1
Before dinner 6.0 - dinner was home made turkey breast burgers (with ginger and spring onion) on a portobello mushroom with salad, avocado, and courgettes. Full fat Greek yogurt with a few raspberries and blueberries. Coffee with cream
Two hours after 6.3
Before bed 6.2
Fasting blood this morning 6.0.
I know I did eat quite low carb yesterday anyway - I wanted to get a baseline - but that seems to be a very narrow range of results.! I bought my own meter so have nothing to calibrate it against. If I go to my doctor, to get it checked he already told me I shouldn't test myself at all,so that won't go down well.
If these are normal readings and machine is ok I'll just start adding in some carbs and see what happens.

Any comments greatly appreciated.

 

[Countryside_Yoyo_]

I added in some carbs today for my evening meal. I had small pork steak, portion of cabbage, 5 asparagus spears, and about 150g of baked sweet potato. I was 6.9 before the meal, when I took my BG after 1 hour it was 12.5. after 2 hours it was 5.6. Does this mean that sweet potato is off the menu, or is it OK as long as it comes back down again within the 2 hours?
I must say it is very interesting to see what foods affect your sugars when I wouldn't have given a minutes thought to what I was eating before this.

 

[TorqPenderloin]

I added in some carbs today for my evening meal. I had small pork steak, portion of cabbage, 5 asparagus spears, and about 150g of baked sweet potato. I was 6.9 before the meal, when I took my BG after 1 hour it was 12.5. after 2 hours it was 5.6. Does this mean that sweet potato is off the menu, or is it OK as long as it comes back down again within the 2 hours?
I must say it is very interesting to see what foods affect your sugars when I wouldn't have given a minutes thought to what I was eating before this.

To answer your question, the bigger issue is how long it takes for your blood sugar to fall back down to normal. However, 12.5 is a very significant spike and only in rare circumstances would a non-diabetic ever peak that high.

The foods you described only have about 30g of carbohydrates with the sweet potato obviously containing the most. In comparison, a non-diabetic would probably have to eat 200+ grams of carbs to get anywhere close to a spike that high.

My concern, based on what you described, is how fast and how high the sweet potato spiked your blood sugar. Sweet potatoes are about average in terms of glycemic load (basically, how much it should spike your blood sugar) and 30g of carbs is a far cry from what most consume during the holidays.

This is all part of the process and testing is a good thing. You'll need to figure out which foods you can and which ones you cannot eat. Unfortunately, it sounds like sweet potatoes probably should be avoided, at least for now.

 

[Countryside_Yoyo_]

Thanks for the reply. Yes I worked out the approximate carb content of the meal as around 30g beforehand. I will give the sweet potatoes a miss in future I think.
I really should have checked the high reading, as I realised afterwards I hadn't washed my hands before I did it. Maybe it was an error, but I won't be disregarding it. It is quite alarming, but I guess it is, as you say, part of the process. I'm getting a lot of info from reading the posts on this forum. You are all very helpful and for that I'm very grateful. It's such a lot to take in, and at the moment I feel that my doctor has washed his hands of it for the next 12 months till my retest.

 

[Liam1955]

Hello Countryside_yoyo_ - Welcome to the Forum. Will tag @daisy1 who will provide you with some basic information.

 

[just_undiscovered_]

Ok I'm confused, am I meant to be test at 1hr after I've eaten a meal and then again at 2 hrs after? I've only been testing 2 hrs after... Also, I've seen members post readings only going up like 1 or 2 mmol after a meal, is that what I should be aiming for? At the moment I'm just concentrating on it not going above 8.5, should my goal be not to have a BS rise of more than say 10mmol when I eat a meal? Hope I'm making sense here, as I'm still trying to figure all this out and it's been month and I'm non the wiser.

 

[TorqPenderloin]

Ok I'm confused, am I meant to be test at 1hr after I've eaten a meal and then again at 2 hrs after? I've only been testing 2 hrs after... Also, I've seen members post readings only going up like 1 or 2 mmol after a meal, is that what I should be aiming for? At the moment I'm just concentrating on it not going above 8.5, should my goal be not to have a BS rise of more than say 10mmol when I eat a meal? Hope I'm making sense here, as I'm still trying to figure all this out and it's been month and I'm non the wiser.

You should test as often as you like, but most people are concerned with their 2hr post-meal reading more than anything. I'd do whatever your doctor advised.

In theory what is happening is your blood sugar is peaking around the 1hr mark (although everyone is different) and then should correct back to normal within 2 hrs. Both measurements can be important as they measure two different variables: how high you spike, and how long it takes for your insulin to normalize your blood sugar.

 

[daisy1]

@Countryside_Yoyo_

Hello and welcome to the forum Here is the information mentioned above that we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Carry on asking questions and you will get lots of help from members.

BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 150,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes

LOW CARB PROGRAM:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/low carb program


Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

 

[Prem51]

Hi @Countryside_Yoyo_and welcome to the forum! I just wanted to say well done to you for taking action now to control your blood sugar levels while you are still pre-diabetic. I wish I had found this forum while I was still pre-diabetic and I could have avoided moving into the diabetic range.
Unfortunately the NHS doesn't give us enough information, or correct advice, about how to avoid becoming diabetic.

 

[Pinkorchid]

Hi and welcome
It is more the view that testing after 1 hour is to soon as even non diabetics blood will rise that soon after a meal and that the 2 hour test is more reliable . You should test a food 2 or 3 times not just go on one reading and if after that it still spikes you to a level you are not happy with then maybe you would be better stopping it or having a smaller portion. The result you had of 12.5 after the meal is really high for a prediabetic and sounds like it was just a rogue reading if that happens again wash you hands and retest after about 5 minute and you may get a totally different result

 

[CollieBoy]

@Countryside_Yoyo
Welcome.
like the others, i can only tell you how it is from my experience/point-of-view
1) For me, food is the only thing that I have to control my BG/HbA1c so testing to see the effects of various foods is essential to alow me to build a "way of eating" model.
2) As to the timing of testing, then this will depend on the meal consumed: The spike (for me) can be delayed by the levels of fat in the meal (Fat temds to delay the spike). For me a "clean" carb source spikes me at about the hour and I am back down by hour 2 so a standard OGTT will see me @~5 and back @5 before 120min

 

[just_undiscovered_]

You should test as often as you like, but most people are concerned with their 2hr post-meal reading more than anything. I'd do whatever your doctor advised.

In theory what is happening is your blood sugar is peaking around the 1hr mark (although everyone is different) and then should correct back to normal within 2 hrs. Both measurements can be important as they measure two different variables: how high you spike, and how long it takes for your insulin to normalize your blood sugar.

Thanks @TorqPenderloin, when I was diagnosed last November my doctor advised NOT to test! Of course I ignored his advice after discovering this website and bought myself a meter to test. Ok, as I'm still curious as to how my blood sugar works, I think I will test at 1hr (to discover what happens then) and again at 2hrs (a couple of times for that particular meal) think I need a bulk buy of strips

 

[Liam1955]

Hi @just_undiscovered_ - Why not start a food diary, write down what you have eaten and then 2 hours later test and record your reading. You will see which foods give you a spike. William

 

[just_undiscovered_]

Hi @liam1955 thanks much, that's exactly what I've been doing. I keep a food diary and record it all, I also use the app My Fitness Pal which I find really helpful in calculating my carbs etc.. I've been testing now for about a month and the few times I've spiked (ie 9.7) after 2hrs I think it was the portion of brown rice (140g) or sweet potato (112g) I've had. I've tested brown rice again several times at 70g and have until risen 4mmol.. So that's my limit for brown rice it seems, mind you 70g is nothing. I've never consumed so much asparagus, broccoli or cabbage in my life! Naomi

 

[Liam1955]

Hi @just_undiscovered_ - There are times when for "no reason" your tests will spike, and I would not worry too much. That's great news you are keeping a food diary. Green veg is good for you! William

 

[Amandlaz]

I'm Prediabetic and totally confused. Hba1c reading is 42 and need to get it down. I've cut out all sugar other than what's naturally in food such as fruit etc. My morning test is around 4.7 is this a sign my glucose level is coming down?

 

[Liam1955]

Hi @Amandlaz - Beware of hidden sugars in fruit. A lot of us keep a food diary and we can see which foods give us spikes. Test before you eat and then test 2 hours later. Write down your test result before and after eating and also what you ate. Then you will be able to see what foods raise your blood sugars. There are various "diets" on this forum. Go to the top and on tap on Forums and scroll down to FOOD and NUTRITION - Hope this may be of some interest to you. William.

 

[Amandlaz]

I'm keeping a log of food, the highest reading I had was after eating a yogurt reached 6.7 but soon came back down to 4.4 is this within normal limits? And does this mean my hba1c will come down in time?

 

[Amandlaz]

Thanks William

 

[Liam1955]

@Amandlaz - We all respond differently to types of food, but it is good that you a keeping a food diary. The carbohydrates that tend to have a more pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be: pasta, potatoes, white rice and white bread and flour based products: cakes, biscuits, pastry. Try to replace these with wholegrain varieties as these are broken down slower than white. So far, so good. William.