Is it the actual spike that does the damage, or is it the amount of time that it remains high?
I spike from around 5.8 to 9.2 after breakfast ... but that's the reading an hour following my first mouthful.
By the time another three quarters of an hour has elapsed ( so under two hours from first mouthful) my levels are always back to about 6.1
I've looked on other diabetic information pages but cannot find this mentioned. Thanks
Hey! Look at you quoting like a pro. 3 weeks ago you were so worried. Well done! And back down to 6.1 is spot on target.
NICE, bless them, have actually withdrawn their guidance that you should be down to 8.5 after 2 hours but we all still use it because an old target is better than no target. I don't think it really matters too much. Some places I've seen say 90 minutes after eating. My SD Codefree has a 2 Hour alarm after the pre-meal reading which would back that up, assuming it takes 30 minutes to finish eating. Of course, some carbs take longer than others to get to the blood stream. Glucose tablets (for treating hypoglycaemia) will act very quickly, a biscuit may not. A big carby meal may take longer to digest, a fruit juice may be digested more quickly with no bits in it, blah blah. The key is to get it down generally and to watch out for carby starchy concentrations.
I find that if I go for my relatively energetic post-meal walk too early, I'm finished before the food has even digested and I still get a bit of a spike. But generally I get my post meal readings to 7.1 after a couple of hours and my pre's at about 6.1. I don't test religiously now because it's expensive and I'm gaining confidence. I know that a chicken omelette will do nothing at all to my BG level, throw in a hobnob or 5 and off we go.
If you haven't been on the XPERT course yet, it's very good. You should see if your area runs them.
) I've seen some of my highest levels ever - actually higher than when I first started testing...
