Vegging out! Fact or Fiction

[robbieq]

Hi all,

I have been reading my book "hypoglycemia for dummies" and they state that for hypoglycemics and diabetics the best thing to eat is fruit and specifically vegetables. Is this true?

Can eating lots of veggies stop or prevent a hypo? Anyone have any experience in this or know what fruit or veggies help them when having a hypo? If it helps at all?

Thanks,
Robbie

 

[Stuboy]

orange JUICE is good for a hypo.
Generally i have to bolus for fruits, but i never bolus for veg, there just arent enough carbs in veg (excluding potatos of course) to worry about bolus.

Vegetables are good for you anyway, so you should eat them anyway. Broccoli is supposed to be good for promoting the repair of damage in blood vessels caused by high blood sugars... so vegetables have the potential to LOWER the risk of complications later in life... maybe not by much, but every little helps!

 

[Dennis]

Hi Robbie,
I think you may have misinterpreted the point the book was making. If you are suffering a hypo then you need a very rapid raise in blood sugar so a drink that is rich in sugar such as pure fruit juice or a full sugar coke or Lucozade. Alternatively you can eat one or two Dextrose tablets.

Fruit and vegetables are a recommended part of the diet for anyone who suffers regular hypos because they will keep blood sugar levels higher, but not generally recommended to overcome a hypo because they are not sufficiently quick-acting.

 

[timo2]

Hello robbieq,

Ripe bananas are great for treating hypos and also for pre-exercise carb loading.
As a banana ripens, more of its starch is broken down into free sugars.

Certain vegetables (e.g. peas and carrots) do contain sugar, but not in particularly
large amounts. Therefore, It's often possible for fruit and vegetables which
have a high glycemic index to actually have a low glycemic load.

Plenty of regular fruit and veg is also beneficial to diabetics because of the antioxidants.
Oxidative stress(due mainly to high blood sugars) is the primary reason that diabetic
complications occur.

All the best,
timo.

 

[SilverAndEbony]

A question for Stuboy...

What does 'to bolus for fruits' mean?

 

[robbieq]

Hi Robbie,
I think you may have misinterpreted the point the book was making. If you are suffering a hypo then you need a very rapid raise in blood sugar so a drink that is rich in sugar such as pure fruit juice or a full sugar coke or Lucozade.

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for your input. If I had a coke or a lucozade tablet when hypoing it makes me worse. I used to do that in the olden days but half an hour later after taking that I have another hypo, becuase its full of simple sugars when I need complex sugars (remember i'm hypoglycemic not diabetic).

I didn't really mean to eat veggies when having a hypo (I always have oraange fruit juice and brown bread) although that only works on a simple hypo but not on a major one. When I have a massive hypo, there seems to be no return apart from 8 hrs sleep to allow my body to recover.

Just wondering if there was a particular veg or fruit which helped prevent hypos. Thanks everyone for their comments.

Robbie

 

[hanadr]

I hae a friend with reactive hypoglycaemia, who is finding that the Atkins diet smooths her out somewhat.

 

[robbieq]

I hae a friend with reactive hypoglycaemia, who is finding that the Atkins diet smooths her out somewhat.

Really, you are not the first person that has mentioned the atkins diet to me. Some people have had very mixed reviews here about it.

Maybe I should look into it a but more seriously. Is Atkins the red day, green day diet?

Thanks,
Robbie

 

[gaynor]

The red day green day book is slimming world diet. Atkins is not carbs whatsover and just heating basically meat. Also just to say vegetables have no bearing on BS levels at all. Obviously because fruit has got natural sugars in them it will effect BS but you should be able to eat veg in abundance with no adverse effects.

 

[Poppy123]

Be careful with the Atkins diet. I have very successfully lost weight with it over the last 5/6 weeks and kept my BSs down significantly BUT circumstances last Saturday led me to having to have a meal out as we couldn't get home so fish and chips was chosen and we wouldn't be home until well after midnight. I tried not to eat any of the batter and few chips but couldn't help myself and had to eat some chips. Well during the night I had this agonising pain which would not go away. By half way through the next day (Sunday) I had all the symptoms of having a kidney infection and as it was a Bank Holiday weekend I could not wait to Tuesday (today) to see my GP so we went to casualty. After X rays and various other tests they decided that they thought that I had a kidney stone so sent me up to the wards straight away. They gave me a fabulous little red pill which took the pain away, that Ibuprofen couldn't deal with and then several more tests and X rays. In the end they decided that I did not really have a kidney stone at all and that the deviation in the diet was the cause.

What came out of it all was that I am now too scared to go back onto the Atkins, despite it being so good for my sugars. Whilst on it I had been able to start to reduce my Insulin dose and with the weight loss it made me feel much happier about myself. But now I am a mess again and don't know which is the more evil......the Atkins, low carb diet, or a few carbs pushing up my BSs.