Confused about readings

[Amyp84]

I posted a couple of days ago, newly diagnosed.

I got a monitor yesterday so did my glucose before eating my evening meal. Then 2hrs after. I then did it this morning before breakfast and 2 hrs after. This is what I ate and what my readings were:
Glucose Readings

1st Feb - Before food 6.4
2hr After food 4.9
Meal - roast chicken, sprouts, sugar snap peas, broccoli, gravy.

2nd Feb - morning Before food 6.6 2hr After food 4.8
Meal - 2 x bacon rashers 2 x poached eggs, mushrooms

So minimal carbs, I know sugar snap peas and gravy will have more carbs and perhaps I should avoid in future.

can anyone explain why my readings are lower after eating?
I’ve read up about reactive hypoglycaemia but that seems to be after a carb heavy me which these haven’t been.

thanks

 

[Goonergal]

Well the morning one can likely be explained by dawn phenomenon - many people have a rise in BG in the morning before eating. It’s all to do with your body preparing for the day ahead. For some the act of eating brings it back down. Personally I get a rise in the morning and it tends to drop over the next couple of hours whether or not I eat, unless I eat something a bit too carby.

The evening one is anyone’s guess. If you were very hungry and hadn’t eaten for several hours, the rise could have been your liver throwing out glucose, which would stop when you ate a low carb meal. Really you need to establish a pattern of testing regularly so you get to know what your normal range is at various times of the day.

 

[Lamont D]

I posted a couple of days ago, newly diagnosed.

I got a monitor yesterday so did my glucose before eating my evening meal. Then 2hrs after. I then did it this morning before breakfast and 2 hrs after. This is what I ate and what my readings were:
Glucose Readings

1st Feb - Before food 6.4
2hr After food 4.9
Meal - roast chicken, sprouts, sugar snap peas, broccoli, gravy.

2nd Feb - morning Before food 6.6 2hr After food 4.8
Meal - 2 x bacon rashers 2 x poached eggs, mushrooms

So minimal carbs, I know sugar snap peas and gravy will have more carbs and perhaps I should avoid in future.

can anyone explain why my readings are lower after eating?
I’ve read up about reactive hypoglycaemia but that seems to be after a carb heavy me which these haven’t been.

thanks

Hi,
I don't believe it is reactive hypoglycaemia, are you on any other meds?
With my RH, it is not a carbs heavy meal, it is even low GI carbs as well.
You do need to do regular testing. Perhaps start a food diary.
What was your last Hba1c?
If you test just before breakfast, what are your blood sugar levels?

Take care

 

[Amyp84]

Hi,
I don't believe it is reactive hypoglycaemia, are you on any other meds?
With my RH, it is not a carbs heavy meal, it is even low GI carbs as well.
You do need to do regular testing. Perhaps start a food diary.
What was your last Hba1c?
If you test just before breakfast, what are your blood sugar levels?

Take care

I have just started both the regular testing and food diary, as I was diagnosed just a week ago. Hba1c was 50 so not massively high. I’ve got to have it done again next week.

Yes these haven’t been carb heavy meals.

before breakfast this morning was 6.6.

 

[Lamont D]

That is not bad, just above normal levels on your fasting.
Think the reason you were diagnosed was the Hba1c levels, if you continue to low carb, your Hba1c will naturally come down. Drink plenty of water and add a little salt to your food, whilst low carbing.

Stay safe.

 

[Amyp84]

That is not bad, just above normal levels on your fasting.
Think the reason you were diagnosed was the Hba1c levels, if you continue to low carb, your Hba1c will naturally come down. Drink plenty of water and add a little salt to your food, whilst low carbing.

Stay safe.

Salt is a no no as I also have high bp.

My levels have been going up steadily for a while with no real lifestyle reason, hence my concern.

thanks for replying

 

[Lamont D]

Salt is a no no as I also have high bp.

My levels have been going up steadily for a while with no real lifestyle reason, hence my concern.

thanks for replying

Keep testing, you may find something that is causing this. One of the worst food for me was potato, I recorded a high spike of 18.2 from normal levels. Porridge a so called super food, has me spiking around mid teens and then I crash quickly.

So you never know until you test your food.

The reason I suggested salt is because, before you started low carb, the amount of salt in your diet, because of the processed foods and other meals with too many additives and such. With low carbing, you are eating a lot more fresh food without salt.
My BP was fairly high before diagnosis, and it came down to good levels ever since.
Especially for my age.

Keep safe.

 

[Estragon]

So you never know until you test your food.

Oh yes!

 

[Bluetit1802]

Salt is a no no as I also have high bp.

Just a quick question ....... extra salt is important if you cut your carbs and processed foods. We need it to survive. Not everyone is "salt sensitive" as far as blood pressure is concerned. I'm not. Do you konw if your BP would rise if you added salt?

 

[ianf0ster]

Regarding Blood Pressure Dr David Unwin keeps saying 'Don't blame salt for what sugar did'.
I don't know if you are overweight , I don't think Dr Unwin was - though his patients certainly were. But anyway once on a Low Carb way of eating, both he and many of his patients had to reduce their BP medication or come off it completely.

Low carb causes less water to be retained in the body - the extra water excretion also removes sodium too - so whichever way you look at it, the amount of salt in your body will be lower on Low Carb even if consuming the same amount (and most people are eating more whole foods and so are actually consuming less.

 

[Amyp84]

Keep testing, you may find something that is causing this. One of the worst food for me was potato, I recorded a high spike of 18.2 from normal levels. Porridge a so called super food, has me spiking around mid teens and then I crash quickly.

So you never know until you test your food.

The reason I suggested salt is because, before you started low carb, the amount of salt in your diet, because of the processed foods and other meals with too many additives and such. With low carbing, you are eating a lot more fresh food without salt.
My BP was fairly high before diagnosis, and it came down to good levels ever since.
Especially for my age.

Keep safe.

Hi sorry only just replying I didn't realise you'd responded!

I've been testing before and after each meal so getting a pattern to discuss with the doc if I ever get to see one!

With regards to salt, I never ate processed foods (apart from bacon and ham), everything was cooked from scratch and we never use jars of sauces or anything, I have an 20 month old son so am extremely conscious about providing a healthy diet for him. So in that sense my low carb diet isn't very different. In fact I didn't eat a lot of carbs anyway so it's been easy to cut them out.

 

[Amyp84]

Just a quick question ....... extra salt is important if you cut your carbs and processed foods. We need it to survive. Not everyone is "salt sensitive" as far as blood pressure is concerned. I'm not. Do you konw if your BP would rise if you added salt?

Hi, sorry for delay in replying. I don't know, although a few years ago I had low blood pressure and the doctor advised to add a little extra salt which helped. When I say salt is a no no, what I mean is, I check my salt intake and am happy with it, adding more I feel wouldn't be a healthy thing to do. But I hadn't considered the fact you lose more due to the loss of water you get with a low carb diet as someone else has posted so I will worry less about the salt!

 

[Amyp84]

Regarding Blood Pressure Dr David Unwin keeps saying 'Don't blame salt for what sugar did'.
I don't know if you are overweight , I don't think Dr Unwin was - though his patients certainly were. But anyway once on a Low Carb way of eating, both he and many of his patients had to reduce their BP medication or come off it completely.

Low carb causes less water to be retained in the body - the extra water excretion also removes sodium too - so whichever way you look at it, the amount of salt in your body will be lower on Low Carb even if consuming the same amount (and most people are eating more whole foods and so are actually consuming less.

Hi thanks for replying, interesting point re salt and water loss, I hadn't considered this so will worry less about the salt.

I hope the bp will come down as a result. Thanks for the info. Still confused by the lower readings after eating though!