Breakfast carbs

[sparrott]

Good morning,

Hope all are well. Would you consider a breakfast totalling 21g of carbs as being too high? (porridge, almond 0% milk, almonds and raisins). I have made adjustments to drop out rice/pasta and substitute with cauliflower/lentil pasta so happy with the evening carbs. All feedback appreciated.

 

[1970clea]

Testing your blood sugar before and after eating will help you determine which foods are a no go. Personally I got my highest spike after eating porridge when I was testing foods after diagnosis - haven't touched it since. If your doctor/Dn won't prescribe a meter and strips it is well worth a small investment - I have a gluco-navii and the cost for strips is very reasonable.

 

[Brunneria]

Hi,

My recommendation would be to get yourself a blood glucose meter and find out what happens to your blood glucose after that portion of those carbs.

We all have different reactions to different carbs, so it isn't really a matter of carb counting and assigning a set number to a meal.
Rather it is a matter of working out how your body reacts, and then tweaking to get the blood glucose levels you want to aim for.

If you decide to get a meter there is masses of advice all over the forum on how to use it, and how to adjust your carb intake, but please shop around. There is a lot of price variation amongst the meters, and the test strips that they use for each test, so I suggest you get one that is inexpensive to run.

I use the Tee2 (one of the cheaper brands) and the Libre (they have a 2 week free trial on at the moment), but I can't speak for other brands, mayber other members will chime in with their experiences.

 

[In Response]

One of the frustrating things about diabetes is that we are all different. We tolerate different amounts of carbs, we have more tolerance at different times of the day, we have different lifestyles which may burn carbs quicker or slower, ...

So, the number of carbs you can tolerate at breakfast is the number YOU can tolerate.
This is why the other comments suggest you test and find out as we do not know YOUR tolerances.

 

[Mbaker]

Your choices appear to be plant / vegetarian or vegan based is this correct. Just observationally no matter what method of eating is your preference, porridge and raisins are likely to be a challenge for someone with either pre-diabetes or diabetes - it is not clear what your diagnosis is. An alternative to porridge can be coconut flakes or desiccated coconut, which can come in at about 6 grams or carbs per 100 grams. Almond milk tends to only have 2% of the ingredients as almonds.

 

[muzza3]

Hi @sparrott

Just supporting others in recommending you get yourself a meter so you can test your blood sugar levels and see how different meals impact them. Otherwise you are flying blind where with a meter you can have the confidence to try different foods and know how they affect your sugar levels.

 

[sparrott]

Thanks all. I do have a meter and have been checking bloods each week, but not before after breakfast. What's a good spike/bad spike range?

 

[Brunneria]

Thanks all. I do have a meter and have been checking bloods each week, but not before after breakfast. What's a good spike/bad spike range?

The general 'rule' used by T2s on the forum is to test just before you start eating, and then 2 hours later.
If the blood glucose has risen by more than 2mmol/l in that time, then there were too many carbs in that meal for your body to cope with. So the suggestion is that you reduce the portion next time, or switch to less carby options.

You can do the same with all meals and snacks to check and see what your current way of eating is doing to your blood glucose levels - in many ways it is MUCH more helpful (immediate) than waiting for your next HbA1c.

As for the readings you are aiming for, ideally T2s on the forum try to aim for 'the normal range'. Of course, you will find significant discussion about what constitutes normal! I will post a link to the official guidelines, but many on here aim for significantly lower than that, because the official guidelines seem to expect that, at those levels, T2 diabetes will steadily worsen over time.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes...ween 4.0 to 5.4 mmol,dL) 2 hours after eating

 

[Dr Snoddy]

I have found by trial and error that any carbohydrate I have at breakfast seems to set off carb craving for the rest of the day. This is probably due to insulin release that produces an undershoot in blood glucose levels followed by a desire for more compensatory carbs. However, if I have for example, a fresh herb omelette or scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, the carb craving doesn't occur throughout the day. I am more carbohydrate tolerant in the evening.
So, much as I loved a breakfast of porridge made with almond milk and cinnamon topped with toasted pecans I have stopped eating it. And I wish that memory hadn't just returned!

 

[Roggg]

I would consider it too high in carbs, but I'm following a keto way of eating, so my daily limit on carbs is 20g net. So it fails my quantitative test. I also consider grains to be verboten, so it fails my qualitative test as well. But as I say, I eat keto, and it very clearly doesn't fit in keto. You need to assess your breakfast against your own needs and your own way of eating. But honestly for anyone trying to control carbs, there are much better choices than porridge.