Am I being thick?

Hi MollyWallop

What did you have with your jacket potato? It may be what you had has lowered the GI of the potato. Is it worth testing again in another hour or so?

Potatoes do have carbs yes, but so do many other things like beans. They all have different effects on your BG levels.

Not all carbs are the same. Your BG levels shoot up with the easily digested carbs. Some carbs however are not easily digested, some only partly digestible and some not digestible at all. The way foods are processed and cooked affects the chemical structure so with potatoes, cooking them and turning them into a puree will make the sugars highly digestible. Simple mashing will make them easily digestible too, but not as bad. Baked potatoes are still soft and they also tend to be older potatoes, ripeness too is a factor, and personally, I would avoid them. On the other hand, I know that I am quite tolerant of boiled new potatoes. They sit in the stomach and break down slowly so they don't cause a sudden spike. Of course, it is important not to each too much because you want it all to be gone by the next meal, otherwise BG levels will creep up

I can have a jacket potatoe with a tiny bit of cheese & sugars sky high.
Some people it affects & others it does not it depends on each person destiny

MollyWallop said:

You say to avoid potatoes but if they aren't making my blood glucose rise at all, I'm ok to have them?

Is it possible I'm not as intolerant to carbs as some, or am I just on so much Metformin it's stopping me spiking?

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Not necessarily, it depends on what kind of potatoes, how they are cooked etc. All these things determine how they will affect your BG levels. Yes, if you are taking metformin, that will help keep your levels lower but, from what you have written, it seems that you are quite tolerant of that particular type of potato cooked in that particular way. A different potato, mashed or pureed might well be different. It's why you have to test, to find out what suits you personally and, at the beginning, take othng forgranted. If you look at the posts on porridge, you will see that it works for many but causes big spikes in others. We all have different digestive metabolisms.

Yorksman said:

It's why you have to test, to find out what suits you personally and, at the beginning, take nothing for granted. If you look at the posts on porridge, you will see that it works for many but causes big spikes in others. We all have different digestive metabolisms.

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Yorksman is quite right I reckon. I am extremely lucky, I can tolerate a couple of small boiled potatoes, a small amount of rice or pasta and I can have baked beans and red kidney beans too without any spike at all. On the other hand, the smallest amount of porridge or wheat flour and my BG will soar. I have read in "The New Glucose Revolution" that if you eat protein with carbs it will slow the absorption of the food and lessen the effects of a carb that's eaten with it.

Like Yorksman says, take nothing for granted, test, test and test to find out what you can eat without spiking. It really is a whole new way of eating and living but it's not all bad for sure. There are alternatives and this forum is a good place to find them.

You need to think about how much fat is present in the meal. Fat slows the absorption of sugars. Did you continue to test yourself or just stop after the 3rd? You sugars may have remained around the 6-7 mark for a longer period. D

From what I understand about eating carbs it is the quantity you eat. One potato was fine but 2 or 3 would make your bs spike


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