charon said:
Thanks for sharing that Gezzathorpe, very interesting.
I'm guessing that the peaks one hour after eating is because that is when you tested.
Bit surprised how little effect the bananas have. Haven't tried one yet but it's planned for later.
Does look like 2 hours after a meal is getting towards recovery time.
I think I'm probably making a mistake in having too long between meals - but that's what I've always done, just now they are smaller and not carb/sugar based. Could be why I've stopped getting reading in the 4's.
I need to change this because I need to stop losing weight soon.
janeecee
Can you find meals that don't affect your BG much? If I stick to bacon + eggs and meat + greens I am pretty stable and any variations are due to anything I add.
Your weight loss and higher bGs are probably due to your using glycogen stores and fat reserves and your body is deciding what your bG levels should be rather than you trying to control it with your diet. I have found that my bGs run higher but are far more stable when I have not eaten for a long period and I assume that is when I am using stored glycogen. This bG level is the one I think is 'normal' as I am not twiddling with it by eating!
I don't quite understand why so many people are trying to avoid spikes since it is perfectly normal for non-diabetics to spike. Insulin release is not a carefully measured amount second by second, but rather comes in bursts, so fluctuations, or 'mini' peaks and troughs occur as the bGs rises. So, insulin secretion must be preceded by a rise in bGs. How and why would anyone strive to avoid that? If bGs remained completely flat, then we would be using up all ingested carbs and none of it would be stored as glycogen or fat.
The fruit sugar lifts my bG by about 0.5 and then the peak in my subsequent meal is much lower than previously recorded. It is as though my phase-1 insulin release is based upon my previous meal, in my case a piece of fruit (27g carbs, 14g natural sugars), which appears to be supported by the theory that phase-1 insulin secretion is based on the previous meal. A meal of 33g carbs and 9g refined sugar gives me a much sharper peak. If I leave a long period between meals, then the phase-1 insulin release would be based upon my bGs during that preceding period. I don't know how long that previous period is, but 1-1.5 hours seems to be about it for me. So, I would suggest you try little and often and see how your previous meal affects the subsequent one. By, the way, I don't eat unless I feel the need. But I don't leave it too long as I can catch myself out with 'stage 1 hypos'.
I wanted to point out that my OGTT test (75g glucose) two months ago raised my bG by 10.7. However, the evening fry up of 75g carbs with 27g fruit sugars (from the tomato) raised my bG by 2.4! One difference is fruit sugar (fructose?) versus 'added sugar' which I assume would be refined and that seems to be the pattern for the whole day. The 'value' of the sugar quantity and type seems to be more important than the value of the total carbs! With similar amounts of carbs and lower amounts of 'added sugar' I peak higher, which is why I eat little and often and eat fruit as a snack.
So, I am able to control my bGs whilst maintaining 200g carbs per day spread across the day with 20-30g carbs at a time provided I eat fruit regularly between breakfast, lunch and dinner to maintain the little and often. That way, there is always a previous meal from which insulin secretion can be based rather than relying on bG levels from a long period of not eating. I am also going to include fruit in some shape or form in every meal, whilst keeping refined sugar as low as possible, even if it raises the total carbs,and see what happens then.
