Blood sugar levels creeping up

beesinthebelfry said:

New to posting to the forum.

I was diagnosed in July 2023 and started on Metformin twice a day. After well over a year of fasting morning BG being in the low 7s with the occasional 8, over the last 3 months they are creeping up to 9s and today was 10.1 for the first time since commencing treatment. I am probably eating less than ever. I have never been given any dietary advice, but I have cut my carbs to one slice of bread a day, occasional either wholewheat pasta, small scoop of mashed potato or brown rice with meals. I am vegetarian. No sugar with anything. Fruit is an apple maybe 3 times a week and other times it's blueberries. Occasional pint of beer once a week. Not sure what else I need to cut out or change. Any advice very welcome.

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Hi there @beesinthebelfry. Looking at the foods you occasionally eat, I can see carby foods. I cannot eat bread. If I have a single slice of toast (gluten free, I'm gluten intolerant) my blood sugars go high. Like over 14mmol/Ls. We are, of course all different, but one of the constants is that all carbs are metabolized into useable forms of energy so your body can use it. It doesn't matter if it's wholegrain or labeled healthy, if there are carbs in the food the body will convert it into 'sugar'. I am not particularly knowledgeable on diets, I just know what my own body can tolerate. There are members here who are vegetarian. So hopefully they can assist you on diabetes dietary ideas.

@beesinthebelfry this thread may interest you.

beesinthebelfry said:

New to posting to the forum.

I was diagnosed in July 2023 and started on Metformin twice a day. After well over a year of fasting morning BG being in the low 7s with the occasional 8, over the last 3 months they are creeping up to 9s and today was 10.1 for the first time since commencing treatment. I am probably eating less than ever. I have never been given any dietary advice, but I have cut my carbs to one slice of bread a day, occasional either wholewheat pasta, small scoop of mashed potato or brown rice with meals. I am vegetarian. No sugar with anything. Fruit is an apple maybe 3 times a week and other times it's blueberries. Occasional pint of beer once a week. Not sure what else I need to cut out or change. Any advice very w

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It's not really how much you eat, it's what you eat. By definition, if we're T2, we have a problem managing carbs and the glucose that results. If your glucose levels are rising, it makes sense to lower them. That's the objective behind the various medications. It's also the objective of a low carb lifestyle. Reduce the amount of glucose in the body by not taking as much in.

You're listing a number of high carb items in your food there: both high in terms of the percentage by weight, and also we tend to eat a lot of them. I found that wholewheat (etc) made no difference to the impact on my blood glucose after eating: carbs in, glucose levels up. Are you testing before and after eating? That's usually how you work out which foods have most impact on BG.

Your fasting levels are probably mostly due to your liver making and adding glucose to your system. I rarely bother with taking my fasting levels at all, as there's almost nothing you can do directly to control them. I do a week checking every year. Livers get used to higher levels and then try to maintain that level. It takes time to convince a liver that lower levels are OK too, but that becomes harder if your BG is going up and down a lot.