Blood sugar

[Frosty66]

When is the best time to test my blood sugar before or after a meal
And if after how long.
Its just yesterday before breakfast my bs was 6.8 say to three hours after it was 8.8 mind you both of these good for me as I was 17.1. The keeping the carbohydrates to a minimum has helped. This morning I have 2 eggs 1 slice of pumpkin and seed bread small cup of tea and water.
Thank you janet

 

[bulkbiker]

The normal advice is to take a reading immediately before eating then 2 hours after your first mouthful to gauge the impact of that meal. I also take a reading on getting up in the morning as a reference point for the day (Fasting blood Glucose). A rise of less than 2mmol/l is considered ok although I aim for little to no rise.
I'd ditch the bread and have 3 eggs instead in your shoes.

 

[Member496333]

@Frosty66 that’s a remarkable improvement. Well done! If you’re able to cut out the bread you’ll likely see your numbers improve even further over time.

Testing advice for those starting out is as per that of @bulkbiker.

 

[ert]

The normal advice is to take a reading immediately before eating then 2 hours after your first mouthful to gauge the impact of that meal. I also take a reading on getting up in the morning as a reference point for the day (Fasting blood Glucose). A rise of less than 2mmol/l is considered ok although I aim for little to no rise.
I'd ditch the bread and have 3 eggs instead in your shoes.

3 eggs: That's great advice for blood sugar control.

This doesn't apply to everyone but here's my cholesterol journey:
I have to keep my daily cholesterol at the recommended 200 mg dietary cholesterol per day for diabetics. A large egg has 190 mg of cholesterol. 3 eggs are 570 mg of cholesterol. I ended up with a total cholesterol of 10 mmol/L, 3 months changing over to a LCHF diet. I know Ivor Cummings, the type 2 diabetes guru, says not to be concerned about these high levels of cholesterol, but my GP and Specialist hit the roof. I was able to reduce this to 4.9 mmol/L through counting cholesterol (less than 200 mg per day) 3 months later. I have experimented again with eggs recently - as all the recently published material suggests you can eat as many eggs as you like, myself restricting my diet to only one egg a day working with a nutritionist and my daily cholesterol intake was 300 mg per day as I eat other meats also. But my total cholesterol went up to 7 mmol/L. I'm back to 3 eggs a week plus a tonne of egg whites and keep my cholesterol below 200 mg per day and my total cholesterol is back below 5 mmol/L.
This suggests that I'm still not burning body fat overnight like I should be (due to my higher impaired blood sugars.) Those of you who can eat higher dietary cholesterol must be better at fat burning than I am. This is also not an issue if you are on statins, which keep your cholesterol low by other means.

 

[bulkbiker]

3 eggs: That's great advice for blood sugar control.

This doesn't apply to everyone but here's my cholesterol journey:
I have to keep my daily cholesterol below the recommended 200 mg dietary cholesterol per day for diabetics. A large egg has 190 mg of cholesterol. 3 eggs are 570 mg of cholesterol. I ended up with a total cholesterol of 10 mmol/L, 3 months changing over to a LCHF diet. I know Ivor Cummings, the type 2 diabetes guru, says not to be concerned about these high levels of cholesterol, but my GP and Specialist hit the roof. I was able to reduce this to 4.9 mmol/L through counting cholesterol (less than 200 mg per day) 3 months later. I have experimented again with eggs recently - as all the recent published material suggests you can eat as many eggs as you like, myself restricting my diet to only one egg a day working with a nutritionist and my daily cholesterol intake was 300 mg per day as I eat other meats also. But my total cholesterol went up to 7 mmol/L. I'm back to 3 eggs a week plus a tonne of egg whites and keep my cholesterol below 200 mg per day and my total cholesterol is back below 5 mmol/L.
This suggests that I'm still not burning body fat overnight like I should be (due to my higher impaired blood sugars.) Those of you who can eat higher dietary cholesterol, must be better at fat burning than I am. This is also not an issue if you are on statins.

That's quite interesting as for many years it has been known that dietary cholesterol has very little impact on your blood cholesterol levels and your liver will make up the difference if you under or over eat it. i.e. your liver will try to maintain a cholesterol level where it wants rather than a convenient level that your consultant has specified.
Low carb diets have been known to push up levels of LDL for a time which usually normalises once fat loss has stopped.
There are many new ideas about cholesterol a lot of which are outlined in this thread
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/cholesterol-and-statins.156985/
You may find it enlightening or not of course..

 

[Member496333]

Dietary cholesterol certainly divides opinion. Speaking only for myself I couldn’t care less, as evidenced by the six eggs I just ate for brunch. We all react differently for sure, but personally I’ll take my chances with the eggs over processed grains

 

[Brunneria]

Hi @Frosty66

Returning to your question about testing, can i just check your diabetes status?
Inside your profile, you are showing on my screen as ‘insulin dependent type 2’ and also as ‘diet only’.
Could you confirm which you are?

We have an elusive glitch on the system which means that some members show as insulin dependent T2s when they aren’t.
If that is the case with you, I understand that that the work-around is to go into your profile (click on your profile name, top right of screen) and select the Personal Details option. Then change your diabetes status to the other type 2 option).

Regarding your blood glucose testing question, the answer will depend on which meds you take (if any), and how diet controlled you are.

 

[Freema]

When is the best time to test my blood sugar before or after a meal
And if after how long.
Its just yesterday before breakfast my bs was 6.8 say to three hours after it was 8.8 mind you both of these good for me as I was 17.1. The keeping the carbohydrates to a minimum has helped. This morning I have 2 eggs 1 slice of pumpkin and seed bread small cup of tea and water.
Thank you janet

Well done keep you nose in that track and you’ll sonn get totally normal levels og blood glucose

 

[Listlad]

I have blown the egg restriction thing out of the water. It used to be a few eggs a week owing to historical recommendations. Now it is several a day. My cholesterol levels are in good shape now, whereas they weren’t before my dietary change.

 

[ert]

That's quite interesting as for many years it has been known that dietary cholesterol has very little impact on your blood cholesterol levels and your liver will make up the difference if you under or over eat it. i.e. your liver will try to maintain a cholesterol level where it wants rather than a convenient level that your consultant has specified.
Low carb diets have been known to push up levels of LDL for a time which usually normalises once fat loss has stopped.
There are many new ideas about cholesterol a lot of which are outlined in this thread
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/cholesterol-and-statins.156985/
You may find it enlightening or not of course..

Great thread. I certainly am not worried about higher cholesterol levels based on the links you've provided and the studies I've read. I agree with you and Ivor Cummins 100% but I couldn't convince my GP or Specialist this was the case. Even though I was presenting medical articles, I got accused of being a 'Daily Mail reader' is not to want to go onto statins. 'They're the safest drugs on the planet.' It didn't change my mind.

However, they're now saying dietary cholesterol has very little impact on your blood cholesterol (which I remain unconvinced of after reading the science) and now there are millions and millions more people with cholesterol levels over 5 mmol/l prescribed statins, surely it's doubt enough to review their recommendations.

 

[ert]

Dietary cholesterol certainly divides opinion. Speaking only for myself I couldn’t care less, as evidenced by the six eggs I just ate for brunch. We all react differently for sure, but personally I’ll take my chances with the eggs over processed grains

Agreed. Eggs are the best ever food for blood sugar control.

 

[Brunneria]

Folks,

A second reminder; this thread is about blood glucose control, not cholesterol.
Please do not derail.

I realise that cholesterol is an endlessly interesting subject, but there are plenty of opportunities to discuss it elsewhere, and @Frosty66 specifically asked about blood glucose as she lowers carbs to get things under control.