Carbo hydrates/spikes

[broads]

Those of you on low carb diet, can I ask roughly how many carbs a day you have. What foods do you eat that contain them?
Can I also ask , what is a spike? Obviously it's not a good thing and it's when the BS leaps high but by how much and for how long? If I have a small bowl of porridge, semi skimmed milk and nothing else, 2 hours later my BS goes up two eg 6.2 upto 8.2. Must admit i haven't got round to seeing what it is 3 hours later. Is this ok or not? I use porridge as an example.
Slowly getting to grips with it all but still have gaps in my learning.

 

[sugarless sue]

Hi Broads The 'spike' is usually found after an hour .If you test then quite often your BG will be a lot higher than it is at the two hour mark.I found this out with anything containing oatmeal.My bg after two hours was always fairly respectable but the one hour after eating test revealed an alarming spike.I went from 4.9 to 11.5 one day in an hour yet at two hours it had dropped back to 6. something.Needless to say oatmeal is now a banned product in my diet!!
This then explained to me why my Hba1c was not as low as I expected it to be.
If you are eating more complex carbs however the spike can be later on because of the slower absorption.

 

[broads]

Hi Sue Thanks for that . I might try testing an hour after some foods as well as two hours. See what shows up.

 

[samcogle]

Sorry to jump on your thread Broads but Sue should i also be testing my blood after an hour to check? I do the 2 hour thing and it is usually a little higher than before I ate. This carb thing is doing my head in :lol:

 

[sugarless sue]

I only started looking at the one hour 'spike' because I wanted to fine tune my intake.Getting your BG levels down is the first thing to do.If your two hour levels are good then you are getting there.However is you are eating something new or you think that some foods may make you spike it is worth doing ,in my case it was oats,oatmeal etc.
It also depends on the amount of test strips you can get your hands on!!I've a small stock pile I'm using for this as it does mean testing 3 times .

 

[broads]

Sue what is a good level to be 2 hours after eating compared to just before? Or put another way, when should I be concerned with a bs level after food? Hope that made sense.
PS Can I ask in the nicest way, do you sit there all day waiting to pounce on the next question that appears so you can help solve it for us? You do a fantastically, amazingly, stupendous job. THANK YOU.

 

[sugarless sue]

Cheers Broads ,no not here all the time!! :lol:
In general if your two hour reading is much the same as before you eat then that meal is probably OK.however if it has lot of fat then it will be absorbed more slowly so the two hour reading may not be coming down but still going up!!
I try and keep under 8 for two hours reading which does not always work!!That's why i'm fine tuning at the moment.You are in the early stages so just concentrate in keeping the carbs down and the levels will fall naturally.

 

[broads]

Thanks Sue.

 

[hanadr]

Broads.
I try to eat fewer than 50 carbs per day and preferentially fewer than 30
Spike refers to graphs.
If you were to test your BGs every few minutes and plot a graph, where the level went high, you would see a spike on the line. Having a short lived high level BG is called a spike, even if no graph has been drawn.

 

[samcogle]

Cheeres Sue, I have found an online chemist that sells 50 strips for £19 so I am now in possession of 100

 

[Trinkwasser]

http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/10/d-day.html

Have a read around here.

In my case 2 hour readings are pretty pointless, I tend to spike high after meals and then plunge low so the two hour numbers miss what is occurring. People with different pancreases may find them more useful. In general (it varies a bit depending on food composition) my spikes are generally around the 1 hour mark and controlling them closely knocks out the subsequent lows.

Phew, 6.4, after yesterday's blowout it has taken a bit over 24 hours to get back to normality.

 

[samcogle]

My specialist person told me to only do my BS first thing in the morning and last thing at night and not worry about the bit in the middle, but not sure I can do that as I like to know what's going on after I have eaten!

 

[sugarless sue]

With all due respect,Sam,your specialist is an idiot!!
Test before and two hours after a meal for a while to see how the foods are affecting you.Once you are confident that you know what the effects are then you can cut back on testing unless you are eating something new or you are not feeling well.

 

[catherinecherub]

Specialist was probably thinking that he could help the local P.C.T. save money on testing strips!!!

 

[samcogle]

With all due respect,Sam,your specialist is an idiot!!
Test before and two hours after a meal for a while to see how the foods are affecting you.Once you are confident that you know what the effects are then you can cut back on testing unless you are eating something new or you are not feeling well.

He was worried about the cost to me as I buy my own, but as Iam worried about my health I am carrying on as I am. I totally agree with you Sue but oh lord he is very very very handsome

 

[cugila]

[/quote]
He was worried about the cost to me as I buy my own, but as Iam worried about my health I am carrying on as I am. I totally agree with you Sue but oh lord he is very very very handsome [/quote]

Hi Sam.
If he is that worried about the cost he should tell your GP to prescribe what you need. As a Diabetic (if on meds etc) you get free prescriptions anyway - he is more worried about PCT costs ! As a mere male even if he is handsome, he can still be an ar***ole.
Keep kickin'
Ken

 

[Trinkwasser]

My specialist person told me to only do my BS first thing in the morning and last thing at night and not worry about the bit in the middle, but not sure I can do that as I like to know what's going on after I have eaten!

Your specialist person is demonstrating why the average A1c in the UK is 9.8 and all diabetics degrade rapidly and require insulin after only a few years.

Strangely people in newsgroups and forums don't do this

<huge sigh>

 

[samcogle]

Thanks for the replies. I think the only sane thing he said was that this forum is very good, when I mentioned it. He also doesn't want me to give up smoking yet, until I get my BS under control. I was ready to do whatever but now I am like a chimney again til I see him in June when he said we can sort it then!!! :?

 

[Trinkwasser]

I can't recall where I got that 9.8% from, AFAIK that's the US average and I'd read somewhere the UK number was similar but other sources put it at "only" 8.4%.

As a fellow nicotine addict a friend has recently turned me on to this

http://www.totallywicked-eliquid.co.uk/

seems to be cheaper (running costs) than most other forms of nicotine replacement, I might join him in an experiment following a forthcoming birthday

Someone has said that their NHS doctor prescribes these but I don't expect that to be widespread

also they might soon be banned

 

[samcogle]

Strangely my average BS from my machine is about 9 :shock:
The 'cigarettes' look very cool...my immediate thought was "oh Lordy that stuff doesn't sound to healthy to be inhaling" :lol:
I think I might give it a go before they ban it then..cheers