CGM discoveries

OK firstly this is my observations from using a CGM for the last 3 months and how it has allowed my HbA1c to drop from 7.0 to 6.0 (42mmol/mol)

My situation is very different to most people in that I am unable to eat any vegetables or fruit, no sugar (specifically fruit sugar Fructose) Sucrose or anything that is sourced from Fructose i.e Sorbitol or other sugar alcohols.

This is a genetic condition and literally Fructose is a poison to me and if I accidentally eat any really feels like a poison!

So in this game I have a MASSIVE advantage and also a disadvantage too.
The Advantage.
I cannot eat cookies, cakes, pastries chocolates etc so I am free of the addiction to refined sugars that almost everyone seems to suffer from.
The disadvantages.
I cannot eat almost all vegetables because the Fructose they all contain is too much for my system to handle. I can eat (safe) bread and refined carbs like wheat flour though.

Ok so my diet is already different in the fact I have to eat everything any dietician says will kill you.. i.e masses of meat, very low fiber, tiny amounts of veg, no fruit, lots and lots of cheese, butter, milk, white rice, pasta etc..
I am disgustingly healthy! lol. well have been since I tidied up my diet to remove all sugars anyway about 20 years ago. I am certainly far healthier than all my ex school mates who I am still in contact with many of whom have already died from obesity related problems (heart and strokes) or Cancers.
So feeling lucky.

I got the CGM (self funded) because I needed to know what was causing my raised HbA1c. 40 years ago I had a blood tested for 2 weeks and checked what my blood sugar levels were at (if I eat sugar my blood sugar level crashes to 2.5 or below) and it was going up to 11.4 20 min after eating a meal and never went any higher no matter how much carbs I ate.

The 1st morning with my CGM I ate my usual breakfast and I spiked to 15.4 and it took 3 hours to drop down to the normal 10 and below. Later that day I had s single soft cheese topped bread roll (dry) and spiked again to over 12.4 and remained high for over 3 hours!

OK so now we know what was the problem. my breakfast was always carb rich 2x shredded Wheat, puffed wheat and milk and yogurt on an empty stomach.

So if I eat an omelette for example 1st then eat some cereal. I do not spike at all!
Likewise if I eat a curry for example with rice if I eat the curry 1st and then the rice I do not spike, Fish and chips.. eat the fish 1st then the chips.

Basically eating slowly digesting protein before any carbs is what has done the trick.

When I say I do not spike once in 3 or 4 days I get it slightly wrong and might spike to 12.3 or 4 for a few min then straight down again into the safe zone.

So far not found a way to eat sandwiches yet very successfully.
Picnics are easy I just eat a couple of boiled eggs and meats / cheese 1st then have a sandwich or two after.

It seems to me that no refined carbs = no type two diabetes.

Am I right in this assumption?

Certainly whole grain breads are much slower digesting and toast with butter or soft cheese spread is far better too.
What do people think?

The side effect of eating less Carbs has been an increase in eating meats and cheese therefore my lipid's are now too high, so now on statins to help bring them down.

Swings and roundabouts springs to mind. lol

Keep smiling everyone. Eat safe.

ianf0ster said:

We are all different, I had been eating very little refined grains for several years before I was diagnosed as T2D. The problem was that my GP had told me to eat low fat, lots of whole grains, fruit and starchy veg. That combination caused me to slowly but increasingly put on weight (about a stone in the last 4 years though I still only had a BMI of 25 point something) and pushed me from pre-diabetic over into T2 diabetic.

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I would love triglyceride levels like yours lol.
Unfortunately on my diet there is little I can do about them. The statin I was trying crippled me with joint and muckle pain. Trying a different one later this week... see how that works. I also seem to have a natural intolerance to all veg and nut oils except virgin olive oil... unless they have been highly refined and those are just not good for any of us at all. SO most of the fats I eat are animal. Gee is the main one. I generally eat slightly lower levels of oils than many people though, cakes, chocolates etc are all at least 25% fat. I try to use low fat cheese spread instead of butter too.

Guilty said:

Hi @UKBill - that's really interesting. I'd never heard of HFI before. And wow, impressed with your figuring out a diet that works for that and T2dm!

The order you eat food does seem to make a difference for some people (myself included). Leaving carbs till later in the meal is better for my bg.

Refined carbs are just terrible for bg, along with many starchy veggies. I count myself quite lucky that I can still handle small portions of whole grains (brown rice, pot barley etc.) and keep my bg at a good level.

Mind you that's the whole, intact grains. Not stuff that's been ground up in to wholegrain flour.

I wouldn't quite say no refined carbs = no diabetes for me. I'm just managing my bg, but will always be diabetic.

Keep up the good work!

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Just to add to my complicated diet my blood pressure has been rising and now needs intervention. So now on low caffeine, low salt and blood pressure tablets too.
Yes I will be always diabetic too, but keeping to average none diabetic bg cannot be a bad thing. I went out to a pub for a meal. I had fish and chips. normally a comparatively safe meal for me if I leave most of the batter and eat the fish 1st. However there was considerably more batter than fish, so I ate it all.. hence I went high (up to 13.4) and stayed above 10.0 for nearly 3 hours! I was eating on an empty stomach.. which seems to be the trigger for uncontrolled peaks.
Whole grains are tricky for those of us with HFI. There is a tiny amount of Fructose in the germ of the grains (in all grains) and also the digestible fibre is converted into Sucrose (50/50 Glucose / Fructose) in the small intestine so we have to keep our digestible fibre intake as low as posible too. Psyllium husks are ideal though to provide some fibre that is none digestible. However too much of it can be antagonistic and cause gut inflammation itself! There is no such thing as a free meal so to speak lol.