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Confusion over readings

IanBish

IanBish

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,377
Location
Cardiff
Type of diabetes
I reversed my Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hello, I've recently bought a Gluco Navii blood glucose meter, and due to me having trouble getting the blood onto the strips correctly, and therefore wasting strips, I have only just (well, today) started doing proper testing.

My readings were as follows:
* Shortly after getting up this morning (7.15 am): 3.5 (!)
* Mid-morning, after only black coffee with Stevia (9am): 6.3
* Just before lunch (2pm): 5.4
* Two hours later (4pm): 8.6

My questions:
* Why was my morning reading so low? Could it have been an error?
* Why did it rise so much mid-morning? Is Stevia spiking my blood sugar?
* Lunch was two shaved scotch eggs (to get rid of the breadcrumbs) plus a small, fun-size apple. So why did my post-lunch reading jump so high?

I'm still sort of trying to learn all of this, so if anyone has any ideas on what I may be doing wrong, or indeed what's going on, I'd be grateful.
 
IanBish said:
Hello, I've recently bought a Gluco Navii blood glucose meter, and due to me having trouble getting the blood onto the strips correctly, and therefore wasting strips, I have only just (well, today) started doing proper testing.

My readings were as follows:
* Shortly after getting up this morning (7.15 am): 3.5 (!)
* Mid-morning, after only black coffee with Stevia (9am): 6.3
* Just before lunch (2pm): 5.4
* Two hours later (4pm): 8.6

My questions:
* Why was my morning reading so low? Could it have been an error?
* Why did it rise so much mid-morning? Is Stevia spiking my blood sugar?
* Lunch was two shaved scotch eggs (to get rid of the breadcrumbs) plus a small, fun-size apple. So why did my post-lunch reading jump so high?

I'm still sort of trying to learn all of this, so if anyone has any ideas on what I may be doing wrong, or indeed what's going on, I'd be grateful.
Click to expand...
Well I know that apples are something I cannot tolerate as they spike me, so could be that with you also?
 
Fasting reading, possibly an error, possibly not. Repeating daily will soon show you patterns.
A rise on rising and until you eat is common, you might find your body doesn't like Stevia. Again repeat testing daily
Well done on shaving the eggs. Sadly there were probably fillers in the sausage meat and carbs in the apple that gave you that rise. Its not a bad one but try swapping the apple for berries and see. Then another day try home made low carb eggs made with a high percentage meat (90%+) and see readings then.

Welcome to the start of a fascinating, and sometimes frustrating, journey learning what suits your body and what doesn't
 
coby said:
Well I know that apples are something I cannot tolerate as they spike me, so could be that with you also?
Click to expand...
It was only the size of one that you'd put in a small child's lunch box. But I take your point.
 
IanBish said:
It was only the size of one that you'd put in a small child's lunch box. But I take your point.
Click to expand...
It's worth repeating the apple test again. If you get a similar result, you've got better evidence about what an apple does to your BG. Then it's up to you to decide if it's worth it, and how often, if at all, you'll have an apple.

I'm a bit dubious about your first thing in the morning reading. They're usually the highest you'll see all day, as the liver helpfully manufactures and dumps glucose in the blood to get you going. Again, repeat the test, see what happens.
 
MrsA2 said:
Fasting reading, possibly an error, possibly not. Repeating daily will soon show you patterns.
A rise on rising and until you eat is common, you might find your body doesn't like Stevia. Again repeat testing daily
Well done on shaving the eggs. Sadly there were probably fillers in the sausage meat and carbs in the apple that gave you that rise. Its not a bad one but try swapping the apple for berries and see. Then another day try home made low carb eggs made with a high percentage meat (90%+) and see readings then.

Welcome to the start of a fascinating, and sometimes frustrating, journey learning what suits your body and what doesn't
Click to expand...
I've not long given up taking a teaspoon and a half in my coffee, so I thought I'd wean myself off gradually. Are there any sweeteners which don't spike blood sugar? I'll just drink water for a morning and see if the Stevia was the culprit.

I thought that shaving the scotch eggs would be enough, but you could be right about hidden carbs. There are carbs practically everywhere, so it seems. I think I'll just boil a few eggs and have them with some mustard instead.

The apple was tiny, though, but I'll try berries, though not grapes (which I didn't realise about, and are which are still in the fridge).

Thanks for the reply.
 
A Tesco scotch egg has roughly 17g carbs so say probably after scraping of the breadcrumbs probably 30g for 2 then your apple, try dropping the scotch eggs and having some cheeses a bit of ham, pickled or hard boiled egg and maybe a pickled onion a couple of cherry toms and some celery, a bit of a ploughman’s,

Maybe still have the very small apple and then test, I can cope with a very small apple with a meal. We are all different and maybe just dropping the scotch eggs will keep you below the 2 point rise. The idea of berries is a good idea too
 
lovinglife said:
A Tesco scotch egg has roughly 17g carbs so say probably after scraping of the breadcrumbs probably 30g for 2 then your apple, try dropping the scotch eggs and having some cheeses a bit of ham, pickled or hard boiled egg and maybe a pickled onion a couple of cherry toms and some celery, a bit of a ploughman’s,

Maybe still have the very small apple and then test, I can cope with a very small apple with a meal. We are all different and maybe just dropping the scotch eggs will keep you below the 2 point rise. The idea of berries is a good idea too
Click to expand...
I think I'll ditch the Scotch Eggs.

This morning, after waking, the reading was 6.1, which suggests that yesterday's equivalent reading was a rogue one.

And a few hours later, having only had black coffee without Stevia, it was 6.6, which suggests it wasn't the Stevia. But I did notice that my instant coffee (Aldi, Columbian) has 47 grams of carbs per 100 grams of coffee!
 
6.1 to 6.7 is absolutely fine - it isn’t really a rise, meter’s have a margin of error and this definitely falls within that. As to the Aldi coffee wow! 47g carbs - I thought maybe you’d missed out the decimal point but I’ve had a look around on Google and it has some very strange nutritional facts for freeze dried instant coffee! To be honest I really don’t understand the nutritional panel if all it is is 100% coffee

The label on the front says sweet with sugar and citrus notes, can’t find an ingredients list to see if it has added sugar or if they are just referring to the tasting notes, can you see on the jar/packet? Just checked hubby’s freeze dried Kenco and that negligible carbs
 
I was referring more to my reading from yesterday upon waking: 3.5 yesterday versus 6.1 today.

Regarding the carbs in the coffee, it wasn't on the jar; I found it on their website. 2 grams of 47 grams is sugar. Other instant coffees have a similar amount of carbs too.
 
IanBish said:
I was referring more to my reading from yesterday upon waking: 3.5 yesterday versus 6.1 today.

Regarding the carbs in the coffee, it wasn't on the jar; I found it on their website. 2 grams of 47 grams is sugar. Other instant coffees have a similar amount of carbs too.
Click to expand...
That sounds a huge amount of carb in the coffee, fortunately the amount of actual coffee rather than water in a cup of it is much smaller than 100gms. I would imagine less than 5gms coffee per cup even if you like it very strong!
 
IanBish said:
I was referring more to my reading from yesterday upon waking: 3.5 yesterday versus 6.1 today.

Regarding the carbs in the coffee, it wasn't on the jar; I found it on their website. 2 grams of 47 grams is sugar. Other instant coffees have a similar amount of carbs too.
Click to expand...
I can only find instant coffees with negligible carbs e.g. 1 teaspoon is .04g carb. I don’t drink instant myself as I have my pod machine and I only drink decaf now. You seem to cope very well with the Aldi coffee whatever the carbs are :) I was just curious as to the nutritional panel and was quite taken aback by it
 
I've known the Aldi website to have the wrong nutritional information before, so maybe it's wrong. Maybe they got the decimal point in wrong place.
 
IanBish said:
Hello, I've recently bought a Gluco Navii blood glucose meter, and due to me having trouble getting the blood onto the strips correctly, and therefore wasting strips, I have only just (well, today) started doing proper testing.

My readings were as follows:
* Shortly after getting up this morning (7.15 am): 3.5 (!)
* Mid-morning, after only black coffee with Stevia (9am): 6.3
* Just before lunch (2pm): 5.4
* Two hours later (4pm): 8.6

My questions:
* Why was my morning reading so low? Could it have been an error?
* Why did it rise so much mid-morning? Is Stevia spiking my blood sugar?
* Lunch was two shaved scotch eggs (to get rid of the breadcrumbs) plus a small, fun-size apple. So why did my post-lunch reading jump so high?

I'm still sort of trying to learn all of this, so if anyone has any ideas on what I may be doing wrong, or indeed what's going on, I'd be grateful.
Click to expand...
HI

It all depends on how long you sleep and what you eat the night before. I noticed If I don't eat enough the night before my blood glucose can drop down to low. If I don't take the correct amount of insulin eat to little and take to much insulin I can wake up during the night with low glucose levels. You can eat as long as you don't mix carbohydrates. It all depends of what type of diabetes that you have. Some people body can make emergency insulin by itself just to tick you over.

Some foods can increase your glucose levels. So it all trial and error until you find out what rise your level up for you.

As everyone say you need to log down what you eat what cause the issue with the blood glucose. Also advice that you see a diabetic dietitian. Also you did not say what medication you are on it also can effect the reading you are getting.
 
pcarl said:
HI

It all depends on how long you sleep and what you eat the night before. I noticed If I don't eat enough the night before my blood glucose can drop down to low. If I don't take the correct amount of insulin eat to little and take to much insulin I can wake up during the night with low glucose levels. You can eat as long as you don't mix carbohydrates. It all depends of what type of diabetes that you have. Some people body can make emergency insulin by itself just to tick you over.

Some foods can increase your glucose levels. So it all trial and error until you find out what rise your level up for you.

As everyone say you need to log down what you eat what cause the issue with the blood glucose. Also advice that you see a diabetic dietitian. Also you did not say what medication you are on it also can effect the reading you are getting.
Click to expand...
I get about seven hours of sleep a night, but don't always feel refreshed. I don't take insulin.

I think it's the food, too. For example, at lunchtime today my reading before eating was 4.6. But after two slices of no added sugar wholemeal bread, and bacon, after two hours it had jumped to 7.0.

It says under my avatar that I'm using Diet Only. I took metformin for a couple of weeks when first diagnosed, but I soon stopped it.
 
Hi

The bread will still have carbohydrates in it white or brown. Reading of 7.0 is very good. Glucose will go up when you eat. As I said you need to find out what food make you glucose level go up. Anything that causes a reading of 8.5ml - 9ml is not good for diabetic. I avoid eating to much things with flour and cornflakes.
 
pcarl said:
Hi

The bread will still have carbohydrates in it white or brown. Reading of 7.0 is very good. Glucose will go up when you eat. As I said you need to find out what food make you glucose level go up. Anything that causes a reading of 8.5ml - 9ml is not good for diabetic. I avoid eating to much things with flour and cornflakes.
Click to expand...
The only other "bread" I've eaten was from SRSLY (which was fine). I won't touch proper bread (even if it is low sugar) for a while. Also Scotch Eggs, shaved of all their breadcrumbs, seem to be a problem for me too, which I'm avoiding.

Eating, testing and learning. One meal at a time.
 
IanBish said:
I think it's the food, too. For example, at lunchtime today my reading before eating was 4.6. But after two slices of no added sugar wholemeal bread, and bacon, after two hours it had jumped to 7.0.
Click to expand...
I had the same for lunch today, with four slices of SRSLY "bread" and with the same amount of bacon. My pre-meal reading was again 4.6, but two hours later it had only jumped to 6.1. So I blame the processed bread that I had yesterday.
 
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