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Dinner dilemma with CGM

C

cantfindasuitablenamehere

Active Member
Messages
40
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Apologies for the newbie alarmism, it’s all a learning curve.

I could do with advice from anyone who understands these glucose spikes.

BG before dinner was 5.6. Dinner was chicken and veg, I think under 10g starch (just home made gravy). BG started climbing, reached a peak of 12.1, stayed high over an hour and is only now (over 2 hours later) below 9.

Questions:

1.How does a meal seemingly so low in carbs make the BG go up so much? If I have to cut out vegetables as well as starch then mealtimes are going to get very dull!

2. Is 12.1 alarming?

3. I understand it is supposed to be back under 7.8 within 2 hours of a meal. Is that measured from the start of eating or from the end?

4. Why does it take so long to come back down and should I be (even more) worried?

I keep reminding myself that without the CGM I would be none the wiser!

Thanks for any advice here.
 
That's quite a significant rise.
Would you like to share what was in your food more exactly? What were the veggies, what was in the gravy, just to make sure? Any marinade or coating on the chicken?
cantfindasuitablenamehere said:
Apologies for the newbie alarmism, it’s all a learning curve.
Click to expand...
Please don't apologise, questions like this one and picking the hive mind are the main purposes of the forum!
 
It could be the gravy, but what veg did you have and how were they cooked?

Most of us stick to veg that grows above the ground eg cabbage, cauliflower, salads etc and avoid starchy roots such as potatoes, parsnips, carrots
 
Thank you. Mainly steamed broccoli (decent portion), about a quarter roast onion, some red bell pepper and about 1 carrot. The only other things were salt and pepper. Trying to be good so only drank water with it. Gravy was made (by me) from the chicken dish with 20g cornflour and water. I had less than half the gravy so I estimated around 10g cornflour. Chicken wasn’t coated, cooked at home.
 
So it took 2hr 45 mins for the BG to get under 7.8 again.

I’ll sleep on it and try not to feel bad.

Is the feeling of not doing this (diabetes management) properly just me or do others get it?
 
With a BG meter (finger prick) we test before a meal and then 2hrs late i.e. from start of the meal, because in a non-diabetic person their BG would then be back to what it was before the meal, So although the high is higher than you would like (possibly due to carrot and cornflour) was your BG more than 2 mmol higher at the 2hr mark? - If not then the meal was acceptable!
 
Ah I see, very helpful.

it was 5.6 before eating, then still 8.8 after 2 hours. So I need to rethink gravy and carrot. Hmmm. It’s down to 7.7 now so nearly there after 3 hours.
 
I find any flour or corn spikes me more than the carbs values suggest. Maybe it's the same with you and cornflour?
Worth repeating same meal another day and seeing what happens.
Arrowroot can be used as a thickener instead of cornflour, in smaller amounts
 
Most people say that for them carrots and apples, pears are fine, but I can't each of those spike my BG, so I can only eat half of a smallish one.
I thinks cornflour would spike most T2's - it's Glycaemic Index is 70 - which is higher than table sugar ! It's Glycaemic Load is also high 100gms cornflour contains 76.8gms of carbs. So perhaps find an alternative low carb thickener, or have less of a more runny gravy.
 
cantfindasuitablenamehere said:
Is the feeling of not doing this (diabetes management) properly just me or do others get it?
Click to expand...
The feeling is very common, yes.
Which is not the same at all as the feeling being right!

You ARE doing this diabetes management properly because you're working on finding out what works for you.
 
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