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Type 2 Does preparing food affect BG?

hankjam

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,803
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
This is something I have often wondered as I prepare all the meals in my house. When I test before eating I've been handling food for the previous 60 odd minutes.

It's diffcult for me to test enough to know, so I wondering if anyone who uses a Libre has noticed if there is an effect. I would like to try a Libre but my smart phone is not smart enough.... sad, but true.

Thank you.
 

Hi Hankjam, I'm not the main cook in or house, however, I do cook and take a turn to do main meals too. I can't honestly say I have noticed any impact on a Libre - except where one might have taken a little sample, and that's mainly dairy. But, I do stress that's from consumption.

Ahem.
 
I do get a small increase if I’m up and about in the kitchen instead of resting…..but it’s small ans short lived.
 
I think it depends what type of cooking and whether you are used to it.
If you are doing lots of chopping and stirring and whisking by hand, it will be different from placing a fillet of fish in the oven.
And if you spend most of your time on your feet, you may not notice.

Also, could be affected by what you have done before. I have just cooked after getting home from a Spin class. The spin had more affect than the chopping a stirring.
 
Yes, for me, but I am the kind of cook who is a taster and nibbler.
I also had a very high reading after zesting an orange and not washing hands first. I hadn't eaten any. Scared me silly.
Overall bg doesn't rise much as amounts are small
 
hankjam said:
I would like to try a Libre but my smart phone is not smart enough.... sad, but true.
Click to expand...

Hi,

You really don't need the latest phone to be compatible with the LIbre.
There are more budget friendly & environmentally friendly, obtaining a "pre loved phone?"

The market is flooded with good used phones a couple of years old. Just because of a minor upgrade by the "consumer.. "

I cant really talk as an insulin user.. i could be cooking after getting in from work with a hypo from a mad day at work...
 
Someone mentioned here once that the first phase insulin response can be stimulated by the anticipation of food.
Most T2s have a blunted fist phase response so don't know if that is still the case.

My CGM showed nothing while preparing food btw
 
I am the sort whose blood sugar levels rise at the smell of food cooking. All those years pre-diagnosis saying I put weight on just thinking about food - turned out it was true as my insulin resistance was being triggered LOL
 
I rise a bit (T2, Libre user). But it isn’t anything to do with tasting the food, it’s just the rushing about/stress of cooking. How much I rise depends on how stressy the cooking is. When I was cooking Christmas dinner I was massively stressed and it went above 9 and my high glucose alarm went off (which did NOT help matters lol). It does mean my post-prandial numbers are *always* lower than my pre-prandial!

Usually I’m about 6.5 after cooking where if I hadn’t cooked, I’d be more like 5.5.
 
If insulin was triggered by the smell and anticipation of food then wouldn't BG go down rather than up?
 
Mr_Pot said:
If insulin was triggered by the smell and anticipation of food then wouldn't BG go down rather than up?
Click to expand...
I think it is a complex chemical issue where insulin should be released. For me that just isn’t going to happen. Hence the rise.
 
I would imagine that people who are dashing-about cooks rather than the quiet and methodical types might trigger a small rise in BG in the way exercise does.
 
Ronancastled said:
Someone mentioned here once that the first phase insulin response can be stimulated by the anticipation of food.
Most T2s have a blunted fist phase response so don't know if that is still the case.

My CGM showed nothing while preparing food btw
Click to expand...
The anticipation is triggered in the saliva by the release of amylase enzyme into the saliva. This is generally triggered by chewing or sucking sugary carbs (finger licking good?) but not sure if it is linked to drooling anticipation.
 
I am minded that some medications are given via transdermal patches (e.g. nicotine replacement) so the possibility of some things being absorbed through contact is not impossible. However, getting reliable transfer in any quantity is a chemist's black magic trick, and probably does not apply to carbs, however simple they may be. If that was the case then handling icing sugar would be noticeable? Applying alcohol to a bee sting would get you drunk? I don;t see it happening like that.

Edit to add: of course some meds are applied via the mucous membranes, so sub lingual and nasal sprays / drops work for small quantities.

Postscript: There has been some reports / studies that established that some artificial sweeteners triggered the insulin response without adding any calories / carbs. Again, an ingest mechanism needed. Thinking of sweetened goodies is probably not going to cut the mustard of the OP.
 
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Not in my case. The only things apart from food (knowledge from finger testing and libre use) that seem to affect my BGs are exercise (down), illness (up), alcohol (down - I know alcohol is sometimes classed as a food) and ambient temperature (higher = up). It's possible that some or all of these are in play while cooking/preparing but there has never been a noticeable impact.
 
I believe thinking about food is sufficient to trigger an insulin response ... so the M&S food ads will do it as well For a type 1 the insulin won't be produced but the other mechanisms to prevent hypos will ... likely to lead to slight blood glucose rise.
 
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