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effect of today's food on tomorrow's readings

R

rainbow fish

Active Member
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Hi all, I understand the relationship between foods and BSLs in the short term, and phenomenon such as the carry over effect from a Low GI meal, but how much do you think what one eats today affects the fasting morning reading?
If I am higher in the morning is it because I've gone over board the day before, or is it just one of those things? I guess I'm actually talking about very small changes in readings that are probably to do with digestion and and the inaccuracy of the meter, but if anyone has other opinions that would be useful.
 
Its an interesting thought - but if you have your last morsel of food by 9pm and then sleep and then eat again at 7am, that is 10 hours without food. I would think that any excess sugar would have been dealt with by the morning, but maybe not! What we need is someone with loads of readings who can analyse this - there must be some correlation between the night before tests and the following mornings!

I have noticed that if I have a level of say 7.5 in the morning, and then two hours after breakfast my level is back down to say 7.6 - I only have 5 days of readings to look at, so I dont know!

I'll stop rambling now!!!
 
Wow! thanks for that link.

I often wake up with a headache and a BG of 5, i was explaining this to a GP that it means that I have hypoed over night, she said that is impossible. Now I know I am right.

I have been told to go to bed with a BG of no less than 8, however, sometimes that's not possible as I am very rarely in the mood for something to eat/drink at bed time, however, I will be trying the peanut butter thing next time. Any excuse to eat peanut butter!
 
yes thanks for the link and the other information everyone. I am mostly fortunate that the readings are not super high in the mornings, but there is a variation - however it all tends to stay in a fairly tight range throughout the day. I was really wondering if I am doing something different the day before when its 7 to start with than when its 9. (Don't worry, we are still working on getting the starting point much lower but it all takes time!) I guess the other issue for me is that here in Germany the health system works in mgs (?) and there is a big psychological difference between 140 and 120 rather than 8 and 7 for example.
thanks again
 
Just some thoughts:
If you've drunk alcohol in the evening, that'll tend to lower your BG several hours later.

72-hour BG monitors are sometimes available, they test your BG every 5 mintues. Medics may be reluctant to give you one of these if your readings are good overall though. An alternative is the old fashioned alarm clock! Testing your BG even every hour or so throughout the night could identify when the change happens, whether its gradual or dramatic, and thus clarify whether it's due to food, medication, dawn phenomenon, or a hypo you slept through.

The medics we rely on are rarely diabetic themselves. Some are really good at listening and taking on board what their patients say, learning with us. Whereas others are either just trying to reassure, or regurgitating the standard story and dismissing anything that doesn't fit. (How can you prove you've slept through a hypo unless you were using a continuous monitor or someone else tested you?!)

I could give you a list of things I've been told don't happen, but which have happened to me!
 
hi rainbow fish

just how low do you expect to get your bg down to?. from what i just read they seem pretty normal to me if they around the 5 mark most mornings , go much lower and your going to get a hypo. On my charts my safe area is between 3.9 and 7.8 with the hypo line set at 2.9 . if most of your reading are somewhere between those reading not to much to worry about.

most of my reading are taken first thing in the morning before food I'm nearly always between those reading if not that down to me eating the wrong food ,if I'm higher i simple cut back a bit that day, once you have eaten your level will go up if your levels have returned to below 10 within two hrs approx, my doc says this is good diabetes control
 
hi Martin
unfortunately you've read someone else's post in this same topic, my readings are not five in the morning. Indeed I would have little to worry about if that was the case!
 
My problem with getting my BG down to say between 3.9 and 7.8 as an above poster states, would be that I would be unable to drive to work. In fact if my blood sugar is 5 or less I have to have some juice or something prior to driving to work as the DVLA guidelines state that you cannot drive with a BG less than 5.

I walked three miles last night, had a meal and a few beers, had just less than the amount of insulin I needed to cover the meal (due to the exercise and beer) my BG was 15 when I woke up...... thats not right

So YES - previous days activities affect next days BG, although not in the same way each time!

This is sooooo hard!
 
Hi leslieyb

I appreciate your on insulin so its different for you , in your last post you don't say what time you went to bed no mention of what time you ate or what you ate or how much you ate only how much alcohol you consumed your metabolism shuts down after 8-9 o'clock at night its advisable not to eat after that time in the evening, if you do your food lies undigested in the gut till the next day so higher than usual bg levels the next morning. good bg control is if you can get under 10 within 2 hrs after food , if anyone eats late at night there's no way they can get a goods bg the next morning.

all week I've been 6.2 6.3 6.0 last night i ate a small weight watchers bake well tart at about 11 o clock this morning my bg level were 9.4 thank god it wasn't fully sugar loaded see my point.
 
Hi Luceo,

Where on earth did you hear that your metabolism shuts down at 8 to 9 pm? This is one of the oldest old wives tales!! Your metabolism works 24 hours a day, just in different ways at different times of the day. In the hotter Mediterranean countries it is normal for people to not have their evening meal until the evening starts to cool at around 9 to 10pm.

One of the most common problems that diabetics have (particularly type 2s) is high morning sugar readings - the dawn effect, which is where the liver starts releasing glucose into the blood (gluconeogenesis) around 12 hours after your last meal. This is a perfectly normal metabolic function and has nothing to do with food lying undigested in the gut - because that can't happen! The recommended (and medically approved) solution to this is to eat a small high protein and low carb snack immediately before going to bed (something like a cube of cheese and a handful of nuts). This gets the digestive system going and fools the body into thinking that it has just been fed, which means that gluconeogenesis will be put off for another 12 hours, by which time you will have eaten breakfast.
 
luceo said:
your metabolism shuts down after 8-9 o'clock at night
Click to expand...

hello luceo,
You may be getting the digestive part of your metabolism mixed up with the
whole of your metabolism. If the whole of your metabolism shuts down then
it's "goodnight sweetheart" as they say. :mrgreenyou're as dead as a dead dodo)

Your digestive system only really "shuts down" when you go to sleep.
Unless you've eaten a big meal close to bedtime and then it will
try to work "overtime" - but this is not a recipe for a good nights sleep.

all the best,
timo.
 
Hi guys

OK i should have say digestive system shuts down and not your metabolism , but i think you al knew what i was saying, I know i get up every morning my BGS is in the 6-7 levels , it definitely goes higher if i have eaten something i shouldn't have regards less of the time i ate it, It definitely still goes higher if i ate something after 9 o'clock even if i was something i can eat, and give me an uncomfortable night on top of it as well as it's undigested. old wives tale or not. undigested food in the system is bound to give you a higher level the next morning as it already in your system and you adding to it with the next mornings breakfast. My bgs are at the levels they are through diet control and not eating after 9 o clock to be able to reduce my levels for the next morning, lower levels then means i might get to have a cheat now and then through the day and still get the level down by bed time ready again for the next morning.
 
Hi Luceo,

Your digestive system certainly does slow down overnight while you are asleep, but it doesn't stop working completely. It operates fully as long as you are awake. It is only the act of sleeping that causes your brain to send signals to the intestines to slow down. This is why eating a big meal late at night or very soon before going to bed is not a good practice. Digestion during sleep is not efficient because the metabolic rate is falling.
 
luceo,
remember...
DAWN PHENOMENON!!
nowhere is safe..
DAWN PHENOMENON!!
is that a rumble in your belly or is it?...
DAWN PHENOMENON!!
it's why you sleep with one eye open..
DAWN PHENOMENON!!
you think you got it all sussed until...
DAWN PHENOMENON!!
comes and shows you who's the daddy!

don't have nightmares, do sleep well. :mrgreen:
 
I've been inoculated against dawn phenomenon so I 'aint bovverd
 
luceo's right FUZZY,
we all already know about it, and he's happy being pig ignorant - so why bother? :mrgreen:
 
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