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Experiment anyone?

Cocosilk

Well-Known Member
Messages
818
Location
Australia
Type of diabetes
Gestational
Treatment type
Insulin
I see us comparing our morning fasting and post meal levels but has anyone started a thread to compare our post meal spikes at specific times after one kind of food that we can all experiment with (provided you are at least low carb)?

If you'd like to participate, have some scales to measure accurately and try this on one day and do the same with a non-diabetic friend or partner if you can find one who is also willing to participate.

1ST experiment (carb response)
(I recommend first thing in the morning so you have a chance to burn it off and don't do this if you really can't tolerate fruit! Leave it for those who already eat at least low carb.)

100g of banana (a small banana - peeled).
Measure all of any of these points:
Right before eating
30 mins after
60 mins after
90 mins after
2 hours after
(3 hours after)

If you only want to measure before and at 2 hours, that's also fine, but 30 and 60 mins will be useful to see our spikes!

On a different day, measure the following.
3 egg omlette fried in butter.
Try to use 60g eggs totally 180g so we all have the same amount. Measure in the shell so it's not so complicated.
Then take readings as above:
Before; 30m; 60; 90; 2hr, (3hr)

When you've done a test, post your results here so we can compare how differently each of us reacts to the same food.

Good luck finding a non-diabetic guinea pig to join in!
 
This will be tricky for those of us that don’t eat carbs at all, don’t like the food, can’t eat that portion size, don’t have test strips or are self funding the strips. Is this aimed at those taking insulin or anybody?
 
Each to their own but I don't like the idea of comparing- it can make people anxious or feel like they are failing - and I tend to agree with @wiflib it's a bit like comparing apples with oranges.
 
Sorry lass but we each react differently to foods and we react differently for multiple reasons. I find that I am more IR in the morning and cannot 'exercise it off' and besides that when I look at foods these days I think 'What are your benefits, what can you bring me in the way of nutrients?'. Eating a banana will not teach me anything I do not already know and comparing my results to someone else's would tell me what exactly?
 
Exercise, exercise, exercise. I don't sit and wait for my blood sugars to rise after eating. I curb the damage through exercise.
 
I used to enjoy bananas, but haven't had one in probably 5 years... sorry, but not likely to have one now, when I already know what the unfortunate consequences to my blood glucose would be.

Agree with the others though... comparing your body's version of T2 with someone else's version of T2 is going to yield some very different results. We all have different reactions to individual foods, and our various heights, weights, ages, activity levels, other health conditions, liver and pancreatic functions all add together to make things unique. In addition, doing the test first thing in the morning would mean that we would all have to factor in dawn phenomenon (or the lack of it), making it even more difficult to compare the results.
 
Can I substitute the banana for liver & bacon fried in goose fat and butter?
 
Plus, six strips to experiment? My purse won't run to that considering that I could get vastly different readings on any given day.
I am at the stage of keeping an eye on trends whilst low carbing.
 
I agree with the others. Comparisons are counter productive. There are too many variables.
 
Sorry but count me out for several reasons. Aside from all of us being different. I don’t want to eat more carbs than usual just as an experiment. Every spike I had before my diagnosis may have caused me damage. As I now know how not to spike, why would I want to deliberately potentially cause more damage? Plus too much cost in strips and there’s no way any of my non diabetic family will let me prick their fingers, believe me I’ve asked before!
 
I am not a fan of comparing results, we are all different, types, metabolisms, different physiology, also based on the fact I can eat the same thing every day and get different results, personally I would have no chance even comparing this. I also think that some folk can feel intimidated when they see something that doesn't work for them, we have enough negativity to deal with, regardless of comparing results.

The benchmark is seeing what the 4 hour post food reading is, this is the key indicator as to whether the insulin dose matched the food eaten and the end result worked, this should be our own personal goal, if it failed then understanding why.
 
wiflib said:
This will be tricky for those of us that don’t eat carbs at all, don’t like the food, can’t eat that portion size, don’t have test strips or are self funding the strips. Is this aimed at those taking insulin or anybody?
Click to expand...

I was going to include eating 50g of raw liver but I thought those might be in the minority Meat may be harder to measure because of differing fat contents but if you can think of a way to get everyone to eat the same piece of meat, I'd love to see the result of that too.

I don't mind who tries this, as long as it's within the bounds of what they can tolerate (I know a whole banana is stretching it for many but going 2 - 3 hours after 1/2 a banana might also be a stretch for some if they are not used to small breakfasts. Otherwise I originally only wrote 50g of banana, which is about half a small one. I'd be hungry half an hour after that though.

As far as insulin use or not, if someone uses insulin, they could include how much their dose is to manage that food.

I just wanted to see our levels because people are often told that everyone has spikes and that's normal, as if that's justification not to worry about how high a certain food is spiking your bs provided you can get it back down by 2 hours.

I still think big spikes, whether we are diabetic or not, probably aren't good for us and seeing how much or little different people react to the same food illustrates the just how individual our reactions are to certiain foods.

If you can suggest another type of food that we could try, go for it. And yes, I do understand testing strips are expensive so if someone only wants to test before and at 2 hours, that's fine. We just won't see that person's spike, which is what I was most curious about. Also whether the spike ia higher at 30 or 60 mins (and why?).
 
Jim Lahey said:
Can I substitute the banana for liver & bacon fried in goose fat and butter?
Click to expand...
You inspired me to put bacon with the fortnightly delivery of liver that we get and that was my dinner tonight too.
Oh yeah, and my husband heard about a man from this forum eating raw liver and he had a bite of some today too..he he I wasnt game enough - I still can't get past the smell.
 
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The point of experimentation is to learn something useful.
I know the banana will send my levels higher than I'm comfortable with and the 3 egg omelette cooked in butter will hardly cause a blip. So I don't think I will be taking part, I will have the omelette though.
 
Cocosilk said:
As far as insulin use or not, if someone uses insulin, they could include how much their dose is to manage that food.
Click to expand...
Personally I don't think this is very useful info, cos whilst I don't care that some need a tenth of what I do for carbs, some of the newer diagnosed people often seem to think that if they are using more than the theoretical average amount that they are doing something wrong when they are just not, its just everyone is different. Also the amount of insulin needed can vary dramatically even for the same person dependent on about 5 billion different things (stress, illness, temperature, time of the month, time of the day, current bs levels and whatever else life throws in the way). Just my thoughts
 
Look, I apologise if I made a bad suggestion (shoot me down in flames people!). I think this test might suit a newbie, especially now that so many of you have given your opinions and experiences, hopefully they will read all of those comments too because there is a lot to learn just by hearing what the "experts" or more experience here have to say about the condition and how tricky it is to control our blood glucose levels.
I understand it's not just food that affects us (I'm pretty sure the sleep deprivation and pain of difficult round-the-clock breastfeeding has been raising my morning fasting levels).
I also didn't mean for anyone who doesn't eat bananas anymore to eat one. If you can suggest another carb in a specific quantity that we could all try, go for it.
If strips are too expensive, please don't waste your money.
If anyone does still eat the odd banana or egg and wants to test for fun, do it!
I was really just trying to get people together for a chat...
 
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I don't think that you are wrong in wanting data - but what you are proposing would be a dreadful shock to the system for many who are eating low carb.
Many people have spent time, money and effort to restore their metabolism and substituting a dense carb food for the protein with fat and low carb foods is just not to be considered as a sensible course of action.
 
ert said:
Exercise, exercise, exercise. I don't sit and wait for my blood sugars to rise after eating. I curb the damage through exercise.
Click to expand...
You may be interested in this.

The polyol pathway wrt fruit.
Eat a piece of fruit and it has fructose plus glucose, about 3% of the fructose will be converted into glucose in the polyol pathway. But, put Insulin Resistance into the equation and that figure shoots up to a 30% conversion rate. Which is why fruit lower in fructose and in very small amounts alongside a healthy fat is a wiser choice for those with IR.
 
I’m sorry if you feel shot down. Last year soon after diagnosis I’d perhaps have jumped on this. For all the reasons people are now saying not to. I wanted to know what was “normal” and how I compared. I desperately sought clear cut answers and a set of rules to follow. In the last year I’ve realised that just isn’t possible and can’t be done.

I do understand and even share an interest in seeing just how wide a range of spikes people, diabetics on diet alone, other meds, insulin and non diabetics might have. I’m just not sure how useful that would be other than to demonstrate it’s all over the place. In which case we’re back to how desirable the process would be to a diabetic for all the above given reasons. I’m sure there probably are studies out there somewhere that have done similar seeing as it’s not an unusual thing to wonder about.
 
There is also the additional factor that not everyone is fascinated with blood glucose so much as all-body glucose and low circulating insulin. Neither of which are measurable at home.
 
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