Hi again, I have not heard about Berg nor Bikman but I will sure look them up at some point.
Right now I am diving into the studies of Dr. Roy Taylor as what he asserts is something I suspected all along and it resonates with me (the principle that you don’t need to be obese to have diabetes but just ‘too fat for your own body’as that is my personal case).
As for the inulin fiber yes I did know it was in Chicory root as I researched what type of fibre to get before i decided for this specific type and was considering psyllium supplement but then after reading a few articles (including the one you mentioned in your previous post on inulin fibre) I decided to get the chicory one.
My grandmother (who is the one who passed on the diabetes gene to ALL her 7 children) was eating chicory every day and lived with diabetes until she was 95 year old (or perhaps 99?). so if it worked for her I thought it might work for me too
As for the carbs in inulin : I too was concerned about increasing the amount of carbs when I decided to introduce prebiotics + fibre into my diet but after watching this video about how important the gut bacteria are especially for people with diabetes (of course each one has their own opinions on the subject and we choose what we deem to be applicable to ourselves) I decided to experiment at least for a while and see if it made any difference to me.
This is when it gets interesting.
Like most people with our condition we start counting Micros..well Carbs more than anything since that seems to be the main problem.
Being a newly diagnosed didn’t have a meter (advised against getting one by my diabetic nurse) but thanks to this forum I chose to get one.
Never been a breakfast person but decided to eat regular meals and had to find a breakfast option so settled for cereals with yogurt and berries (whether raspberries, blueberries or strawberries) as my main breakfast (alternating with eggs every 3 days to break the pattern and mix it up a bit) . I started with the recommended serving size of whichever cereal I tried at the time (obviously I went for the ones with the lowest content of carbs/sugar) + 80 gr of Alpro no sugar (2.3 gr Fat – 0 gr carbs – 4 gr Proteins x 100gr of product).
I didn’t have a meter at the time so when I got one I realized that the increase in BG was too much so I reduced the amount of cereals slowly until I was happier with the BG readings (the amount of grams of cereal tolerance varied depending of the type and brand of course and carb content per serving).
When I decided to introduce probiotics and fiber (as well as some extra proteins) to my breakfast I was concerned about the extra carbs that came with it but I thought I would start and then adjust (reduce) the amount of cereals ; however I started from the usual amount of cereals to start with and then adjust it to my meter.
I substituted Alpro with Kefir and was a bit anxious as the latter has 7.4 gr carbs x 100 gr; so I went from NO carbs in my yogurt to a whopping 7.4gr increase!! + I added 5 mg of inulin fibre too! + 10 gr of Proteins (vegan powder)! I thought it would be a bit too much and I was expecting my BG reading to be higher than usual but I thought I would reduce the cereal portion later as I was more adamant on keeping prebiotics and fibre in my meal.
I had to go from 80gr of Alpro to 100gr of Kefir since 80gr wasn’t enough to mix the extra powder .
So...keeping the SAME amount of cereals and increasing the carbs in my yogurt from 0 to 7.4gr + adding 5gr of inulin fibre + 10 gr of proteins gave me LOWER BG readings than what I was eating before (with less carbs). I thought it was a one off but been doing this for over a month now and readings are consistent ...so I am basically eating more overall carbs for breakfast, more proteins and fiber and have lower readings and I feel obviously fuller as I have increased my micros in that meal.
And it gets even better! My BG readings have dropped over the last months (since I introduced prebiotics into my diet) and I feel somehow better (can’t really pinpoint what exactly made the difference).
Since I saw lower readings I decided to be more adventurous!
2 weeks ago, after the ease of lock-down restrictions, I went to meet a friend and we had pizza for dinner; home-made with rye flour (60gr of carbs x 100 gr of product). I had a FULL pizza (surely above 60gr of carbs) + half a beer and my readings were : pre-meal 3.8 – 1 hour later 5.7 – 2 hours later 4.9 !! I felt absolutely fine and not even bloated! How was this possible?
After a week (last Saturday) I did the same as was too curious to see if it was a one off, so had same meal again (whole pizza + half glass of beer) and my readings were: pre-meal 4.8 – 1 hour later 6.8 – 2 hours later 5.1 – 3 hours later 6.6 - 4 hours later 5.6 (I tested more this time in case the spikes came well after the usual 2 hours).
I used to have way higher readings after breakfast at the start of keeping tracks of my readings after eating (beginning of March); the only difference in my diet has been introducing a prebiotic yogurt and fibre (well extra proteins too with breakfast and sometime during the day).
I understand you are worried about the extra carbs from fibre to your meal but since I did so my BG readings got better (or was it the Kefir? still don't know).
Also I read that fiber has no nutritional value so it doesn't really count as carbs (but I also read that people with diabetes should count it as carbs...still confused on this one).
I am NOT encouraging anybody to go crazy with carbs let’s that be clear! I am simply reporting my own personal experience ..which if I am honest..I still can’t wrap my head around!