Glucose hacks

[Art Of Flowers]

There are various things you can do to reduce glucose spikes including taking lemon water, apple cider vinegar and changing the order when eating a meal to vegetables followed by protein and carbs last.

Have people tried these and if so, what are the results. I did try some lemon in warm water 1 hr before lunch today and so far, so good.

 

[KennyA]

Just a note of caution. A rise in glucose after eating carbs is normal and expected. If you do something that masks or hides the rise, or delays it, that hasn't suddenly made you better able to metabolise glucose. It perhaps just looks that way, because what you're doing is only affecting the test, and not your body's ability to deal with glucose.

For example, alcohol will very effectively stop your liver adjusting glucose levels while the liver metabolises the alcohol. If you have alcohol with a meal, and then before and +2 after test, it might well look as if you've dealt with the carbs really well. It looks that way for me. But - the carbs have still gone in, and they still need to end up somewhere. Don't confuse fooling the meter reading with improving your insulin sensitivity.

 

[Art Of Flowers]

People with T2 diabetes need to avoid huge glucose spikes. This is the reason why many T2 sufferers eat a low carb or ketogenic diet. These hacks effectively reduce the glycemic index (GI) of the food you are eating, putting less of a strain on your digestive system. For every meal you have the choice of eating high or low GI foods and if you use medication you need to take this into consideration. The impact of lemon juice seems to be much less strong than vinegar, so perhaps that much be the better choice for cautious people.

Rapidly rising blood sugars cause inflammation in the blood cells, brain fog, fatigue, kidney problems, eye problems, neuropathy and ultimately contribute to dementia. Rapidly crashing glucose levels result in feeling famished and makes people very cranky.

 

[KennyA]

People with T2 diabetes need to avoid huge glucose spikes. This is the reason why many T2 sufferers eat a low carb or ketogenic diet. These hacks effectively reduce the glycemic index (GI) of the food you are eating, putting less of a strain on your digestive system. For every meal you have the choice of eating high or low GI foods and if you use medication you need to take this into consideration. The impact of lemon juice seems to be much less strong than vinegar, so perhaps that much be the better choice for cautious people.

Rapidly rising blood sugars cause inflammation in the blood cells, brain fog, fatigue, kidney problems, eye problems, neuropathy and ultimately contribute to dementia. Rapidly crashing glucose levels result in feeling famished and makes people very cranky.

I agree. A "huge glucose spike" is not what you'd expect to see after a standard low carb meal. My advice would be to not eat the carbs, rather than to eat the carbs and try to make it look like you didn't.

 

[GIAMARIE]

I have a question about this... so I always have a wholemeal bun or bap with some scrambled eggs in the morning and before breakfast, it's like 11 or 12 something and after 2 hours, it will be raised up to 16 or 17. But if I have no carbs for lunch and dinner, 2 hours after the two meal would be lower than the before meal readings. So what shall I do in this situation? I also tried with wholemeal thin, that raised blood sugar as well.

 

[KennyA]

I have a question about this... so I always have a wholemeal bun or bap with some scrambled eggs in the morning and before breakfast, it's like 11 or 12 something and after 2 hours, it will be raised up to 16 or 17. But if I have no carbs for lunch and dinner, 2 hours after the two meal would be lower than the before meal readings. So what shall I do in this situation? I also tried with wholemeal thin, that raised blood sugar as well.

Bread (wholemeal or not makes little difference) will usually raise everyone's blood glucose, it's the large amount of carb in it, plus the relatively large quantity eaten. Being lower than where you started at the +2 hr test following zero carb meals isn't (I think) a problem - it often happens for me.

What we're aiming for is an overall reduction in blood glucose. Carbohydrate in food is digested to glucose, and it therefore makes sense that we should be restricting taking in carbs/glucose. If I have a a zero carb meal - just eggs, or salami and cheese, or a steak, for example, I won't be taking in any carb and shouldn't see any rise in BG as a result. However if there a is no glucose coming in from food I'll be relying on my liver to adjust my blood glucose, by releasing glucose from stores or making new glucose itself, and to trigger bodyfat usage.

Livers are both a bit unpredictable and slow learners, and will usually try to keep our blood glucose round about where it's been most recently. If it's been higher, it will try to get back to those levels. It took mine months to adjust to me being at lower levels.

does that answer your question?

 

[GIAMARIE]

Bread (wholemeal or not makes little difference) will usually raise everyone's blood glucose, it's the large amount of carb in it, plus the relatively large quantity eaten. Being lower than where you started at the +2 hr test following zero carb meals isn't (I think) a problem - it often happens for me.

What we're aiming for is an overall reduction in blood glucose. Carbohydrate in food is digested to glucose, and it therefore makes sense that we should be restricting taking in carbs/glucose. If I have a a zero carb meal - just eggs, or salami and cheese, or a steak, for example, I won't be taking in any carb and shouldn't see any rise in BG as a result. However if there a is no glucose coming in from food I'll be relying on my liver to adjust my blood glucose, by releasing glucose from stores or making new glucose itself, and to trigger bodyfat usage.

Livers are both a bit unpredictable and slow learners, and will usually try to keep our blood glucose round about where it's been most recently. If it's been higher, it will try to get back to those levels. It took mine months to adjust to me being at lower levels.

does that answer your question?

Thank you for your explanation, Kenny.