Interesting test results after eating out

[NeilHewitt]

Hi all.

I'm still pretty new to the whole Type 2 thing, and I'm starting to work out what my reactions to different meals are using the usual 'test, eat, wait 2 hours and test again' routine, and I've had some interesting results.

Specifically, over the weekend I decided to go to Nandos (which is very close to my favourite thing) and in the interests of greater understanding (and definitely not self-indulgence) I had my usual pre-diagnosis meal - chicken thighs, fries and spicy rice. I know, potatoes and rice? And I believe it starts out as white rice, too - it's yellow by the time you get to eat it. The fries are just that, deep-fried.

Reading before eating (and this was fasting, too, as I didn't have breakfast that day): 6.2. Higher than you'd like, obviously, but it's early days for me and I've only lost 2kg so far. Reading 2 hours after eating: 7.1 So, I had fried potatoes and white rice (and not small portions of either) and my BG only went up 0.9? I checked again 2 hours after that just in case it was a late spike and that one came out at 6.0.

Now: I know the meters we can buy are not necessarily super-accurate, but unless the reading was wildly inaccurate this suggests to me that my body was reasonably OK with that carb load. Which seems... optimistic.

Any thoughts?

Aside from this I've been pretty good about sticking to low-carb-high-fat and have been seeing fasting numbers hovering around 6.0 and post-meal numbers around 7.0 most of the time. I'm on 2g Metformin per day as 2 x 2 x 500mg, but this isn't supposed to do that much for your post-meal BG numbers, as I understand it.

Not looking for an excuse to eat loads of carbs (honest), but I'm really surprised by these results.

 

[Bluetit1802]

Sounds positive, but you have no idea when the peak was, nor what it was.
Perhaps next time you carb-load, test at an hour and also 90 minutes after first bite. Also half hourly after the 2 hour mark.
Also it may well affect the fasting reading the following morning.
Please be careful.

 

[PenguinMum]

You may be lucky enough to get away with it occasionally. I am almost a year into LCHF and rice or chips would send my BG rocketing. About a month ago I found myself away from home and just needed food and had a fish and chips. Despite scraping off the batter on the fish and only eating about 15 chips my BG post 2 hours had risen by 6 mmol which horrified me. I avoid starches except very occasionally Liv Life toast which I freeze in two slice bags. Then again we are all individual and you might fare better. But as @bluetit said: Please be careful.

 

[NeilHewitt]

Yes, true - perhaps I did spike high then come down quickly. I guess the safest option is just to assume the usual bad stuff will be bad and avoid it on principle.

It is odd, though. It's almost like some days I'm fine and some days I'm not. But you can't have 'intermittent' Type 2.

A continuous BG monitor would be such a useful thing for newbies like me. I see the FreeStyle Libre is sold out still. Mind you, £60 every two weeks for a new sensor is a bit much. I'm in the lucky position where I could afford it if I needed it, but very few people are.

In the meantime my fingertips are starting to look like I'm handling porcupines all day long

(I'm not looking forward to next week, BTW. I'm in the Czech Republic all week - I go for a week every few weeks for work. I don't know how Czech diabetics cope but there's certainly no 'no added sugar' products over there! Coke Zero is about it for non-sugary drinks other than water. And low-carb eating is not easy at all.)

 

[Guzzler]

I'm sure the Czechs have eggs and bacon, charcuterie and cheeses as well as salads and roasted meats.
Chips look like chips all over the world as does bread, biscuits etc. If you struggle then you can only do your best. Hope its a good trip, have fun.

 

[NeilHewitt]

Thanks, Guzzler. When you travel on business you tend to end up stuck with hotel food or restaurant food. Czech food is very meat-oriented, which is good, but has lots of carb-y dumplings and breads and pastries. Not a whole lot of green veg. Of course if you eat the meat and leave the rest they get offended about the food not being good enough. I should learn the Czech for 'I am diabetic'.

When I'm not dining out with colleagues during the week, I go to Tesco and stock up on as much low-carb stuff as I can fit in my mini-bar fridge. Thankfully they have Greek yoghurt, and I even managed to get some raspberries when I was there last (the fruit selection is tiny compared to ours). I take my own sweeteners for tea etc (can't yet live with unsweetened tea). But it's definitely poor pickings compared to what I can have in the UK.

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

It is odd, though. It's almost like some days I'm fine and some days I'm not.

I've thought that for a while. I've been using a FreeStyle Libre for some time and with some very restrictive eating, VLCD, I have gone through several months with my BG staying between 5 and 7, not even dawn phenomena, whooopee. Then I had the flu, decided to have a few treats and that was only a few scones with the cream that is frequently recommended plus I started to eat more meat (had been restricting that to weekends only). At the time I was pleased that with the scones my BG went up to a max of 9 and quickly dropped, I didn't push my luck but did go for the extra meat during the week. My BG started to go bonkers especially in the morning when the dawn phenomena returned with a vengeance.

Things are better but the dawn phenomena is still there.

I have had three insulin resistance tests over a 2 year period, 1 is the number to go for, meaning no resistance, my test results have been 1.7 then 2.4 and then 1.7 again, so it does change, and can go either way. How quickly is another question.