Is milk my problem?

[Clematis1]

I had a blood test in June and was told the result was 49. I cut out a lot of sugar after seeing a diabetes nurse and took another test after 12 weeks, only to find out my levels had only gone down to 46. Feeling very despondent I started looking at carbs but my latest test shows my level is now 47. I am now wondering if milky drinks are my problem, I probably drink 4 coffees a day made with semi skimmed milk. There is so much conflicting information out there. I only weigh 8 and a half stone, am 5ft 5 and am 62. Otherwise very healthy and active.

 

[Antje77]

I had a blood test in June and was told the result was 49. I cut out a lot of sugar after seeing a diabetes nurse and took another test after 12 weeks, only to find out my levels had only gone down to 46. Feeling very despondent I started looking at carbs but my latest test shows my level is now 47. I am now wondering if milky drinks are my problem, I probably drink 4 coffees a day made with semi skimmed milk. There is so much conflicting information out there. I only weigh 8 and a half stone, am 5ft 5 and am 62. Otherwise very healthy and active.

Hi @Clematis1 , welcome to the forum.

Would you like to share what else you usually eat throughout the day?
I don't know how much milk you use in your coffee, but I'd expect other foods are contributing more to the carbs you have than those 4 coffees.

As for the conflicting information, what about using a glucose meter before and two hours after meals to see how those meals affect you? A meter doesn't have any bias over one diet over the other, it just shows you what is, and you can work with that.

 

[Clematis1]

Hi @Clematis1 , welcome to the forum.

Would you like to share what else you usually eat throughout the day?
I don't know how much milk you use in your coffee, but I'd expect other foods are contributing more to the carbs you have than those 4 coffees.

As for the conflicting information, what about using a glucose meter before and two hours after meals to see how those meals affect you? A meter doesn't have any bias over one diet over the other, it just shows you what is, and you can work with that.

Thank you for your reply. I have all milk in my coffees, no water. I have never been recommended to use a glucose monitor but after reading many of the posts on this site, it seems a good idea.

 

[Rachox]

If you have 4 x 250ml of semi skimmed milk per day that amounts to around 50g carbs per day. That is more than my daily total for all food and drink. However I am type 2 you are pre diabetic so could probably have a higher daily amount. As @Antje77 says if you could tell us what you eat in a typical day we might be able to find some tweaks you could make. Testing too would give you so much info to learn from.

 

[Paul_]

Thank you for your reply. I have all milk in my coffees, no water. I have never been recommended to use a glucose monitor but after reading many of the posts on this site, it seems a good idea.

I would 100% agree with the advice on testing from @Antje77 and on this forum generally.

I was told by my diabetic nurse that I didn't need to test and shouldn't do so. I ignored that advice. Testing, without question, has allowed me to make my new diet more sustainable and enjoyable - it brings light to the darkness. Not only does it show you the foods your body can't process efficiently, it allows you to adjust portion sizes of carby foods so you can still enjoy some of it, just with a serving that your body can handle. This is particularly important for prediabetes in my opinion, as it's sometimes tempting to completely eliminate foods from your diet, where simply reducing the portion size instead would have a significantly beneficial effect.

 

[ianf0ster]

Testing meals also allows you to see progress being made. If you have DP and only test fasted then you might easily not notice any progress, Even when it's obvious from the before and after testing of meals.

 

[Resurgam]

I use filtered coffee with cream.
I suspect that there are several different problems all labelled type 2, but hopefully cutting back on carbs whilst eating freely of protein and fats - both essential for life, will prove beneficial.
Although many go on about reducing sugar, it is both starch and sugars which elevate blood glucose once digested

 

[Clematis1]

I usually have porridge for breakfast with a little fruit. Then lunch is either a slice of whole meal bread with poached egg or some tinned fish, or homemade soup. If I am working, a sandwich probably with prawns or salmon. Then some plain Greek yoghurt and a banana or some mixed nuts. Dinner is meat or fish, vegetables or salad and usually sweet potato. In between I have four coffees made with all milk. If that is 50g of carbs a day that is huge. I think I need to buy a test kit to see what the culprit is. Cutting out sugar hasn’t helped.

 

[Antje77]

I usually have porridge for breakfast with a little fruit. Then lunch is either a slice of whole meal bread with poached egg or some tinned fish, or homemade soup. If I am working, a sandwich probably with prawns or salmon. Then some plain Greek yoghurt and a banana or some mixed nuts. Dinner is meat or fish, vegetables or salad and usually sweet potato. In between I have four coffees made with all milk. If that is 50g of carbs a day that is huge. I think I need to buy a test kit to see what the culprit is. Cutting out sugar hasn’t helped.

Porridge, fruit, whole meal bread, possibly the soup, depending on ingredients, sandwich, banana, and sweet potato are all high carb foods. So I think you have lots of options to get your numbers down a bit more!
As for the coffee with all milk, what about making it with a mix of water and cream, so you'll still have the full flavour but with less carbs?

I think a glucose meter will be very helpful to find out more.
You might like to have a read of this as well, written by one of our members and very informative: https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html

 

[Clematis1]

Thank you so much for the information. There is a lot of things to consider here. A monitor is the way forward and I will revisit the carbs whilst upping the protein

 

[JenniferM55]

Can I suggest you use one of the free apps to track and learn the carb content of foods you are consuming, there's FatSecret, CarbManager, MyFitnessPal and many others, I personally use Cronometer through a browser. Cronometer also registers vitamins, minerals and other nutritional values of each food. Be prepared to be shocked at carb values of each food i.e. 'know your enemy' .

 

[Rachox]

I would encourage you to get a blood sugar meter, here’s some info with links for UK meters, and to be clear I have no commercial connections with any of the companies mentioned.
Thought I’d post this before someone tags me!



HOME HEALTH have the Gluco Navii, which is a fairly new model and seems to be getting good reviews.

https://homehealth-uk.com/all-produ...ose-meter-test-strips-choose-mmol-l-or-mg-dl/



Links to the strips for future orders:

https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/glucose-navii-blood-glucose-test-strips-50-strip-pack/



Then they sell the older SD Code Free, details to be found here!

https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/





SPIRIT HEALTHCARE have a meter called the Tee2 + which is quite popular:

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...e2-blood-glucose-meter?variant=19264017268793



The strips are to be found here:

https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...py-of-tee2-test-strips?variant=19264017367097



If there is a choice of units of measurement then ‘mmol/L’ are the standard units in the UK, ‘mg/dl’ in the US, other countries may vary.



Don’t forget to check the box if you have pre diabetes or diabetes so you can buy VAT free. (for all meters and strips)

 

[LivingLightly]

Evening @Clematis1. While awaiting delivery of your glucose meter and to answer your original question, milky drinks could certainly be part of your problem. You can pour an awful lot of lactose (milk sugar) into a cup of coffee made with semi-skimmed milk and no water.

Double cream contains less carbohydrate than skimmed, semi-skimmed or whole milk because during the cream-making process, the sugar is consumed by the bacteria that curdle the milk, leaving us with a delicious high-fat, low-carb cream that IMO makes the perfect partner for coffee.

However you brew your coffee, making it with water and then adding double cream as @Antje77 suggests, allows the coffee flavour to shine through. The chances are you would use less cream than your current semi-skimmed milk consumption, so that too would reduce your carbohydrate intake.

 

[saky]

I too drink a lot of coffee but with almond milk/soy milk/coconut milk. Cow milk doesn't suit me. Cow milk has lactose and even if I add 50ml in coffee, my blood sugar spikes. Many times I get polyphagia/hyperphagia i.e frequent hunger(hungry after drinking milk or eating carbs) after drinking cow milk coffee. I switched to plant based milk.

 

[jaywak]

Milk perhaps like it does to me have a strange effect on your blood sugar , if when I go to bed with a bg of 5 - 6 and have a 10 carb biscuit my bg stays stable throughout the night , if instead of the biscuit I have a milky coffee I can now guarantee that 2 hours later I will get an alarm from my Libre telling me i'me going high and I give myself a couple of units of insulin to bring it down to about 7 - 8 when I wake in the morning , this has happened several times so now milk is banned before bed .

 

[Westley]

I've often had the impression that warm milk spikes me a lot more than cold, and more than the equivalent carbs from other sources.

A flat white ( <150ml of milk and a double espresso shot) typically causes a bigger BG rise for me than a post workout shake with 400ml of cold milk.
(A double espresso without milk has only a very small effect on my BG.)

Then again, it could just be more about the exercise and time of day, I've never tried to do a strict comparison controlling for all other factors.

 

[Danmiluk]

My blood sugars were sky rocketing everyday but hardly ate anything, then would have days that I would eat certain foods to see what was making me do that. Never really helped find out what was making my blood sugar levels skyrocket.

1 day I was at a friend's house but he doesn't take milk so none in his house so I drank black coffee. Ended up in a hypo only to come round in the back of an ambulance.

So, from that day on, black coffees for me.
That was 5 years ago never looked back.

 

[rexonaut]

I had a blood test in June and was told the result was 49. I cut out a lot of sugar after seeing a diabetes nurse and took another test after 12 weeks, only to find out my levels had only gone down to 46. Feeling very despondent I started looking at carbs but my latest test shows my level is now 47. I am now wondering if milky drinks are my problem, I probably drink 4 coffees a day made with semi skimmed milk. There is so much conflicting information out there. I only weigh 8 and a half stone, am 5ft 5 and am 62. Otherwise very healthy and active.

I do not know about the milk as I can’t use fresh milk products - just a bit hard cheese. For me gluten is rising blood sugar and lot. It is not the case for many others. It is very individual.

 

[Clematis1]

When I posted my question I didn’t know if I would get any responses so I am overwhelmed by the advice and support I’ve received. I wish I had joined this forum earlier. Thank you

 

[jaywak]

I used oat milk for a long time solely because I think it tasted better than cows milk , but I did notice sometimes that my blood sugars were spiking for no reason that I could explain but then narrowed it down to possibly the milk so googled it and found there were pages about it spiking bg even in non diabetics , so cut out the oat milk and blimey no more unexplained spikes , at its worst it once shot up to 19 .