JoKalsbeek
Expert
- Messages
- 5,937
- Type of diabetes
- I reversed my Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
A HbA1c of 6,5 is still in the diabetic range, though not terribly so. A few dietary tweaks should work to get your blood glucose lower.Thanks for your detailed response. I am just trying to get the issues clear in my head. For a lifelong vegetarian its not quite as easy to drastically reduce carbs as might appear, particularly if you are often not in a position to make your own food. But thanks to you, I now have a better understanding of it.
Am I right in saying that if I am "Insulin Resistant" then peaks will take much longer to come down? Just out of interest, if its straight up and down quickly, its unlikely to be insulin resistance? (hasten to add - mine doesn't come down overly quickly). Is there a definitive test that confirms whether its lack of insulin, Insulin resistance or both?
My one week old Libre is showing HbA1c of 6.5. So that doesn't look too bad and my average glucose is 7.7.
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/vegetarian-diet-forum.71/ is a subforum with vegetarians who are managing their diabetes mostly if not entirely through diet, so you might get some ideas there. As you're not vegan, I assume cheeses are still on the menu. Eggs maybe? Those are zero carbs. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/recipes/vegetarian has a bunch of meal ideas, so it can be done... Quorn, tempeh, mushrooms and such are quite alright, carb-wise. You've been on a restrictive diet by choice, making a few tweaks to it should be do-able... (I don't know if you mean you eat out a lot, but kitchens will be happy to work with you, if it means they don't have to throw perfectly good food out and keep a happy (repeat) customer). Shirataki noodles, keto mug bread (almond flour based), stuff like that are fine... Just add in extra protein, and make sure your meals are based around above ground veg and leafy greens besides the proteins, preferably no pulses unless your meter tells you you don't respond badly to them. (I can't have them, others can. It's a toss-up.). Just stay away from most fruit, save for berries and maybe star fruit...
With insulin resistance you have a lot of insulin, but it doesn't do its job. So yeah, it can take a while for your blood sugars to come on down. That's why we usually measure 2 hours after the first bite. If it's gone up no more than 2.0 mmol/l, our response was okay... That means we miss the spike, which usually comes sooner (unless the meal is both carby and fatty, as fat slows down the uptake), but we can see whether our body could cope. If it's over 2.0 mmol, it couldn't. Excess glucose gets stored in fat cells, and we get more insulin resistant, as especially abdominal fat can make this worse. Also, if your blood glucose spiked and went down really quickly, you wouldn't be diabetic. Non-diabetics can actually spike, they just get back into the normal range right-quick.
There are tests you can do, like an OGTT (Oral glucose tolerance test, preferably the extended version), so you can see how fast or slow, as the case may be, your body spikes and lowers. And with a C-peptide test they can measure whether you make ample amounts of insulin. That's usually used to determine type though, together with a GAD (antibody) test, as a lack of insulin means you're a T1 variant, not a T2.
I can't have anything planty anymore, turns out my kidneys don't like the oxalates they contain, and my gut doesn't like them for some reason either, so I've gone carnivore. I'd kill for a salad at this point in my life. Please have some extra greens for me sometime, I miss them terribly.
Good luck,
Jo