Is this an early sign bread is not working for me?

[caroluk]

Good afternoon all,

As you may have read i bought some test strips yesterday and began testing. I have also been watchin the carbs ad getting superb results - here's me upto now..

Before tea yesterday 5.9
2 hours after tea 5.4 ( roast chicken 4 small ( tiny ) new spuds , large portion veg and gravy.
no snacks before bed and bed reading 5.2

Morning reading on waking before getting out of bed 5.8
breakfast coffee with tiny amount of semi skimmedmilk 2 small slices of toasted granery bread with vitalite
1 hour after 10.4 thought yikes! ran around with the hoover - cleaned wndows - hopped on exercise bike for 5 mins ( was knackered by now lol )
2 hours after finishing breakfast 7.4

before dinner 5.4
2 egg omlette 4 slices boiled ham and 2 slices cheese glass of water
2 hours after 5.9

Now i know it's early days and i will get highs and okays whilst going through the testing period but do you think the readings from my toast are too high for 1 hour reading and still not great after 2 hours? Could my favourite vice bread be my bane in life!

Thanks in advance

Carol xx

 

[Dennis]

Hi Carol,
One hour after eating is the worst time that you can test because that is generally the point that your BS will be at its highest. You were 5.8 before breakfast but had dropped back to only 7.4 two hours after breakfast. That would seem to indicate that those breakfast carbs were still being worked on by your insulin, but by your next meal you were back to the pre-breakfast level.

So what does that tell us? Well, probably that although your body's insulin is doing the trick, it is taking its time to do it. That could be due to a number of different things, but the most likely would be that you don't have a first-phase insulin production or that you have a level of insulin resistance that is making it hard for the insulin to do its job as quickly as it should.

If you compare that result with dinner - 5.4 before and 5.9 after 2 hours - your dinner had hardly any carbs so even if you were to have tested 1 hour after eating, it probably wouldn't have been particularly high.

What these results seem to be pointing to is that you may find it difficult to gain good control on diet alone and you may need some help from an oral med. However, its early days yet, so just keep on as you are, keep testing and see if you can see a pattern emerging.

Incidentally your pre-meal readings are excellent, so it shouldn't take a great deal of tweaking for you to have non-diabetic readings regularly.

 

[caroluk]

Thank you very much for the replies.

I'm hoping to stay away from meds as long as possible and am hoping for 6 months grace to get diet/exercise weight off etc before giving into meds if advised.

I'm thinking my DN or GP will not have met someone as determined as myself with this and sincerely hope i can prove it can be done. With the help of you fine people

Very early days but i feel so much more relaxed since testing. I feel the one in control now!

Carol xx

 

[timo2]

Hello Carol,

Many people find that they're naturally more insulin resistant in the morning than at other
times of day. Also, caffeine can have a tendency to raise blood sugar levels in some people.

These factors combined with your irrational hankering for granary bread, mean that your
post-breakfast sugars are spoiling an otherwise very respectable day's results.

All the best,
timo.

 

[hanadr]

If you feel you really MUST have bread, make some from Fergus's recipe, or buy low carb bread like Nimble or Weight watchers.

 

[Trinkwasser]

Your numbers are great, dump the bread and you will be the envy of many on here.

The very best of luck, Eddie

Agreed. And with the other comments too.

You don't have to eat breakfast foods for breakfast

http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/ ... fasts.html

I eat mostly fish (or bacon, or sometimes lamb chops) with masses of salad, toasted sunflower seeds, a couple of olives and a couple of oatcakes (max. about 15g carbs) this will keep me going for hours on the protein and fat and fibre combo.

Try something more like your other meals and we can send you home with your Normal badge

 

[hoolyuk]

Any kind of bread, semi skimmed milk, and bananas have sent my BG soaring since i started monitoring.

Would be worried that increasing meat in diet to substitute for carbs would increase cholesterol though.

 

[caroluk]

Not had bananas yet will test them tomorrow. Porridge was great for me today.

I don't thnk i could face lamb chops for brekky at 7.30am but hey i never say never :wink:

Thanks for al the advice and am going to buy some WW bread and see what effect that has as i won't know till i try.

Carol xx

 

[Trinkwasser]

Would be worried that increasing meat in diet to substitute for carbs would increase cholesterol though.

Try it and see, you'll probably be surprised. Carbs are turned into triglycerides. Without them the balance of HDL to LDL changes. Most people find fats are NOT the evil they have been made out to be, in the absence of excess carbs. YMMV obviously.

 

[hoolyuk]

Hmmm...have had raised triglycerides this past 3 or 4 years...they sort of up and down, but always too high. Be interesting to see if they down any at next test.

Some good readings on this non-working day....9.8 after two boiled eggs, two yoghurts [bout 40g of carbs] and a cuppa char [with a skite of milk] this morning was the highest, and 5.1 before my plateful of meat at 6pm is the lowest since i started monitoring.

Should i treat "carbohydrates" and "carbohydrates that sugar" as one and the same?

 

[Trinkwasser]

Hmmm...have had raised triglycerides this past 3 or 4 years...they sort of up and down, but always too high. Be interesting to see if they down any at next test.

I got mine down to about 10% of what they were by dropping the carbs. Go for it!

Some good readings on this non-working day....9.8 after two boiled eggs, two yoghurts [bout 40g of carbs] and a cuppa char [with a skite of milk] this morning was the highest, and 5.1 before my plateful of meat at 6pm is the lowest since i started monitoring.

Should i treat "carbohydrates" and "carbohydrates that sugar" as one and the same?

Undoubtedly. That's about 3x the carbs I can safely eat at breakfast - and I'm on the higher end of the range compared to many.

Try it again with one yoghurt and zero yoghurts, and maybe add a handful of salad.

http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2006/ ... fasts.html

 

[Dennis]

Should i treat "carbohydrates" and "carbohydrates that sugar" as one and the same?

You certainly should. The ones that are sugar will just hit your blood sugar immediately. The rest will raise it more slowly. For example a yogurt with "16g carbs, of which 7g sugar" just means that the 7g sugar will cause an immediate raise in your BS, whereas the other 9g will raise your sugar more slowly, usually between 15 and 45 minutes after eating it.

 

[hoolyuk]

How long after you've eaten carbs do they stay in your system affecting BG readings?

I had [for me] a carb starvation day on thurs and still seem to be getting good readings, despite diet not being great since fri.