Low Carbers - how strict are you?

[Listlad]

"Sorry for all the detail, but I was trying to explain that I tend to make conscious choices when I eat carbs, factoring in things like portion, rarety, pleasure, fat, fibre, rate of digestion, gut consequences, availability of toilets the next day. I can’t ‘fill up on veg’ any more, so I tend to eat v small portions of intensely pleasurable carbs instead. To relieve the sameness of my otherwise carnivorous existence. "

re "all the detail", I disagree since often the devil can be found in the detail. Because of this , I found your post very very useful and I am sure others will also .Brava!!!

Agreed. It isn’t all about the number of carbs eaten. Or the percent carb content. It isn’t a straight numbers game.

 

[Cocosilk]

I’m finding a lot of the time my numbers are lower after eating. Is that normal?

So I might be 5.6 then after 2 hrs I’m 5.4

Most of my days are simply skipping breakfast, a light protein/fat lunch (like smoked mackerel) and then a heavier protein evening meal (like pork shoulder or minced beef). I haven’t eaten veg for around 15 months, since I had a tummy bug which left me with a problem with fibre.

So a higher carb day would be the exception, and I kep to low fibre too. We went out for dinner to catch up with a friend. I ordered the cheese and bacon double patty burger, no bun. 100% beef. It came with the usual gubbins. Of which I left the tomato, the lettuce, the gherkin wedge (even though this place has the mildest most crunchily perfect gherkins. Lol). I left the chips too. But I did eat a single mouthful of their excellent coleslaw and a couple of their huge beer battered onion rings which are exquisite, dusted with cumin - and are the reason we go there.

Didn’t test that particular meal. However, wearing the Libre for these burgers in the past has taught me that I am likely to brush the high 7s/low 8s for approx 20 mins (when the onion rings hit). My peaks are never at 1 hour, and are usually at 2.5 hours. The rest of the time I just hang around the high 5s and 6s.

There was gluten in the onion rings too, of course. I am usually gluten free because it gives me psoriasis, painful joints, gut issues and wangy blood glucose. These symptoms arrived (quite mildly), right on schedule over the next few days, then left again, equally on schedule. Blood glucose was more up-and-down for about 5 days, but since I just went straight back to my usual less than 10g carbs a day, this was barely noticeable.

Not something I do regularly, but it is an acceptable rarity, and I do love those onion rings...

Another example of a higher carb day was yesterday. This time, it was a gluten free low carb bread that Mr B and I are testing out. He really misses bread. I don’t. I had 2 slices of the stuff (1.3g carbs and 5 g fibre per slice) with peanut butter on top (heaven knows how much carb, but I was generous). Then with my evening meal I had 7 g carbs in 72% choc. Am currently waiting to see what effect the fibre will have...

Sorry for all the detail, but I was trying to explain that I tend to make conscious choices when I eat carbs, factoring in things like portion, rarety, pleasure, fat, fibre, rate of digestion, gut consequences, availability of toilets the next day. I can’t ‘fill up on veg’ any more, so I tend to eat v small portions of intensely pleasurable carbs instead. To relieve the sameness of my otherwise carnivorous existence.

This is all fascinating! Eating is such a highly personal thing, as you said. We all have a love of different things and bad reactions to other things. Listening to you talk about your reaction to fibre and gluten made me think of Jordan Peterson's daughter with all of her ailments for years prior to finally eating only beef and salt.

I can understand how it gets a bit same-ish when you aren't eating a great variety and your way of eating pleasurable carbs is already something I was doing before diagnosis. I had heard of the keto diet before I found out about the gestational diabetes and was eating eggs and veggies or meat and salads for meals regularly leaving out major carb groups with the idea I could treat myself to a coffee and cake at some other point in the day. But I would also eat carb meals on top of generous fats, as well as sweet treats with my teas and coffees, so since I had kids over the last nearly 5 years, I've just been overeating a bit more than I used to and eating higher fat while still eating carbs is a recipe for disaster obviously .
But now I have limited carb portions (while pregnant still), but also because it's more (emotionally) sustainable at the moment to reduce portions rather than try to cut them out entirely, but still allow myself a "carb treat" as well as a small portion of apparently healthy carbs for fibre, like my husband's homemade sourdough rye bread, or a half cup of tinned lentils. I'm still not sure whether fibre helps any more with bowel movements than having fats or good oils though. I know the psyllium husks in the keto bread I made recently definitely made me more bloated than anything. Bloating on top of heavy pregnancy is not a state I enjoy.

My carb treats are maybe a small slice of sourdough rye with raspberries on top instead of jam. Kinda healthy still. Or a spoon of honey in homemade custard (which is just eggs, milk, cream, vanilla bean paste and cinnamon). The honey gives me a spike if I eat a big bowl so I have to watch out for that. I have chocolate in the cupboard but haven't had any for a week or so. I know I can have a small square of one of the dark chocolates and it doesn't spike my sugars too much.

You talk about gluten giving you psoriasis. I've had dermatitis come and go on the palms of my hands for many many years. I know dishwashing liquids definitely exacerbate it because if I skip doing dishes for a day, it settles, but I've wondered if grain or gluten allergy could also be a factor because I sometimes get the dermatitis on my elbows and lower legs near my ankles and I've read that can be a kind of gluten allergy too. I'll have to do an elimination diet one day and find out.

I was curious, with your spikes being more at the 2.5 hour mark, is that what happens when you've had diabetes for many years? Or is that about the kinds of foods you are eating?

 

[Brunneria]

My 2.5hr peaks (not spikes, because I don't get spikes unless I eat too much carbohydrate), are very gentle rises and falls.
Protein (which is what I mainly eat, in form of fish, meat, eggs, cheese and so on) is slow to digest, much slower than carbs.
So digestion takes longer. So the glucose reaches the bloodstream more slowly too.
If I ate fruit or carby sweets, then I would get the typical spike somewhere in the first 30-90mins, and then be dropping at 2 hours.

I also tend to eat a good chunk of the protein before any carbs. In the case of the burger and onion rings I mentioned above, I ate at least half the meat before having the onion rings, effectively 'lining' my stomach with meat, and slowing the carb digestion down, which gives a 'drip feed' glucose release rather than a flood.

Another technique is to eat a salad or veg starter, to 'line' the stomach with fibre.

HOWEVER this isn't a good idea for people on insulin, since insulin acts on a particular timeframe, and if you mess around with slowing your digestion down, the insulin can 'hit' first and cause a hypo before enough glucose is released from the food to balance the insulin. Foods such as pizza which are combo of fat, protein and carbs play havoc for insulin users, since the protein and fat in the food slows the digestion down, and people sometimes have to spread their insulin doses into 2 or more smaller injections to prevent a rise in glucose hours later than for other foods. Not that I have ever used insulin, but I use the same principles to prevent sharp rises. Although no system is perfect.