• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Low reading after eating potato - confused

C

charon

Well-Known Member
Messages
201
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
I've been following a low carb diet to control things and have been pretty successful.
Breakfast - bacon and eggs
Day - snack on ham/beef/turkey slices, apples, raspberries, blueberries
Dinner chicken/beef/lamb/duck with cabbage, broccoli, mushroom, onion, leek

Haven't had a post prandial above 6.4 lately and it's usually in the low 5's. Pre prandial high 4's.

Today I tried a potato - haven't had those for a few weeks and they seemed to cause a rise of about 1.8-2 but soon came down again.
Pre prandial was 5.5 which was a surprise as I expected it to be in the 4's - could be due to the fruit.
Had the meal - chicken, including half a baked potato, bigger than I tried before.
Post prandial - exactly 2 hours after starting the meal and the reading was 4.7!

I'm pretty happy with the value but feel it important to know why it happened.
I would like to introduce a few carbs into the diet to make it a bit more varied.

Only things I can think of - I'm a bit fitter than I was as I've been getting a lot of exercise over the last few weeks and have lost a bit of weight.
Maybe the liver was trying to deliver glucose and the meal caused it to stop and the cells were ready there to gobble up the glucose.
Maybe it hasn't got into the system yet or has already been and gone.
Edit:- Could also be inaccurate readings or poor testing technique.

Anyone have any thoughts about this?
A similar thing happened a while ago when I had lazagna with baked potato followed by trifle (all home made). BG hardly raised at all.
 
Wow. Why Ur Numbers So Good??!

I also think it has something to do with what you ate with it. I had a few small new potatoes with lamb, sicken and veggies once and got a surprisingly low 6.1 but watch out for later on... It was 19mmol. Yes I had prawn crackers (thought i could get away with it) but still think perhaps there was a delayed reaction from that potato.

I hear conducting information about eating protein with carbs...It's supposed to slow absorption to let your pancreas keep up but then it all becomes a huge amount of glucose anyway?

But you ate just the potato on its own? Well, I'd just say be happy you are amazing! X


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Thanks everyone.

No - it was with a meal - meat and veggies.

>> but watch out for later on... It was 19mmol.
That is a bit worrying.
I did two tests - 2 hours and 3 hours 30 mins as I thought the first was odd. They came back at 4.7 nd 5.0.
Could be due to my body waiting to gobble up any sugar that was available.

Had a similar meal a number of times since and it seems ok.

Also been out for a meal as I wanted to test and things were going well. Had a tandoori mixed grill with salad and large glass of red wine. Went from 5.1 to 7.5 then down to 4.4 in 3 hours. Happy with that and done it again since with similar results (didn't do the 2 hour but was 4.4 after 3 hours).

Had some high readings yesterday - I think due to fruit but will put that in a new post.
 
I've had identical readings with the same meal, one with an apple and one without an apple. I've added some "berry" type fruits to my breakfast, again with no noticeable change in readings, though this type of fruit is very low carb. I think fibre plays a role too, and portion size of course.

I've also heard conflicting information on protein and fat. Cutting carbs so far seems to be successful but high fat is not for me. I don't burn the calories and takes ages for me to digest. I'm concentrating on having adequate healthy fats. I'm not going to take the high saturated fat route that some low-carbers do. It may work for people who do a lot of exercise but it's not for me.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Janecee has it right. Fruit can be a minefield but some are lower carb like berries than others and fiber content helps so things like grapes are a no no (white grape juice produced a 15 in me lol)

I wouldn't worry. GP says I'm totally normal! Same with Janecee!

But yep, there seems to be an art in combining types of food... Fat and protein is confusing but as far as I know you can't go wrong with lots of fiber? (unless you have digestive trouble)

Sorry for all the predictive text typos btw x


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Grapes are best avoided. I used to love them too :-(

15 after grapes isn't normal for a normal person! I've yet to discover what fruits I can and can't eat these days. I'm sorting out my main meals for now and then maybe add fruit later on, once I feel confident about my numbers.

These GPs are infuriating. The problem is they won't order a glucose test these days even though it would show where the problem occurs. But I suppose that's another topic for another thread, and I've ranted enough already. Even if I did my own and told the GP, I bet the response would be, "We'll, if you drink Lucozade you would get high blood sugar. That's normal".


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Back
Top