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Meal confusion

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happycat

Well-Known Member
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How many meals should a type 2 have? I read somewhere that it is a good idea to spread the food eaten across the day having maybe a snack mid morning, afternoon and evening before bed so making six instead of three times to eat. The article said that this helped to maintain blood glucose levels so that there were no "spikes". Is this good advice or are three meals better? How does it fit in with taking blood glucose readings? Any views? :)
 
I eat when I'm hungry

When I started out I was eating little, often (2 hourly) mainly because I wanted to test food out.

Now I have 3 meals, rarely snack but if I do it'll be a piece of ham or cheese etc.

I do try to not go too long between my meals just as I did before I was diagnosed but don't worry if my day doesn't pan out

Mary x
 
In my albeit uneducated opinion (Diagnosed T2 about a month ago with BG 22.1) I never ate breakfast and tended to 'graze' throughout the day with only a decent evening meal. Now I force myself to eat a breakfast, a small meal at lunch and a decent evening meal. My BG levels have reduced massively, I have lost over a stone in weight and feel so much better for it. Personally I am happy with three normal(ish) size meals with changes ie low or no carbs. No chocolate or sweets but I do indulge in a Costa Hot Chocolate made with soya milk. Thought I would hate it but it really is tastier and creamier than normal milk. Hope that helps you a little bit.

Regards

Chris Sargeant.
 
happycat said:
How many meals should a type 2 have? I read somewhere that it is a good idea to spread the food eaten across the day having maybe a snack mid morning, afternoon and evening before bed so making six instead of three times to eat. The article said that this helped to maintain blood glucose levels so that there were no "spikes". Is this good advice or are three meals better? How does it fit in with taking blood glucose readings? Any views? :)
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I was advised by my nurse to eat little and often. I did much testing on myself while trying all sorts of approaches and I came to this conclusion.

Imagine your blood glucose level readings being entered onto a graph. The line across the graph will go up and down during the day. Keeping the line as flat as possible is a better technique if you can cope with it. This is not an invitation to eat more food but a device to eat your food in a more controlled way. To put it another way, if you have starters, main meal, sweet, cheese and biscuits and Irish coffee all at one sitting then you may be doing it wrong.

How does it fit in with taking blood glucose readings?

You can have your main meal in accordance with your diabetic diet and test two hours later. At this point your blood glucose graph should be going down. At this point you can have a snack. After a while this will cause your graph to go up. Keeping it away from starvation levels is a good idea because it prevents a liver dump with the ensuing confusion.

I don't test after every meal or anything like. I just test after the main meal if I think I might have over indulged and sometimes I don't and test after the evening meal instead.

This is how I carry on anyway and in the dips in the graph I have drunk much wine, eaten much chocolate and even eaten sweets. It might not work for everyone but it got my Hba1c down to 42.
 
Daibell said:
Hi. Yes, little and often keeps spikes to a minimum but you need to carb count to some extent to avoid the total building-up for the day.
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I totally agree which is why I said eat your main meal in accordance with your diabetes diet. As for the "snacks" these should reflect your individual condition also. I can let my hair down because I am not a very serious case.
 
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