my lunch...what made my bg spike?

It is probably the fact that your BG was 4.2. When you get to around 4.0, your body will top your BG level up, regardless of whether you eat anything or not. You were near that limit. You are right, the lunch doesn't have much in it, I doubt the tomatoes had much sugar in them, so it is probably more to do with the homeostatic process called gluconeogenesis, literally, glucose new creation.

aqualung said:

For my lunch today I had a salad on a small side plate so not huge. My bg pre lunch was 4.2, after 2 hours it was 5.6. I didn't expect my bg to rise that much

My salad consisted of:

salad (lettuce, grated carrot and red cabbage) - more lettuce than carrot and red cabbage
brie
5 small pickled onions
2 cherry tomatoes
cucumber
2 thin slices of chorizo

What could have made my bg spike?

Should I be looking at the 5.6 at 2 hours rather than the rise from 4.2 to 5.6?

It is the bg level of 4.2 that threw me as it is rarely that low!

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What would your more usual pre reading be, and if your test had been at that level, would the 5.6 have been acceptable? Did you re-test the pre meal, or just enjoy how low it was (we've all done that at some stage!)?

Being hot and sweaty can be a symptom of raised sugars ( or the change which I think has some impact on my BS levels)
6.6 isn't bad for a post meal reading especially one with gravy and a spud and berries. I would think that you are probably right that it is just the fact that you had both that pushed you higher than you like. I know I tend to only have berries and yogurt if I've had a lightish evening meal and never after one with gravy as I know that raises my BS levels enough.

To me it looks like a perfectly normal rise after eating. The body as Yorkman says tries to keep the glucose levels within a narrow band and if it is too low then less insulin will be released and glucagon will stimulate the liver to release some more glucose (your liver is actually continually releasing glucose between meals, it isn't just food that causes the levels to rise)
The rise isn't high either.
Have a look at this graph, It shows the glucose levels from a group of young non diabetic people wearing a continuous monitor.
The average person in this group started with 80mg/dl, (4.4mmol/l) at 12.30 before lunch, BG rose to about 6.2 mmol/l ( about 112mg/dl) and they hadn't completely returned to 80mg/dl until 18.00. Even more telling are the brown lines which shows those with levels within the normal variation of these perfectly normal non diabetics. The upper line shows that for some levels rose from100mg/dl ( 5.5mmol/l to 140mg/dl (7.7mmol/l). Other studies with older non diabetic people have shown much larger rises and higher post meal levels.

Yesterday my bg before lunch was 7.9 (at the moment they are around 7 mark) but 2 hours after lunch spiked to 17.6, retested to make sure and again it was round the same figure. My lunch was ham sandwich with lettuce in brown bread which I have everyday but normally I have apple but I decided to have a satsuma instead reliesed now bad mistake. Annoying thou cos I love satsumas. Oh well gone back to apple today bg back down as normal. Live and learn

It would be the cherry tomatoes. I've experienced this recently.

Tomatoes are a fruit, I keep reminding myself. I find that only blueberries and melon keep me within range.

Wullie said:

It would be the cherry tomatoes. I've experienced this recently.

Tomatoes are a fruit, I keep reminding myself. I find that only blueberries and melon keep me within range.

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I can eat 8 cherry toms without any trouble, and also one large vine tomato with my bacon and eggs.

That's an acceptable rise after eating, nothing like a spike. I wouldn't worry about it at all, it's clearly a good meal for you.

And do remember finger prick testing has a reasonable margin of error every time.