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

No nightime production of insulin + I work nights

C

CaroleHumphreys

Member
Messages
9
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
I've been prediabetic for several years and used to manage to keep to a healthy diet and my weight was within the perameters for my height or would veer towards being half a stone overweight at worse.

I started working on nights three years ago and I've gained 2 1/2 stone in weight. My body is unable to produce insulin at night and I'm finding it impossible to eat a healthily during nightshifts and often resort to snack foods. I've asked my GP for advice and he was unable to come up with anything other than that I need to think of a creative solution to the problem!!! My shifts are twelve hours long, so starvation is not an option.

As a consequence of working nights, my weightgain, my being too exhausted to exercise on my days off, and my also being a smoker, I now have sky-high blood pressure and feel like a ticking time-bomb. I've booked an appointment with the smoking clinic and I'm having to monitor my bp several times a day; but I dearly need help and advice over diet - what can I possibly eat at night which will sustain me and yet not add to the problem? I tried snacking on slices of cucumber tonight and that was tedious.

BTW both my late parents were type 2 diabetics, and my father was on tablets for hypertension all his adult life.
 
Hi and welcome

In my experience (being both a binge eater and starver) I have found that actually starving yourself can make your BG go UP anyway, so it could be counter-productive if you don't eat anything. I used to work nights when I was a nurse, so I have an idea of the havoc they wreak on the human body!

I don't really know what your GP can do in this case, but I have a feeling the solution really does need to come from you...as hard as I know that's going to be.

What do YOU think you can do? If it was me who posted this, what would YOUR advice have been? I'm a big believer in the answer being within ourselves.

Have you looked at the LCHF way of eating? It might give you freedom to eat much more satisfying foods but, with it being lower in sugar and carbohydarates, it is much kinder to your BG. All that BG spiking when you eat carbs normally makes you feel hungrier and crave foods, so it may be a good solution for you. Do some research (there's a LCHF forum here) and see what you think. I've lost over 20 pounds in just under 6 weeks with it, my BP is coming down (almost to normal levels now), I don't have the horrible food cravings I had and I feel much fitter...I went for a 40 minute walk last night and I have not achieved that in YEARS...not without somebody behind me with a cattle-prod anyway!

Remember, the answer is inside you
 
Can you do a lunch pack, with salad leaves, cucumber etc with olive oil / walnut oil slattered over it. Plus boiled egg, nuts - brazil, almonds, or slice of meat, perhaps a full fat greek yoghurt. Yes, there are carbs in there, but not many, maybe you could cope with that.
 
Hi Loobles! Thanks for the feedback. I am genuinely at a loss about what I can eat with no nightime production of insulin to counter the food I need to consume. I know it needs to be low salt, low carb, and sugar free. I've not heard of the LCHF way of eating and can only guess it might stand for low carb (or calorie) high fibre - I do high fibre anyway and generally eat healthily when not working as I'm a vegetarian.
I did follow a macrobiotic diet for six months in the 90s - that really suited me; although it was a big effort to keep up.

One thing I did do when I arrived home following work today, was to cook a big saucepan of brown rice and made a healthy vegetable-filled curry. I've divided it up into a number of small tupperware containers for taking into work - I thought that might be a better alternative to the pot noodles I live on at work.. I actually found cooking at this time quite therapeutic after the night shift

I'm wondering if fruit is a safe choice on nights, due to the natural sugars some contain?

Re the question you posed: "What do YOU think you can do? If it was me who posted this, what would YOUR advice have been? I'm a big believer in the answer being within ourselves." - My reply would be for you to seek answers about the implications of having no nightime production of insulin: is it safe to eat at this time? Or will anything you eat lead to further weight gain as a consequence? - This is why I asked advice from the GP; I don't have the medical knowledge. If I were diabetic (rather than prediabetic), I'd be on insulin in tablet form (or by injection), and I would feel more confident that my body could handle what I would need to eat on nights.

The macrobiotic diet I used to follow gave me loads of energy and lead to weight loss too at that time, so this may be a way forward for me. And who knows, I might start tackling those long walks also
 
@Harpar That sounds absolutely delicious! The only downside is that I work four twelve hour night shifts and shopping for fresh ingredients is not always possible. That could be a good option for the first night in work though, so thanks for that. (minus the meat as I'm vegetarian)
 
Personally, I'd forget the rice with your curry. A good place to start with LCHF is http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

I don't work nights but I take a salad to work - a protein element (ham, cheese, eggs, cold sausages, quiche with the pastry thrown away - hope you are not vegetarian), lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions, sugar snap peas and radish. Followed by 100g of blueberries. This has a negligible affect on my blood sugars. I cut it up into small cubes and eat it with a fork out of a container.

Edit: I see you are vegetarian, that is going to make your diabetes control really hard. Hope you eat cheese,
 
If you don't produce insulin at night you need to stick to things which don't require you to use any insulin. So sugar is basically out, in any form, whether it's pure sugar, fruit sugar, carbohydrate etc. I would expect a low amount of slower releasing carb would be ok, but I'd say any starchy veggies and even brown/wholemeal pastas, rices and breads are out for you, at night anyway.

If it was me, I'd be looking to eat things like salads with nuts and protein added in the form of cheeses, eggs (if you eat eggs) etc.I really think the low carn high fat (LCHF) way of eating will be ideal for you at night time as it doesn't require you to produce lots of insulin. If you eat eggs, omelettes and scrambled egg based dishes are good. Some full fat yogurt with small amount of fruit added (berries tend to require you to make less insulin, but don't go mad on them as they still contain fruit sugar - which is still sugar!). Don't be fooled by fruit being ok for your blood sugar; sure it's natural sugar, but your body still sees it as sugar and it still requires insulin.

So to summarise, you could look to eat; eggs, nuts, salads, berries, yogurts, cheeses. Have a look on Pinterest for "low carb" for lots of inspiration and check out the forums here. If you need any other help, there's loads of us here to LCHF and feel free to message me if you'd like to.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention avocados are great for adding healthy, filling fats, as is olive oil. You can make a nice salad dressing to liven up your salad too - try these:
1. Olive oil with balsamic vinegar or wine wine vinegar and lemon/lime juice
2. Yogurt, creme fraiche or soured cream with a bit of cheddar and blue cheese - add some chilli if you want a kick of heat
 
Last edited by a moderator:


Carol - I'm not challenging what you say, but what makes you believe you don't produce insulin at night? Is it that your numbers go up more than they do during the day, or somethng else?

Secondly, when working nights, it's fair to assume that your nights become your day? That being so, I guess you're trying to find "lunch" options. What would you have for lunch, during a daytime day, and what makes that impractical when you are working?
 
If you produced no insulin then your glucose would really go sky high (ie into the 20s and beyond as it does in T1 with no insulin) .This diagram helps to explain what happens
http://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/diabetes/diabetes1.htm
You certainly need to get a healthy eating plan in place as And Breathe says, you need to eat 'lunch'.
. Going without food will result in the liver releasing more glucose and this response is often higher in people with pre or T2 diabetes ( the drug metformin helps to counteract it)
I don't know much about macrobiotic food, it is very unconventional and since it is high carb/very high fibre and very low fat, a totally different diet to that used by many people (particularly on this forum, you might find people with different views on a vegan forum for example)

There is one diet , the ma pi 2 that uses macrobiotic principles and has been trialed on people with T2 (with successful results reported ) There was though no control diet and this diet seems to be very much the idea of one person. I haven't seen any papers other than those by him.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/cooperativeAgainstTheCreditCrunch.php
(second article, I give links to the full papers below)

This is what the diet consisted of there is detail about amount of each item in the full paper.

The people in the trials had the food prepared for them, in very controlled amounts. You would have to be very well prepared to attempt this and I think that you would need to monitor your glucose levels carefully.

http://www.medicc.org/mediccreview/articles/mr_119.pdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dmrr.2519/pdf
I've found one review of the papers here. The author asks
.
http://suppversity.blogspot.fr/2014/01/nurtrion-news-quicky-energy-reduction.html
Good question, which brings us back to eating as healthily as possible during your day ie the night
 
Last edited by a moderator:
How about making up a very simple veggie soup and popping it in to a thermos .You can make a weeks supply at a time and freeze it in those plastic containers .I worked nights for 22 years and know exactly where your coming from but I used to take in four dutch crispbakes which are only 15grm carb per serving of two and either a pot of soup and a small bag of prawns mixed with a teaspoon of dressing /mayo or a boiled egg .That would give me two meals in the night with no effort.

Don't worry too much about your BP .Mines been through the roof for the last ten years and I mean really high readings of 240/120 throughout the night .My colleagues used to take mine on the rounds .I think it's a hazard of nights combined with a hereditary condition.
 
I think we need more info on your lifestyle.
When you say you don't produce insulin at night, how does that happen?
Are you on any meds at the moment?
 
Of course you can eat healthy at nights!!! Take your own healthy food... No different than day time!!!!

Myself and hubby have worked nights with and without canteens and the inevitable walking past (yes, past!!) the vending machines.

Working nights does not have to be different to working dayshift unless you make it different!!
 
To be honest, it's probably going to be a case of just sucking it up and eating what you know is healthy. Yes it can be tedious but in time you'll find a way to make things more exciting. I've bought new lunchboxes etc just to make things visually more exciting etc. When I worked nights I tended to eat lunch or breakfast things while at work...that was in the days when I ate carbs, but there's loads of low carb lunch ideas if you start to trawl the internet. Have a look and see what takes your fancy.

I think the key thing is this is going to take a lot of effort, it isn't just going to happen all by itself. You know that already though don't you?

So, let's assume you're working tomorrow night...what foods are you going to take to tide you over til morning?
 
I can't see a difference between eating during the day or the night. Surely it is just a matter of planning and taking an appropriate pack up?

I'm also very curious about your inability to produce insulin at night. Could you explain the mechanism? I have never heard of it before (except in type 1s, and that is 24/7). What tests were run? Did they hook you up to some kind of sensor overnight?
 
In terms of healthy food I agree wholeheartedly but there IS a difference in the way our bodies process foods when eating at night and it is such a proven fact that our bodies suffer more they have now made it compulsory to offer night time staff a yearly medical .We digest slower and take less nutrition from food at night .It's like our bodies know we should be sleeping
 
Yes agree that a proven fact that our bodies act differently and proven that nights don't act well on our bodies... But it is also capable of finding good foods and healthy foods.. Just that a lot of companies rely on snack machines for night shift workers too.
 

The world would be a better place if they stopped unhealthy vending machines altogether .Let's be honest it's very very easy to find healthy food and nights aren't really an excuse ,it just doesn't always give that emotional comfort that we need sometimes but then having to take medication that makes you feel ****** should in reality be enough of an incentive to make that effort .I eat healthily ....just way way too much !
 
 
Thanks @Loobles - you've given me a lot to consider and a lot of good suggestions with regards to food. I do like eggs and cheese, although I've tended to limit how often I eat cheese. I can have access to a microwave at night, so scrambled egg is an option. I also love nuts, which would be good to have around at night when I feel the need to snack.
I think developing better eating habits will come with practice. I tried eating earlier in the shift tonight as I felt that would give my body a better chance of digesting it - the downside to this, was my feeling ravenously hungry a few hours later. I brought no snacks in with me tonight and so I resorted to filching a biscuit. My bp has come down to a lower level than it has been all week.
 

Hi @AndBreathe - It was following my last glucose tolerance test (a few years ago), the results showed my body was able to produce insulin in the daytime, and I was told I had no nightime production of insulin. I kept on top of this for a significant time through not eating after 6pm and stayed at a healthy weight. Once I started working on nights, the pounds became to pile on.

There are limitations on what I can eat at night due to the job, having only a kettle and microwave in the way of cooking facilities at work, plus it's difficult to shop for food and ingredients on the dates I'm working due to the long 12 hour shifts. I do need to make a better effort on my days off with regards to preparing food for my night shifts; I can make no excuses there
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…