Non Diabetic high blood sugar after meal.

@Csarscott A blood sugar in the 10s does happen occasionally after a large meal if you're not diabetic, but if you have concerns you could see your doctor for a proper test just to check all is ok.

You can also visit a local pharmacy who will do a spot test usually free of charge. The result will depend on how long since the last meal - same for the GP assuming he also does a spot finger-prick test.

Csarscott said:

Not sure why but I checked my sugar level when we got home 2hrs later and it was 9.9, I don't know what is was before eating, fasting level this morning was 5.5.

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http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_care/blood-sugar-level-ranges.html
As suggested, any concerns and it is best to seek advice from GP.

azure said:

@Csarscott A blood sugar in the 10s does happen occasionally after a large meal if you're not diabetic, but if you have concerns you could see your doctor for a proper test just to check all is ok.

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Interesting didn't know that it can be in the 10s and be considered normal or non diabetic.

This is not unusual!
Depending on what someone consumes and the conversion to blood glucose, a normal (who is?) Can record levels in the teens and not be termed diabetic!

I myself, had hypers in the teens regularly even with mid to low GI foods.
My Hba1c is normal and my fasting levels are always in the normal range!
Even though I could hyper and hypo, I am not termed diabetic.

One size does not fit all.

For a non-diabetic, much depends on the content eaten and the amount. After a HUGE dinner consisting of a very large portion of home made meat and potato pie, followed by seconds, followed by a big helping of homemade rice pudding (rice, sugar, milk), a biscuit and a cup of tea my non-diabetic husband was 4.7 before, 10.2 at an hour, 8.0 at 2 hours, and 5.4 at 4 hours. That was a couple of years ago. His two HbA1c tests since then have been 36. His fasting is always in the 4s. whether finger pricks or venous samples at the surgery. He has no diabetes symptoms or hypos.

Just saying, after a large carb heavy meal it is possible for non-diabetics to spike

Bluetit1802 said:

One size does not fit all.

For a non-diabetic, much depends on the content eaten and the amount. After a HUGE dinner consisting of a very large portion of home made meat and potato pie, followed by seconds, followed by a big helping of homemade rice pudding (rice, sugar, milk), a biscuit and a cup of tea my non-diabetic husband was 4.7 before, 10.2 at an hour, 8.0 at 2 hours, and 5.4 at 4 hours. That was a couple of years ago. His two HbA1c tests since then have been 36. His fasting is always in the 4s. whether finger pricks or venous samples at the surgery. He has no diabetes symptoms or hypos.

Just saying, after a large carb heavy meal it is possible for non-diabetics to spike

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Interesting indeed learnt something new.

I think a number of forum ,embers have also tested relatives and found that they can have quite high spikes too. I once did a partial test with my non diabetic (and also overweight like me) sister: we tested before eating (she was within normal range, I was a bit higher) - then she and the rest of the family ate a fairly high carb meal and I ate my low carb nosh. We tested 1 hour later and she was a fair bit higher than me, but unfortunately we couldn't finish the experiment as they had to leave for a long trip home.

The basis difference between us and non diabetics is that they're able to handle any spikes correctly but we can't - that's ome reason why we're diabetic...

So unless there are other reasons for concern it's probably nothing to worry over, but it's always worth checking with your GP.

Robbity

Csarscott said:

Hi , I joined the forum a couple of months ago to help my wife who was diagnosed in 2009, after seeing the "Fixing Dad" story on tv. She has been following LCHF and testing sugar levels to see what affects her.

I have checked my levels a few times out of curiosity as I used to eat a lot of carbs and sugar, although a fasting blood test last July was 5.1.

Went out for a birthday meal last night, not very healthy, Not sure why but I checked my sugar level when we got home 2hrs later and it was 9.9, I don't know what is was before eating, fasting level this morning was 5.5.

Is this really bad?

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Personally I think the current guidlines that GPs work to are way off. Take a look at this video for explanation of healthy BS levels and spiking.
There seems to be two main camps on how to achieve this. One being through a high fat, low carb and protein diet (HFLC) i.e. max 20g carbs which puts you into ketosis. The other being a high carb, very low fat, no animal products diet (HCLF) i.e. max 10% fat.
Both diets also require the omission of all processed foods and refined carbs. Basically you need eat clean, natural foods.
People seem to be getting amazing results from both of these diets but you have to stick to them rigorously. As far as I'm concerned it's a matter of which you are most comfortable with. I personally cycle between them on a monthly basis because I don't find either sustainable and I know that it is inadvisable to be in ketosis for very long periods. Although I do find the low carb option more doable. My phrase for this way of eating is "seasonal mimicking diet".
Hope this helps and gives you more food for thought and research.

Intermittent_faster said:

One being through a high fat, low carb and protein diet (HFLC) i.e. max 20g carbs which puts you into ketosis.

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The HF bit doesn't work for everybody, some people can't tolerate high fat. I also got elevated total cholesterol, just another marker the GP likes to look at. Low carb seems to be agreeable to most, but even so, if like me, after 3 years of very good BG control on about 40gms carb a day and being in ketosis (test showed this), my body started to convert protein to glucose.

Intermittent_faster said:

The other being a high carb, very low fat, no animal products diet (HCLF) i.e. max 10% fat.

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I don't know many people on a high carb diet who are successfully controlling their BG without copious amounts of medication, are there any?

Just completed 4 weeks of low carb, no protein, veg only diet. Takes some getting use to and I took 3 weeks to lower protein intake. Pleased to say BG has straightened out even if I re-introduce some protein. Weight reduction is also the result of severe calorie restriction where the recommended 500cals less than BMR never worked, nor did 1000 or 1500.

Still work in progress, but at least showing some positive results.

DavidGrahamJones said:

I don't know many people on a high carb diet who are successfully controlling their BG without copious amounts of medication, are there any?

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There are plenty of people using the high carb diet. But, again, it doesn't work for everyone. Take a look at this video for explanation of how it can work for both T1 & T2. Also google Dr Greger and Dr Mc Dougall. They both claim to have had much success using high carb low fat plant based diet. I think any of these approaches need to be supervised by a qualified practitioner who fully understands alternative dietry approach. Not something to dabble in without supervision as it's so easy to get the macros totally wrong.

Thyroiddiabetic said:

Interesting didn't know that it can be in the 10s and be considered normal or non diabetic.

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Interestingly studies of truly " normal" individuals show that whilst it is true that blood sugars can briefly get as high as 11 in respect of a particular meal, in practice this is extremely unusual with blood sugars being lower than 7.8 mmol 99% of the time and less than 6.6 mmol 91 % of the time. Using an LCHF way of life, I am able to achieve the 7.8 target and usually get close to the 6.6 target despite being severely diabetic. I would therefore suggest that if you do go above 7.8 as a regular occurrence then its time to look at your eating patterns even if you are not diagnosed as diabetic .

https://chriskresser.com/when-your-normal-blood-sugar-isnt-normal-part-1/

Intermittent_faster said:

Personally I think the current guidlines that GPs work to are way off. Take a look at this video for explanation of healthy BS levels and spiking.
There seems to be two main camps on how to achieve this. One being through a high fat, low carb and protein diet (HFLC) i.e. max 20g carbs which puts you into ketosis. The other being a high carb, very low fat, no animal products diet (HCLF) i.e. max 10% fat.
Both diets also require the omission of all processed foods and refined carbs. Basically you need eat clean, natural foods.
People seem to be getting amazing results from both of these diets but you have to stick to them rigorously. As far as I'm concerned it's a matter of which you are most comfortable with. I personally cycle between them on a monthly basis because I don't find either sustainable and I know that it is inadvisable to be in ketosis for very long periods. Although I do find the low carb option more doable. My phrase for this way of eating is "seasonal mimicking diet".
Hope this helps and gives you more food for thought and research.

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One aspect of these videos, seems to be the assumption that a low carb diet is also a high protein diet. I haven't found that to be true. I can switch between LCHF or HCLF and keep proteins at around 20% in either scenario.

Intermittent_faster said:

There are plenty of people using the high carb diet.

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Fascinating video, thank you very much for the link. I feel that in someways I've stumbled into the recommendations near the end of his video, by accident. I'm eating a plant based diet which is only giving me 40gms of carb a day. Cheese is the only dairy product I might have at the moment and it doesn't cause an increase in my BG.

One area where my story is different is how I got a fatty liver and became insulin resistant. I have followed a low fat diet for many years, probably 35years plus. I can't tell you how low, I did the usual full skimmed milk, very little cheese, no cream, low fat yoghurt (if any) etc etc type of approach. When I lowered my carb intake I didn't increase my fat intake, my gut wouldn't allow it. Although when I have tried, my BG goes up as well as my total cholesterol.

I also have to consider my weight, an issue that I'm trying to resolve in parallel. Calorie reduction and exercise have not worked, although the more extreme Newcastle approach is showing some results. I'm guessing that his 700 gms of carb is coming from seeds and pulses, which is something I'll check out when I finish this Newcastle regime. When I cut carbs I cut what I call the obvious carbs so still got some in the vegetables I ate.

The other thing I found interesting and something I witnessed while staying in a US hospital is the low carb approach for diabetics, something that not all GPs in the UK are fully supporting.

CherryAA said:

One aspect of these videos, seems to be the assumption that a low carb diet is also a high protein diet. I haven't found that to be true. I can switch between LCHF or HCLF and keep proteins at around 20% in either scenario.

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I think you'll find that neither of these philosophies advocate high protein. One of the main points of advise on these diets is 'moderate' protein. It was Dr Atkins who started the whole high fat high protein fad. You can eat high fat without loads of protein: butter, coconuts, avocados, olives, lard, nuts.
I also wonder how long it'll be before protein becomes the bad boy in everyone's eyes. Fat has had that label and now carbs. As far as I'm concerned it's simply unnatural foods that are the bad boys.

CherryAA said:

One aspect of these videos, seems to be the assumption that a low carb diet is also a high protein diet. I haven't found that to be true. I can switch between LCHF or HCLF and keep proteins at around 20% in either scenario.

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Sorry Cherry AA - I totally missed your point with my last comment! Yes, the low fat brigade totally miss the point of the high fat brigade. So many people want to turn it all into a 'them and us' bun fight. Both sides can be very blinkered and not very open to having their theories challenged. IMHO learning and discovery are infinite and it's as well to be prepared to change your beliefs at any time. We'd never progress if we didn't eh?

DavidGrahamJones said:

One area where my story is different is how I got a fatty liver and became insulin resistant. I have followed a low fat diet for many years, probably 35years plus.

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I think everyone on this site and 95% of the western world population generally have been victims of bad dietary advice over the last 100 years or so. The low fat diet we have been advised to eat is not actually that low in fat, plus, IMHO I think it is all the processed foods we eat that cause all the illnesses, whether they are low fat, high fat, low carb, high carb. They are just not what our bodies are designed to eat. As soon as you cut all that out you start to get better. The trouble is that it is this extremely unbalanced diet that caused the illnesses and so it will take an equally extreme counter diet to fix a lot of illnesses. Personally, I decided I was not going to support all the junky food producers profits by consuming their ******, addictive foods any more. Once you cut it all out the weight starts to shift and health starts to improve. I also had high blood pressure since mid 20s that did not resolve with weight loss. (I lost over 3 stone and weighed 8st at 5'5" when I had braces fitted on my teeth for 5 years but still HBP) This is when I knew I had to do something more so I started fasting. That is when things really changed for me. I think it totally clears out your liver and other organs so that it kind of resets things. I really do urge you to try this David. You don't have to go straight in at the deep end. You can do intermittent fasting which you gradually extend, or a fasting mimicking diet to start with and work up to a full fast. If you have a lot of excess weight you should be able to do extended fasts. Try looking on Youtube at Darren Schmidt, Eric Berg, Ivor Cummins and John Bergman. There are many others too but these have so much advice on fasting. They all are on the high fat side of the fence. On the high carb side of the fence is Dr Greger, Cyrus Khambatta, Dr John McDougal but I'm not sure what they have to say on fasting. But please do get medical support if you want to try extended fasting. The other thing that has really helped me is switching between the low carb / high carb diets each month. It stops me getting bored and means I can eat ALL the natural foods I like.
One thing I would say to everyone is that it is one thing to fix things but another to maintain that health. Once you have found what works for you there is no going back to the old ways of eating sodas, biscuits, white bread, etc.
I hope some of this is of use to you David. Good luck.

Intermittent_faster said:

Sorry Cherry AA - I totally missed your point with my last comment! Yes, the low fat brigade totally miss the point of the high fat brigade. So many people want to turn it all into a 'them and us' bun fight. Both sides can be very blinkered and not very open to having their theories challenged. IMHO learning and discovery are infinite and it's as well to be prepared to change your beliefs at any time. We'd never progress if we didn't eh?

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I did wonder when I read your comment. I think the entire point of all of this is that actually humans don't need anything like as much food to live on as we currently do. That is because selling us stuff to eat is profitable. if what we eat is generally limited, all natural, and we only eat the proteins we actually need, then on balance our diet whether as a vegetarian or carnivore, is likely to contain quite a lot of all kinds of fat and a lot of nutrients from vegetables and because the fats part is more nutrient dense that is likely to be quite high fat in all scenarios.

I suspect it doesn't actually matter all that much which actual foods we choose to meet our goals i.e.whether meat, diary, and fish or nuts seeds and pulses or some combination of the two, once we have cut out industrially refined oils, and manufactured products - those are the evil things, Sure once diabetic one then has to look to the other things - potatoes, dense vegetables, rice - but in reality those are not the things that caused the damage - its frying processed garbage in toxic oils and eating industrially manufactured foods full of hidden sugar whilst not eating natural foods because of our fears that they are fattening, leading to ever higher consumption of stuff that just isn't food really that did that.