Hi, I’ve just been told a I have prediabetes. I’m overweight, so that’s the first hurdle. I’ve got a blood sugar monitor. Yesterday I ate salad, bulgur wheat, fish, but had 3 biscuits around 7pm. I checked my blood this morning and it was 9.0 which is the highest it’s ever been. I don’t get it?? I’ve changed my diet and my bloods have gone higher. And I have blurred vision this morning too!! Confused
Hi, and welcome!
For such a short message, there's quite a bit to touch upon, so stick with me for a bit on this one.
Your being overweight isn't the cause of this. Higher blood glucose and insulin resistance caused that. (Contrary to popular belief, insulin resistance makes us pack on the pounds, the pounds don't cause diabetes. It's the other way around!). Basically, you have lots of insulin floating around, but it can't do its job becaue you've become insensitive to it... So glucose that normally would have been burnt off as fuel with the help of insulin, ends up being stored in your body in fat cells. Fat cells can give a low grade inflammation and acerbate insulin resistance, so there's a vicious cycle there. Break it, your blood sugars become lower and your weight is likely to come down as well.
You have a monitor! Yay! Has anyone told you how to use it when you want to tackle your prediabetes through diet? Test before a meal and 2 hours after. You're aiming for a rise of no more, and preferably less, than 2.0 mmol/l. If you manage that, the meal was all good and worth repeating, your body could cope with what you put in there.
Morning numbers are influenced by Dawn Phenomenon. Your liver dumps glucose it stored in fat cells (most prediabetics and diabetics have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which coincidentally, can potentially resolve through low carb eating! Two birds, one stone!), to help you start the day. It stops dumping when you eat something, so maybe a cube of cheese or some scrambled eggs, depending on whether you eat in the morning or not... Forgive it, the liver just thinks it's helping. It's a bit of a clueless idiot, but it tries.
You're changing your diet, but I don't think you have had a lot of guidance with what to eat when there's insulin resistance present? Just aimed at weight without metabolic issues complicating things? Because bulgur wheat and biscuits aren't low carb, those'll spike your blood sugars. Salad is fine, as long as the dressing isn't very sugary, and you skip the croutons. Fish is wonderful too, just hope it wasn't coated with anything.
https://josekalsbeek.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-nutritional-thingy.html this might help a little with the basics of low carb eating.
Ah, yes, blurry vision. The glucose in your blood, also ended up in your eyes and tears. It distorts your vision, and over time, your brain has compensated for that. The moment you change your diet and blood sugars change (up or down), your vision'll change, too. If your blood sugars are going down, do NOT get expensive glasses... A cheap pair of reading specs should tide you over for a few weeks, after that your vision should normalise again. I know, it freaked me out too, but it's perfectly normal. Don't make my mistake, don't spend a few hundred quid on specs you'll never use again.
It's all a bit of an aaaaaargh! feeling now, but you're prediabetic, you can make changes before real damage gets done, you're asking the right questions and you're learning all the time. There's some hope to have here, you know?
Hugs,
Jo
