Readings after eating

Quick response - you obviously can't eat during the 2 hours after your meal because this resets the counter for "time since last eating".
Logically, if you eat a main meal then keep snacking every half hour you aren't going to get any guidance on the ability of your body to bring your BG back to an acceptable level two hours after eating.

Equally, drinks with sugar in them will potentially boost your BG and again prevent you from having a true reading.

Espresso without sugar (and obviously without milk), and water, should be O.K.
There may be a slight effect if the caffeine pumps up your metabolic rate and helps you to clear more glucose out of your blood but it shouldn't invalidate your readings.

HTH

LGC

How much French Toast?? Good grief.

The Metformin must be really working for you, to get your BG down to merely dangerous after two hours.

The expresso will not do much, unless you added sugar to it, you did'nt, did you?

I for one do not agree with your doctor, (nor does NICE, actually) you should be testing much more frequently than that. Preferably at one and two hours after a meal, so that you can see what effect different foods have on your blood sugar. How else can you establish a healthy diet for yourself?

Good man! Too much toast not good. Agree with all the above replies, BUT, just be aware that although there are no carbs in black coffee without sugar, it has been shown that strong coffee increases our insulin resistance and thus can prevent our BGs falling as far or as quickly as they might. Interestingly, although tea has caffeine in it, it has also been shown that green tea does the opposite and improves our insulin resistance. Not saying don't drink your espresso, I have loads of coffee after meals, just be aware it can reflect on your readings.

In a word, Yes. 7.8 is danger level. It is literally the point where damage starts to occur on a cellular level.
Beta cells start to die at that point, retinopathy starts a bit earlier,neuropathy starts to show itself when BGs are above that level. Heart disease becomes much more common above that level.
This is why knowledgeable diabetics strive to keep their BG below 7.7 as much of the time as they can manage. It increases their chances of a long and healthy life.

I should expand that - it is a kind of sliding scale, and its not that 7.9 is a disaster, its just that the higher it goes the worse the odds get and below 7.7 you are in much safer territory.
The people on here with HBa1cs in the 5% range are keeping their BGs below 7.7 most of the time to get that result..
You should know that the drugs help but they are not a complete answer. The approprate drug regime PLUS a controlled carbohydrate diet are the best answer we have as yet.

DavideB said:

This morning I had 4 slices of French toast with jam and a large glass of milk

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You lucky, lucky .... :lol:

No, good luck to you Davide, if you can do it and keep safe great but I expect many of us are rather envious!

On the drinking. Tea, coffee, Diet Coke, water I will drink within the two hours. Anything I would classify has some carb content I will avoid so for example I won't drink my mug of hot chocolate until after my two hour reading.

Dont be embarassed that you can eat that and get 7.8. I'd love it.

Just watch that it may have been a lucky reading because of your previous low carbing.

Mary x

Hehe, Davide...

I'd do 2 slices of toast and then-something-else. Like an egg, or a bit of full fat yoghurt.

If you tolerate the carbs (almost), cut it in half, enjoy what you do have and replace the other half with something less carby.

I also belong to the group of people trying to keep my blood glucose in the sort of range you would expect from a non-diabetic. That means anything between 4 and 6.5 is alright for me, although I prefer the 5.5 area myself.

I can't go lower than 4, really, because I need to be a bit careful at that end of the scale being on insulin. Generally, lower than 4 is not recommended on insulin. For type 2s on metformin only, it seems to be alright, you would not get real hypo's that are dangerous.

It's a personal choice as they say - just make your choice an informed one, and if you can get your after meal reading down a wee bit by cutting something in half, that would be my suggestion.

spendercat said:

The approprate drug regime PLUS a controlled carbohydrate diet are the best answer we have as yet.

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+1 spendercat. I especially like how you call it a "controlled carbohydrate diet" rather than "low carb diet" as it implies you only control to a level that you as an individual decide is safe. "Eat to your meter" and all that.