Risotto. Experiment

Ah but! Not wishing to spoil your joy, did you keep testing until your levels came back to 5.8? You may have missed the spike.

alliebee said:

In the intetests of anyone who may read this and be tempted to try....the risotto is now firmly back on the forbidden list of foods for me...I did have a larger portion for supper. @bluetit was quite right to warn me.....there I was happily munching away....1 hour later I was 9.8...oh dear....well we live and learn don't we.

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What were you in later tests though Allie? If it comes back down again very quickly that rise wouldn't necessarily be horrendous. Many non-diabetic people have fairly sharp rises on eating carbs, but they fall back again almost as quickly.

That said, rice can be tricky. I'm fortunate to be able to eat it in fair quantities, and one of our favourite, easy meals is Nigella's Pantry Paella. It's a great way of using up leftover Sunday roast chicken or pork.

I have tweaked the recipe and used cauliflower instead of the rice - so that obviously required much less liquid and is almost a stir fry, rather than a slow cook paella. The flavours are fab though.

alliebee said:

You are right. I did comr down v quickly and at 2 and a half hours was back to 6.2...but I thought that sharp spike was too high?...mind you I had a big plateful...risotto has always been a fave of mine...I haven't tried cauli rice yet but I'm going to after everone seems to rave about it...also going to look at nigellas recipe...thankyou

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There are conflicting views on spikes, both here on the forum, and on the wider web. My personal view is I'll be influenced by the volume under the curve. In other words, if there is a fast, high spike that comes down quickly, or a smoother rise that stays elevated for longer, there could be the same volume under the curve. Do you understand what I mean?

Thankfully, with my current way of eating, I don't really have big or long spikes, and by the nature of my measure (volume under the curve) an acceptable figure would be very dynamic anyway, due to the variables of spike/time elapsed and so on. I believe @Brunneria also subscribes to this way of thinking, so she may have something more helpful in terms of measuring the volume.

Not surprising, Arborio or any of the 'fluffy' rices contains lots of amylopectin, when you heat it in liquid, it swells up absorbing the liquid . This is exactly what you do when you cook a risotto (or a rice pudding). This makes the starch very easily digested and so extremely high GI, Basically, the combination of the type of cooking and the type of rice means that you have started the digestion process already. All the starch quickly breaks up and the glucose arrives causing a spike that in turn needs a lot of insulin to deal with
The cheese in the risotto seems to have delayed the absorption down by a bit but it seems not by much.

That's why it's normally suggested that, if you eat rice, you eat basmati or similar. This has more of the other type of starch (amylopectin) and as long as it isn't cooked to death, will elicit a lower glucose response than the fluffy varieties. If you have some of your own insulin it will be more likely to be able to deal with it.

simple account
http://www.glycemicguru.com/Factors-that-Effect-Glycemic-Index.html
bit more detailed account
http://www.montignac.com/en/the-factors-that-modify-glycemic-indexes/
He also has a section on GI misconceptions with diagrams of example low GI and high GI area under curves
http://www.montignac.com/en/the-glycemic-index-concept/

AndBreathe said:

There are conflicting views on spikes, both here on the forum, and on the wider web. My personal view is I'll be influenced by the volume under the curve. In other words, if there is a fast, high spike that comes down quickly, or a smoother rise that stays elevated for longer, there could be the same volume under the curve. Do you understand what I mean?

Thankfully, with my current way of eating, I don't really have big or long spikes, and by the nature of my measure (volume under the curve) an acceptable figure would be very dynamic anyway, due to the variables of spike/time elapsed and so on. I believe @Brunneria also subscribes to this way of thinking, so she may have something more helpful in terms of measuring the volume.

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Hi,

It was the font of all wisdom www.bloodsugar101.com that introduced the idea to me, so you could find more info there, if you like. I only apply it in the most general way, and of course I can't really test the theory, but it just makes so much sense, doesn't it? Well, to me, anyway.

Brunneria said:

Hi,

It was the font of all wisdom www.bloodsugar101.com that introduced the idea to me, so you could find more info there, if you like. I only apply it in the most general way, and of course I can't really test the theory, but it just makes so much sense, doesn't it? Well, to me, anyway.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. And there was me thinking you were so clever.