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

Spike

M

Mel83

Member
Messages
11
Type of diabetes
Type 2
What is considered to be a spike? I'm trying to see what foods produce a spike and wanted to know what difference I should be looking for when testing 2 hours before and 2 hours after eating. Any help appreciated, thanks.
 
You are looking for no more than a 2mmol rise between pre meal and 2 hour post meal readings, preferably less than that.
 
Mel83 said:
What is considered to be a spike? I'm trying to see what foods produce a spike and wanted to know what difference I should be looking for when testing 2 hours before and 2 hours after eating. Any help appreciated, thanks.
Click to expand...
Test before your first bite of food, not two hours before your first bite. Test again 2 hours after your first bite of food. Hope this helps.
 
Mel83 said:
What is considered to be a spike? I'm trying to see what foods produce a spike and wanted to know what difference I should be looking for when testing 2 hours before and 2 hours after eating. Any help appreciated, thanks.
Click to expand...

A spike is the highest point your blood glucose levels reach after a meal.
Different foods and combinations of food along with different portion size will give you different readings, so make sure your portion size is the same.
Also ensure your fingers are washed and dried.

If you get what is known as a rogue reading, something unusually high or low, wash your hands again, then retest.
 
As @Lamont D says, the spike is the highest peak following a meal, but the timing of this will vary depending on the contents of the meal. It could be anywhere between half an hour and 3 hours, so is very difficult to catch. The test at 2 hours is just a guide. You may be well on your way down at 2 hours, or you may be plateaued, or you may be on your way up still. Experience and knowledge of which foods release glucose early, and which ones are a bit later, and what effect fats have on carbs is needed, and you will pick this up as you learn. The accepted guideline for the 2 hour mark is less than 2mmol/l higher than when you started.
 
Thanks everyone. Tried some porridge today and the rise was under 2mmol so looks like I'll be ok with that. Great as I love porridge!
 
Back
Top