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Sugar level spike after breakfast

Maisie1998

Member
Messages
11
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hello.

Wondering if anyone can shed some insight for me with my type 1 diabetes. Recently, I've noticed that after breakfast my sugar levels have been spiking, this doesn't matter whether its 5am on the weekends before work or 9/10am during the week when im not at work. I won't fill in on all the readings from the past few weeks but i'll explain this morning. So this morning I had my injection at 9:08 and then had my breakfast twenty minutes later to see if the food and insulin would work with each other better. I have cornflakes with canderel, a cereal bar and a tea with some sweetener. All together this was 41g for which i gave myself 7 units. When i checked my sugar level at 10:09 it was 10.7 and then when i checked it again at 11:25 it had shot up to 16.5. Over the past week i have upped my tresiba (background insulin) to 18 and then to 19 but that seems to have made no difference. As the day goes further on though my sugar level does go back down because yesterday i gave myself some extra novorapid to try and correct it but i had a hypo at 3.9. Other times of the day it does not spike and i go to bed at around 11/12pm every night and except for weekends i wake up at around 9/10am most days.

Thanks for anyone that can help
 
What was your blood sugar 4 hours after eating? Did it return to your premeal levels? If so, your QA dose was correct. Injected insulin has a fixed curve, so on DAFNE they teach you, to eat normally, ignore the spikes.
 
Many T1's find bolusing for breakfast difficult. I tend to use a higher insulin ratio for breakfast than I do for lunch or evening meal.
I also don't eat cereal often because my insulin (Humalog) doesn't seem to cope well with the resulting rapid spikes in glucose. I do find that porridge is a bit easier to deal with as it seems to be a little slower to digest - something I learned from other forum members a few years ago.
Generally I don't go above 30g at breakfast - so a microwavable sachet of porridge is about right - and I find this easier to cope with. Have you tried other foodstuffs at breakfast, a bagel or toast? What affect do they have?
Also, have you checked your sweetener (I have no idea what you're using of course), as some of them have dextrose in.
 
I checked it again at 13:37 and it has come back down to 13.7 and I can only assume it's going to lower further. I'll attempt to change my ratio in the morning and see if that changes. Do you know if ready brek is okay for a porridge because that sent my sugar levels through the roof before? If the insulin ratio doesn't work then I'll have to look at changing my food from cereal. I thought it was better for fibre content. My sweetener is silver spoon or canderel on my cereal and in tea. Thank you for your responses
 
I have 1 unit for every 4 grammes of carbs for breakfast, whilst it's 1:8, for the rest of the day. I rarely have more than 20 grammes for breakfast, unless I'm going to be very active between breakfast and lunch, otherwise I just go up and stay up. But, that's just what works for me.

I tend to eat a lot of veg, which is how I get my fibre. rather than grains.
 
Hi @Maisie1998. I eat really sweet breakfast cereals and dont see mant spikes at all. I am on a pump and use Fiasp insulin. When I was using NovoSluggish I used to spike after most meals but it was never consistent. NovoRapin (Sluggish), as @ert has said, has a long fixed curve to its action whereas Fiasp has a sharper rise in its curve to get the insulin working. My DSN and dietitian suggested the move around 4 years ago and it does work a lot faster. Maybe Fiasp is something to ask your diabetic team about?
 
Maisie1998 said:
Do you know if ready brek is okay for a porridge because that sent my sugar levels through the roof before?
Click to expand...

I've eaten ready brek before and I eat porridge now, I found the former to give me a spike but eat porridge daily left to soak the night before, I may spike just past 8mmols but find mid morning I usually need to eat some (10g) carbs to correct the drop I get, probably as the extra unit I take for porridge is too much once the spike has gone and I'm on my feet.

Also I rarely see 'dawn phenomenon' but when I did I'd find myself taking a couple of u insulin as a correction mid morning.
 
I am really hoping that this might be the culprit. My sweetener packet from my shopping delivery that I've been using the past few weeks.. I feel very stupid if this is the reason for my sugar levels recently. ‍‍‍
 

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A new study says novorapid is taking longer. I have the same problem but at night. Cereal bars are great as a inbetweener if ur at like 4.2 after 2hours. I'm in the same position as you cos i might eat but have a coffee or juice and my b/s spike.. I've had type 1 for 2 years and still learning. Hope you get sorted soon
 

Hi I’m type two........ I’m wondering if the sweeteners are causing the spikes for myself.
I do use a lot of canderel or Tesco sweetener on cereals etc.
also three Hermasetis in my coffee.
I think I need to stop it altogether.
Best wishes to all x
 
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Maisie1998 said:
I am really hoping that this might be the culprit. My sweetener packet from my shopping delivery that I've been using the past few weeks.. I feel very stupid if this is the reason for my sugar levels recently. ‍‍‍
Click to expand...
Sucralose sweeteners don't increase blood glucose. It is the cereal. Sounds like time to review breakfast. I stopped eating carbs for breakfast a long time ago because of this effect, but for the first 15 years of having T1 I was able to tolerate breakfast cereal or toast.
 
Hi,

In my past experience regarding cereal, the milk can play a wild card in all this.
 
I have had DP, dawn phenomenon which causes certain hormones to be released which will make you more insulin resistant for hours after you are awake. I can also get FOTF, which literally means once you get out of bed your BG level starts to climb.

Because of the difficulty with dosing in the morning I started just skipping breakfast, even a small amounts of carbs in the am would cause big spikes. I am fine after about 11:OO am and then eat whatever carbs I want.
 
Maisie1998 said:
I am really hoping that this might be the culprit. My sweetener packet from my shopping delivery that I've been using the past few weeks.. I feel very stupid if this is the reason for my sugar levels recently. ‍‍‍
Click to expand...
Have you tried a bit of Agarve? It’s low GI. It’s a syrup in supermarkets by sugar, sweetener etc. But it’s natural and as low GI shouldn’t cause such a hit. Guess you can cut that sweetener out and see?
Other reasons I see a surge in blood sugar numbers is hormones and when I’m fighting something off bit under weather.
 

Mark Munday
Hi yes you are right , it’s the cereal. I have weetabix and bran flakes. I use Lactose free milk usually Tesco’s own. After I’ve eaten this I feel very sleepy and 2-3 hours later I spoke to 12 or 13.
ive just joined the low carb program. That may help me. best Wishes. Stay safe
 
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Hi! Just a quick update. I have been panicking over nothing. While i have noticed that cereals that shreddies or shredded wheat do cause blood glucose spikes this time around it was my own fault for not checking the ingredients in the ASDA own brand sucralose sweeteners. The first ingredient in the sweeteners was dextrose so i immediately stopped using them and cut it out of my tea and cereal the next morning. Saturday morning I put canderel and silver spoon sweetener in my tea and cereal and my blood glucose spikes have gone. So please check the ingredients on your sweeteners for dextrose to avoid making my mistake! @Happy hippy. I'm not saying this applies for all using sweeteners .
 

Maise. The low carb people say to avoid cereals altogether to prevent spiking.
So I’m going to try an apple or pear with Greek yogurt; and maybe few berries.
I’m disabled so cooking omelette type of breakfast are impossible for me as I’m not very mobile first thing lol
Best wishes. Happy Hippy


Edited by moderator for clarity
 
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I blame morning spikes on insulin resistance. Between your last meal from the previous day and breakfast on the next day your body goes into fasting mode and your ketones slightly elevate, I don’t know if there’s a scientific basis for it but whenever my body is burning fat it becomes very resistant to insulin. My carbohydrate ratio is the same for all three meals of the day but for breakfast my NovoRapid takes ages to work, once I had to wait as much as 1.5 hours and was scanning Libre every 20 minutes to see if my blood sugar has even budged by 0.1 mmol/L so I can start eating.

First and foremost I think your basal should be dealt with because without a correct basal nothing else will work. You could have a carb-free lunch and see if your BG remains around the same between breakfast and dinner.

Next step would be checking carb ratios. NovoRapid is said to last 3-5 hours so check your blood sugar 5 hours after injecting and see if you need more insulin, if you do then you should change your ratio.

Correct me if I’m wrong, Ready Brek is a super-processed fine porridge, someone once told me, the smaller your oats are grounded the quicker they are digested. Try something with steel cut oats and avoid anything that requires a lot of cooking as cooked foods are digested more rapidly
 
H
 
Hi TypeZero
Thanks for your help. I need to try different ideas.
It’s nice to get opinions and help.
I sometimes use plain porridge oats so I might try wizzing some in the blender before cooking
HappyHippy x
 
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