Hi - I have a question. Has anyone tried to systematically build a data of what food raises blood sugar by how much? For example 2 slices of Toast and a cup of tea without sugar. Is such data available anywhere? I appreciate that it varies by individual but still may give useful relative information. Would be not so difficult for anyone using Freestyle libre system.
My questions are:
1. does this idea make sense
2. Will it be useful for anyone other than the person doing it?
3. Will such tests need to be done in conjunction with normal medication or without.
I saw some youtube videos by beat diabetes where he tests foods on himself at 30,60,90 mins and this makes we wonder whether a database contributed to by many diabtics would be of use.
Please excuse my ignorance.
Others have much deeper knowledge than I do, but suspect that most would say that the general rule of thumb is the lower carb the better and you'll see that on the forums, dropping weight has been essential for many (myself included and a work in progress
). There are links on this website to specific program for low carb eating for Type 2.
https://www.lowcarbprogram.com/
I'm using the FAST800 program as a base, though that's not 100% popular on the forums - but it is working well for me.
Beyond that, how anyone responds to particular carb intake will be highly dependent on their personal responses, coupled with their medication/exercise/general diet routine and possibly other factors such as relative carb intake in recent days, current stress levels and how much sleep they've had. Then on top of that you'd have all the extra bits of, say what kind of bread was it? how much did it weigh? what did you have with it? All of that complexity makes me doubt that you could boil it down into a reliable (for all) table on specific foods. Additionally, some days I have eaten the EXACT same thing two days in a row and had somewhat different blood sugar responses. Go figure.
Much simpler to focus on the available advice of where to start with your carb levels for Type 2 and an initial meal plan guide, then perhaps you can look at how much of the core culprit (carbs) you're ingesting and how do you individually respond to that and then you'll be able to branch out from there.
Just speaking for myself, I've found it very reliable to use a low carb program, track my intake and look at my own blood sugar responses. I'm extremely low carb at present (goal is no more than 20g net carb a day - not always perfect) but that's a "phase one" thing. I will remain low carb but gradually will have to do my own observations of exactly what that needs to be for me - and it may change over time. You'll see in the comments in many areas on the forums that some are no carbs (carnivore), some stay ultra low carb, some manage 50g carb per meal, or 150g per day overall, or .... endless variations.
Many members have this post tagged in their signatures or comments and it also may be useful for you:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/blog-entry/the-nutritional-thingy.2330/
However, suggest that if you post your question as a new thread onto the Type 2 forum you'll generate more responses.