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to banana or not to banana

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whompa73

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Ok last week when I was diagnosed with diabetes I was told to stay away from bananas yet on the very poorly written diet sheet I was issued it says bananas are good. Now I am trying to go down the low carbs route and I realise that bananas may be high in carbs but and I right in thinking we do actually need at least some in our diet. I think they are also high in sugar aswell which I can see could be a bad combination. Guess the questions I am asking are 1. Are bananas conducive to a low carb diet 2. Should I eat on own or with somthing like bite size shreded wheet (which also has some carbs in it but very low in if not no sugar ) with almond milk . 3 should I not be having either. Soooooo confused pls help
 
Bananas are a funny one, as for some people they are off the eating list as it sends their blood sugar levels high, for me they are ok. Its a question of finding out what's ok for you and what's not which is where a meter comes in very handy.

If you have fruit like bananas you could eat them along side a meal where they may not send your levels as high.
 
It depends how low carb you are planning to be. When you've decided that then it may help to guide if you eat bananas or not. This site has some info about low carbing.

I personally don't eat bananas as they contain about as many carbs as I usually eat in a day! (30g).

However as the post above says it also depends on how they effect your sugar levels.

If you want to low carb then a good book is Dr Bernsteins diabetes solution but his methods are against NHS guidelines so be warned that your doctor may not agree with them!


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Is It me or is being diagnosed with diabetes a bit like finding out the entire world is a lier. Dont get me wrong I apreciate all the help. It just that everything that I thought was proper to do is no longer the right thing to do and in some ways could be harmfull. I will get there but is gona take a while. As fr carbs I was thinking arround 90 to 130 I think thats low isnt it?
 
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Sorry. I'll log off and get my coat.
 
whompa73 said:
Is It me or is being diagnosed with diabetes a bit like finding out the entire world is a lier. Dont get me wrong I apreciate all the help. It just that everything that I thought was proper to do is no longer the right thing to do and in some ways could be harmfull. I will get there but is gona take a while. As fr carbs I was thinking arround 90 to 130 I think thats low isnt it?
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Not sure how many at mo but would imagin under 30 but realise cant go on that way.but being newby mark2 (sounds better than type 2 as I'm more of a ford than ajag lol) I am trying to lower levels. Fasting was arround 14.5 and after eating could go up to 24.5 highest reading so far but only testing since last thursday but alread with diet and meformin fasting 9.2 and between 11.3 and 13 after food (depending on food obvousy) I think thats a massive progress
 
whompa73 said:
Is It me or is being diagnosed with diabetes a bit like finding out the entire world is a lier. Dont get me wrong I apreciate all the help. It just that everything that I thought was proper to do is no longer the right thing to do and in some ways could be harmfull. I will get there but is gona take a while. As fr carbs I was thinking arround 90 to 130 I think thats low isnt it?
Click to expand...

Different people choose different ways to control their diabetes so what one person thinks is the right way another may disagree with. Lowering carbs to 90-130 as you've suggested may help you control your sugar levels.
Some people can get away with more carbs than others (lucky them!) so it will require testing and seeing what you can get away with.
 
whompa73 said:
Ok last week when I was diagnosed with diabetes I was told to stay away from bananas yet on the very poorly written diet sheet I was issued it says bananas are good. Now I am trying to go down the low carbs route and I realise that bananas may be high in carbs but and I right in thinking we do actually need at least some in our diet. I think they are also high in sugar aswell which I can see could be a bad combination. Guess the questions I am asking are 1. Are bananas conducive to a low carb diet 2. Should I eat on own or with somthing like bite size shreded wheet (which also has some carbs in it but very low in if not no sugar ) with almond milk . 3 should I not be having either. Soooooo confused pls help
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You should probably avoid Fyffe a day .... Ha Ha
 
whompa73 said:
Well guess I now no the answer. Before breakfast 9.2 bg after (2 hours) 13.9. Ok I had a verry lazy morning but still !. What do you guys think?
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I think you have to ask yourself if you are happy with the numbers. If you are then no problem, if you're not then I would imagine you would want to consider reducing or not eating bananas. Hope you find the unique answer to your unique body. We don't want you slipping up, do we? :D
 
I was diagnosed Type 2 about 3 months ago and have been following a low carb diet.

In the early days my before and afters we like yours. After following a very low carb diet my readings now are 5-6 before and never go over 10 after meals.

I have 5 stone to shift but I don't feel any different weight wise and am slightly puzzled over this. I assumed if my readings are going down so would my weight... But I'm going in the right direction reading wise and that's all that matters to me as I don't want to end up taking medication.

Keep using your monitor as that is the only way to find out what specific foods and drinks do to your sugar levels.

I am fond of a glass or 2 of Rose wine in the evenings and ditched that and bought dry white wine instead. I got bored with drinking what tastes like vinegar and buckled and bought a bottle of Rose last week.

To my astonishment I was 6.0 before my drinking and 2 hours later I was 6.2, Now that did surprise me as I had assumed Rose wine had more sugar in but I know I can drink 2 large glasses and my readings are in my eyes very good.

Remember no 2 diabetics are the same.
 
whompa73 said:
I think for the moment being so new to diabetes that I should try and stay away from such bg spikes. I do love bananas and will try again when I have better controll
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Things do settle down yes. Be stricter in the beginning and limit your foods types so you can get a better understanding of what is going on. Once you see a picture, then you can experiement a little. Many things contribute to higher or lower readings. If you get into the swing of exercising, you'll find that foods on your 'banned list' are suddenly OK to eat. Just keep at it. many people find that, 6 months on, life is easier to understand :-)
 
Yorksman said:
whompa73 said:
I think for the moment being so new to diabetes that I should try and stay away from such bg spikes. I do love bananas and will try again when I have better controll
Click to expand...

Things do settle down yes. Be stricter in the beginning and limit your foods types so you can get a better understanding of what is going on. Once you see a picture, then you can experiement a little. Many things contribute to higher or lower readings. If you get into the swing of exercising, you'll find that foods on your 'banned list' are suddenly OK to eat. Just keep at it. many people find that, 6 months on, life is easier to understand :-)
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Yorksman, I had a white bread sandwich (2 slices) with smoked salmon and salad filling and my bGs were 5.0, 9.2 and 4.2 ( at +0, +1 and +2). This peak is consistent with my last OGTT test which was 14.7 at +1:00 after 75g glucose which is about double the carbs of the sandwich. My HbA1C is 38, down from 58 five years ago and my GP, DN and the path lab. all say I am diabetes resolved. In fact, there have been experienced diabetics who are adamant that I never was diabetic in the first place. So both professionals and experienced diabetics are agreeing that my figures are fine for a non-diabetic. Who could argue with that wealth of experience. Therefore, I can only conclude that the above bG pattern is normal for me. So, I ask myself, why be scared of spiking? Isn't spiking perfectly natural? Isn't a spike as a result of glucose secretion into the blood which then triggers insulin secretion (hopefully)?

If I assume that I have been diabetic only since diagnosis (5 years) as I can't go back any further than that, then, if my spiking is bad, would you expect me, by now, to be experiencing complications of one sort or the other and having a higher HbA1C?

Either my GP, DN, path lab and experienced diabetics are all right or they're all wrong since they all agree with each other.
 
The white bread is a problem as for most of us it causes a rapid spike in the BS. I eat wholemeal bread as its less spikey, some prefer Burgan bread, though I have tried it and I am not keen on it others love it.

A food that causes BS to rise slowly is the better option, as its rises your BS time lapses and you process the food the food high is not as great, instead of a reading of 10 with a food that causes a rapid rise, you would get a reading of 5.0 . A food that spikes quickly does not give your body the time to process the food.
 
gezzathorpe said:
Yorksman said:
If I assume that I have been diabetic only since diagnosis (5 years) as I can't go back any further than that, then, if my spiking is bad, would you expect me, by now, to be experiencing complications of one sort or the other and having a higher HbA1C?
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Plasma glucose doesn't bind to haemoglobin easily. If a diabetic were to eat white bread regularly, couple of slices of toast for breakfast, sandwiches at lunch, a couple of slices at tea time and then just a quick cheese and ham toastie for supper, those 4 spikes would push up the average for the day and, if repeated day in day out, that would result in an increase in HBA1c levels.

Your figures seem low anyway and are much better than these taken from a study. The first column is time in minutes, the second is white bread and the third is glucose. The data is an average of the sample set. The starting values, in mmol/L are fasting blood glucose levels so, as you can see, firmly within the diabetic range whereas your starting figure of 5.0 is well within the normal range.

0 8.3 7.9
30 11.1 12.9
60 12.9 14.9
90 13.0 13.5
120 12.2 11.7
150 10.9 10.0
180 10.0 8.7

You also come down a lot quicker that these diabetics who, even after 2.5 hours, are not at their [high] starting point. By the time they get back to their starting point, it's time for the next meal and, if they repeat it, you can see that it will be permanently above the normal range.
 
Yorksman said:
gezzathorpe said:
Yorksman said:
If I assume that I have been diabetic only since diagnosis (5 years) as I can't go back any further than that, then, if my spiking is bad, would you expect me, by now, to be experiencing complications of one sort or the other and having a higher HbA1C?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Plasma glucose doesn't bind to haemoglobin easily. If a diabetic were to eat white bread regularly, couple of slices of toast for breakfast, sandwiches at lunch, a couple of slices at tea time and then just a quick cheese and ham toastie for supper, those 4 spikes would push up the average for the day and, if repeated day in day out, that would result in an increase in HBA1c levels.

Your figures seem low anyway and are much better than these taken from a study. The first column is time in minutes, the second is white bread and the third is glucose. The data is an average of the sample set. The starting values, in mmol/L are fasting blood glucose levels so, as you can see, firmly within the diabetic range whereas your starting figure of 5.0 is well within the normal range.

0 8.3 7.9
30 11.1 12.9
60 12.9 14.9
90 13.0 13.5
120 12.2 11.7
150 10.9 10.0
180 10.0 8.7

You also come down a lot quicker that these diabetics who, even after 2.5 hours, are not at their [high] starting point. By the time they get back to their starting point, it's time for the next meal and, if they repeat it, you can see that it will be permanently above the normal range.
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Thanks for this. Didn't appreciate that white bread and glucose were so similar (ish). I wonder if my 9.2 at +1:00 versus 12.9 (white bread) & 14.9 (glucose) is 'normal' then. I know I could lower HbA1C by reducing spiking, but do I need to bother if, thus far, bloods, BP, weight, eyes etc. after 5 years (or more possibly)?
 
gezzathorpe said:
Thanks for this. Didn't appreciate that white bread and glucose were so similar (ish). I wonder if my 9.2 at +1:00 versus 12.9 (white bread) & 14.9 (glucose) is 'normal' then. I know I could lower HbA1C by reducing spiking, but do I need to bother if, thus far, bloods, BP, weight, eyes etc. after 5 years (or more possibly)?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's quite remarkable. It came as a shock to me when I discovered it. They don't tell you that at the NHS.

As long as you don't do it too often and as long as it is under 11, it ought to be OK. Your start level and finish levels for the bread are within the normal range. You can see for the diabetic patients, everything is higher and takes longer. You didn't give your start and finish figures for the OGTT. Are they too in the normal range?
 
Yorksman said:
gezzathorpe said:
Thanks for this. Didn't appreciate that white bread and glucose were so similar (ish). I wonder if my 9.2 at +1:00 versus 12.9 (white bread) & 14.9 (glucose) is 'normal' then. I know I could lower HbA1C by reducing spiking, but do I need to bother if, thus far, bloods, BP, weight, eyes etc. after 5 years (or more possibly)?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's quite remarkable. It came as a shock to me when I discovered it. They don't tell you that at the NHS.

As long as you don't do it too often and as long as it is under 11, it ought to be OK. Your start level and finish levels for the bread are within the normal range. You can see for the diabetic patients, everything is higher and takes longer. You didn't give your start and finish figures for the OGTT. Are they too in the normal range?
Click to expand...

Please read PM now.
 
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