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To snack or not to snack?

Lesleywo

Well-Known Member
Messages
714
Location
Southern Highlands, Australia
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Diet only
Dislikes
My addiction to carbs
This could be a dumb question but I'll ask anyway ... when I low carb I tend to sit on 5.3 pretty much all day from fasting onwards when I eat every 2 to 2.5 hours. If I go from breakfast to lunch with no snack and only coffee w/cream inbetween (around 4 hours), my pre lunch can be up to high 6's which I assume is a bit of a liver dump.

Question is - is it better to eat the mid morning snack, release more insulin but keep bloods stable or put up with the higher levels from the liver dump and preserve more beta cells?

See, I said it was a dumb question!
 
Only dumb people don't ask questions and that's why they remain dumb!
I'd say go with what works for you.
I'd be sticking with whatever kept my numbers down.
It's the higher numbers that do the damage.
 
I find any snack, including tea or coffee raises my BG levels. I don't snack at all now between meals, and normally just drink water. I might have a black tea or coffee, but never within 2hrs before a meal...... That's how I deal with it.
 
my guess for insulin resistance, eat 3 times a day within 10 hrs and fast for 14..but snack if you need to
 
Another dumb question .... if the glucose from a liver dump doesn't cause the body to release insulin, is it still as bad as if it was caused by eating food?
 
Lesleywo said:
Another dumb question .... if the glucose from a liver dump doesn't cause the body to release insulin, is it still as bad as if it was caused by eating food?
Click to expand...
Good question..... I guess it is if it causes a high spike.
 
Why not go with your snack option, and test for it to see how your body/liver likes it?

I can also go up between breakfast and lunch - and then tend to stay higher for the rest of the day. (I split my dose of metformin SR to try to accommodate this , but it doesn't always seem to work!)

Robbity
 
Hi Lesley,

Firstly, I'm afraid our body's helpful liver dumps are every bit as bad food - a non diabetic would produce insulin when their liver releases glucose to make sure they bring it back under control; our's can't do that.

As for snacking to keep your BG stable, that's a tough one. I guess it depends on whether stable BGs that are slightly raised for a long period (i.e. your permanent mid 5s) are better or worse than BG that have a variability with long periods of normal, healthy levels (i.e. high 3s to low 4s) but the occasional short spike up into the 6s when your liver does its thing. I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that. I guess at the levels you currently run, I'd probably settle for the stable mid 5s, but if that started to edge towards stable high 5s I'd go for the low BGs with occasional liver dump spikes. This will probably happen as your condition progresses. Not sure that's very logical though.

Smidge
 
Are you hungry to want to snack? Otherwise why feed for the sake of it?

I've never been a snacker, so can't really get the need to graze all day. Everyone to their own.
 
If I feel the need to snack between meals (on low carb), I would suspect one of the following:
  • Too many carbs
  • Not enough to eat in the meal
One of the joys of low carbing is that if you eat enough, and drop carbs low enough, you can drop food down to 3 or even 2 meals a day, without snacking, without hunger, and with a steady blood glucose.

If you are liver dumping before lunch, then something definitely needs tweaking.
 
Lesleywo said:
in which case I guess it would be better to eat the snack to avoid the dump .... but then you would release more insulin. Damned if you do, damned if you don't!
Click to expand...

Depends what you snack on...

Why not choose something that doesn't need insulin?
 
Oh ... I thought sitting on 5.3 all day was a good thing? This is with low carbing .. I start the day with a fasting of 5.3 then 2 hours pp still 5.3 so assuming I'm not getting much of a rise (often if I test at one hour I drop lower and then back to 5.3 after 2 hrs). Are these numbers not good then? the only time I ever go below 5 is if I drink alcohol.

I have not been classed as prediabetic, only insulin resistant (HbAlc 5.8%, never seems to change despite dietary changes)

Thanks Smidge
 
Last edited by a moderator:
AndBreathe said:
Are you hungry to want to snack? Otherwise why feed for the sake of it?

I've never been a snacker, so can't really get the need to graze all day. Everyone to their own.
Click to expand...
I've always tended to graze as I prefer smaller meals, little and often, especially between breakfast and lunch, otherwise I feel a bit yuck. When I was younger I would get really bad hypo symptoms and end up eating everything in sight so it's better for me to snack than let myself get into that state, though the symptoms are nowhere near as bad now as they were some years ago. Suspect I've always had faulty blood sugars.
 
I think Brunneria my problem is I don't like a big breakfast. Here's a typical day's food:

B: 1/2 Cheese & Veg Flax Muffin w/Butter
S: Mandarin w/Cheese Slice or Protein Shake
L: Vegetable Soup w/Cheese & Flax Crackers or Salad w/Cheese or Smoked Salmon
S: Handful of mixed nuts
D: Chicken w/lots of green veggies
Sometimes berries & greek yogurt 2 hours later

I also walk before breakfast and weight train at gym between breakfast and mid morning.
 
Sounds like you're not eating enough then. You have to decide if you eat a bigger meal, or have something in between.
 
It can be soooo frustrating trying to figure these things out. I tend to go the other way & end up really quite low before dinner - have been trying various afternoon snacks but sometimes they work & sometimes they don't

Maybe try some avocado with your breakfast? The extra fibre & fat may prolong the rise.
 
Lesleywo said:
Oh ... I thought sitting on 5.3 all day was a good thing?
Click to expand...
Yeah 5.3 is pretty good. The normal (fasting) range for a non diabetic is 3.9 to 5.5.

My blood sugar go up like that when I fast, at least initially. The way I see it is if the liver is "dumping" glucose then it must be geting it from somewhere. I always like to hope that it's being converted from liver fat.
 
My thoughts would be your not getting enough fat for fuel which is why your liver is dumping? Maybe try increasing your fat intake. Maybe fat bombs?
 
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