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

Trying not to make my diet an issue.

JenniferM55

JenniferM55

Well-Known Member
Messages
611
Location
Cambridgeshire
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
I know it seems a basic or maybe a silly question, so I hope you don't mind my asking.

Was diagnosed T2 about 3 years ago having just tipped over the line of prediabetes. I'm on no drugs for diabetes, and haven't really worked hard to control my diet, but I have had 3 or 4 periods of being on keto for a good couple of months which has wiped out the urges to binge on my trigger foods. Sadly for one reason or another I fell off the wagon.

Testing though pricking my finger (which I know isn't totally accurate), my morning BG was 6.5. An hour after my breakfast at 10am my BG was 9.2. An hour or two later my BG was 5.2, and just to confirm I tested again an hour later and it was 5.4. Do you think my breakfast was ok for me?

I'm asking because my breakfast is easy, I enjoy it, it makes my 'diet' sustainable and I don't have to think about food ie what can I have for breakfast.... my daily breakfast is 40g of rolled porridge oats made with water and cooled with a small amount of milk. My daily carb count is always under 40g. I'm more Atkins that keto.
 
JenniferM55 said:
my daily breakfast is 40g of rolled porridge oats made with water and cooled with a small amount of milk. My daily carb count is always under 40g.
Click to expand...
Are you sure your daily carb count is under 40?
40 grams of oats alone is around 25 grams of carbs, plus a little for the milk, which would leave you with less 15 grams of carbs over the rest of the day.

The oats didn't make you rise that much, but because you were already on a somewhat elevated fasting level it pushed you higher. It's up to you if you feel a daily rise to over 9 is acceptable. Like you said, enjoyable and sustainable are important factors too when choosing foods.

It might be worth experimenting with lower carb breakfasts to see how you like it. Easiest breakfast is full fat natural Greek yoghurt, very filling and it doesn't get quicker and easier than that.
Do you like eggs?
You can pre-boil them so no faff in the morning, or you can make an omelet eaten cold or reheated?
 
The thing about oats and other grains, can effect you different from the usual. This is because of how effective your tolerance is to these types of carbs, it is believed that they can be slow acting carbs, but with a poor first insulin response, like I have and other T2s. Then the spike will be higher on top of your pre meal and two hours test, it will come down eventually, but at a longer time than you would think. If you do have longer periods of time in high blood glucose levels, this will not help with management of your diabetes and your overall health will not improve.
I would definitely rethink my breakfast, if I was you.
I use intermittent fasting to help with dietary control.

keep safe.
 
Antje77 said:
Are you sure your daily carb count is under 40?
40 grams of oats alone is around 25 grams of carbs, plus a little for the milk, which would leave you with less 15 grams of carbs over the rest of the day.

The oats didn't make you rise that much, but because you were already on a somewhat elevated fasting level it pushed you higher. It's up to you if you feel a daily rise to over 9 is acceptable. Like you said, enjoyable and sustainable are important factors too when choosing foods.

It might be worth experimenting with lower carb breakfasts to see how you like it. Easiest breakfast is full fat natural Greek yoghurt, very filling and it doesn't get quicker and easier than that.
Do you like eggs?
You can pre-boil them so no faff in the morning, or you can make an omelet eaten cold or reheated?
Click to expand...

Thanks for replying Antje

Today's menu came to 28g carbs
B/F - 40g of oats, 1/2 cup milk = 25.51g carbs
Lunch - 2 smoked mackerel fillets = 1.6g carbs
Dinner - (mixed grill) 100g mushrooms fried in butter, 1 chipolata sausage, 2 rashers streaky bacon, 50g lamb's liver, 75g rib-eye steak = 2.3g carbs
Extras - 10g cocoa, 1 tablespoon MCT oil, 40g Blue Dragon Coconut cream block = 2.16 carbs

Yesterday's menu - came to 34g carbs
B/F - as today = 25.51g carbs
Dinner - 2 tablespoons butter, 100g cauliflower, 1 small carrot (2.8g carbs!), Fresh mackerel fillet = 7.3g carbs
Extras - as above = 2.16 carbs

Antje you've inspired me a plan! Cut down the oats to 30g, and replace milk with 30g Greek yoghurt = 16g carbs. (will test to see how this spikes)

I eat between 10am and 4/5pm - it would do me good to skip breakfast for 3 times a week!

Really don't know why I'm struggling giving up porridge, I can only think it's a comfort thing that keeps me on track. Something I obviously need to work on. Maybe it's a winter thing?

I don't drink tea or coffee, but a weak cocoa drink is the only warm drink I have, it's delicious with the MCT oil.
 
Lamont D said:
The thing about oats and other grains, can effect you different from the usual. This is because of how effective your tolerance is to these types of carbs, it is believed that they can be slow acting carbs, but with a poor first insulin response, like I have and other T2s. Then the spike will be higher on top of your pre meal and two hours test, it will come down eventually, but at a longer time than you would think. If you do have longer periods of time in high blood glucose levels, this will not help with management of your diabetes and your overall health will not improve.
I would definitely rethink my breakfast, if I was you.
I use intermittent fasting to help with dietary control.

keep safe.
Click to expand...
Thank you Lamont D, I'm working on it now and will have a day of testing tomorrow.
 
I make mine with milled flaxseed and a little chia seed - at first I added some oatbran so it tasted a bit like porridge but slowly reduced that.
Made with some chopped nuts and/or seeds, cinnamon, a little salt and a spoon of coconut milk.
I make up a week's worth at a time so I just need to spoon it out each day.
 
lamarclark09 said:
Eating oatmeal can spike blood sugar levels if you choose instant oatmeal, laden with added sugar, or consume too much at one time but that’s about it. One important thing to look for is that the type of oats you want to choose for your oatmeal should be the least processed and have a relatively low glycemic index (which tells you how quickly food cells convert into glucose in the bloodstream). If you are looking for fewer blood sugar spikes, you will ideally want to choose foods with a lower GI.

It will help you a lot.
Be safe.
Click to expand...
As you don’t have diabetes I’m going to ask what you base that information on?

A large % of us do find all types of oats not just the instant ones easily give a spike and the so called GI rating is often a poor indicator when compared against our meters and cgm’s taken before and after eating them. I do wonder if GI rating takes insulin resistance into account or assume a perfect human specimen with no less than perfect metabolic issues.
 
lamarclark09 said:
Eating oatmeal can spike blood sugar levels if you choose instant oatmeal, laden with added sugar, or consume too much at one time but that’s about it. One important thing to look for is that the type of oats you want to choose for your oatmeal should be the least processed and have a relatively low glycemic index (which tells you how quickly food cells convert into glucose in the bloodstream). If you are looking for fewer blood sugar spikes, you will ideally want to choose foods with a lower GI.

It will help you a lot.
Be safe.
Click to expand...
For a diabetic, the insulin (response) index, and it is on the website somewhere, is a much better guide, but even that is based on non diabetics.
only personal testing can really tell how intolerant you are to food.
 
Thanks again for the recipe @Rechox. It is the one I tried this morning from the Diet Doctor's website. I didn't have any psyllium husk powder so I missed that out, as I did with the salt. I sweetened it with Erythritol, but I wished I hadn't because it was sweet enough without it. I also added some extra thick cream after it was cooked. I really could only eat half of it, the half I left is in the fridge and will be heated for tomorrow's breakfast. It was calorie heavy at 594 (by my reckoning) but split over 2 breakfasts it's not bad. Carbs came in 7.87 (again by my reckoning), though 3.5 carbs for breakfast is a huge drop next to rolled oats.

Can't say I was smitten by it, but I'll have a go trying to stick to it for breakfast to give my body time to get used to it.
 
JenniferM55 said:
Thanks again for the recipe @Rechox. It is the one I tried this morning from the Diet Doctor's website. I didn't have any psyllium husk powder so I missed that out, as I did with the salt. I sweetened it with Erythritol, but I wished I hadn't because it was sweet enough without it. I also added some extra thick cream after it was cooked. I really could only eat half of it, the half I left is in the fridge and will be heated for tomorrow's breakfast. It was calorie heavy at 594 (by my reckoning) but split over 2 breakfasts it's not bad. Carbs came in 7.87 (again by my reckoning), though 3.5 carbs for breakfast is a huge drop next to rolled oats.

Can't say I was smitten by it, but I'll have a go trying to stick to it for breakfast to give my body time to get used to it.
Click to expand...
It’s the carbs that cause us the most trouble not the calories. (Within reason). If you are full up and not spiking hunger hormones with carbs then overall the days calories might not end up so different anyway.
 
Back
Top