unusual high level true or false

I was a diagnosed as a Type2 Ten Years ago when we lived in England and fully understand the early difficulties that you are currently facing. It was not unusual for myself in the early stages as a Type2 to become concerned with an occasional high reading. However a high reading for me when innitialy diagnosed, was for example, 25 and often over 30 mmols after eating. During the following five years I was prescribed Metformin and and a variety of tablets to assist my Pancreas to maintain a lower blood sugar level.
It was always difficult to maintain a HBA1C below the accepted level of 7 to 6 mmols. The test results for Keytones were always negative and trygliceride levels were within the normal range. These are the laboratory results that as you become more familiar with Diabetes, learn of the importance along with HBa1C results for long term health. The range and quantity of food was never ever described to my satisfaction by any of the so called diabetic specialists. Neither did any so described 'specilist diabetic nurse' that the local practice offer any valid information on diet over that you can obtain from any Web Site.
I have found that if possible, you avoid products containing large quantitys of sugar or suchrose derivatives, and providing you eat a sensible quantity of food of all variety's, a specific diet is not of any quantifiable assistance. Unfortunately one becomes more confused as everyone offers advice and becomes an expert, even those who do not suffer from Diabetes. but earn aliving at it!
The most important is not to deprive your body of essential nutiments and vitamins as it is already having problems with its metabolism. By dieting you cannot be sure if you are reducing the ability of the dietary sytem to produce the antibodies and enzymes required for good metabalism.

We moved to France when I retired and found that the flatulance producing medication was no longer of any aid to the beta cells of my failing Pancreas. I consider myself very lucky to have moved to France and registered with a Docter equivalent to the GP practice in England. Because following the initial consultation for a problem that had no connection with my Diabetes, I was immediately referred to a Diabetic specialist at the local Hospital were I was refused home for four days. It must be stated that because of the tests and subsequent treatment I received, that I can now enjoy improved health and a better outlook for the future despite Diabetes.

The main purpose of this writing is to reassure you that a readinig of 13 mmols plus following a meal is not unusual and providing it returns to the lower figure of 6 to 7 before eating again shows that your Pancreas is still working Don't dispare life isnt so bad with Diabetes, just a little more inconvenient.
KEEP HAPPY THATS MORE IMPORTANT
Best Regards
STINGRAY

bedshaped2000 said:

... I am still experimenting with foods and readings on the meter. Last night i had 2 sausgaes, chips, 1 fried egg and mushrooms. After 2 hours i did my blood sugar level test and to my horror it was 13.9. this has been the highest reading i have ever had. I was so shocked that after another 1 hr 20 mins i tested myself again without eating anything and the reading was 6.3. can i put this down to a dodgy first test because i persume that my blood sugar levels could not drop a whole 7 points in 90 mins ...

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There are 2 possibilities here. The first, and my experience the most likely, is those chips. Chips are bad. The potatoes would have been better not fried.

But having said that, our blood glucose meters are not as accurate as may like to think and it can happen that a rogue test strip does provide a reading far away from what you expect (and indeed reality). In this situation, it is a good idea to use a new test strip and repeat the test. If you get a similar result then its definately those chips. :?

IanS

Nobody seems to have mentioned that Pork Susages (Processed) are not good either, notwithstanding the carb content of any chips, a couple of sausages will be around 20g carbs, plus a portion of chips (30g + carbs ?) could mean we are looking at around 50-60g carbs in one meal.

No wonder the reading was high, I would say it was pretty accurate reflection of the carb content and doesn't need checking.

That one meal is roughly half of my daily carb intake. Some foods just need cutting out altogether for a while till better control is achieved, then try adding them back in small doses later.

bedshaped2000 said:

... These are oven chips by the way i dont fry anything apart from eggs or a omlette.

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Oven chips are actually fried in who knows what before they are frozen, so it doesn't actually make much difference. What you fry things in does. These days I use light olive oil for frying eggs. For omlettes, I have to confess, I do use butter in the omlette pan, but the quantity is so low, it's not worth getting excited over.

IanS

Hi!
Firstly, I have to say congratulations on the weight loss. That's pretty amazing and you should be very proud of yourself, I bet your kids are proud of you

Anyway, some random advice. Have you tried making the porridge with water instead of milk? I don't do cereal, so I can't vouch for this personally, but I'm told it doesn't taste much different. But I read something ages ago that said certain chemicals in milk can raise your blood sugar more and faster than you would expect from the carb count.

Regarding potatoes, the more processed they are, the faster acting their carbs will be, same as all starchy carbs. This is basically to do with processing and cooking of foods breaking the sugars and starches down into shorter chains, which means your body breaks them down into glucose really quickly. So boiled potatoes are best really. Baked potatoes can be a nightmare. Apparently sweet potatoes absorb slower than normal ones, might be worth a try. A book about GL diets might be useful as a guide. GL (glycaemic load) can be more useful than GI values. This is because GI is measured by eating 50g carbs worth of each food and then measuring effect on blood sugar. So it doesn't take into account the fact that it's really easy to eat 50g carbs worth of cake, but more challenging to eat 50g carbs worth of cabbage (that's about a skipful). GL does take that into account so it can be a helpful guide.

If you want to eat bread, have you tried Nimble? It's silly little slices of diet bread, but it's ok if you just need a quick bread fix. If I eat normal toast for breakfast, I need to do extra insulin, but if I eat Nimble, I tend to go hypo. So I'm guessing it might be good if you're trying to cut down carbs. Also, pulses such as chickpeas and especially yellow lentils are meant to be very slow absorbing carbs, and will also add low-fat protein to your diet, which will help you feel fuller.

I'd be inclined to cut down on sausages or only buy the pricier ones with a decent meat content. God knows what really goes into sausages, but they can have a surprisingly high carb content (although I suspect the cheap ones are mostly sawdust, no idea what that does to the blood sugar!). Also may be worth cutting down on diet drinks. I think there's some divided opinions on the effect of sweeteners on blood sugar, and also I read something recently that suggested that drinking something sweet puts your body on alert that it's going to get some calories, then when it doesn't get what it expected, it effectively goes into starvation mode so you retain more calories from your next meal. I don't know if this affects blood sugars though. I just can't take the taste of sweetener so I don't bother.

Oops, sorry this is rather long. But hopefully one day someone will benefit from my wisdom/ random bletherings. Anyway, my final and most important bit of advice. DO NOT EVER LET THE DOCTOR MAKE YOU FEEL GUILTY FOR ASKING FOR STRIPS!!!! They have absolutely no right to make you feel bad. You need the strips in order to have a healthy life. And whatever it costs the NHS to provide strips, it'd cost them a hell of a lot more to treat you for the numerous complications you could develop if you don't get to test as often as you need to. So if they question the number of strips you get through, tell them to shove it. Anyway, who cares what they think of you personally? Sorry, this rationing of strips is my serious number 1 pet hate. All through my childhood I was told off for not testing 5 times a day. Now they tell me I don't even have to do it once a day. Yeah, right!

Anyway, hope some of that is useful... Keep up the good work!

i am a pretty well controled diabetic have been for 15 years now and at 36 i reckon i am doing okay
but the most important thing i have realised coming from a long line of diabetics in my family is that tacky as it may sound sometimes you have to chill and not be so up tight about it all as sometimes it just happens and unless you ar hitting double figures each time you test there is not much wrong. it has work for our family for a long time .