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Weetabix

N

niaz11

Active Member
Messages
37
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Normally when i have my weetabix every morning it has little effect on me. Once i had weetabix with a bs of 6.7 and then tested before lunch at 5.5. Today i had weetabix at 6.0 and by 12pm it shot up to 6.7. So i thought id have something light for lunch. I also had a phone call from the endo team to say lower my insulin units from 4 to 2 with taking 2g metformin. If i see that it makes no difference i can come off the needles. If not then they are going to assess the situation again. I am trying my best to battle diabetes with all the dietary changes im making and hopefully be a stronger healthier young man than i was before.
 
Have you tested 2 hours after your weetabix? Or 1 hour after? I'm not saying this happens to you, but this is what happens to me:

a) I wake up with a level of about 6.0
b) I eat two weetabix
c) By one hour later my blood sugar will be about 12-14 (this peaks and drops really, really fast.. I'm talking about less than 10 minutes at that peak)
d) Two hours after my blood sugar will be about 7
e) By about lunch my blood sugar will again be about 6 or sometimes as low as 4

I.e. weetabix give me a huge spike. It goes away quickly as well though so depending on when you test you might not even see it. Is this a bad thing? I have no idea

Edit: All those numbers above are with 5 units of insulin with my weetabix. Not a suggestion, at all, of how much insulin is "good" but it clearly must effect my measurements so must be stated because it effects *my* numbers; i.e. if I didn't have insulin I have no idea what my numbers would be but I think that they'd peak way above 14 considering, well, I've had insulin
 
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I dont test 2 hours after i test when its before lunch time so about 4 hours after. Does that mean weetabix is generally bad then because its something that i have regularly. All goods should go up and back down once you eat the surely.
 
niaz11 said:
I dont test 2 hours after i test when its before lunch time so about 4 hours after. Does that mean weetabix is generally bad then because its something that i have regularly. All goods should go up and back down once you eat the surely.
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I don't think weetabix are generally bad. What I'm saying is that when I eat them my blood sugar spikes and then goes back down (sometimes below 4) in a matter of 30 to 60 minutes. So if you're not checking that frequently you would never see it (the spike). But, I'm also not saying that weetabix give you a spike. They give *me* a huge spike. They don't do that to everyone

Edit: I guess what I'm saying is that to work out how they affect you is that maybe you need to check more frequently. That may or may not be the case, I don't know how your body responds. You said "Today i had weetabix at 6.0 and by 12pm it shot up to 6.7"... What happened between those times? 6.0 at breakfast and 6.7 at 12 noon seems pretty normal to me, but what time did you have breakfast? If I had weetabix at 7 AM my BSL might rise to 14 by 8 AM and be back down to 6 by 12 noon. If I didn't check I'd say the weetabix did nothing... get what I'm saying?
 
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@niaz11 to try and explain what I'm saying...

At about 8 AM i was 5.8 (roughly). I ate my two weetabix at that time. By lunchtime I was, again, about 5 point something. If I had not tested between those times I could reasonably say that the the weetabix did nothing -- because the values at breakfast and lunch didn't really change much. But there was a peak after the weetabix -- I can see it on my Libre graph: at about 9AM I was 11.3! In fact, without testing in between (not that I tested, it was on the graph) I'd have thought I was around 5-6 all day.

Edit: I'm not saying those peaks mean anything...
 
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You have to understand that spikes this high (over 10 mmols) is not advised. Because constant spikes are the reason for the diagnosis.
Consistent carby, sugary foods, will eventually lead to higher hba1c and fasting levels.
Weetabix, are a production food, plenty of sugars, plenty of additives, too many carbs, packaged as a healthy food, that definitely isn't for a prediabetic or T2!
Cereal foods have grains in them, most between, 80 & 100% carbs.

Bacon and eggs are a much better choice.
 
My dietician says I'm not allowed bacon and eggs. I must have carbs. In fact, between 50-65 percent of my daily energy intake, according to her, must come from carbs. So, yes, spikes expected
 
If you want to find out in detail what the weetabix do to your system then I think you'll have to test your blood a bit more often. I'd suggest testing after a fast, immediately before you eat (and don't eat anything other than the weetabix, allowing for milk or whatever) and then test at one hour, two hours, and maybe three and four hours after. That should show you firstly how quickly the glucose in the weetabix hits your bloodstream; secondly, how high that takes your blood glucose levels; and thirdly, how long it takes your system to bring the higher levels back down to roughly where you started. Depending on results you might want to repeat that with half hour intervals.

An alternative would be to try out a Constant Glucose Monitor system ( eg the Libre) which should give you a pretty clear idea of the same factors. I had a bit of a shock when I saw from a Libre how I handle hot milk (actually I really don't).
 
plantae said:
My dietician says I'm not allowed bacon and eggs. I must have carbs. In fact, between 50-65 percent of my daily energy intake, according to her, must come from carbs. So, yes, spikes expected
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I had a few of them! Many doctors and an endocrinologist who insisted I needed carbs.
until my endocrinologist now, told me I'm not diabetic but soon would be If I continued to eat carbs.
I am carb intolerant, the same as I have been lactose intolerant all my life. I was told to avoid dairy. So if I'm carb intolerant like most T2s are, the eating of carbs is illogical and insane!
I was nearly twenty (ish) stone eating the eat well plate diet. As soon as I started low carb, I lost weight, my health improved, my life improved. Control of my blood glucose levels is crucial in my health, it should be in yours.
When you keep a food diary, be truly honest, any data used makes a real difference to diagnosis. There are many variations to T2 and false info could lead to a bias in treatment. Because of the wide range of meds, you may be given the wrong meds.
 
I keep my food diary for myself. There's no point lying to myself In another comment in another thread I kind of said I'd add carbs to the diary just to satisfy the dietician but I was writing quickly and what I wrote was abbreviated and, therefore, sounded wrong. If I lied in my diary they could not get my basal dose right I don't think. So, if I lied who would that hurt? Not them. Me. So let me say now what I should have written more explicitly before: although I may be tempted to add a bread-roll (carbs) to a diary just to satisfy the numbers and to keep the others happy, I'd never do that because the only person that hurts is me. I eat a low-carb diet not out of choice but because I simply don't like those high carb foods. So be it
 
I have kept a food diary since 2012.
The evidence of my condition is in its specific details.

best wishes
 
I’m type 1 sp basically I can eat what I want , I like Weetabix but they are one of what I call my “ magic” foods , no matter how much carbs I count for Weetabix and no matter how much insulin I take they send my sugars high, I now stay away from “magic” foods
 
I'm the same. looking at the nutrition label they shouldn't be all that bad. But they send me sky high and then I plunge even faster than I rise! And most often the plunge goes below 4 even if I start at 6.5. It's up, and then a vertical down. But apparently they don't do this to all people
 
I'm nosey!
Could you please tell me the effect on your blood glucose levels with your pancreatitis and did this lead to your diagnosis of diabetes?
 
It seems your dietician is out-if-date and also doesn't understand the damage spikes can do. While some think people need carbs (we don't) and that you eat to your insulin/other drugs rather than manage the drugs to what you eat.

I aim to avoid any high spikes as I already have non-diabetic neuropathy and don't want to lose any more sensation or my eyesight.
 
Reading this thread I realise how hugely opinionated I am about food, and how I must (I do!) drive members of my family mad with it, but, considering the role of weetbix had in my own nutrition-nightmare-diabetes journey - I truly consider weetbix a horror food!

Nothing more than a biscuit masquerading as a health food. A wheat and sugar bullet to the gut, the liver, the pancreas.

I hope my initial warning about my being horribly opinionated on food covers this?
 
plantae said:
. But apparently they don't do this to all people
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That's why meters are so important. We are all different and what works for one, doesn't for another
It's also why it's simpler to stick to Real food. The food that comes as one word, not a list of ingredients
 
@niaz11

please note that IF you are type 2 you likely have insulin resistance (and likely naturally high insulin levels but that are ineffective) and react differently to carbs as a result when compared to someone who is diabetic because they don’t produce insulin at all. (type 1 and 3c).

Also as a type 2 you have the possibility of remission and being drug free or on less drugs for sure. You are still very young and have many many decades ahead and you’ll want them to be as healthy as possible I presume. Aiming to find a way forward with as few side effects as possible and as close to normal levels as possible is what we all aim for.

Have a read of this explanation https://www.dietdoctor.com/diabetes, but also be aware of the guidance in this https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/for-doctors/adjusting-medications as you are on insulin and rebalancing medication and diet needs to be done with awareness.

If you go for this lowering carb approach and it doesn’t work then it’s a big flag that something other than type 2 is happening here (as I’ve commented on another of your posts)
 
MrsA2 said:
That's why meters are so important. We are all different and what works for one, doesn't for another
It's also why it's simpler to stick to Real food. The food that comes as one word, not a list of ingredients
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Yeah I tend to stick to Real Food for most of the day but I find breakfast hard because I don't always have time to prepare the real food I'm not sure why I didn't mention it yesterday, but I did find a solution for the weetabix spike. If I add 10 g of psyllium husk to the weetabix, the peak goes away (it's still there, but only goes up to about 7 and is drawn out over about 2 hours rather than up to 11 and back down to 4 in like 30 minutes). Adding psyllium husk might not work for everyone -- I've heard that not everyone even gets the spike -- but it works for me
 
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