What breakfast cereal spikes sugars

[braveheart]

I have tried all the different types of oats, but porridge with whole oats is the best for me, oats so simple and ready break gave me higher spikes.
At the weekend I have 2 poached eggs and 2 slices of bacon high in protein to avoid the spikes.

 

[malhotrn]

Hello Stansfiled Sara,
My son has Type 1 (he is 17). I find the following cereals work very well (but you must test and see how they work for your daughter)
1. Oatabix is better than Weetabix
2. Sharpham Park Spelt Bran Flakes
3.Rude Health Honey Nut/Coconut Chia Granola
4. Lizi's Low Sugar Granola
5. I also often make Traditional Scottish Whole Rolled Oats and Barley Flakes Porridge (Not readymade ones)
If he has BGs running on the lower side (about 4ish) then I also sometimes give him the following:
6. The new Low Sugar Cheerios/Shredded Wheat (although the spike is not huge but it is larger than the ones mentioned above)
I always add loads of seeds and nuts to all his cereals, which also helps in controlling the spike
Hope this helps!

 

[u769325]

My doctor recommended weetabix as a cereal. On a good day 2 weetabix with milk and a banana get me going but sugar go high till just before lunch.

My treat is poached eggs on granary toast only once a week though when I have time.

 

[u769325]

Special K really spikes my sugars.

 

[Totto]

Have any of you tried pin head oats with cream?

 

[YorkshireAli]

I find any cereal (including oats) spike my sugar and I have to take a relatively large dose of insulin to deal with it. Often I'll get a low later as a result. I just can't be doing with all that yo-yo stuff, so now i usually have an egg-based breakfast...two scrambled eggs on a slice of Vogel soya & linseed toast, or an omelette of some description. The toast option does need an extra unit, but both breakfasts keep me going easily till lunchtime and with a much flatter glucose peak.

 

[Stansfieldsara]

Thanks very much. Eggs are ok but she does like cereal toast or crumpets and can't really give her insulin 30-40 mins before eating as she's not awake. I wouldn't like to give her loads of eggs for cholesterol reasons really. What does everyone call a spike?

 

[Bluemarine Josephine]

From my interaction with kids, I know of no kid that would wake up in the morning to have a full English breakfast therefore, no matter how much we advocate the benefits of a low carbohydrate diet we need to consider that we are dealing with a child who doesn’t want to be deprived of the things she likes. And why should she? Kids like to try out things and test new flavours and eat what their friends eat.

So, since kiddo here wants cereal, this is what I will suggest:
Around 200 – 210 grs of milk (depending if its full fat or semi-skimmed) are 10 grs of carbs = 1 cp
40 grams of all bran = 20 grs of carbs = 2 cp
Alternatively, you can use Kellogs Special K, 45 grams = 26 grams = 2.5 cp or, if you dont have a half pen then, 40 grams have 20.8 grams of carbs = 2CP.

You can add some 25 grams of nuts in this, hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts to make it more playfull and crunchy. You dont need to include it in her bolus, nuts are considered freebies.
And, you can also add a few strawberries which you do not need to consider for her bolus if the amount is low (like, 2 strawberries for example). Alternatively you can use blueberries, they are freebies as well.

Sweeten it with some Canderel or stevia (you can use a drizzle of honey if you want but, you will have to calculate it in her bolus injection)
And there you have it! A nice breakfast of around 3CP.
It’s delicious and guess what? exactly like she sees it on the telly commercials too!! (Wow!)

I think it is also a good idea for you to use this link regarding low glycemic index foods.
http://www.the-gi-diet.org/lowgifoods/

Search for everything that has a low GI or a medium GI and disregard the high GI if you can. From my experience, they save me from a quick spike.

Regards and a sugary hug to your daughter.
Diabetic kids are always my inspiration!!
Josephine.

 

[Bluemarine Josephine]

Regarding your question, what a spike is,
The timing that we inject our mealtime insulin can make or break its effectiveness.
Imagine you are a baseball player, batting against a very clever pitcher. Not only you have to swing the bat at the level where the ball is but, you also have to swing it at the right time. If you swing too early or too late, you miss the hit.
Same with insulin, even if the amount of insulin you give is correct, giving it too early will cause a low blood sugar followed by high readings several hours later. Giving it too late will produce hyperglycemia soon after eating.

The spike is when insulin does not "swing the bat" at the correct time so our blood glucose goes high.

 

[Stansfieldsara]

That's very helpful thanks very much. We used skimmed milk and we also carb count blueberries as she does love them. So how long after a meal do I need to check for a spike? And what should be the reading be at this time

 

[Bluemarine Josephine]

If you want to be very consistent, doctors say you must check 1 hour after she begins her meal. (so, if she eats her breakfaast at 07:00 and finishes at 07:15, you consider checking 1 hour after 07:00 meaning 08:00 - and not 08:15)
Alternatively, it is 2 hours after she begins with her meal.

But, once you get the Freestyle Libre, you can litteraly check every 10 minutes if you want to, and follow the spike and the drop. It is really a very useful tool!

Now, the reading at the time, depends on the glycemic load that the food has.
The foods that have high glycemic load raise the blood sugar very very guickly. You can get a spike even within 10-15 minutes which is must earlier than the timing when insulin will get to work.

Low glycemic foods take their time... they raise our blood sugar slowly and gradually so, our insulin has enough time to get to work and prevent a very high blood sugar rise.

I will give you and example:
Lets assume, for the example, that each 10 grams of carbs raise our blood sugar by 3 mmols.
And lets have a 30 grams meal.
and our fasting blood sugar is 10 mmols.

A high glycemic load meal of 30 grams can bring us to 19 mmols within 30 minutes to an hour. Insulin cant work so fast to prevent this rise.

A low glycemic load meal of 30 grams can take even upto 2 hours to reach 19 mmols. By the 1st hour to 90 minutes our insulin has started to peak and stops the blood sugar rise before it reaches 19 mmols.

Does that make sense? I hope the example helps a bit?

Some diabetics are very experienced and can manipulate their insulin timings and inject long before a meal and still manage to succeed a perfect "strike". I havent managed that yet so, I found a solution to the low glycemic load foods instead.

 

[Juicyj]

Personally I give my youngster semi skimmed - there is no evidence to suggest that skimmed milk is better for you and if fact research now claims that by having skimmed milk you miss out on vitamins A & E. http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/which-milk-right-you

I would also give bircher cereal a go for a more sustaining breakfast, you can make it up the night before and get your child to make it too so they put in what they want which makes them more likely to eat it as they understand and appreciate how it's made. Bircher is a popular Scandinavian option - very healthy and it does contain oats. I give my daughter either greek yoghurt with blueberries or strawberries or mixed grain toast.

I come from the camp of avoiding breakfast cereals, I don't like the idea of giving my daughter something that contains hidden sugar as I believe they are incredibly unhealthy and not good for our children, there are lots of good alternatives out there without eating a full english or lots of eggs but any alternative requires creativity and energy something alot of people are not interested in these days

 

[Juicyj]

Here's a recipe from Jamie for some inspiration: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fruit-recipes/bircher-muesli/#flv4eqQ4LjyeI348.97

 

[azure]

That's very helpful thanks very much. We used skimmed milk and we also carb count blueberries as she does love them. So how long after a meal do I need to check for a spike? And what should be the reading be at this time

I use full fat milk as I swapped to fuller fat/butter a few years ago. I think the extra fat in it helps the spike a little too - for me, at least. You could try that maybe?

I check for a spike 2 hours after a meal (so breakfast started at 6.30am, test at 8.30am). I think everyone has a slightly different opinion about what constitutes a spike for them. It also depends on what the person is planning to do after eating, or if they're a young child, etc, etc. It will also depend on whether your daughter's blood sugar spikes then goes low later.

Injecting earlier is the best answer I found. I know you said your daughter wouldn't have time to do that, and I struggled to plan out the timings when I first began. I used to eat breakfast first thing, but now I inject then shower, dress, etc and have my breakfast last. That's the biggest thing that controls the spike. Even a little in advance might help.

I also stick to the same cereals - same kind, same weight. I don't find this boring (probably because I'm half asleep : D ) and it means I don't have to think or calculate carbs each day. I add a few seeds, as an earlier poster mentioned, and sometimes also add fresh or dried coconut for extra fat to slow the spike.

 

[Stansfieldsara]

It's all make good reading. But my idea is that's she's a child and I don't want the diabetes to control her and if she wants cereal then I would like to give it her as she does enjoy it. She does like cornflakes and Cheerios. As for bread we have brown bread anyway.

 

[Robinredbreast]

Just one Weetabix was good for me, no spikes, Oat crunchies and Bran flakes were okay too, but can't eat them now. I do remember, just a small amount of Rice crispies and Cornflakes were the worse spikers.

 

[Bluemarine Josephine]

Cornflakes and Cheerios will spike (because this is the nature of the food, they spike) unless you use the plan that others suggested above and inject quite early than your mealtime (which is something that you cannot do, to what I have read.)
So, 2 solutions here:
1. Either you look for healthier cereal alternatives to conflakes and cheerios, which do not spike so much
2. You give her conflakes and cheerios but, accept and expect that her blood sugar will spike.
There is no other way to deal with this.

Unfortunately, it is the nature of our condition...
We need to compromise a little...

 

[Stansfieldsara]

Aww thanks. So looking at bran flakes etc then. We maybe a year into this but shows how little we know really

 

[tim2000s]

Sadly the issue with most breakfast cereals isn't the sugar content on its own, it's the highly processed nature of the product that massively increases the GI. Even Bran Flakes and Shredded Wheat suffer from this. In many ways it's very like the issues with bread.

 

[Abbiec12]

Have any of you tried pin head oats with cream?

I've never tried them but I'm interested now!! Are they low GI then?