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

What is a MEAL?

K

keeperofthegood

Newbie
Messages
2
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hello and I hope my first post is ok. I did google this for some time but found that the word MEAL is used with abandon but no definitions of what constitutes a MEAL. While I was diagnosed last year with per-diabetic blood sugar levels it was this year when my call center took on support for a BGM company in another nation that I started to test my blood (needed to so I can have the first hand knowledge to walk new people through the process and for the readings I get I will continue to do so and be having a much longer talk with my Dr.as my readings have been between 7mmol/L and 13mmol/L). Now, these meters and the instructions and the information ALL say the exact same thing regardless of country: Pre Meal Testing and Post Meal Testing. The instructions go on from there (some that make little sense at all to me) but none of them have defined exactly what a meal is.


So, my question really is simple: What is a MEAL?

 
I think we can make the assumption that we are talking about people who have enough to eat as otherwise they are unlikely to be testing. The purpose of pre and post meal testing is to determine the effect on blood glucose of ingesting food, so all of the substantial intakes of food in a day, typically 2 or 3, will constitute a MEAL as far as testing is concerned.
 
@Mike D LMAO That certainly opens the other door I didn't touch!

@Mr_Pot That's about the trouble. During my day, my eating is broken up. There really isn't, for the most part, two hours of not consuming something. Even if is just a solitary carrot, cup of coffee (with creamer), slice of dark rye with cream cheese, handfull of raw peanuts etc. Here I am tonight, I had a burger and salad at 8pm and then an orange juice at 10pm and thinking "sheesh where is my two hours to count from?"
 
Last edited:

You sound like me! I like to eat frequently throughout the day and hated the big gaps between "meals" on MDI. I don't really like the idea of meals, and these days with pump and cgm I don't have your worries about when exactly 2 hours is. But here is what I did on MDI: a meal is something which requires insulin to cover (obviously not relevant for you. But consider this to be anything >30g carbs). Before the meal I test my blood sugar. 2 hours after that test (not having eaten carbs in between unless I got low) I test again. Then I eat a snack (15ish grams). 3-4 hours after the snack it is time for the next "meal", and then repeat the whole process. After the third meal, repeat, have final snack before bed and stop eating for the day (unless I'm low).

The whole point of testing 2 hours after the meal is to see the effect of it (and any medication taken) on your blood sugar. So ideally you should avoid having other carbs in those 2 hours. It's ok to have salad, nuts, meat, cheese etc though. In your case the burger and salad was your "meal" i.e. the main source of carbs in that time period. Here's how I would classify the other things you mentioned: carrot = low carb snack, coffee = drink, bread+cheese = carby snack, peanuts = low carb snack.
 
Haha! Good question!

As Mr Pot says, the purpose of testing is to discover what effect food is having on your blood glucose.
So in that respect, any food that impacts bg could be considered a meal - if you are going to test.

Some people love lots of little snacks. Others (like me) prefer to eat significant amounts less often. But if you want to measure the effect of a single food (or entire meal) in a way that allows you to track the bg impact, then it makes sense to test it in isolation - and that means testing as you start eating and then 2 hours after.

The 2 hour figure could be 1hr 45 mins or 2 hrs 15 mins. The length of time is less important than the consistency, because you want to have a consistent way to compare.

By this method I have tracked down exactly how many squares of 70% dark choc I can eat before my bg reacts. And how many I can eat before it rises out of my self-imposed comfort zone. Clearly, this is VITAL information, since it allows me to continue to eat portion controlled chocolate!
 

As an aside, try to ditch the fruit juice. Juices will spike your blood glucose levels.

As to what constitutes a meal, I suppose that is subjective. My eating has changed drastically, I now eat twice per day with no snacking between and definitely no 'grazing'.
 
I would take a step back and ask the question "why am I testing?"
This will help you understand when to test.

There may be many reasons
  1. you want a baseline at the same time of day to indicate whether your control is improving
  2. you want to know the impact of a certain type of food
  3. you want to know the impact of exercise
  4. you want to know if you can exercise (I struggle if my BG is too high or too low)
  5. in the UK, if your diabetes is treated by drugs which lower your BG (e.g. insulin) we must, by law, test before driving to ensure our BG is not too low
  6. if you are able to temporarily correct your BG (e.g. I can reduce my BG with insulin and increase it with glucose), you may want to test before sleeping
  7. ...
The testing around "meals" is, as been discussed above, so you can understand what impact certain foods have on your BG.
Before you "ditch the fruit juice", you may want to give it a go - test before, drink, test 2 hours later. The rise may be enough to put you off any future juicing temptations ... or you may be incredibly lucky and not rise by much.

Over time, you may start to learn what foods do what and could reduce your testing. Our bodies change so it definitely not a good idea to stop completely. But you may start becoming interested in something like exercise to reduce your BG.

I guess what I am saying is not to test just because a doctor or a piece of paper tells you to: testing does not reduce your BG. Learning how your body works by looking at the BG is what reduces your BG ... and helps you manage/reverse your pre-diabetes.
 

The way you are eating.. lots of little and often "meals" probably isn't helping your body control your blood sugar levels. It really is better to eat a "meal" i.e. a decent amount of food that keeps you feeling full for some hours (5-6) rather than lots of little snacks. our body ill have one insulin response to a "meal" but many insulin responses to snacks. Insulin responses are what pre and Type 2's want to avoid. Also with pre diabetes you could probably do with cutting down on your carbohydrate consumption and try to keep your levels under 8mmol/l. 13 really isn't great unless you really want to launch yourself into Type 2 which you could probably avoid by dietary changes. Have you had an HbA1c test recently?
 
I think that a meal consists of a quantity of food that is necessary to achieve satisfying your nutritional needs, the size is essential to how your body copes with blood glucose levels and trying to minimize the initial insulin response.
That way you can control your condition.
That includes snacks!
 
A MEAL has a social context.

If we were simply left alone with abundant stores of food and not have to interact with anyone else, then we could just eat when we please.

I once went on a day trip to Dieppe - to find that, just after the ferry arrived - ever shop in the town closed for lunch.
( I am told that in some French towns - the Cafes close for lunch as well).

A Meal is a defined time period where you are permitted/expected to eat.
(What you are allowed to eat in that period also has social/religeous context).
 
My meals consist of sufficient food eaten a few times a day to keep me satisfied for longish periods of times, to prevent me constantly needing to eat small quantities - aka snacks.

Robbity
 
Confused confused confused Gp told me not to test as your not on insulin and to just get on with it and keep taking metformin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…