What to eat?

Wrights83 said:

hello everyone. Just found this forum after discovering I've got reactive hypoglycemia. Well I think I have. Was Hungry & dizzy most of the time & if I ate anything high in sugar/carbs it made me unwell. Bought a blood sugar test kit & my levels were just below normal or well below.

My question is would a low gi diet be suitable? Read somewhere about low carb but after eating a breakfast of eggs, bacon, mushrooms & tomatoes still felt a bit weak. Decided to have a banana but that made me feel a bit unwell.

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Wrights - When you test your bloods, do you ever see high readings? It's my understanding that there are usually higher than usual readings, then a fairly quick drop, which is what makes you feel off.

That said, I'm no expert and don't suffer from RH, so I'll tag @Brunneria who fits both those bills well.

I hope you're feeling better soon.

Hi and welcome!

You may find the RH section of the forum to be useful.
Lots of info on what we eat.
I found that Low GI was an improvement on carbfests, but have since moved on to very low carb and feel really well on it.

Here is a direct link to the RH threads.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/category/reactive-hypoglycemia.70/

Hi @Wrights83

Welcome to our forum.

One of those monomers about low GI is that they are still high in carbs!

Low GI works slower but will still spike you!

All carbs and sugars are mostly intolerable to someone who has or have the symptoms of whatever type of hypoglycaemia they have.

Do you test after say half hour after eating and again an hour? Sometimes, you have to find your spike, even if it's say a quarter of an hour or three quarters of an hour.
I spike very quickly, usually between half an hour and 45 minutes after carbs.

Ok, your original question is what do I eat, if you haven't already read the information on the RH forum, there are plenty of ideas in the low carb forum. But sometimes that's too much for me and I eat very low carb. Why?
Well, it's to stop the spike so I don't hypo later!

Let us know what you think and ask away, we will always try and help you.

Best wishes and welcome again!

Some people get a spike with protein as well as carbs. That might be something to pay attention to while testing. I find avocado to be very balancing. It slows any upward spike and slows any downward spike. I eat it at every meal on the occasion If don't or can't I see far different numbers. I divide one between all three meals. And actually it IS my breakfast with celery. I don't tolerate any carbs and very little protein in the morning while all the hormones are waking up.

I don't have RH but I believe smaller VLC meals and a few small snacks ( higher fat such as nuts) in between would be best. Keeping things small keeps hypos and hypers smaller. Carbs and protein both elicit an insulin response but fat very little. Nosher would be the expert here though.

I totally agree with @Kristin251 small very low carb meals every three hours is how I control the condition.
It is a pain but it works!

Kristin251 said:

Some people get a spike with protein as well as carbs. That might be something to pay attention to while testing. I find avocado to be very balancing. It slows any upward spike and slows any downward spike. I eat it at every meal on the occasion If don't or can't I see far different numbers. I divide one between all three meals. And actually it IS my breakfast with celery. I don't tolerate any carbs and very little protein in the morning while all the hormones are waking up.

I don't have RH but I believe smaller VLC meals and a few small snacks ( higher fat such as nuts) in between would be best. Keeping things small keeps hypos and hypers smaller. Carbs and protein both elicit an insulin response but fat very little. Nosher would be the expert here though.

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There is a lot of good information on our forum, about how, why and when to eat.
Knowledge is the key to understanding our condition.

But keep asking.

Wrights83 said:

First of all thanks for all your help! I'm going a bit mad trying to get my head round it all.

I haven't tested myself very much as the kit I purchased was a bit poor & was a panic buy. I've got a better 1 on the way.

I tested myself on it earlier before I ate lunch & it was 5.5

My stomach is rumbling every 2 hours roughly so in between main meals I've been snacking. Today I've tried apples, bananas, dry bran flakes & value Museli with skimmed milk. Very small portions. The banana & Museli made me feel funny.

I've just eaten my dinner which was diced beef & vegetables & was feeling so weak just before.

What would you suggest for breakfast? This morning I had a cooked low carb breakfast but I was so weak & hungry I needed something asap really.


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Your snacking on the wrong foods!
First of all, if you don't have diabetes, as there are some with both, your fasting blood glucose levels are in normal range the 5.5!
The reason you feel weak is because you are eating low GI foods which contain a lot of carbs and production sugars especially in cereals, even bran flakes are so high in carbs that if I went close to a box I would hypo!
There are so many things that you can eat for breakfast, that doesn't contain carbs, but you have to find out for yourself by experimenting and testing.
You can have a cooked breakfast that is low carb, that I have when not working such as bacon eggs mushrooms, tomatoes, , omelettes, there are so many!
If in a hurry you can pre cook or eat something like full fat yoghurt with a few berries, that will fill you up for a good few hours!
Fruit you have to be careful, better having berries or apples, pears. Bananas and other tropical fruits are naturally higher in carbs and sugars.
Eat full fat milk not skimmed or low fat don't touch no fat.
The more fat they take out the higher the carbs and the more sugar they put in to make it taste better.

Yes and there is more you have to learn like I did!
And what I do works!
I feel great, my health is great and haven't had a hypo for months!

You will need time to sort this out, this won't go away, you have to be in control. Especially if you want your life back.

By the way I'm 61, full time employed, work hard and have a really good life, now, that I'm healthy! I eat a lot of protein, salad vegetables, and homemade stews, curries, soups and cook everything from fresh. I do have the odd piece of fruit through the day.
Gammon for my tea!

Keep asking and learning.
Take your time, read as much as you can and then tell yourself, everything I've learned about how low GI is good for you!
Well, for us hypoglycaemic it's not!
It will just make you more ill!

I agree with nosher. You are eating all the wrong foods.
Think above ground vegetables, quality protein and healthy fats.
Minimize, or better yet eliminate all grains, sugars, starches and high carb fruits. The only fruits I would eat would be berries.
BF ideas are left over protein and veggies from yesterday, egg salad with mayo or eggs in any form you like, I eat guacamole and celery sticks or deli meat on a wrapped with a big piece of lettuce and mayo. I used to eat a salad topped with protein but the lettuce wrap is faster. BF doesn't have to be the typical cereals, pancakes, porridge etc.

You are feeling tired because your blood sugar is fluctuating. Once you steady it you will feel lots better. I tend to need to eat every few hours too. I have small meals at 7 or 8 am, 3 and 6:30. Those are the times I take insulin but in between I have. 2 or 3 nuts or olives or a tsp of nut butters in a piece of celery.
All my meals contain fat such as avocado and mayo and end with a few nuts. Keeps everything from spiking and dropping however any type of carb would rock that boat.

Test test test. If you spike OR drop too low you need to adjust that meal.

Yup blue, black, rasp and strawberries but I would still eat them with some fat like nut butters or many use heavy cream. I don't do dairy.

Many of us drink coffee and has no effect but it does effect some with cortisol issues. Test it

Lots of people do well with just coffee and cream, butter or coconut oil in their coffee and consider it BF. Loads of us have issues with bs in the morning so we either don't eat it or have a high fat low carb BF.

Don't look at this as what you can't have. Look at it as finding a whole new world of delishous foods. Just not the ones your accustomed to. We all don't like giving up foods we love but many of us love the foods we eat now even more.

All sorts of berries even strawberries, with full fat double cream, how does that sound?

I don't tolerate dairy, but cream with coffee, or tea is fine, even more so you can have butter with things and cook with butter instead of vegetable oils.

This condition is so individual though, so you have to be careful and as @Kristin251 has give you more ideas and there is more in the low carb forum.

You do need to have a good think about what the information we have so far give you.
I assure you, this way of eating does work and I believe I've been on more or less every diet invented. Non of them worked, the success stories thread on the website is there to prove it.
Normal NHS guidelines and advice doesn't work. This does!

Hope this helps and keep asking and let us know how you are doing.

Hi Wrights83, I'm not as knowledgable as Nosher or Brun and I don't wish to confuse matters for you. I tried lchf as a method of controlling my RH and whilst it gave me a huge improvement in many of my symptoms, I found it didn't fully work for me.

I seem to need a few, low GI carbs at each meal to keep my energy levels up. I eat a maximum of 100g carbs per day. I only now know this from experimenting, noticing my symptoms and checking my bs lots.

I can have a low carb cooked breakfast, but if I don't include 1 slice of low GI toast I have very little energy and feel like my levels drop too low very quickly. Alternatively, on weekdays when time is limited, I have full fat Greek yogurt, a few berries, 20g no added sugar muesli (all dried fruit removed), almonds and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

If I have a salad and meat for lunch, I have a small amount of cous cous or a slice of low GI bread with it.

When you first change to lchf your body has to adjust from burning glucose to fat and that can take a few days. This can make you feel very lethargic, spaced out, thirsty etc.

You also need to look at your activity levels as this can affect how quickly your body uses the glucose and how quickly you might hypo. I don't exercise as such, but I'm active all day looking after two young kids, school run, house work, shopping etc. Eating three main meals with snacks in between works best for me. I need a main meal that makes me feel full, otherwise I feel permanently hungry and constantly eating!

Good luck with it all. It takes time, a lot of testing, experimenting and a lot of frustration but you will get there!

Are you having any tests to confirm the RH diagnosis?


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Kaz261 said:

Hi Wrights83, I'm not as knowledgable as Nosher or Brun and I don't wish to confuse matters for you. I tried lchf as a method of controlling my RH and whilst it gave me a huge improvement in many of my symptoms, I found it didn't fully work for me.

I seem to need a few, low GI carbs at each meal to keep my energy levels up. I eat a maximum of 100g carbs per day. I only now know this from experimenting, noticing my symptoms and checking my bs lots.

I can have a low carb cooked breakfast, but if I don't include 1 slice of low GI toast I have very little energy and feel like my levels drop too low very quickly. Alternatively, on weekdays when time is limited, I have full fat Greek yogurt, a few berries, 20g no added sugar muesli (all dried fruit removed), almonds and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

If I have a salad and meat for lunch, I have a small amount of cous cous or a slice of low GI bread with it.

When you first change to lchf your body has to adjust from burning glucose to fat and that can take a few days. This can make you feel very lethargic, spaced out, thirsty etc.

You also need to look at your activity levels as this can affect how quickly your body uses the glucose and how quickly you might hypo. I don't exercise as such, but I'm active all day looking after two young kids, school run, house work, shopping etc. Eating three main meals with snacks in between works best for me. I need a main meal that makes me feel full, otherwise I feel permanently hungry and constantly eating!

Good luck with it all. It takes time, a lot of testing, experimenting and a lot of frustration but you will get there!

Are you having any tests to confirm the RH diagnosis?


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Good post Kaz, it's great when you see that someone has obviously got a handle controlling the condition.
Good knowledge as well
You should be first responder sometimes!