when should BG peak?

[Jo123]

Well I have been low carbing now since the end of November, my fasting BG's are normally around 5 now which is great. But I would be greatful for some advice about my BG's after my evening meal. Last night for a typical example I had a low carb meal of baked peppers, garlic, onions, with feta cheese, pine nuts topped with olive oil and a grilled chicken breast, followed by 2 bits of 85% choc washed down with a glass of red wine, this meal probably had more carbs than most of my meals in the onions. Now I am generous with the olive oil, pine nuts and cheese as I was losing too much weight on the low carb, seem to have stabilized now.

Now one hour after dinner my BG was 6, then 2 hrs 5.7 then 3 hours 6.2, was 20 to 11 then so went to bed. Another example after dinner is 1hr 5.1, 2hrs 6.2, 3 hrs 6.4, never taken a 4 hour reading as asleep!!

Saw my doctor last week, he was lovely told him I was low carbing but eating loads of veg, he said fine, asked to repeat my lipids at my next blood test because I was eating more fat, he said fine, I also asked if he would do a Hba1c to which he also agreed to, which will show what is happening, just a bit worried about these figures know they are not too high, in fact they are lower than when I first started testing, more high 6's then, but why are the going up at the 3 hr mark, read about the pizza effect but am eating no carbs in form of bread, rice etc etc. Should I be concerned and is there something different I should do?

 

[tubolard]

The pizza effect is explained here as

Foods that have a high fat content (i.e., over 25 g), such as pizza, peanuts, and ice cream, can cause a delayed blood glucose spike. The fat in these foods slows the absorption of carbohydrates, which can result in normal levels two to three hours after eating and elevated blood glucose up to eight hours after.

Regards, Tubs.

 

[Jo123]

Tubs,
Thanks for your reply, should I be doing anything, ie monitoring to see how high it goes, or should I cut down the fat or carbs, or should I just not worry?
Cheers,
Jo

 

[tubolard]

Jo,

If you are genuinely concerned, and you have the resources, then you should monitor, if it serves to put your mind at rest. I think the danger really is high carb/high fat, the meal you describe doesn't sound that high in carbs.

Personally, given that your one hour number is so good, I would concentrate on the over 2 hours figures until I saw them start to drop.

Regards, Tubs.

 

[Jo123]

Thanks for the advice, you are right my meal was low carb as they normally are, so presumably this means that there shouldn't be any greater rise than I am seeing which is what I was wondering about.

 

[Trinkwasser]

It's a little known fact (but is obvious as soon as it's pointed out) that your total blood volume only contains around 5g glucose at any one time.

"Normally" this is kept very tightly controlled by glucose storage via insulin and glucose release via glucagon. In diabetics, especially with insulin resistance, the control circuit gets broken. The kind of changes you're seeing are probably a result of this - it only take the liver to dump an extra 5g of glucose and your BG has doubled.

Growing and using muscle, and metformin, are the best ways to reduce IR, along of course with controlling your BG