Why does my blood glucose reading shoot up so quickly?

[test_positive]

I am new to this whole thing but have been testing regularly since diagnosed to try and understand what impacts my blood glucose levels. I have been testing 1 1/2 to 2 hours after eating and then using this to help me determine my future diet. But I occasionally get some 'rogue' readings that seem strangely high.

I had one of these yesterday and the only thing I could think of was that I had eaten a kiwi 20 minutes previously.

So today I tested it. Here are the results:
Time Reading
11:10 - 6.7 taken just prior to eating kiwi. Note - nothing eaten for 3 hours prior to this.
11:25 - 7.9
11:40 - 8.7
11:55 - 8.3
12:10 - 7.8

I am really shocked for two reasons - first kiwi's are supposed to be low in carbohydrate (approx 5g); and second that it impacted my blood glucose way before 90 minutes...within 15 minutes my reading had gone up by 1.2! Indeed, I assume if I waited 90mins my reading might have come back to 'normal'. Can't wait that long to see though - I'm hungry!

Have others seen such an effect so quickly?
If the reading goes up above 8.5 for maybe 15 minutes is that something to worry about? (I know that some aim for not going above 7.8 but that is out of my reach at the moment)

Now I'm wondering if other food I eat has such an immediate effect and I'm not seeing it because I've been measuring after at least 90 minutes.

 

[hallii]

You are getting a bit wound up over nothing really.

My advice is test after two hours of eating and do not eat anything in between. Testing 20 mins after eating anything will see a BG rise.

Any fruit can give a sudden rise in BGs, but if you wait 2 hours it will have gone down, and your readings actually show this.

You are diabetic, so you will have a rise in BG like a diabetic has, not like a "normal" person. When you eat anything, carbs in particular, it will cause a rise in your BGs, the aim is to keep that rise down to, say, no more than 8 after two hours, that way you will help to avoid the complications of diabetes.

We all have foods which affect us more than others, I cannot eat oats or bran or rice, others can, you obviously can't eat Kiwi fruit but you might be able to eat an apple. We all vary, eat to your meter, keep the post prandials below say 8 and you should be OK.

H

PS 8.5 for 15 mins is no problem, it nice to see 7.0 but as I said, we are diabetic and we can't all manage that. I try hard to keep below 8. I do not always succeed
H

 

[test_positive]

Thanks Hallii,

But - if I only measured 2hrs after eating then I wouldn't know that kiwi has this effect on me. The fact that it comes back down after 2hrs perhaps means that I do not have a 'problem' eating kiwi even though short term it significantly raises my blood glucose level.

 

[sdgray22]

I am type 2, I had this chat with various people a nurse and a trainee at a diabetic meeting and the reply I got made sense to me. We all have things that make our BS level go up some its fruit some its oats etc. If you are non diabetic and say your BS level was 5 eat a mars bar within an hour you could be 8 or more but within two hours you would be well on the way to being back to 5. As a diabetic we may start at 5 and go up to 8 an hour after eating something say cornflakes (for me they do that) and the problem is two hours later I am not really on the way back to the 5 I am probably at 7 because my body can't use up the sugar (which is my type of diabetes), the time involved for me to get back to 5 may be 4 hours or more and it is that prolonged spike that can cause the problems for us. If you are high for a short time the chances are it does no harm it is because our highs stay longer and take longer to go away that they can cause problems for our bodies. The two hour reading gives you a very good indication of how long it takes for your body to use the sugars in certain foods, and everybody is different. You should be eating the foods that 2 hours later are not taking us over 7.8 or 8.5 whatever your targets are because they will go down from there and that is the limit we should be aiming for. I personally have not come across anything that goes up after 2 hours but I have with rice noticed it can stay up there for 3 sometimes 4 hours it must be a slow acting carbohydrate (I dont eat much of that now as I know its not good for me).

I have also noted that if I get up in the morning and do not eat anything my blood sugar will rise until I eat lunch and take my metformin. There appears to be little I can do after 6 months I am still testing things - benecol yoghurt half a pot keeps it down to about 7 before lunch but thats the best up to now. Just keep trying until you get there.

 

[hallii]

I can't add anything to the above reply, nicely put.

H

 

[test_positive]

Thanks both.

Yes, that makes sense. It is all so complicated - in part because everyone is different in how they react to these things.

I did this evening find a section in Gretchen Becker's book "The First Year" that adds more information and has given me more to think about. On the chapter on p281, she talks about measuring before and then at 30 min intervals after eating particular foods until her BG level goes back to what it was before. For her, she is able to significantly reduce the peak from a melon by eating it straight after a meal. I tried it this evening with a 2hr test after eating cauliflower cheese with chicken followed by half a banana and an apple. Normally the banana would send my BG up but after 2hrs it was at 6.9 - very acceptable to me.

I guess it just takes time and trying different things and learning. I'm not sure I'd want to try too many tests every 30mins though - my fingers would really complain! :lol: