Common 'Carby' foods which don't spike

[e9508686]

Hi,

I have Type 1.5 (LADA) diabetes and I'm still in the honeymoon phase where I'm diagnosed but not taking any medication or insulin.

I have a pretty strict diet of no heavy carbs (breads, pastas, rice, potatoes etc.) and I also avoid some less obvious cards like sweet potato, cous cous, lentils, chick peas etc.

When I stick to the diet, my blood glucose levels remain between 5-7.5 so that's all good.

I've recently got a 10 day trial on a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) and wanted to try and introduce some the new ingredients into my diet to see what impact they have on my blood glucose. I know that I can monitor this with a finger prick test rather than a CGM but it's just much easier with a CGM. With a CGM, I could look back at the end of the day, and as long as I've taken note of what I've eaten, I could work out the impact of certain foods rather than having to remember to test 2 hours after eating.

So the actual question is: What ingredients are the most common to have different effects on people?

I would imagine white bread makes all diabetics spike whereas maybe wholemeal bread doesn't. I know baked beans have different impacts on different people. Is there a list of ingredients to try which are sometimes unexpectedly non spike inducing?

Hopefully it makes sense what I'm asking!

Thanks,

Dan

 

[Satan’s little helper]

Hello, I think that is a difficult one to answer. As an insulin user with a screwed pancreas, it would be down to the timing & dosing of the insulin used to deal with the food.
Then there are people with metabolic challenges that have different responses, too.
Having said that, and not to disparage your question. CGMs are a real eye opener for day to day management.

 

[JJay]

It isn't really that simple. What "spikes" one person, can have no effect on another. So be prepared for lots of differnet answers!

For myself, the colour of the bread makes no difference, but the recipe might. I have one favourite which is 14g per slice but causes a rapid rise in BG, but another at 23g a slice which has little effect. Both wholemeal.

 

[Jodee]

On my diabetic training I recall that brown pasta, rice, bread, crackers all metabolise more slowly in the body than the white counterparts. So maybe try the dark Ryvita first. Quantity plays a big part too, half a ryvita for instance probably won't have any impact, a whole one may have only very slight, but if you have 2 or more in one sitting that would probably show itself.

What I did initially was have smaller portions of things that I wanted to include on the dinner plate.

Doing it one thing at a time and recording your readings if you increase the amount is a good way to go I think.

 

[Dave Harbud]

I make a risotto with barley, instead of short grain rice, which works well and is tasty.

 

[Leadinglights]

If you are diagnosed as LADA as you say in your post then the sooner you have an appropriate medication regime the better.
You should then be treated as Type 1 and be entitled to a CGM on prescription. This can take time so the sooner you start the process the better.

 

[helli]

For foods that have different affects on different people, the classic one I know of is pulses such as chickpeas and lentils.
Some people fully digest these and see a BG spike whereas for others they "pass through" and have little BG impact.
It would be nice to eat falafel dunked in hummus with no need to inject.

 

[rebrascora]

I too wonder why you are restricting your diet if you are LADA? It is very unusual for LADA to be managed via diet alone and it will be putting a strain on your remaining beta cells, trying to manage without insulin.
Did you have the GAD antibody and C-peptide tests since your last post in December last year? What sort of results did you get? I assume the C-peptide wasn't desperately low otherwise they would have started you on insulin straight away.

Whilst I appreciate that no one wants to have to inject insulin, as a LADA you will need it sooner or later and it will allow you to follow a normal diet if you wish to. Commencing insulin sooner rather than later will also protect your remaining insulin producing beta cells by taking the strain off them.
The honeymoon period is generally considered to be the period after you start using insulin, when doses are small or reduce after initial introduction as the flagging beta cells get a breather from the exogenous insulin and that helps them to recover a bit, so insulin needs go down. Did your consultant recommend going low carb?

When you are initially diagnosed Type 2, dietary changes can become a big focus and when you get a change of diagnosis no one really tells you that the rules have changed and the new guidance is to eat a normal healthy diet and to balance your insulin doses to the food you eat, rather than reducing the carbs you eat to try to manage your diabetes. Type 1 (including LADA) and Type 2 are quite different in dietary approach. I personally choose to continue following a low carb way of eating (but I steill need insulin) as it has had lots of other health benefits for me but you should not feel that you have to struggle on trying to keep your carbs as low as possible to keep your levels down.

 

[Inka]

You’d be better off getting some insulin, even if in small doses, and eating a normal healthy diet @e9508686 Early introduction of insulin in Type 1/LADA preserves the remaining beta cells for longer. Introducing insulin now will mean you can gradually increase it as needed and get used to it. As mentioned above, you’d also get access to tech.

There’s no definite answer to your question. Some foods cause spikes in some people but not others. You could try lower GI foods.