Does insulin get released when we eat anything or is it only when we eat carbs?

[Kitty W]

Ok, so I'm sorry if this is an odd question and I'll try not to ramble too much!

Last night we had my parents round for tea. Everything I cooked / prepared was diabetic friendly but we did eat more than usual and we were sat at the table for a good couple of hours.

My T2 OH tested (and checked) his levels after we'd finished eating and they'd dropped from 6ish to 4.5! Before bed a couple of hours later they were 4.4 (only the second times he's had readings in the 4's).
This made absolutely no sense to us. But this morning I woke up and thought that maybe his body was preparing to have to break down lots of carbs so released lots of insulin. The carbs weren't there so his levels dropped..... Does this make sense or is last night just one of those strange curve balls that we seem to get every now and then?

He's just got up and checked his morning levels and we're back up to 6.9, higher than he'd like but still just in range.

 

[Inka]

@Kitty W In people without diabetes, insulin is released all the time in tiny amounts, even when you don’t eat. This is in order to keep blood sugar controlled. Many things affect blood sugar as well as food/carbs so the pancreas releases tiny amounts frequently.

Why your OH was in the 4s, I don’t know, but as Type 1s we’re told that at least 42 things affect our blood sugar, so there could be various answers. Just one of those things 🙂

 

[leonS]

Extra insulin is released only in response to a rise in BG. Low BG will cause a release of hormones which cause the liver to put glucose into the blood to cause the BG to go up.

 

[ianf0ster]

Carbs are the only thing that a Type 2 diabetic need be concerned about for raising Blood Glucose. Fat has no effect, Protein a much smaller and delayed effect (so Type 1's do need to consider the Protein they eat).

As for BG dropping after a meal, I used to get that all the time back when I used to eat a 'breakfast'.
I used to have quite a strong 'Dawn Phenomenon' and so by BG used to keep rising in a morning until I ate, due to my liver providing Glucose to energise me to hunt/gather my breakfast like a cave person. Then because I had a (virtually) zero carb breakfast, by BG would drop due to my liver switching off it's glucose dumping and the remaining BG getting used up due to my activity.

Since remission fat adaptation and moving to just 1 or 2 meals per day, my Dawn Phenomenon isn't so strong and so apart from an initial boost in BG, my liver 'knows' I don't need any further assistance. Thus my BG is stable from around 9am through to when I eat my first meal, be that at 1pms or 4:30 pm.

In fact yesterday I tested for the first time in months. At 8:30am my BG was 6.9 ( rather high for some I know) but it stayed at that after vacuuming , still after doing some work on the PC and still 6.9 2hrs after my 'Linner' (tested at 5:45pm). My HbA1C on latest Blood Test was 37.