T2D for 30 years living in Tokyo for 40 years

[nekton]

Hi everyone!
I'm a Brit who's been living in Tokyo for the past 40 years. I've been dealing with Type 2 diabetes for about 30 of those years, and like many of you, I've experienced all the ups and downs that come with it.
Recently, I've had more time to focus on my health, which led me to explore different approaches to managing my diabetes. My daily routine now includes morning walks through Tokyo's neighbourhoods and incorporating more local Japanese dishes into my diet. The most fascinating part of this journey has been using a CGM to understand how different foods affect my blood sugar – it's been quite the learning experience, which I have started documenting at a YouTube channel called "Beating Back Diabetes in Tokyo," where I share bits and pieces of my experience with both Western and Japanese meals, along with their moment-to-moment effects on my blood sugar levels. You'll also get to see snippets of life in Tokyo – from peaceful morning park exercises to the everyday rhythm of city life. Coming up, I'll be exploring some traditional Japanese New Year dishes and seeing how they fare on the CGM.
I'm really just sharing what I've learned along the way to becoming diabetes medication-free so if you're interested in Japanese food, daily life in Tokyo, or managing blood sugar levels, you might find something useful here. Feel free to drop by and share your thoughts or suggest Japanese (and Western) dishes (I publish the recipes too) you'd like to learn more about!
Looking forward to connecting with you all!

 

[Anna DUK]

Welcome to the forum @nekton. Good to hear you're managing your diabetes really well and spending time vlogging your experiences. What's been the biggest learning experience for you?

 

[pjgtech]

Hi....On one of your vlogs you seem to be looking at rises only one hour after eating, I think the usual advice (here in the UK) is to test two hours after eating, as its quite normal for BG to rise soon after eating. But after two hours it should be coming back down again....(NB: I'm not a medic). So you may want to look at that?
Also couple of your vids show you eating quite high carbs and then spikes in BG levels.
My understanding is that the general advice for T2D is to go low carb to avoid high BG spikes.
cheers

 

[nekton]

Welcome to the forum @nekton. Good to hear you're managing your diabetes really well and spending time vlogging your experiences. What's been the biggest learning experience for you?

Hello Anna. Thanks for asking; I suppose the biggest learning experience has been the shock of discovering when I use the CGM that some supposedly "healthy" foods for diabetics do massively and quickly increase my blood glucose levels. As an example, non-sugar, wholegrain mueslis (imported here from the UK) are often marketed as a healthy alternative to other breakfast cereals due to a supposed low GI and high fibre, but my experience watching the CGM after eating a VERY SMALL portion (40 grams with low-fat milk) is just the reverse. In one test, my BG shot up from 106 mg/dL (US scale) to 167 in about 100 minutes. If I had I eaten my normal amount (about 100 g and the subject of a further test in the New Year), it would have been well over 200 and just as bad as a sweet granola. Likewise, diabetes clinics will often tell you that a well-known brand of beans on toast is OK because beans are high fiber. Well, that's not my experience at all. Just a small portion (40 g on two small slices of wholemeal) elevated my BG to over 220 mg/dL at 100 minutes after eating. I think CGM gives diabetics the precise information they need to make informed decisions themselves towards controlling their diabetes and that is what I hope my vlogging shows people. Although CGMs are still quite expensive, I hope that seeing what works for me might provide information helping others to avoid some foods/meals that aren't so great for diabetics. My long-term hope is that when Apple's Apple Watch with non-invasive BG monitoring launches, it will "democratize" low-cost BG monitoring, helping many people beat their diabetes into remission.

 

[Anna DUK]

Hello Anna. Thanks for asking; I suppose the biggest learning experience has been the shock of discovering when I use the CGM that some supposedly "healthy" foods for diabetics do massively and quickly increase my blood glucose levels. As an example, non-sugar, wholegrain mueslis (imported here from the UK) are often marketed as a healthy alternative to other breakfast cereals due to a supposed low GI and high fibre, but my experience watching the CGM after eating a VERY SMALL portion (40 grams with low-fat milk) is just the reverse. In one test, my BG shot up from 106 mg/dL (US scale) to 167 in about 100 minutes. If I had I eaten my normal amount (about 100 g and the subject of a further test in the New Year), it would have been well over 200 and just as bad as a sweet granola. Likewise, diabetes clinics will often tell you that a well-known brand of beans on toast is OK because beans are high fiber. Well, that's not my experience at all. Just a small portion (40 g on two small slices of wholemeal) elevated my BG to over 220 mg/dL at 100 minutes after eating. I think CGM gives diabetics the precise information they need to make informed decisions themselves towards controlling their diabetes and that is what I hope my vlogging shows people. Although CGMs are still quite expensive, I hope that seeing what works for me might provide information helping others to avoid some foods/meals that aren't so great for diabetics. My long-term hope is that when Apple's Apple Watch with non-invasive BG monitoring launches, it will "democratize" low-cost BG monitoring, helping many people beat their diabetes into remission.

I'm sure many people find various sugar readings after a bowl of muesli but @pjgtech makes a good point about when you are checking those results. For people living with type 2 diabetes and testing/ checking sugars 2-hours (120 minutes) after eating, a result of 8.5mmol/L (153mg/dl) and below is considered a healthy reading.

 

[Leadinglights]

You may be getting confused by only considering the 'sugar' content rather that the carbohydrate content. Most cereals are fairly high carb even though they may be low sugar except those which are Keto which are generally grain free.
All carbs convert to glucose so you have to find which suit you. Some clinics are outdated in suggesting foods like beans on toast are good foods for people who are Type 2.
It is easy to overreact to the information that you get from the Libre and make unnecessary changes.

 

[nekton]

Hi....On one of your vlogs you seem to be looking at rises only one hour after eating, I think the usual advice (here in the UK) is to test two hours after eating, as its quite normal for BG to rise soon after eating. But after two hours it should be coming back down again....(NB: I'm not a medic). So you may want to look at that?
Also couple of your vids show you eating quite high carbs and then spikes in BG levels.
My understanding is that the general advice for T2D is to go low carb to avoid high BG spikes.
cheethink it would have continued think it would have think it would think it Thanks Peter. Yes, I know the usual advice about testing after two hours but that is not really the point of what I am trying to achieve and this is still a work in progress at the moment. What I am looking at now is how rising blood sugar after various meals responds to gentle walking. At 100 minutes after eating muesli, it was rising and reached 167 mg/dL even with 40 minutes of walking. Although still untested, it's not unreasonable to think .

Hi....On one of your vlogs you seem to be looking at rises only one hour after eating, I think the usual advice (here in the UK) is to test two hours after eating, as its quite normal for BG to rise soon after eating. But after two hours it should be coming back down again....(NB: I'm not a medic). So you may want to look at that?
Also couple of your vids show you eating quite high carbs and then spikes in BG levels.
My understanding is that the general advice for T2D is to go low carb to avoid high BG spikes.
cheers

Thanks Peter. Yes, I know about testing after 2 hours but that is not the point of what I am trying to achieve – and this is still a study in progress. What I am looking at now is how rising blood sugar after various meals responds to gentle walking. At 100 minutes after eating muesli, it was rising and reached 166 mg/dL even with 40 minutes of walking. Although still untested, it's not unreasonable (but not yet "scientifically" tested) to think that it would have continued rising without the exercise. Later, I'll occasionally test the same meals without any exercise at 2 hours, but I AM a diabetic in medication-free remission who would not normally eat bowls of muesli or cornflakes and banana, so I don't want to push the limits too far as a guinea pig by testing too many high-carbohydrate meals all at once! The two high-carb cornflakes/banana and muesli tests are just to see if walking for 1 hour brings a rapidly rising level back down. Most of the meals (like kinpira) I'll test are from my normal life but I'll occasionally include meals with high carbs to see the effect. There are also some surprises where a meal in one style has little to no effect but the same base ingredient in another style causes a startling rise in BG. The vlog is a journey of discovery to document why what I've been doing for the last 4 years has worked to get me to remission when 26 years of dieting and medications didn't.

 

[nekton]

I'm sure many people find various sugar readings after a bowl of muesli but @pjgtech makes a good point about when you are checking those results. For people living with type 2 diabetes and testing/ checking sugars 2-hours (120 minutes) after eating, a result of 8.5mmol/L (153mg/dl) and below is considered a healthy reading.

Hi Anna, I think I've covered this in my reply to Peter.

 

[nekton]

You may be getting confused by only considering the 'sugar' content rather that the carbohydrate content. Most cereals are fairly high carb even though they may be low sugar except those which are Keto which are generally grain free.
All carbs convert to glucose so you have to find which suit you. Some clinics are outdated in suggesting foods like beans on toast are good foods for people who are Type 2.
It is easy to overreact to the information that you get from the Libre and make unnecessary changes.

Hello Leadinglights. You make a good point, but no, I am not confused by sugar content vs carbohydrate content, although UK makers of "sugar-free mueslis" as advertised on the packet seem to be! Isn't your point that, "Some clinics are outdated in suggesting foods like beans on toast are good foods for people who are Type 2." a good argument for using a CGM and taking a more active interest in what is happening to one's own BG rather than relying on a nutritionist with outdated ideas?