BS refuses to fall

[will2016]

my BS was 11.1 at my annual MOT, my fault and so trying to deal with it, they have increased my meds, Glic and Metf, 12 days in I am restricting my diet, it has got as low as 7.0 but can't get it any lower.

An average day is cornflakes breakfast, 2 eggs (yokes only) grilled square sausages, 2 baked small lamb chops, mash and veg, snacks are 2 slices toast and grapes,

I have cut all the biscuits and cakes and sweets I was sneaking, now I don't know what else to do, will it eventually drop further? or what am I doing wrong? I am 6ft tall and weight is ok, about 13.5 stone, walking 3 hours a day with the dog, so taking exercise, I don't know what else to do, help please?

 

[Mark T]

I'll highlight the sources of carbohydrate which will raise you blood glucose levels:

cornflakes, grilled square sausages (depending on bread content), mash, toast and grapes

It's not just the sugar you need to think about!

 

[will2016]

thanks Mark, but what else can I eat? I am starving as it is, no bread with the sausages, some days I have no bread or toast, and I have new potatoes instead of mash, are they also as bad as mash? DN and Dr both say I can eat as much fruit/new pots as I want, is that bad advice then? I am switching to Oat so simple or Weetabix, are they better? :/

 

[pav]

As Mark says its not only sugar that raises ones BS, I have had to stop eating cornflakes and cereals as they send my BS sky high.

Also white bread is another one I can't eat, tried granary bread as well the ones I tried send the BS high and in the end I eat wholemeal bread, not the cheap stuff as some are effectively like coloured white bread in the BS stakes.

Grapes I love, and have to try and reduce the amount of them I eat. Not tried sausage recently and don't know what they do to me. I eat baked spuds, one is ok for me, but 2 starts ramping up my sugar fairly quickly.

I have snacks of a couple of rich tea biscuits and I appear ok with them, tough if I eat more of them no doubt I would have to watch the BS.

Bacon and eggs make no difference to my BS and have been caught out when having them but with no carbs and levels came down quicker than I thought.

It can be a case of checking your BS before a meal then 2 hours after to see if you have spiked high. Bananas for some are out of the question, but I am ok with them.

 

[Redkite]

What are your waking BG levels? You might find it helpful to do some BG testing before and 2-3 hours after each meal to find out which foods affect you the most. Some people find a low carb diet is useful, which means restricting pasta, rice, potatoes, bread to a minimum. Fill up your plate with more vegetables or salads, and plenty of lean protein e.g. Chicken and fish. If you want to eat potatoes, perhaps try reducing your portion size. Yogurts and fruits all contain carbs, but the amount varies. Your doc's advice to freely eat fruit is a bit misleading. Some fruits like bananas, pineapple, mango, grapes etc are high in carb and rapidly raise your BG. Raspberries and strawberries are lower in carb and better for a snack. Smoothies and fruit juices are high in carb and extremely rapidly absorbed, so best avoided. If you don't have weight to lose, you need to be careful to eat sufficient calories from other food groups if you are cutting back on carbs.

Another useful tip is the timing of meals/exercise. If you take your dog out straight after a meal, your body will be more efficiently using the insulin you've produced in response to that meal, and your BG could be back within target sooner. Also, avoid eating carby meals too close to bedtime.

Hope this helps a bit!

 

[Northerner]

thanks Mark, but what else can I eat? I am starving as it is, no bread with the sausages, some days I have no bread or toast, and I have new potatoes instead of mash, are they also as bad as mash? DN and Dr both say I can eat as much fruit/new pots as I want, is that bad advice then? I am switching to Oat so simple or Weetabix, are they better? :/

New potatoes are better than mash as they take longer to digest. I would not say you can 'eat as many as you like' though, and the same applies to fruit and in particular grapes, which are little sugar bombs. I also wouldn't recommend oatso simple or weetabix as they also tend to send levels shooting up. Real porridge would be much better than the oatso simple as the latter is very highly processed in order to cook so quickly. Many people find they are at their most insulin resistant in the mornings, so it would be better to try and avoid carbs altogether if possible. Go for protein/fat based foods, like eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes aren't so bad. Cold meats, cheese, nuts for snacks, or sugar free jelly for a sweeter treat.

I would suggest starting a food diary and writing down the amount of carbs in everything you eat and drink - this will give you a good idea of the total amount of carbs you are consuming in a day, and provide you with a list of where you might be able to make changes to improve things 🙂

 

[jalapino]

thanks Mark, but what else can I eat? I am starving as it is, no bread with the sausages, some days I have no bread or toast, and I have new potatoes instead of mash, are they also as bad as mash? DN and Dr both say I can eat as much fruit/new pots as I want, is that bad advice then? I am switching to Oat so simple or Weetabix, are they better? :/

Im Quite shocked that your doc and dn said each as much new potatoes and fruit as you like!

 

[pav]

Im Quite shocked that your doc and dn said each as much new potatoes and fruit as you like!

Not really surprising, was told similar the other night when I was told to eat more, muesli pasta to get and some snack bars and to get my HbA1c up as it too low at 44, what planet are some docs on.

Want my HbA1c to be a bit lower and to loose a bit more weight, don't want any more spare tyres.

 

[Susicue]

Thanks for the info on grapes I knew they were high in sugar but thought they would be alright to eat. Will be careful in future. Also thanks for the info about the porridge I did no know that about the quick variety, that's the one I use, will change to ordinary..

Are pears, peaches, apples ok?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Are pears, peaches, apples ok?

You'd need to test your own reaction with a BG meter to be sure, but apples and pears are usually ranked 'medium' (so not too bad, but still need to be treated with a little caution). Peaches are a little faster I think, but I'm not sure.

As with all these things it's a bit of trial and error. It will also depend on what you are eating with what. You might get away with something quite sweet if eaten alongside/straight after a big leafy salad/high fat meal because there will be more 'stuff' for it to mix with. Fat in particular tends to slow down the absorption of carbs.

 

[DeusXM]

People react differently to different fruits. For instance, I can eat whole punnets of blueberries without seeing anything really happen to my blood sugar. A couple of lychees though and I might as well have eaten a chocolate bar.

Fruit is a tricky one because it's not actually anywhere near as good for you as everyone thinks. In fruit, the sugars are generally a mixture of fructose and glucose. Glucose directly affects your blood sugar, while fructose doesn't.

That's because fructose isn't metabolised in the same way as other sugars. It doesn't go into your bloodstream - it goes to your liver, where it has to be converted to fat first before it can be used for energy. This is precisely why hibernating animals eat fruits before hibernation - to store as much fat as possible. There is also quite a lot of research that suggests fructose increases insulin resistance.

We're probably fortunate in the UK because most of our fructose exposure comes from fruit, whereas in the States it's used to sweeten soft drinks so they are exposed to a lot more of it. But someone eating a lot of fruit here probably isn't doing their body a lot of favours. Smoothies are possibly the absolute worst invention ever - they masquerade as being very healthy whereas the reality is your average smoothie is probably worse for you than a can of Coke.

As with all these things, it's about testing to see what works for you and what doesn't. There is no such thing as a food which is 'good' for people with diabetes or 'bad' for people with diabetes. There's just food and your body's reaction to it.

There are lots of things you can do to cut down the carb load in your meals without compromising on anything. It's very, very easy to have entirely no-carb days (breakfast: meats and eggs, lunch: green salads with chicken, tea: steak and green veg, snacks: biltong, jerky, cheese) but you can also do small substitutes as well.

For instance, for breakfast I tend to have a small amount of muesli with a great big dollop of Greek yogurt. The muesli is unprocessed so it takes longer for the carbs to break down to glucose anyway, and the protein in the yogurt fills me up and further slows down the glucose absorption.

Meanwhile, instead of mashing potato, you can also mash cauliflower - done right, the texture and taste is pretty much the same but with almost no calories and no carbs.