Why blood my pc blood sugar test read 9.5 I had meat free chili con carne tinned kidney beans in chili sauce bartolli beans tinned button mushrooms tomatoe puree and tinned tomatoes with whole meal spaghetti and spices hot chilli pepper ground cumin and ground cinnamon I am not on medication at present thanks for any assistance
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Concerned
- Thread starter Mr ian
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rebrascora
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Hi and welcome.
Sorry to hear that you are concerned about your BG levels. When did you do that test in relation to when you ate your chilli and did you test immediately before eating it?
What you need to understand is that all carbohydrates break down into glucose and get absorbed into the blood stream and wholemeal pasta/spaghetti and kidney beans both contain a reasonably high amount of carbs. For some people wholemeal pasta and kidney beans will release their glucose more slowly but for others their digestive system will break these foods down almost as quickly as normal pasta, so it will still spike out BG levels higher than we would like. For some reason my body seems to be able to extract more glucose from beans and lentils than they are supposed to contain, so I have to take that into consideration when I am eating them and usually reduce the portion size, much as I enjoy them.
This is why home testing is so useful, because it enables you to see how your particular body responds to certain meals and adjust your menu to keep levels within a reasonable range. Knowing what your levels were just before eating and then 2 hours later will enable you to make a decision about how well your body coped and you are looking for a rise of no more than 3mmols from your premeal reading. So if you were 6.5 before you ate the chilli and 2 hours later you were 9.5 then your body only just coped with that meal and you might want to reduce the portion size of pasta a little bit next time you have it. If your levels were 7.5 before you started the meal and then 9.5 2 hours late, then it looks like that meal worked out OK for you. If you were 5.5 before the meal, then you need to make more significant reduction in the amount of pasta or maybe just have the chilli with more bean and a salad and coleslaw and skip the pasta.
Does that make sense? If not I will try to explain it better....
Sorry to hear that you are concerned about your BG levels. When did you do that test in relation to when you ate your chilli and did you test immediately before eating it?
What you need to understand is that all carbohydrates break down into glucose and get absorbed into the blood stream and wholemeal pasta/spaghetti and kidney beans both contain a reasonably high amount of carbs. For some people wholemeal pasta and kidney beans will release their glucose more slowly but for others their digestive system will break these foods down almost as quickly as normal pasta, so it will still spike out BG levels higher than we would like. For some reason my body seems to be able to extract more glucose from beans and lentils than they are supposed to contain, so I have to take that into consideration when I am eating them and usually reduce the portion size, much as I enjoy them.
This is why home testing is so useful, because it enables you to see how your particular body responds to certain meals and adjust your menu to keep levels within a reasonable range. Knowing what your levels were just before eating and then 2 hours later will enable you to make a decision about how well your body coped and you are looking for a rise of no more than 3mmols from your premeal reading. So if you were 6.5 before you ate the chilli and 2 hours later you were 9.5 then your body only just coped with that meal and you might want to reduce the portion size of pasta a little bit next time you have it. If your levels were 7.5 before you started the meal and then 9.5 2 hours late, then it looks like that meal worked out OK for you. If you were 5.5 before the meal, then you need to make more significant reduction in the amount of pasta or maybe just have the chilli with more bean and a salad and coleslaw and skip the pasta.
Does that make sense? If not I will try to explain it better....
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Welcome to the forum @Mr ian
Did you check your reading before the meal? As @rebrascora says, it can be helpful to have a before and after reading to see how much of a difference the meal made at 2hrs after the first bite.
The biggest likely source of BG rise in the meal is probably the spaghetti, with the other ingredients contributing a lesser amount.
The old guidance for levels after meals used to be no higher than 8.5 by 2hrs after for people with T2, so you aren't all that much higher than that. A small tweak to the recipe or portion size might help next time?
Did you check your reading before the meal? As @rebrascora says, it can be helpful to have a before and after reading to see how much of a difference the meal made at 2hrs after the first bite.
The biggest likely source of BG rise in the meal is probably the spaghetti, with the other ingredients contributing a lesser amount.
The old guidance for levels after meals used to be no higher than 8.5 by 2hrs after for people with T2, so you aren't all that much higher than that. A small tweak to the recipe or portion size might help next time?
Drummer
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- Type 2
Swapping the spaghetti for something lower in carbs might be all it takes to keep levels lower.
Beans can sometimes be problematic even though they are listed as fairly low carb.
trophywench
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- Type 1
A tin of Tesco's own brand red kidney beans in chilli sauce is 51g of carbohydrate on its own before you happen to add the spaghetti. Another load in the other beans AND then the spag. I think a BG test of under 10 after eating that amount of carb with Type 2 diabetes is bloomin marvellous anyway!
The whole tin of kidney beans, plus the whole tin of barstools beans, plus the whole tin of tomatoes, plus the whole tin of mushrooms sound like enough for 4 to 6 helpings to me
JJay
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- Type 1
Perhaps the OP had one helping and froze the rest?
I hope so!
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