Confusing BS results

[Sitosea]

I've recently been worried about high blood sugar readings so made concerted efforts to cut carbs from my diet. This has definitely lowered my results in general but sometimes, soon after eating, I have some big spikes (10+). How can I avoid this? Any advice would be welcome.

 

[Lily123]

I think this may show that the food you have eaten your body is unable to deal with the carbs in that particular food

 

[Stuvart]

How soon after eating are you testing? As any food consumed causes the body to expect glucose and if its not from the food or not enough (low carb etc) the liver might dump some reserves into your system and it might not get the 'dose' right and put too much out.
This is only a educated guess as I'm no doc but it could be a possibility.

 

[Sitosea]

How soon after eating are you testing? As any food consumed causes the body to expect glucose and if its not from the food or not enough (low carb etc) the liver might dump some reserves into your system and it might not get the 'dose' right and put too much out.
This is only a educated guess as I'm no doc but it could be a possibility.

I am testing very soon after eating. Should I be concerned about this effect as soon after (half an hour) my levels return to quite normal?

 

[Leadinglights]

I am testing very soon after eating. Should I be concerned about this effect as soon after (half an hour) my levels return to quite normal?

The time to test is after 2 hours and if you test just before you eat then you don't want the increase to be more than 2-3mmol/l and ideally not more than 8mmol/l
I suspect by testing so soon you are being unrealistic.

 

[Sitosea]

The time to test is after 2 hours and if you test just before you eat then you don't want the increase to be more than 2-3mmol/l and ideally not more than 8mmol/l
I suspect by testing so soon you are being unrealistic.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[trophywench]

I more than suspect! Bet if you tested a non diabetic person half an hour after starting to eat - their blood glucose would be increased too - it's what a human body does, converts what you feed it into blood glucose. Any carbohydrate gets converted first, then if that's not enough glucose for the body's needs, it next converts the protein and after that, the fats.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

I am testing very soon after eating. Should I be concerned about this effect as soon after (half an hour) my levels return to quite normal?

To echo what everyone else says, no. There's little point in testing so soon. To fix hypos, we're advised to eat (or drink) 15g of (preferably) glucose (preferably with some liquid) and then wait 15 minutes before testing, because even glucose (on an empty stomach with some water) takes that sort of time to get to the blood stream.

The goal of testing after a meal is to try and test when most of your food has been digested (and after it's expected that your insulin will have been working to control the BG levels), so an hour or two afterwards is much more useful. The idea's to see if your insulin production is handling the food you're eating.