Finger prick testing

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derek12345

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi, I'm about a week into finger prick testing. This morning before food I recorded an 8.8. a few hours later after a 3 egg omelette and a tin of pea and ham soup it had shot up to 11.1 I do not understand, as I had had no sugar and very little carbohydrate

Anyone got a clue, really worried, was beginning to trust the instrument and this has completely thrown me

Thanks, Derek
 
Check the carbs on the tin, pea and ham soup in my cupboard is 25g carb for a tin. Your body makes glucose even if you don’t eat it though, which can put your levels up in the morning.
 
Lucyr said:
Check the carbs on the tin, pea and ham soup in my cupboard is 25g carb for a tin. Your body makes glucose even if you don’t eat it though, which can put your levels up in the morning.
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Thanks Lucy, god this is really doing my head in. Picked the Pea and Ham because it was very low 1 gm sugar, but yes 400g at 9.6gm carbs might explain it
 
derek12345 said:
Thanks Lucy, god this is really doing my head in. Picked the Pea and Ham because it was very low 1 gm sugar, but yes 400g at 9.6gm carbs might explain it
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None of the professionals I'm in touch with seem to understand diet and cannot advise
 
derek12345 said:
Thanks Lucy, god this is really doing my head in. Picked the Pea and Ham because it was very low 1 gm sugar, but yes 400g at 9.6gm carbs might explain it
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All carbs matter, not just sugar though sugar is definitely not good for you. And be sure to check how much you are looking at the nutrition for. Soups seem to give it per 100g, and per 1/2 tin.
 
derek12345 said:
None of the professionals I'm in touch with seem to understand diet and cannot advise
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I'm afraid that is often pretty par for the course.. it's a lottery.

Luckily I had found other T2's when diagnosed and by cutting carbs to a minimum (not just sugar) I went into remission pretty quickly.

Keto diet and some time restricted eating worked very well for me.
 
Can I suggest that you spend the next week or two keeping a comprehensive food diary and testing first thing every day and testing before and two hours after different meals?

Interpreting sigle readings is fraught with problems. looking for patterns in a set of results is likely to be more productive.
 
the information you are looking for in the nutritional information usually on the back of the packet, tin etc and ignore the traffic light system shown on the front which only shows sugar and is as much use as a chocolate teapot for diabetics. Don't be misled by something giving a green for sugar not relevant. My example is the breakfast cereal puffed wheat, 0.6g sugar per 100g but a whopping 69.6 g carbohydrate so you might think low sugar, good choice but definitely NOT.

It will usually give the total carbs in g per 100g and additionally per portion but you will usually have to work out the carbs for the portion you are going to have.
The book or app Carbs and Cals is a good resource for giving the carb value of various portion sizes of a whole range of foods and example meals and will help you to make better choices.
If you are into soups it is very easy to make low carb soups at home from a few vegetables, broccoli and stilton, courgette and Brie, butternut squash and red pepper, pea (made with mangetout), leek and celery are some of my favourites.
 
I love soup and have spent a ridiculous amount of time recently looking at labels in the supermarket!! Sometimes it’s not the primary contents of the soup that are high in carbs, it can be the thickening agent used.

Heinz tomato, chicken, mushroom and bacon and lentil are reasonably ok I have discovered. All the measurements are also based on half a can. I mean, who eats half a can of soup, it’s bonkers 🙄
 
Deb_l said:
I love soup and have spent a ridiculous amount of time recently looking at labels in the supermarket!! Sometimes it’s not the primary contents of the soup that are high in carbs, it can be the thickening agent used.

Heinz tomato, chicken, mushroom and bacon and lentil are reasonably ok I have discovered. All the measurements are also based on half a can. I mean, who eats half a can of soup, it’s bonkers 🙄
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I would have had half a can, but became increasingly disappointed with the flavour of bought soups so now always make my own. So easy, 1 pan, 1 blitzer, a few veg, seasoning, a dollop of cream, bingo
 
Also bear in mind that the difference between your readings at the 2hr mark was only 2.3mmol/L.

So try not to be disappointed - your body was able to cope pretty well with that meal! And as your starting levels reduce you would have perhaps gone from 5.5 to 7.8 and felt fine about it!

This is one of the benefits of focussing on the rises rather than the numbers in the early months of experimetation. 11.1 might feel less than ideal... but a rise of 2.3 is right in the sweet spot of keeping rises 2-3mmol/L at the 2hr mark 🙂
 
Used to love tin soups, quick and easy lunch but they are pretty much all to high in carbs for me unless I have a 1/3 of a can, whats the point in that! So make home made ones which are far less problematic. I am guessing the manufacturers use potato to thicken them which maybe what the problem is.
 
Leadinglights said:
I would have had half a can, but became increasingly disappointed with the flavour of bought soups so now always make my own. So easy, 1 pan, 1 blitzer, a few veg, seasoning, a dollop of cream, bingo
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I sometimes cook chicken thighs for the cats and that always generates chicken stock which adds to the flavour. I switched to celeriac instead of potato, but I don't usually blitz my soup. Got a bag of 'cooking peppers' at Asda a while back which were all red, made a big batch of red pepper soup. Roasted them along with some spicy pimenton and some onion - should have included some lemon wedges - blitzed, deglazed the roasting pan and used that to thin the soup to an acceptable texture. It was actually really good as a base for a meal instead of tinned tomatoes.
 
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