Fustrated and Confused

[Gaztop77]

Hello there my name is Gary, I'm 47 and recently found out I am pre-diabetic. It came as quite a shock as I eat quite healthily and am active. I'm 5'6 and weigh 57kg so no weight issues either. My blood test done by the GP showed HbA1c of 48.

At my own cost I have started wearing a libre2 sensor and my fasting mmol/L is around 6. I was surprised to see huge spikes from my go to 'healthy' breakfast of porridge and berries to 15 mmol/L. Eating a slice of wholemeal bread shows similar results. These spikes last around 2-3 hours before returning to normal.

I have changed my diet to eat more diabetes friendly foods such as avacado, eggs, Greek yogurt, brocoli, berries, nuts and seeds etc and am mostly keeping my spikes down to around 10 mmol/L.

I've not really had any support from my GP. They seem to want to wait for me to be diagnosed with diabetes before they take action. I'm struggling to understand if the levels mentioned above are something to be worried about. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[harbottle]

48 is actually diabetic.

That’s a good dietary change, but 10 seems high for such low carb foods. I had a hba1c of 83 and can eat berries and yogurt with peanut butter and just go into the sixes. I usually use around 30g of berries and 15g of peanut butter and 80g of 5% fat Greek yoghurt.

Do you have a finger prick glucose tester?

I have had zero support from my GP.

 

[Leadinglights]

That does seem quite high still given you have reduced the carbs in your breakfast. You wold be aiming at no more than 8-8.5mmol/l 2 hours after eating and then it would be dropping after that when you would expect 4-7mmol/l before your next meal.
What happens with your other meals?
Have a look at this link for some ideas for some low carb menu ideas.https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
People generally look to keeping their carb intake to less than 130g carbs not just sugar per day but it is not NO carbs.

 

[Gaztop77]

Thanks for the response. I have not got a finger prick tester yet. I will look in to this.

I regularly have Greek yogurt with almond butter berries and seeds but I have not been weighing things out so I think I will start doing that.

I must admit being confused as to whether I should be eating low fat or full fat Greek yogurt as I have read conflicting advice. Also is good quality Greek style yogurt OK or do I need to eat the proper stuff?

 

[Leadinglights]

Thanks for the response. I have not got a finger prick tester yet. I will look in to this.

I regularly have Greek yogurt with almond butter berries and seeds but I have not been weighing things out so I think I will start doing that.

I must admit being confused as to whether I should be eating low fat or full fat Greek yogurt as I have read conflicting advice. Also is good quality Greek style yogurt OK or do I need to eat the proper stuff?

Generally the full fat Greek yoghurt is more filling and actually tastes far less acidic but different makes do taste different so try a few to see which you prefer. I personally find either the ALDI or ASDA ones are good.
Weighing things is a good idea until you get a good idea of what a portion is as some foods are easy to underestimate the weight.
There is a good deal from Amazon for a GlucoNavii monitor with 100 strips and lancets (many reuse them so they will last a long time) for £23

 

[Gaztop77]

That does seem quite high still given you have reduced the carbs in your breakfast. You wold be aiming at no more than 8-8.5mmol/l 2 hours after eating and then it would be dropping after that when you would expect 4-7mmol/l before your next meal.
What happens with your other meals?
Have a look at this link for some ideas for some low carb menu ideas.https://lowcarbfreshwell.com/
People generally look to keeping their carb intake to less than 130g carbs not just sugar per day but it is not NO carbs.

Thanks for the response. Today I had greek yogurt, almond butter, berries and seeds for breakfast which resulted in a spike of 9. I had salmon salad with avacado and quinoa for lunch with a cider vinegar dressing which resulted in a spike of 8. Then for dinner I had pork meatballs in a veg sauce with lentils which resulted in a spike of 10. See screenshot attached.

Does this look like I am managing my blood glucose ok?

 

[harbottle]

I use Fage Greek yoghurt, 5% fat.
I've had a Costco 10% fat Greek yoghurt which was good.
The other brands I've tried were horrible. I bought some from Aldi that went in the bin.

I found the 0% fat Fage yoghurt didn't keep me full at all and I was hungry a few hours after eating.

Sounds like you're doing very similar thing to me.

If you want a decent meter try to see if you can get a free Contour Blue - it's known for its accuracy and has bluetooth connectivity with a phone and a decent app that integrates with my phone's health app. Test strips are quite cheap as well. I filled in a form on a website and they sent me one, Try googling for 'free contour blue UK'.

 

[Leadinglights]

Thanks for the response. View attachment 28785Today I had greek yogurt, almond butter, berries and seeds for breakfast which resulted in a spike of 9. I had salmon salad with avacado and quinoa for lunch with a cider vinegar dressing which resulted in a spike of 8. Then for dinner I had pork meatballs in a veg sauce with lentils which resulted in a spike of 10. See screenshot attached

from the time scale on your graph it looks as if the level had come down to about 8mmol/l 2 hours after your meal which is OK, if you are doing finger pricks people are not aware of what happens between eating and the 2 hour point. If you are worried you could reduce your portion of lentils as they are highish carb. Your lunch looks fine.

 

[harbottle]

Graph is actually not bad, with fairly flat readings in the early hours and just a slight rise between 6 and 7. Is that when you got up? It comes down fairly quickly from the looks of it, after meals, which is good.

Salmon and avocado are virtually zero carbs, but quinoa can be high carb and should be used in a small portion.
Lentils can also be quite high and should also be used in moderation, and what was in the sauce? Could it have hidden carbs? Maybe reduce lentils a bit and see what happens, or replace it with some steamed vegetables that are low in carbs. I find lentils cause very slow rise (Up to the sixes).

 

[Gaztop77]

I'm happy to hear my graph looks mainly OK.

I will start measuring my portions of the good carbs and bulk out with extra veg as suggested to try to reduce the big spikes.

Thanks for all the responses. Most helpful.

 

[Drummer]

I'm happy to hear my graph looks mainly OK.

I will start measuring my portions of the good carbs and bulk out with extra veg as suggested to try to reduce the big spikes.

Thanks for all the responses. Most helpful.

I'm afraid that there are no good carbs - we digest them and they become simple sugars in the bloodstream.
I think that you may be overly concerned about blood glucose levels as it is the reading at 2 hours from starting to eat which is most interesting, not the highest level reached. That timing seems to be best at showing how the meal affected you and how you are dealing with it. I found that once I was seeing results under 8 mmol/l at two hours, I could stick to those meals and continue to see the numbers dropping. I suspect I had reached a carb intake at which my metabolism was recovering.
I avoid high carb foods, I have mushrooms, stirfry, mixed veges, salad and berries so a good variety of colours textures and flavours is still possible even though I keep my carbs below 40gm a day.

 

[rebrascora]

I buy the Lidl or Aldi 1kg tubs of Creamy Greek Style natural yoghurt made with British milk, rather than genuine Greek yoghurt which is more expensive and comes in smaller 500g pots and has more air miles and that works great for me and tastes delicious.
It sounds like your digestive system is a bit like mine and is rather too efficient at breaking down the supposedly slow release carbs from porridge and lentils. I gave up on porridge because it was like rocket fuel, but I still occasionally make bacon and lentil soup however I have the advantage of being able to inject insulin to cover it. Some of us seem to be able to extract more glucose from lentils than they are supposed to contain. It's rather frustrating but you can't argue with your readings. Definitely experiment with slightly smaller portions and bulk up your plate with other lower carb foods as that should reduce the spikes but if you are down below 8.5 at the 2 hour point then I wouldn't worry too much. The important thing is that you come back down promptly. I go up reasonably steadily with lentils but I then stay up and I sometimes need 2 or 3 injections of insulin over a 4 hour period to come back down.
The important thing is that you are learning what works and what doesn't for your body. It would be a good idea to get a BG meter and finger prick as Libre isn't terribly accurate and I find it consistently reads low compared to my BG meter, which is generally considered to be more reliable. Some people find it is the other way and Libre consistently reads higher for them, so worth getting a home testing kit and double checking a few readings particularly when levels are at their highest and lowest.

 

[Gaztop77]

Thanks for the great advice. I was under the impression lentils and quinoa were the go to substitute for pasta and rice (and chips) for diabetics.

My wife is worried I will waste away and keeps adding these 'good' carbs on to my plate for lunch and dinner. I see now that carbs are still carbs and I should limit my daily intake.

 

[Nayshiftin]

Thanks for the great advice. I was under the impression lentils and quinoa were the go to substitute for pasta and rice (and chips) for diabetics.

My wife is worried I will waste away and keeps adding these 'good' carbs on to my plate for lunch and dinner. I see now that carbs are still carbs and I should limit my daily intake.

I use Celeriac or turnip for chips or boiled as in mash Cauliflower is great too as a mash. For pasta I use either leeks, courgettes, aubergine, or a mixture of these if you grill them first they are so soft and nice and as lasagne, I don't usually miss the pasta. For rice, I use cauliflower rice. I struggle to get weight off so really it is portion control of what else you put on top.
Carbs convert to sugar whether good or bad carbs.

 

[Tdm]

A good rice subsitute is grated cauliflower...its quick, tasty, and low carb. Pasta can be subbed with grated / finely sliced courgettes...not quite as close, but still rather nice...

 

[Tdm]

Woo, great minds...

 

[Gaztop77]

So happy I found this forum. What a caring and informative community. Thanks all

 

[Leadinglights]

So happy I found this forum. What a caring and informative community. Thanks all

You won't waste away by making sure you have plenty of protein and healthy fats. If you want pasta then black bean or edamame bean pasta is low carb.
Butternut squash is a good alternative to potatoes, a bigger portion for the same carbs. It is good in soups or curries.
One of my favourite curries is cauliflower, butternut squash and chick pea with either paneer or hard boiled eggs.

 

[harbottle]

Thanks for the great advice. I was under the impression lentils and quinoa were the go to substitute for pasta and rice (and chips) for diabetics.

My wife is worried I will waste away and keeps adding these 'good' carbs on to my plate for lunch and dinner. I see now that carbs are still carbs and I should limit my daily intake.

I eat lentils as I make a daal, but they don't send my BG up to the levels you are seeing, and they seem to take ages to digest as it goes up after around 2 hours! (Usually just into the sixes.)

The daal has around 11g of carbs and the lentils used per portion is around 80g. Almost half the carbs in lentils is fibre, so 80g of lentils is pretty low in carbs that get turned to glucose.

 

[debinfrance]

I was looking at quinoa carbs yesterday -60per cent gross carbs, compared with 80 percent in basmati, though more protein and maybe slower to digest so as an alternative to rice etc good and bad news I would say, I use it but I mix some vegetables in to bulk it out and still have a measured portions. Not to everyones taste but white cabbage finely shredded ( and for me, well cooked) makes a good ’carrier’ for meaty saucy dishes. I’m borderline pre, so just doing low carb hi fat to shift a few pounds that have snuck up on me in the last year or so.

And baked jacket swede is delicious - I prefer it to jacket potato.