GI

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Annie29

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Type 1
Does anyone know of a good glycemic index app I can put on my iPhone please. After seeing my diabetes consultant at the hospital this morning, this is another thing I need to take on board as well as carbs and Cals. Thank you.
 
Personally I don't see any benefit in using GI because it is such an individual thing depending upon your gut biome and metabolism and probably a whole host of other things. For instance porridge is low GI for some people but not for others. It starts hitting my blood stream in 20 mins and sends me into orbit and particularly at breakfast time which is when you would most likely eat it. It just isn't worth the aggravation!
Is this about your Libre or other CGM showing spikes and if so, that is generally about the timing of your insulin (prebolus timing) and learning which foods your particular body breaks down quickly rather than what a GI index suggests happens to the majority of people.... but may not be applicable to you. Experimenting on yourself is key to finding what works and how long in advance you need to inject your insulin so that it reaches the blood stream at the same time as the glucose from your food.

For instance my breakfast of full fat creamy Greek natural yoghurt with a few berries (or stewed rhubarb with sweetener at the moment) and mixed seeds and chopped lemon balm is probably quite low GI but I still need to prebolus 45 mins in advance of eating it otherwise I will spike up to about 15 every morning and then come back down and that is with Fiasp. It was 75 mins prebolus time with NovoRapid! Not saying you should try prebolusing that far in advance as there is a risk of hypo but if you currently only prebolus 10 or 20 mins then experiment with increasing it by a few mins every day until you find the timing where the spikes stop but you don't drop too low. You can also slow faster carbs down by eating fat protein and veggies first.

Of course, I may be totally off the mark and this may not be about spikes from carbs and the timing of insulin, but my comment still stands about GI. Each value is an average for that food and you may not be average, so I personally do not believe it is helpful. Experimenting and finding how your individual body works and which foods cause you too much of a spike and which are fine, if you get the insulin timing right and the portion size right, is key.
 
I’m another who finds it less than useful. Wholemeal bread and white bread hit my system about the same time, although they have different GI, but if I stick the slices round a lump of cheese, it definitely slows it down. I think that’s referred to as the Glygamic Load of a combination of foods, rather than the Glycamic Index of an individual food. I find it much more useful to look at my Libre graph and see how any meal is affecting me, as a combination of foods.(and it’s much easier with a Libre graph these days than it ever was trying to do enough finger prick tests to get a good picture)
Sorry, I know that doesn’t actually answer your question, and I’m aftraid I don’t know of an App. I'm sure someone will be along with the name of one soon, if you decide you need one.
 
rebrascora said:
Personally I don't see any benefit in using GI because it is such an individual thing depending upon your gut biome and metabolism and probably a whole host of other things. For instance porridge is low GI for some people but not for others. It starts hitting my blood stream in 20 mins and sends me into orbit and particularly at breakfast time which is when you would most likely eat it. It just isn't worth the aggravation!
Is this about your Libre or other CGM showing spikes and if so, that is generally about the timing of your insulin (prebolus timing) and learning which foods your particular body breaks down quickly rather than what a GI index suggests happens to the majority of people.... but may not be applicable to you. Experimenting on yourself is key to finding what works and how long in advance you need to inject your insulin so that it reaches the blood stream at the same time as the glucose from your food.

For instance my breakfast of full fat creamy Greek natural yoghurt with a few berries (or stewed rhubarb with sweetener at the moment) and mixed seeds and chopped lemon balm is probably quite low GI but I still need to prebolus 45 mins in advance of eating it otherwise I will spike up to about 15 every morning and then come back down and that is with Fiasp. It was 75 mins prebolus time with NovoRapid! Not saying you should try prebolusing that far in advance as there is a risk of hypo but if you currently only prebolus 10 or 20 mins then experiment with increasing it by a few mins every day until you find the timing where the spikes stop but you don't drop too low. You can also slow faster carbs down by eating fat protein and veggies first.

Of course, I may be totally off the mark and this may not be about spikes from carbs and the timing of insulin, but my comment still stands about GI. Each value is an average for that food and you may not be average, so I personally do not believe it is helpful. Experimenting and finding how your individual body works and which foods cause you too much of a spike and which are fine, if you get the insulin timing right and the portion size right, is key.
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Thank you for this. It’s about me wanting to lose weight and the doc thinks low GI and only eating when I’m hungry is the answer. I’ll try experimenting with GI and see if it makes a difference. Again, thanks for you advice.
 
I'm like Robin - my body doesn't give a stuff what colour my carbs are (though my guts do, in terms of fibre!) and the speed of converting them to glucose depends much more on how much fat I ingest with them. The good old 'pizza effect'. In fact there's a very simple way of meal bolusing to better 'match' the pizza effect, whether it is actually pizza or something else fatty and carby, like a big serving of too greasy chips or anything much served with an exceedingly cheesy sauce - and I've been guilty of using too much cheese in cooking - normal cheddar's one culprit and lovely parmesan's another - and that's splitting the bolus for it.

Now, WHY did your consultant advise you to do this, what does he/she reckon it would help solve for YOU?
 
Ah, right, you've now answered that last bit. Do you think you're suffering from Carb Creep - that's when portion sizes of things (not only carbs) gradually increase over time without you particularly noticing that they have? In which case again you can try simply serving up your meals on a smaller diameter plate or using a smaller spoon to dish it out with.
 
Carb Creep could be the problem. I think I’ll try his suggestion of only eating when hungry which is likely to be only once a day. I‘ll see how that goes so I’m not trying too many things at once and not knowing which one is working.
 
Annie29 said:
Carb Creep could be the problem. I think I’ll try his suggestion of only eating when hungry which is likely to be only once a day. I‘ll see how that goes so I’m not trying too many things at once and not knowing which one is working.
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Since you are on insulin you should probably discuss that plan with your DSN.
 
Leadinglights said:
Since you are on insulin you should probably discuss that plan with your DSN.
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I don't discuss anything with my DSN, in fact I don't even know her name or even if I have a named DSN, be that changes in diet or basal doses or anything else. My insulin usage and what I eat is my business. If I need to lose weight it is up to me to either decrease what I eat or increase my exercise or both and adjust my insulin accordingly.
Of course, it depends how long the OP has been diagnosed and how confident she is at adjusting her doses of insulin, but since the consultant has suggested dietary changes, I doubt it needs further follow up with a DSN who, in most clinics these days are rushed off their feet.
 
rebrascora said:
I don't discuss anything with my DSN, in fact I don't even know her name or even if I have a named DSN, be that changes in diet or basal doses or anything else. My insulin usage and what I eat is my business. If I need to lose weight it is up to me to either decrease what I eat or increase my exercise or both and adjust my insulin accordingly.
Of course, it depends how long the OP has been diagnosed and how confident she is at adjusting her doses of insulin, but since the consultant has suggested dietary changes, I doubt it needs further follow up with a DSN who, in most clinics these days are rushed off their feet.
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Looking back at previous posts it looks as if the OP is using a pump so what she is proposing may not need any input in that case.
 
I haven’t found a useful low GI app yet but there’s some good nhs low GI charts online some also show medium and high GI foods as well so you can compare, have lost a lot of weight through low GI but as pointed out above it doesn’t seem to be for everyone and portions do need to be carefully controlled and some low GI alternatives trigger my bowel issues but I find oats of great use, currently experimenting with wholemeal bread made partly with oats. Can post the links I have if helps? I am vegetarian so have articles on similar if useful?
 
Sarahp said:
I haven’t found a useful low GI app yet but there’s some good nhs low GI charts online some also show medium and high GI foods as well so you can compare, have lost a lot of weight through low GI but as pointed out above it doesn’t seem to be for everyone and portions do need to be carefully controlled and some low GI alternatives trigger my bowel issues but I find oats of great use, currently experimenting with wholemeal bread made partly with oats. Can post the links I have if helps? I am vegetarian so have articles on similar if useful?
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Anthony Worrel Thompson wrote a cook book a few years ago when he was diagnoses as Type 2 called the Low GI diet. It has a comprehensive list of foods and their GI and a good explanation of the principal of a low GI dietary regime.
 
Leadinglights said:
Anthony Worrel Thompson wrote a cook book a few years ago when he was diagnoses as Type 2 called the Low GI diet. It has a comprehensive list of foods and their GI and a good explanation of the principal of a low GI dietary regime.
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Thank you for reminder definitely good resource for meat eaters!
 
Thank you all for your responses. I was diagnosed T1 when I was four (many years ago) and confident to make changes to dosages as needed. I think I’ll forget about the GI and just eat when hungry and try and avoid any high calorie food.
 
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