Hello! And a question about BG spikes

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KateCranes

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Type 2
Hello everyone. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes almost 9 years ago. I have never had medication (by choice), managing with diet and lifestyle. I initially reduced my HbA1c from 66 to 49 in 4 months, primarily through diet.

Recently my HbA1c has been creeping up and I've been finding it more difficult to manage my blood sugar levels. I trained as a nutrition coach, qualified last year, so I know a lot of the food science and strategies. However although I eat a good nutritious diet I'm finding it very difficult to get my blood glucose base level down - it keeps sitting at around 7.5 including in the mornings after a 12 - 13 hour overnight fast. I have had a lot of stressful things happening in the last few years (even without the Covid pandemic) so think this is probably contributing. I am also post menopause which I also believe is a factor.

I have been using a CGM to try to get back on track, but am still finding it difficult to manage things. I am seeing huge spikes and drops in my BG eating some (carbohydrate) foods.

I am wondering if anyone here can tell me if this really matters? My nutrition training says it does because it causes inflammation and may also be causing the waking up in the night I am troubled with due to raised cortisol levels. On the other hand we're told that if BG is no more than 2 points higher 2 hours after a meal that's OK.

So today I had a sweet potato and beans for lunch. According to the nutrition training this should have been reasonably OK for bg, being lower GI than a baked potato for example. However I found that my BG spiked by 7 points in an hour (from 6.4 to 13). I went for a walk and it fell by a similar amount in the second hour, so that 2 hours after the meal it was only 1 point up. Any thoughts? Are sweet potatoes off the menu for now?
 
KateCranes said:
Hello everyone. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes almost 9 years ago. I have never had medication (by choice), managing with diet and lifestyle. I initially reduced my HbA1c from 66 to 49 in 4 months, primarily through diet.

Recently my HbA1c has been creeping up and I've been finding it more difficult to manage my blood sugar levels. I trained as a nutrition coach, qualified last year, so I know a lot of the food science and strategies. However although I eat a good nutritious diet I'm finding it very difficult to get my blood glucose base level down - it keeps sitting at around 7.5 including in the mornings after a 12 - 13 hour overnight fast. I have had a lot of stressful things happening in the last few years (even without the Covid pandemic) so think this is probably contributing. I am also post menopause which I also believe is a factor.

I have been using a CGM to try to get back on track, but am still finding it difficult to manage things. I am seeing huge spikes and drops in my BG eating some (carbohydrate) foods.

I am wondering if anyone here can tell me if this really matters? My nutrition training says it does because it causes inflammation and may also be causing the waking up in the night I am troubled with due to raised cortisol levels. On the other hand we're told that if BG is no more than 2 points higher 2 hours after a meal that's OK.

So today I had a sweet potato and beans for lunch. According to the nutrition training this should have been reasonably OK for bg, being lower GI than a baked potato for example. However I found that my BG spiked by 7 points in an hour (from 6.4 to 13). I went for a walk and it fell by a similar amount in the second hour, so that 2 hours after the meal it was only 1 point up. Any thoughts? Are sweet potatoes off the menu for now?
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The normal time to check post meal blood glucose is after 2 hours and most who are just checking by finger pricking would be totally unaware of a 'spike' at the 1 hour point.

Sweet potatoes are still high carb, not much different to normal potatoes, the clue is in the name. But with beans as well which are high carb, I am not surprised at the 7mmol/l rise.
Foods that are low GI may help some people but because everybody's gut bacteria is different and that to a large extent determine how the body metabolises carb containing foods and what they are eaten with. I was quite surprised that you could lower the GI or a high GI food by adding fats and protein.
Maybe having some cheese with your meal would have helped reduce the 'spike'
 
KateCranes said:
Hello everyone. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes almost 9 years ago. I have never had medication (by choice), managing with diet and lifestyle. I initially reduced my HbA1c from 66 to 49 in 4 months, primarily through diet.

Recently my HbA1c has been creeping up and I've been finding it more difficult to manage my blood sugar levels. I trained as a nutrition coach, qualified last year, so I know a lot of the food science and strategies. However although I eat a good nutritious diet I'm finding it very difficult to get my blood glucose base level down - it keeps sitting at around 7.5 including in the mornings after a 12 - 13 hour overnight fast. I have had a lot of stressful things happening in the last few years (even without the Covid pandemic) so think this is probably contributing. I am also post menopause which I also believe is a factor.

I have been using a CGM to try to get back on track, but am still finding it difficult to manage things. I am seeing huge spikes and drops in my BG eating some (carbohydrate) foods.

I am wondering if anyone here can tell me if this really matters? My nutrition training says it does because it causes inflammation and may also be causing the waking up in the night I am troubled with due to raised cortisol levels. On the other hand we're told that if BG is no more than 2 points higher 2 hours after a meal that's OK.

So today I had a sweet potato and beans for lunch. According to the nutrition training this should have been reasonably OK for bg, being lower GI than a baked potato for example. However I found that my BG spiked by 7 points in an hour (from 6.4 to 13). I went for a walk and it fell by a similar amount in the second hour, so that 2 hours after the meal it was only 1 point up. Any thoughts? Are sweet potatoes off the menu for now?
Click to expand...

That's a high carb lunch.

7.5 after a long fast could indicate a problem handling the basal glucose produced by the liver and the release made overnight due to hormones (The so-called Dawn Phenomenon).

Walking an hour after eating will help bring it down, quite dramatically... If I have something higher in carbs than I usually have, a walk can bring it down very quickly.

What would happen if you did not exercise? (i.e. just did nothing for 2 hours? When taking an oral glucose tolerance test the subject has to sit and do nothing for 2 hours as any exercise could affect the result.)

IMHO a lot of rises up to 13 couples with a higher than normal fasting level will show up as a hba1c.

Maybe lower the carbs and talk to the medical people and see if any medication can help?
 
Unfortunately your nutrition training seems to have overlooked information about type 2 diabetes.
We can't cope with carbohydrates, and the lunch you ate was high in carbs.
I don't eat potato of any kind, only eat half portions of beans where the pod is included, and I don't eat lunch at all.
My breakfast is usually steak or a chop and mushrooms, or fish and a salad. In the evening I might have stir fry with meat, or eggs, cheese and salad in hot weather. It is not a modern 'healthy' diet, but I am done with eating low fat high carb as it came close to killing me.
 
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