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New prediabetes diagnosis, question re oats?

M

Millyjack

Member
Relationship to Diabetes
At risk of diabetes
Hi there I was recently diagnosed with prediabetes, my Hbac1 level was 45, and told to make lifestyle changes. I posted on here and received some lovely welcoming replies. I hope it’s ok to ask but up till now I’ve been having porridge for breakfast but now I’m thinking oats are too many carbs? I’ve obviously been googling but some say yes and some say no so I can’t get a definitive reply. I’m wondering if anyone has an answer to this. I’m thinking if I just had oats and then hardly any other carbs in the day would this be ok? Apologies I’m still trying to get my head round it all
 
🙂 The only way to know is to test. You can buy a glucose meter and strips, and check before eating the oats and two hours afterwards. You might find you can tolerate a smaller portion than you are used to having. Many people are more insulin resistant in the morning too, which can mean you can tolerate certain foods later in the day, but not at breakfast
 
Lisa65 said:
🙂 The only way to know is to test. You can buy a glucose meter and strips, and check before eating the oats and two hours afterwards. You might find you can tolerate a smaller portion than you are used to having. Many people are more insulin resistant in the morning too, which can mean you can tolerate certain foods later in the day, but not at breakfast
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Thank you Lisa yes I did wonder about the glucose meters and whether they are useful at my stage. I have no real idea what I’m looking at when I read them though, I’ll have to have a google again I think x
 
The BG meters most recommended here on the forum for reliability and economy of use by those who self fund are the Spirit Tee2 and the Gluco Navii and I think there is one of the Contour ones. There are some which may be slightly cheaper but which some people have had issues with so those are the ones I woul steer you towards if you are thinking of buying one. They can be really invaluable in helping to revise your diet to manage your risk of/diabetes. We often liken managing without one to driving without a speedometer. They allow you to "see your diabetes" and make decisions about foods like porridge particularly which can be fine for some people and not a good choice for others. For me it is like rocket fuel so I gave up on it and now have creamy Greek style natural yoghurt with a few berries and mixed seeds and cinnamon which I really enjoy or occasionally an omelette with a variety of fillings and usually accompanied by a salad with cheese coleslaw. I know that might seem an odd combination for breakfast but there are no real rules about what you have for breakfast except what we have culturally accepted. One member sometimes has chops or steak and mushrooms for breakfast. If I have some leftover curry, I really enjoy that for breakfast. If porridge doesn't suit your body for breakfast, you might find it works better at tea time when we are usually less insulin resistant than in the morning. Having it then may not appeal to you though.
 
rebrascora said:
The BG meters most recommended here on the forum for reliability and economy of use by those who self fund are the Spirit Tee2 and the Gluco Navii and I think there is one of the Contour ones. There are some which may be slightly cheaper but which some people have had issues with so those are the ones I woul steer you towards if you are thinking of buying one. They can be really invaluable in helping to revise your diet to manage your risk of/diabetes. We often liken managing without one to driving without a speedometer. They allow you to "see your diabetes" and make decisions about foods like porridge particularly which can be fine for some people and not a good choice for others. For me it is like rocket fuel so I gave up on it and now have creamy Greek style natural yoghurt with a few berries and mixed seeds and cinnamon which I really enjoy or occasionally an omelette with a variety of fillings and usually accompanied by a salad with cheese coleslaw. I know that might seem an odd combination for breakfast but there are no real rules about what you have for breakfast except what we have culturally accepted. One member sometimes has chops or steak and mushrooms for breakfast. If I have some leftover curry, I really enjoy that for breakfast. If porridge doesn't suit your body for breakfast, you might find it works better at tea time when we are usually less insulin resistant than in the morning. Having it then may not appeal to you though.
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Thank you so much for your reply Barbara, some really interesting things to think about. I’ll definitely have a look at your recommendations for the BG monitor and as for breakfast I’m much more savoury anyway so I’ll start having a look at some different ideas, I’m with you in that I don’t believe in rules for what you should eat when x
 
If you are going to buy a BG meter, they only come with 10 test strips and lancets. Many of us reuse the lancets multiple times as long as they are only used on ourselves (ie no testing friends or family with the same lancet as we use) but test strips are single use and you will need to test quite a lot initially to build up a repertoire of meals which work well for you, so I would recommend you buy at least 2 pots of extra test strips when you order your meter. If you are particularly scrupulous, then an extra box of lancets as well, but I could easily make 10 lancets last a few years. We have a long running joke on the forum about being members of the St Swithin's day club where we change our lancet annually on 15th July. I am fully compliant of that club membership. I was prescribed a box of 200 when diagnosed and it is going to take me several lifetimes to get through them all. 🙄
 
rebrascora said:
If you are going to buy a BG meter, they only come with 10 test strips and lancets. Many of us reuse the lancets multiple times as long as they are only used on ourselves (ie no testing friends or family with the same lancet as we use) but test strips are single use and you will need to test quite a lot initially to build up a repertoire of meals which work well for you, so I would recommend you buy at least 2 pots of extra test strips when you order your meter. If you are particularly scrupulous, then an extra box of lancets as well, but I could easily make 10 lancets last a few years. We have a long running joke on the forum about being members of the St Swithin's day club where we change our lancet annually on 15th July. I am fully compliant of that club membership. I was prescribed a box of 200 when diagnosed and it is going to take me several lifetimes to get through them all. 🙄
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Brilliant, thank you Barbara. I was literally just sitting here wondering that exact thing, how many times a day should I be testing to start? I’m guessing after every meal and snack at the beginning?
 
It can all be a bit overwhelming at first so you can simplify it by starting with just one meal and breakfast is a good one because many of us have a fixed breakfast most mornings just for ease of routine, so working on that first and then moving on to testing around lunch and finding 4 or 5 different lunch options that work before moving on to evening meal. Keeping a food diary along with pairs of readings really helps, so that you can look back at it and also test the same meal in the future to see if you get the same response a year or two down the line.

It is important to understand that testing with BG meters isn't nearly as accurate as the decimal point suggests and you can get the odd rogue reading so testing the same meal at least twice before drawing any conclusions or making a decision on the results is important, because there are many other things which impact our BG levels, but the 3 main ones are food exercise and medication, then there is stress and illness and hormones and ambient temperature and alcohol and lots of other stuff, hence testing a meal more than once because you are looking more for trends rather than actual results. If a meal consistently produces a rise of more than 3mmols after 2 hours, it is too carb rich for your system to cope with it and you need to reduce the portion of carbs in it and/or swap them for something lower carb and test again, until you find portions that work. If you can keep the rise under 2mmols most of the time, you will see significant improvement in overall results.
 
One school of thought is it that it is better to have filling meals and cut out the snacking as that is more likely to encourage insulin resistance as the pancreas will be continually dripping out insulin so by leaving decent space between meals is better or if you need to have a snack then a very low carb something would be better.
Testing before eating and after 2 hours for each of your meals should be sufficient as your before eating, if high would tell you if that snack was not so good.
You are looking for/aiming at 4-7 before meals and either no more than a 2-3mmol/l increase or no more than 8-8.5mmol/l 2 hours post meal.
Once you have established a meal is OK by testing that meal a couple of times then you probably don't need to test again.
Testing if you feel unwell is also a good idea.
Some people test each morning to check progress day to day, week to week etc.
 
rebrascora said:
It can all be a bit overwhelming at first so you can simplify it by starting with just one meal and breakfast is a good one because many of us have a fixed breakfast most mornings just for ease of routine, so working on that first and then moving on to testing around lunch and finding 4 or 5 different lunch options that work before moving on to evening meal. Keeping a food diary along with pairs of readings really helps, so that you can look back at it and also test the same meal in the future to see if you get the same response a year or two down the line.

It is important to understand that testing with BG meters isn't nearly as accurate as the decimal point suggests and you can get the odd rogue reading so testing the same meal at least twice before drawing any conclusions or making a decision on the results is important, because there are many other things which impact our BG levels, but the 3 main ones are food exercise and medication, then there is stress and illness and hormones and ambient temperature and alcohol and lots of other stuff, hence testing a meal more than once because you are looking more for trends rather than actual results. If a meal consistently produces a rise of more than 3mmols after 2 hours, it is too carb rich for your system to cope with it and you need to reduce the portion of carbs in it and/or swap them for something lower carb and test again, until you find portions that work. If you can keep the rise under 2mmols most of the time, you will see significant improvement in overall results.
Click to expand...
This is all so helpful Barbara, thank you so much
 
Leadinglights said:
One school of thought is it that it is better to have filling meals and cut out the snacking as that is more likely to encourage insulin resistance as the pancreas will be continually dripping out insulin so by leaving decent space between meals is better or if you need to have a snack then a very low carb something would be better.
Testing before eating and after 2 hours for each of your meals should be sufficient as your before eating, if high would tell you if that snack was not so good.
You are looking for/aiming at 4-7 before meals and either no more than a 2-3mmol/l increase or no more than 8-8.5mmol/l 2 hours post meal.
Once you have established a meal is OK by testing that meal a couple of times then you probably don't need to test again.
Testing if you feel unwell is also a good idea.
Some people test each morning to check progress day to day, week to week etc.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much Leadinglights, this is so useful to know.
 
@Millyjack I haven't measured the impact of eating oats (porridge) at breakfast but when I went for my initial session with the diabetes nurse, she recommended that I stop eating it every day (which I have done for many many years) but to allow myself the occasional bowl. I have now moved to Greek yoghurt (10% fat which I think = full fat) with chopped nuts (usually almonds), a small amount of fruit (preferably rhubarb), some whole psylium husk for added fibre and a touch of cinnamon. I enjoy that as much as the porridge so haven't bother with the making myself any porridge yet. I might have a go just to see what the impact is. Current breakfast pushes my up by 0.8/0.9 mmol which is good in my book as I normally have a pre-breakfast level of 5.8-6.4.
 
@Millyjack I found that the same meal produced different readings if I swapped morning to evening.
These days I eat 1/4 of my daily carbs in the morning and the rest at night as that gives the best results. It is most likely due to differing resistance to insulin during the day.
 
JimmyBlue said:
@Millyjack I haven't measured the impact of eating oats (porridge) at breakfast but when I went for my initial session with the diabetes nurse, she recommended that I stop eating it every day (which I have done for many many years) but to allow myself the occasional bowl. I have now moved to Greek yoghurt (10% fat which I think = full fat) with chopped nuts (usually almonds), a small amount of fruit (preferably rhubarb), some whole psylium husk for added fibre and a touch of cinnamon. I enjoy that as much as the porridge so haven't bother with the making myself any porridge yet. I might have a go just to see what the impact is. Current breakfast pushes my up by 0.8/0.9 mmol which is good in my book as I normally have a pre-breakfast level of 5.8-6.4.
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Thank you for your reply Jimmy, that’s interesting. Yes I’ve bought some Greek yogurt today and I’ll see how I go on it
 
Drummer said:
@Millyjack I found that the same meal produced different readings if I swapped morning to evening.
These days I eat 1/4 of my daily carbs in the morning and the rest at night as that gives the best results. It is most likely due to differing resistance to insulin during the day.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your reply Drummer, that’s interesting re swapping meals around. I’ve bought a BG monitor today so I’ll start tracking the different readings throughout the day
 
Having any oats cold and possibly as Muesli is better than being 'stewed' as in porridge. The latter releases glucose more rapidly.
 
I was surprised at the impact of porridge on my glucose levels. I had eaten it for years but once diagnosed I had to work out the carbs in it. Initially I just reduced the portion size (not easy to do with something so yummy) Then once I had sight of the impact on my glucose levels, which spiked even on small portions, I decided to switch to other things for breakfast. For some people they do not have the same reaction so it is a case of finding out how your body reacts through testing.

I now use quinoa flakes in place of oats and make my own muesli. This contains loads of seeds and nuts, as well as some coconut flakes. That works for me and I can have it hot or cold, and add some Greek yogurt along with some berries. I still manage to keep this to below 30g of carbs for breakfast which suits me.
 
SB2015 said:
I was surprised at the impact of porridge on my glucose levels. I had eaten it for years but once diagnosed I had to work out the carbs in it. Initially I just reduced the portion size (not easy to do with something so yummy) Then once I had sight of the impact on my glucose levels, which spiked even on small portions, I decided to switch to other things for breakfast. For some people they do not have the same reaction so it is a case of finding out how your body reacts through testing.

I now use quinoa flakes in place of oats and make my own muesli. This contains loads of seeds and nuts, as well as some coconut flakes. That works for me and I can have it hot or cold, and add some Greek yogurt along with some berries. I still manage to keep this to below 30g of carbs for breakfast which suits me.
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Thank you for your reply and the info SB2015, yes I think I need to do some testing and see where I am with it all
 
Hope your BG checks provide you with useful information to help you tweak and tailor your meals @Millyjack

Over the years I’ve seen lot of different members have very different results from the same foods, so it really is a question of experimenting and trying things out for yourself. Some find porridge very ‘spiky’, but for others it’s a satisfying and reliably slowly absorbed breakfast that keeps their levels in range (and helps with cholesterol). The same is true for rice, bread, pasta, cereals, potatoes, and all manner of other starchy carbs - one person’s definite no-no, can be another’s reliable mainstay.

Finding the sources and portion sizes that you you as an individual is very liberating. Then you can build a flexible and enjoyable menu without needlessly restricting things just because they don’t suit other people 🙂
 
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