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Newbie T2

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Charl

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Type 1
Been T2 for a few weeks and after a bit of advice , took reading before breakfast where it was 13.1 had 50g of porridge then took reading 2 hours later where it showed 18.5 , will it be the porridge or the lack of exercise considering all ive done is drive to work that has made the reading that high, a jump of 5.4 is that about right for a meal. Hope you can understand what i mean. Thanks
 
Hi Charl, welcome to the forum. Good idea to test before and after food as you are doing. You are looking ideally for a rise of around 2 - 3, so a jump of 5 is not so good. Quite a few folks on here would also have similar rises with 50g porridge. Could you try a lower carb breakfast, like eggs or yogurt? As to the exercise, if you had gone a quick walk after your porridge, the you may well have reduced that increase. So I guess you could look at doing that if you love porridge (I do). Also, you could try porridge later in the day, as we tend to cope with carbs better then
 
Hi Charl - Welcome to D-Land! Everybody's reaction to wholegrains like oats is different - I've seen a few people here say porridge spikes their blood glucose a lot, others not so much. But you're doing the right thing - testing before & after eating, to see what effects different things have on you. Only way to do it - everybody really is different.

Generally, you'll want to get yr before b'fast BG lower than 13.1, and 18.5 after 2 hours counts as pretty high. It looks like you'll need to do a bit of work finding out what kinds of effects different kinds of carbs have on you. Don't worry - it's a pain in the butt but all of T2's have been through it!

Can you say what meds you're on and what kind of support you're getting from yr doctor etc? Also what you're HbA1c result was, if you know?

Feel free to ask any questions - this is a friendly, supportive place with loads of experience people are very happy to share.
 
Hi @Charl welcome to the forum 🙂.
 
If you want to stick with porridge you could try reducing the amount and adding other things until you find a combination that will reduce the increase to about 2 to 3. I could not handle as much as 50g of oats, but cope fairly well with just 25 to 30g, mixed (after cooking) with chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts my favourite, but other nuts are available!), a little milled flaxseed (adds fibre), and a few berries (frozen and blasted in microwave for a few seconds if no fresh available). I also add double cream. The fat in the cream and nuts means I feel full for hours afterwards even on this small amount of oats.

I am assuming you are using "proper" oats, not the instant oats - the more highly processed the oats, the more likely they are to spike you.
 
Hi Charl, oh how I miss my morning porridge :( I now have two slices of Burgen toast, or when I have time, eggs & bacon 😛
 
Hi,

The porridge question - love the stuff but it does tend to raise the BGL but only by 2-3. I was told by the Diabetic Nurse to continue with the porridge as almost everyone's BGL is high after waking up and the porridge reading just adds to it. I was also told to put sprinkle ground almonds, not quite sure why. I alternate breakfast meals with porridge and egg/avocado salad. I am still testing it all and might see what happens with scrambled egg on Burgen. I hadn't really thought of porridge later on in the day. Good luck.
 
Instead of 3 tablespoons of porridge today i had 2 with half a banana, reading 12.7 before
Two hours later 16.2 not much change.
 
Charl said:
Instead of 3 tablespoons of porridge today i had 2 with half a banana, reading 12.7 before
Two hours later 16.2 not much change.
Click to expand...
There's a lot of carb in a banana, so I'm not surprised you didn't see a difference.( As a type 1, I sometimes use them as a quick fix if my blood sugar is a bit low!). You might want to try something lower carb with your porridge, like seeds or nuts, to slow the whole glucose absorption down.
If you need help deciding what's low carb enough, have a look at Carbs and Cals, (either in book form or there's an App) or Myfitnesspal, or just google the food you want to try and it'll come up with sites where you can see the carb value.
 
Hi,

When I was diagnosed T2 in July I was strongly advised to ditch the banana - not easy but I did it. I was told I should keep the porridge and lightly sprinkle with almonds, which I do. I can highly recommend the Carbs and Cals book, it is so informative. At first I was weighing out portions like there was no tomorrow, but you soon get an idea of what looks ok and the rest well it is trial and error.I was never a great foodie so once I had a selection of meals that work that is it. Good luck and keep on asking questions (I do - even the same one!) this site is so helpful.
 
My bg flies like a bird after porridge.....I don't touch it now after decades of having it every morning :(
*shakes fist upwards to the God of Diabetes*
 
Same amount of porridge today but instead of banana had blueberries, 10.2 before 14.2 two hours later, are they round about the figures i should be aiming for. Cheers
 
Charl said:
Same amount of porridge today but instead of banana had blueberries, 10.2 before 14.2 two hours later, are they round about the figures i should be aiming for. Cheers
Click to expand...

Moving in the right direction but still a bit high.

One way to think about it: The general UK recommendation is for HbA1c <= 48. That corresponds to an avg BG over the day <= 7.8. To achieve that avg, you probably want to be targeting say around 7 before b'fast and maybe <= 10 two hours after. That's just a rough estimate - obviously it also depends on what's happening for the rest of the day. However, getting a handle on breakfast often seems to be the biggest part of getting a handle on BG.

I found this pic very useful for getting my head around things:

upload_2018-10-10_19-52-34.png

The goal is to get HbA1c into the green zone, ideally less than 48 (the top numbers). The bottom numbers show what the average of finger-prick readings over a day need to be to get there.

But it doesn't have to happen right away - small steps etc etc.
 
If you have been indulging in high carb foods it will take time to get down to normal - I had about 10 gm of carbs in a morning, along with fat and protein ad lib. and a cup of coffee with cream. Normal results soon arrived. I was less resistant to insulin in the evenings, when I ate the remainder of my daily carbs.
From the chart, my average blood glucose seems to be about 7mmol/l.
Perhaps if you research the carb content of foods it might help. I made a notebook and wrote in the foods as I found them. Watch out for sites using US conventions, as they add in the fibre, which would be OK if we were ruminants, but we are not. UK sites list the net carbs, the ones which count.
 
Is there such a thing as a daily carb allowance, ive cut right back on carbs but now finding im losing weight which i dont want, any advice appreciated. Cheers
 
What's the rest of your diet like though, Charl? How much fat and protein, how much fruit and veg?
 
Eating more fruit and veg etc, cut out potatoes and white rice, generally eating healthier but finding myself never really full but losing weight when i dont want to.
 
Charl said:
Eating more fruit and veg etc, cut out potatoes and white rice, generally eating healthier but finding myself never really full but losing weight when i dont want to.
Click to expand...

If you're cutting carbs & you don't want to lose weight, you'll have to increase protein and/or fats. If you want to keep things mainly plant-based then you could try adding avocado, nuts, seeds, legumes to the extent you're not eating them already.

It's probably worth the effort to do some calorie counting - I do now & it's a pain, but helps you get a handle on how much of what you should be eating.

On the question of whether there's a daily carb allowance: not really - for controlling BG, it's an individual thing to work out how much of what kinds of carbs work for you.
 
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