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Speed of eating and blood glucose testing

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Leaderofthecats

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hello again, everyone.

I sometimes eat at a remarkably slow pace, something which the teacher pestered me for in primary school but I just totally ignored her.

Surely it's far healthier to graze on things at a leisurely pace than to stuff them in quickly anyway, especially for diabetics?

If I'm eating my average meal of say, a Purition shake for breakfast, but take half an hour to sip it all....

Or have say a boiled egg, two Oatcakes with cheese, and a pack of Quorn slices. .. but take 40 minutes to eat them....

Then ideally, should I be testing two hours after I finish eating, two hours from the start, or (like I've been doing) not being too fussy about the timing but keeping track of how long it takes to eat stuff and exactly when I'm actually doing the test?
 
For example, this is what I had for my food and testing diary:

5:45pm BS 8.6, 9.2 mmol/L

7:30pm BS 10.0 mmol/L

1 Oatcake with Marmite, houmus and peanut butter on it.


7:50-8:20pm 90g banana (small), Purition shake with almond milk (banana). Mug of pukka tea. Boiled egg with salt on and a slice of cheese.

I need to change this to "7:50-8:50" as I jumped the gun a bit with my estimate and still have half a banana to eat and the shake to drink.

But that's an entire hour to eat this one meal, a not unsubstantial length of time in terms of blood sugar testing.
 
I'm still finishing half of the shake, so I think I'll just test my BS at 11pm and call this one done.
 
Cherrelle DUK said:
Hi Leaderofthecats, it’s generally advisable to take a reading two hours after you finish your food as eating naturally raises your blood sugar.
Click to expand...
I've seen it said on here that you should test 2 hours after the first bite, perhaps somebody could clarify that. It may make a big difference if your meal takes a long time. Oh those were the days of a relaxed restaurant meal taking 2 hours or more.
 
But testing two hours from finish won't be accurate surely, if the food started being eaten hours before then?

General advice seems to assume that people just pick up a whole plate of food and instantly eat it.
:-/
 
Two hours from the start was around when I finished off most of a Purition shake, which is a small meal all on its own.

It sounds like my total guess approach to timing is probably as accurate as anything else maybe?
 
Whilst food is in your system it will raise your blood sugar so you wait 2 hours after eating to see the impact it has as it will naturally be higher whilst eating.

It’s a bit like testing your resting heart rate to get a sense of your fitness levels. You wouldn’t do so during exercise but after as the idea is to see how close to ‘normal’ you are post activity.

You don’t have to instantly eat it though the majority of people don’t take two hours to eat a meal. Test two hours once you’ve finished your meal regardless of how long it took and note the difference.
 
An hour after finishing, my BS seems to be pretty much the same as when I started at 10.2 mmol/L

Well. I suppose everything is an approximation really, between things like the meter variance, level of hydration, varying speed of food element digestion, and such.

10mmol/L is still too high, but eating faster or eating more calories (ie, more food) is only going to increase that further. I'm getting hungry though so idk.

Maybe I'll eat a lettuce and houmus. My BS dropped by -0.6mmol/L the last time I did this, at two hours after eating them. And I pretty much just wolfed those down as I was hungry.
 
I have always been told to test 2 hrs after starting to eat. Unlike yourself I am a fast eater.
However as you are a slow eater , I can well understand why your asking this question , tbh I don’t know what would be best other than to be consistent in when you test.
 
Leaderofthecats said:
But testing two hours from finish won't be accurate surely, if the food started being eaten hours before then?

General advice seems to assume that people just pick up a whole plate of food and instantly eat it.
:-/
Click to expand...
Not at all - I eat at a leisurely pace - I always test two hours after I sit down to eat. By keeping to the same routine I can see changes and be confident that they are real ones.
You might decide to always test at two hours fifteen minutes, or two and a half hours from the time you start to eat - but I would recommend taking the timing from the start of eating, as you begin to digest as soon as you start to chew. You are, however, eating quite a lot of high carb foods, which are quick to digest, so you could be missing the spike if you test later.
At two hours, on my low carb regime, I get a good idea of the effect of the meal and also how I am coping with it.
 
Personally I don’t think the 2hrs is a particularly special duration.

Some people spend some strips looking for their ‘spike time’ the point after eating when their BG generally hits its peak. And then use that timing for meals after that. Because they always want to see their highest numbers.

While others use 2hrs, because of the old guidelines for ‘under 8.5 by 2hrs after eating’ so it gives them a handy target.

Having worn a CGM for a number of years I can see that my own response to different foods (and even sometimes the same foods at different times of the year) can peak at very different times.

So perhaps it‘s not all that important which timing you choose - 1hr from the start... 1hr from the end... 2hrs from the start... from the middle of a long meal... but it probably helps for it to be quite consistent whatever you decide?
 
ETA:

(I'm type 2. I'm having compromised thinking symptom today and only just realised after writing this that my approach is no good for T1 as you can't just be sat about past a blood spike like T2 are meant to before testing.)


Surely the idea is to see how well your body is doing at dealing with blood glucose after having a set amount of time to do so?

This is why they recommend 2 hours , I gather. 'They' say that sooner readings are likely to be "higher than expected".

A lot of athletes consume loads of simple carbs immediately before workouts because of the fast carb metabolism speed. It tends to be a lot faster than an hour or two, with those.

Well. I think you're right, that it's all about approximations when it comes to measuring blood sugar with skin prick tests.

I've also realised that it needs to be over an hour afterwards if I'm planning on doing any exercise after eating, since you're meant to wait an hour after exercise for the levels to drop to normal levels again.

Consistently seems to be the main thing, indeed.
🙂
 
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I test two hours after first bite because that was what I’ve always been told to do. If I have a longish meal, I just bear that in mind when I test at 2hrs. It doesn’t have to be spot on the 2hrs but I try to be vaguely consistent so I can compare readings.

So I wouldn’t worry about eating slowly. Look at what time you start your meal, then test at 2hrs roughly.
 
My understanding is the 2 hours is an approximation of the average time carbs take to be digested and then your blood sugars to fall.
I say approximation and average because different foods take different times to be digested. This is clear for those of treating our diabetes with insulin - we need fast acting carbs to treat a hypo.
You could use lots of test strips to find the peak. You could buy a CGM or Libre to spot the peak. Or you could just go with 2 hours or thereabouts.

Much of diabetes management us approximate - the number of carbs is approximate (even if you read it directly off the label), blood sugar readings are approximates. Then there are 40 other things that affect our blood sugars. So I choose not to stress too much on whether I test 2 hours after my first bite, last bite or 150 minutes after.
 
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