T2 lows

[Karen999]

Another newbie question if anyone can help?
Can type 2 diabetics go hypo
Also I can't work out if beans and pulses are high in carbs, different sites say different things so e say eat loads others say not too?
So want to get this right.

 

[TerryM]

Ihave read online that pearl barley is good for T2

 

[rebrascora]

Hi
There are certain medications which can put you at risk of going low but without those a normal Type 2 diabetic is not at risk of having a hypo.

As regards beans and pulses (and indeed pearl barley) they are all quite high in carbs which are turned into glucose by the digestive system, so they may cause a Type 2 diabetic problems or they may not. It depends on a number of factors like what you eat with them and gut biome etc. Some peoples' digestive systems are very good at breaking everything down very quickly and even supposedly low Glycaemic Index foods like porridge oats and lentils will hit their blood stream very rapidly, whilst other people break them down more slowly or don't totally break them down and therefore it doesn't affect their Blood Glucose (BG) levels so much. The only way to tell how your body copes with them as an individual is to test your BG before eating them and then test again 2 hours later. If your levels have risen by more that 3mmols after eating them then your portion size was too large and your body could not cope with the glucose it released from them.
This is why re encourage people to get a Blood Glucose meter and test before and 2 hours after each meal until you figure out what your own body will do in response to different foods. Keeping a food diary with your readings will enable you to check back and see how you reacted last time you ate that and weighing portions will enable you to figure out what portion size is OK.

Sorry, it is not a simple yes/no answer and that is why there is the confusion with some people saying one thing and others something different..... the real answer is...."it depends". You need to experiment and find out for yourself... all we can do is explain how to test.... but those foods do contain carbs and therefore can potentially cause you problems as a diabetic. They are also healthy nutritious foods so it would be a shame not to eat them if your body can cope with them.

 

[Docb]

Another newbie question if anyone can help?
Can type 2 diabetics go hypo
Also I can't work out if beans and pulses are high in carbs, different sites say different things so e say eat loads others say not too?
So want to get this right.

It is best to assume that you can only go hypo as a type2 if you are on insulin or medication that promotes insulin production. Gliclazide is the most common of those medications.

You can look up carb contents for anything on the web and get an idea about the carb content. Just remember that for many things, especially fresh things, they are guides and carb content will vary depending on variety, growing conditions, ripeness and I am sure lots of other things. The more difficult thing is that the reaction to the carbs will vary from person to person. Some people can cope with things that others cannot. The only way to find out is to self test.

If you don't want to get into self testing, then for most purposes the guides are good enough. Don't take much notice of articles that say something is good or bad for T2. Look up the carb content for yourself and go for the lower carb option. One way is to set your self a daily carb target and choose what you eat to meet it not worrying too much about the source of the carbs.

 

[Karen999]

Thankyou very useful

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Karen999

Another popular tactic is to begin keeping a food diary. Be brutally honest with it and note down everything you eat and drink, along with an approximate carb total for the meal or snack. As @Docb says this doesn’t have to be accurate to fractions of a gram, but a reasonable guesstimate will really help you identify which meals and snacks have the highest ‘carb load’ and therefore which will potentially be raising your BG the most dramatically.

Then you can begin making small tweaks, swaps and edits to those meals to reduce their carb content which will reduce their BG impact.

 

[Drummer]

I don't usually eat any grain except as part of a low carb recipe, and only seldom.
I find that legumes, peas and beans, all need to be counted double. I think some people can digest them more easily than others. For some, they are the cause of flatulence, because they go undigested until they reach the lower gut where the internal flora and fauna have a party and produce gas. I don't - I digest, absorb, and there is no party.

 

[trophywench]

Tinned baked beans in tomato sauce are a double whammy. There is at least as much carb in the sauce as the beans, if not more, in Heinz. Other makes are available LOL - the cheaper makes always tended to be more sauce and less beans in the past - but no idea now.