nice one sounds good. do you have a link to that at all.
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Very high H1ac levels practical help
- Thread starter Berksps
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pinkjude
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- Type 2
no just google NHS low carb programme.
Martin.A
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With F&F being around 70% carbohydrate that's a huge carb hit if you don't mind me saying so (5 times what I have for breakfast, for instance), even more so with milk and a slice of toast thrown in, so it will be interesting to see where your BG is at 12:30.
Do you really mean you had 150g of F&F? If so then together with the toast you've probably exceeded the suggested daily carb allowance just for breakfast. Even if you had the recommended portion that shouldn't have been accompanied by toast. Especially as you were a little high to start with.
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Drummer
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It really is the carbs which are the problem - I solved it by just not eating grain and I get normal numbers all the time now. Is there some reason to eat cereals and dried fruit and then add in bread?
Leadinglights
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I would suggest you would be better with neither. You could have some yoghurt, berries and then only a few grams of cereal certainly nothing like a suggested portion size, or 1 piece of toast with eggs.
Proud to be erratic
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@Berksps, I'm insulin dependent so I don't have to limit my carbs, except for personal choice. I try and get a "standard" (ie repeatable) breakfast with standard carb content - but with variety on any one day. So I have different cereals and different seasonal fruits, but usually the same amount of milk and yoghurt with my cereal and a standard frothy coffee. I used to diligently weigh everything every morning, but now have different cups and scoops that I can use for any one cereal type or chopped fresh fruits, or milk measures; even yoghurt I use one particular spoon and can get more than adequate repetition. This works for me because I need to take my bolus some 30 mins before eating and that means waking, bathroom, jab (still upstairs, but for a predetermined or fixed dose), breakfast prep, then eat. I'm speculating that you need breakfast to be readily repeatable and probably allowing a quick transition from bed to front door to meet a work or family routine.
I'd be surprised if your F&F was 150 gm wt, but could easily be including milk; but of course the cereals tend to be 60-75% carb content out of the packet and the milk somewhere in the 4 to 5% (depending on type of milk). So getting the cereal fairly accurate and readily repeatable is important, the milk weight (volume) far less so. I've now almost stopped thinking about weights of breakfast items, but I now know, almost instinctively, what a level scoop, cup or any volume measure of something is in carb content. [This works for me at home, but is less satisfactory for breakfast in a hotel, where the 'measures' can be very different.]
As regards whether your breakfast is cereals or eggs, I personally think it is solely about what works for you: ie that you enjoy your breakfast and can easily sustain the routine beyond this initial and commendable enthusiasm to master your D, it fills you up sufficiently that you can perhaps avoid mid morning snacks and that it keeps your BG rise after eating down to the suggested 2-3 mmol/L after 2 hrs. You have to explore what works for you, both for routine convenience and your body's response, with lots of testing initially, then only the odd check test.
Apologies to the T2s for butting in on their guidance.
I'd be surprised if your F&F was 150 gm wt, but could easily be including milk; but of course the cereals tend to be 60-75% carb content out of the packet and the milk somewhere in the 4 to 5% (depending on type of milk). So getting the cereal fairly accurate and readily repeatable is important, the milk weight (volume) far less so. I've now almost stopped thinking about weights of breakfast items, but I now know, almost instinctively, what a level scoop, cup or any volume measure of something is in carb content. [This works for me at home, but is less satisfactory for breakfast in a hotel, where the 'measures' can be very different.]
As regards whether your breakfast is cereals or eggs, I personally think it is solely about what works for you: ie that you enjoy your breakfast and can easily sustain the routine beyond this initial and commendable enthusiasm to master your D, it fills you up sufficiently that you can perhaps avoid mid morning snacks and that it keeps your BG rise after eating down to the suggested 2-3 mmol/L after 2 hrs. You have to explore what works for you, both for routine convenience and your body's response, with lots of testing initially, then only the odd check test.
Apologies to the T2s for butting in on their guidance.
Another unsuitable, high carb food item that is almost 100% sugar!
You really need to start looking at the the total carb content of food (not just the sugars) & try to aim for no more than 120g per day. So an average of 40g for breakfast, lunch & dinner.
As @Proud to be erratic said, you need to make more use of your meter to also test two hours after eating to see the effect of what you've eaten.
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Proud to be erratic
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Not so. Yellow bananas are 13.7% carb content in their skin and 20.3% after peeling, according to the Carbs and Cals book - approximately. The greener the banana the lower the carb content. As an experiment weigh a green banana, keep it for few days until it is yellow, speckled brown and reweigh. The weight has reduced a little. But the yellow skin is much thinner and lighter and the ripening of the banana in its skin has increased its carb content and reduced its fibre content; a thoroughly ripe banana is now higher in glucose yield and probably a bit more than 20%. I've not found any source that can improve the statistics!
But definitely not 100% or even near that. This is an erroneous stat that periodically is wrongly quoted in this forum and elsewhere. But bananas are like other tropical fruits higher in carb content than UK grown berries.
I was referring to the percentage of carbs that are sugar, not the percentage of carbs to gross weight. So a ripe banana will almost certainly produce an unwanted glucose spike, especially on top of a carb heavy breakfast.
Leadinglights
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- Type 2
When first diagnosed I tested before I ate and 2 hours afterwards as those seemed to be a way of establishing what meals were tolerated, once I had found a meal that was OK then I didn't test again. That gave me a good repertoire of meals that I could have without bothering to test. I now rarely test as HbA1C is in normal range.
Each of those tests took a few seconds so not particularly onerous even when at work but enabled me to reduce blood glucose.
You need to put your health as a priority and get to grips with the foods you can tolerate. Testing not only tells you which foods are NOT wise choices but tells you which foods are OK, win win situation.
Martin.A
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I do a fasting test on waking (not literally but within a few minutes of getting up) as I won't have had anything to eat or drink overnight. I also did pre- and post-meal tests in the early days to see how different meals affected me, but now only occasionally to check that nothing's changed or if we have something new.
Please be aware of the risk of diabetes complications if your BG is consistently high. It's awareness of those risks that keeps me focussed.
rebrascora
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Just wondering if it might help if someone broke down your food intake for you so that you can see the problem with the foods you have detailed so far ie your breakfast and snack.....
Kellogs Fruit and Fibre.... the recommended portion according to the manufacturer is 40g which contains 69% carbs, so there are about 28g carbs in 40g of product. If you really had about 150g Fruit and Fibre this morning, that is nearly 4x the recommended portion and about 103g carbs just from the cereal!! If you had it with say 100mls of milk or yoghurt that is another 5-10g carbs. If you also then had a slice of toast, depending on the make and size of slice you are probably adding another 15g carbs, so you are already up to about 125g carbs just for breakfast.
You then added a whole banana by 11am which is about 25g carbs, so you have consumed about 150g carbs (more than a day's worth of carbs on the recommended 130g carbs per day or less on a low carb diet) and all before lunch.
This is why I responded with a "wow" emoji and why your levels are getting higher as the day goes on.... ie 9.9 before lunch when they were 8.8 before breakfast. You are not giving your system a chance to cope with all that carbohydrate and there is certainly lots of room to improve your diet to bring your levels down more into range and reduce the risk to your eyes.
As has been suggested, the slice or toast with a couple of scrambled eggs and a sliced tomato or some mushrooms and maybe a bit of grated cheese would be a much better option. You can scramble 2-3 beaten eggs in the microwave in a couple of minutes tops, so it really should not take any longer to make and will be filling and better for your diabetes. Or you could have some Greek style natural yoghurt with a few berries and mixed seeds and nuts, like many of us do.
Hopefully you significantly overestimated your cereal portion but you really are going to need to test before and 2 hours after breakfast a few times if you want to persist with cereal, so that you can see how your body is responding to it and find a lower carb mid morning snack if you really do need to have a snack. A few nuts or a chunk of cheese or some olives if you like them, but a whole banana is not the best choice. On the odd occasion when I treat myself to a banana I have half one day and the other half the next. They really are like rocket fuel which is why you used to see tennis players eating one between games to give them an energy boost.
Kellogs Fruit and Fibre.... the recommended portion according to the manufacturer is 40g which contains 69% carbs, so there are about 28g carbs in 40g of product. If you really had about 150g Fruit and Fibre this morning, that is nearly 4x the recommended portion and about 103g carbs just from the cereal!! If you had it with say 100mls of milk or yoghurt that is another 5-10g carbs. If you also then had a slice of toast, depending on the make and size of slice you are probably adding another 15g carbs, so you are already up to about 125g carbs just for breakfast.
You then added a whole banana by 11am which is about 25g carbs, so you have consumed about 150g carbs (more than a day's worth of carbs on the recommended 130g carbs per day or less on a low carb diet) and all before lunch.
This is why I responded with a "wow" emoji and why your levels are getting higher as the day goes on.... ie 9.9 before lunch when they were 8.8 before breakfast. You are not giving your system a chance to cope with all that carbohydrate and there is certainly lots of room to improve your diet to bring your levels down more into range and reduce the risk to your eyes.
As has been suggested, the slice or toast with a couple of scrambled eggs and a sliced tomato or some mushrooms and maybe a bit of grated cheese would be a much better option. You can scramble 2-3 beaten eggs in the microwave in a couple of minutes tops, so it really should not take any longer to make and will be filling and better for your diabetes. Or you could have some Greek style natural yoghurt with a few berries and mixed seeds and nuts, like many of us do.
Hopefully you significantly overestimated your cereal portion but you really are going to need to test before and 2 hours after breakfast a few times if you want to persist with cereal, so that you can see how your body is responding to it and find a lower carb mid morning snack if you really do need to have a snack. A few nuts or a chunk of cheese or some olives if you like them, but a whole banana is not the best choice. On the odd occasion when I treat myself to a banana I have half one day and the other half the next. They really are like rocket fuel which is why you used to see tennis players eating one between games to give them an energy boost.
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