My experiment: the order you eat your food can greatly reduce glucose spikes!
Posted , 4 users are following.
Hello I am a MODY diabetic, diagnosed since I was a child, and with my sugar levels controlled only by diet.
But I think this information can be useful for both type 1 and especially type 2 patients.
I recently performed some experiments with my glucose meter and found something quite extraordinary.
Let´s imagine 3 scenarios:
A) I eat 50 grams of oats with water for breakfast
B) I eat 50 grams of oats, but I add yogurt (protein), for breakfast
C) I eat 50 grams of oats and yogurt, but I eat 5 blueberries or a bit (10ml) of orange juice 10-15mins before I eat the breakfast.
If I only eat oats (A), my sugar spikes to around 10.5 (185))
If I eat oats with yogurt (B), my sugar spikes to around 9.5 (170)
If I eat a small portion of fruit (C) before same breakfast, my sugar spikes only to 8.5 (145)
I repeated this experiment several times, and prickled my finger every 20min to follow the spike. I also repeated the same experiment but during lunch and dinner and the same effect was observed.
What I have concluded?
My pancreas is known to produce insulin but be lazy (after the high spikes, I get my glucose levels down to around 6 (110). So I assumed that my pancreas reaction is slow. I realized that I could trick it by triggering the production of insulin by just ingesting a very small portion of something sweet.
Fruit that is not too sweet is ideal, because it´s safe to eat and also I am eating only a small amount. Also because the fructose gets quickly digested to glucose within minutes, it will quickly trigger the pancreas to start insulin production. Citrus are known to reduce spikes and they are also a great choice, but I found eating 5 blueberries a easy way to make it work.
By doing this, I managed to keep my spikes much lower.
The same effect is supported by also consuming protein together with the carbs, and during lunch I often eat the protein before the carbs too, and a salad too.
I limit my carbs to about a max of 35 grams per meal and the spikes are relatively low. I eat absolutely no processed food and nothing with sugar or sweeteners (bananas are about the sweetest thing I eat).
Please note that this experiment worked for me. It might not work for you but I think it can at least help many type 2 diabetics.
0 likes, 10 replies
jx41870 silva1988
Posted
I've heard the protein version of this, but haven't been inspired like you to stick myself a couple of dozen times to run the controlled experiment! I mostly do pre-meal readings, only done a couple of post-meal. A 170/185 spike is pretty high, my couple of post-meal spikes have been lower, thank goodness, but again I don't do them very often so who really knows. Wish they'd get some non-invasive, constant reading widgets built!
?Actually 170/185 is especially high if that comes from only 35 carb meals. I'm still a newbie at this and my endo has me eating 60 to 75 carb meals, though I'm "allowed" to go lower if I want - which I do if I have like a chicken Caesar salad for lunch, which even with a few croutons is about 21 carbs. A lower carb meal seems to help my readings, not a huge amount but probably biases them down 10 points or so, more likely to have the next pre-dinner reading under 100 after a lower carb lunch.
And that's all I've figured out for myself, so far.
silva1988 jx41870
Posted
My doctor says such spikes are fine.
I don't take any insulin or pills.
I prefer testing fasting and after meals, as those are the most important readings.
My h1ac is stable at 6.3, so not bad
jx41870 silva1988
Posted
Silva, I was getting along OK with marginal numbers too, then I had a "crisis", and now I'm on drugs and counting carbs - and overall feel much better! I'm just suggesting you might feel better if you can get those numbers down, with diet, with exercise - and maybe even your basic drug, metformin.
Just trying to share the lesson I've learned.
silva1988 jx41870
Posted
Great to hear you are doing better.
How high were your after-meal spikes before metformin?
How was your H1ac?
I'm neither type 1 or 2. I'm MODY since 25 years.
At the moment I am counting carbs and when I do it, my spikes are usually under 170 (9.5). If I eat low carb they are even under 135.
silva1988
Posted
I don't take any metformin. If I do, I usually get very low readings, even hypo.
Drives61vette silva1988
Posted
Hi
Do you eat eggs? What does that do? I switched from oatmeal to 2 eggs, so i'm looking for clues.
I'm pre so i want to stay safe.
thanks!
jx41870 Drives61vette
Posted
Eggs are protein, count about zero in carbs, but unless you have studied the matter and are intentionally going "ketogenic" you probably still want some carbs. Eating more protein isn't a fix in itself. And when you have diabetes you have to be concerned about your lipids - cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides. So eating a lot of eggs may not be a good idea, although an 2-egg breakfast a couple of times a week should be fine.
Drives61vette jx41870
Posted
thanks jx!
I don't have diabetes, but my glucose was 113, and 10 yrs ago it was 100. so i don't like the trend, and i'm cutting out raw sugar and i eat half as much bread/pasta.
Actually my HDL is great 64.
LDL is low, only 104, i want to get it up to the average of healthy people, 123. A study of 136,000 patients in 500 hospitals is my source. This same study is sited by the drug makers and their conclusion is that lower LDL is better! I read the data, and it is an out and out lie! they lie to sell statins. Statins often cause other problems, and they sell drugs for them too! So they should make over $1 Trillion in a few years.
The cause of Coronary Artery Disease is High Blood Pressure, not high chol. I have not studied the cause of diabetes, isn't it the pancreas not making enough insulin?
I'm testing the theory that 2 eggs every day is too much. My dad ate 2 eggs every day, lived to 96 and did not have health problems, and i think he was smarter than i've been until now. So i've adopted his diet, lot's of eggs, meat, beef fat, chicken w/fat. I want to make it to 98 LOL
jx41870 Drives61vette
Posted
Hi @Drives61vette, the "standard" for LDL is *under* 100, but you think higher numbers are better? I haven't seen that.
I think also that the standard explanation about cholesterol is that too much is a bad thing (unless you have this weird gene that people in some little town in Italy have!), but that what you have in your blood does not so much depend on what you *eat*, your body makes it and uses it and removes it, even if you don't eat any - and even if you eat a fair amount. So two eggs a day is probably OK, BUT it's just a little unclear. I was paying extra to get the "omega-3" eggs for a while thinking that might help, but they got harder to find and I gave up on it. I probably average one egg per day but I'm going to cut back for 90 days and see if that helps my numbers.
Diabetes type2 has two related causes, in any combination. One of them is if your pancreas does not make enough insulin. But the *reason* that happens is interesting. The second "cause" is that you develop "insulin resistance", so even when you have plenty of insulin it just isn't used right! This second cause is actually the most serious, because your pancreas sees it happening and makes more and more insulin - until it breaks down, gives up! And then you're in double-trouble. So treating both sides of that are what they do.
Now, another way to fight insulin resistance turns out to be - exercise! Just walking a few miles a day is almost exactly what it seems your body wants to do, and it can help your numbers immediately! This isn't, "oh, get more exercise and in six months blah blah blah", this is, "You want better numbers? Take a hike! NOW!" It is particularly mild aerobics that it likes, too intense and your liver wakes up and makes a mess of things, putting more sugar back into your blood and potentially making your numbers higher!
I'm trying to avoid taking statins, my doctor says anyone *with* diabetes should be on a statin, that's the "standard of care", even if your numbers are entirely normal. I dunno about that, and so far have declined the honor. Doctors tend to drive me crazy, I often get much more and better information on the Internet.
Drives61vette jx41870
Posted
Hi jx
Statins are BAD! bad side effects in 12-30% of users. The whole idea did not pan out in the huge study.
see video on utube "statin nation" 11 minutes in, shows study and the false conclusion. i could not believe it so i googled the study and read it. Sure enough healthy averaged 123 LDL + or - about 20 points. LDL is the fuel that powers the adrenal glands, so if you cut back you have to lose stamina. The liver can make LDL but it takes a lot of your energy to do so. Better to feed it foods that make it work less. I just bought beef liver, 1st time in 20 years. It is so high in cholesterol i plan to eat 4 ounces once a week. I fatigue too easily, and i'm trying simple things that might help. Got some magnesium pills too, for $2 i'll give that a try too.
Spent 2 hours reading about diabetes. Like you wrote, things are more complicated.
Also see Dr. Natasha Campbell videos. She said she puts MS patients with tremors on a diet of 6 eggs a day! and after a couple of months, the tremors clear up! I'm sure you know how a bottle fed baby can develop health problems that clear up on breast milk. Seems the egg yolk may have similar healing properties (if lightly cooked or raw). I never heard that before, and just came home with 3 dozen eggs; only $1/doz.
So my 2 a day is not high at all! I find it exciting to try the cheap and natural. Don't have to convince a DR. Just try it!
Cheers!