Pasta makes me sick no matter if its a low carb one or a normal one. I can eat canned pasta like raviolis and I can also eat boxed mac and cheese. I really just don’t get it!
The fat & protein in mac & cheese & ravioli causes carbs to hit slower. Sooner or later, the carbs do hit. Plain pasta, nothing but carbs, effects BG like a torpedo.
Not for all of us, I go low if I bolus for pasta and dont eat any bread with the meal…
Ya gotta track what carbs do what to your BG.
You must be using too high a bolus for pasta to need more carbs (bread) to prevent a low.
Or the insulin is hitting but the pasta is hasn’t yet kicked in. A combo bolus might work better. To the OP: Yep, I agree with Gerri; trust me those things are spiking you, they are just doing it later. You might test at 2 hours and be fine, but if you tested at 4 or 5 hours you’d be very high. Also, no offense but does boxed mac and cheese have any actual real food in it? That’s pretty unhealthy stuff!
I agree with Gerri & Zoe, it isn’t really “if” it is more like “when.” I see a bunch of people saying they like that Dreamfields pasta because it doesn’t spike them, but I also see a bunch of people that use a CGMS and say that stuff is wicked – it just hits you later rather than sooner. I think the people that think it doesn’t bother them test an hour after they eat and think all is well.
I had a roommate that would eat that boxed crap and I always wanted to know why!
Agree. I tried Dreamfields, cooked so little that it was practically uncooked. I didn’t think it was possible, but gave it try. What a load of marketing bs. If anyone thinks spikes hours later is a good thing when insulin is gone, eat this stuff. I didn’t need a CGM to tell me what was happening.
Fortunately I heard the bad about it before i heard people raving about it - I never tried it. You and I know to test a lot, but most people don’t do that so don’t see those spikes that we know are there!
I’m in favor of sooner than later spikes, though prefer they not occur at all:) The only food I’ve tried that lives up to its promise is Healthwise Zero Net Carb bread. It’s independently tested & has no soy or flax, two ingredients I don’t eat. First time I ate it, I tested for hours. Absolutely no effect on BG.
I beg to differ. I haven’t eaten pasta often since diagnosis but my wife and I are taking a vacation in central Italy in November and I want to be able to eat at least some pasta on the trip. I’ve started experimenting with regular fresh pasta and if I count the carbs, hold back 25% of the dose and take a second bolus for those carbs at 2 hours I do OK. Yesterday I was at 129 2 hours post and back down to 101 at 4 hours. I find that pasta actually hits me fairly slowly - I would always go low when I tried pasta in the past which is why I gave it up - but its a carb and can be dosed for.
I have tested A LOT after I had boxed mac and cheese and i didn’t spike at all. The first time I tried it I tested every hour for the rest of the day.
Nope, just about any bolus according to my carb to insulin ratio and it will go low.
And no spike. Then again, I am not a pasta addict so I dont eat a huge portion either.
Now a whole giant bagel, that is a different story.
I absolutely definitely know for me, pasta in and of itself does not cause a high.
I’m italian and I write from Italy.
Our pasta usually is fast enough to require a simple bolus (no combo) BUT much of it depends on what “sauce” (“sugo”) you put on it.
If you go to the restaurant they use more olive oil than we use at home.
“Pasta all’amatriciana” has animal fat and much oil.
“Pasta al ragù” has not as much oil but has much meat.
And if you cook pasta too much, its carbs get quicker into your blood.
Pasta has 70-74 g of carbs for 100g of pasta out of the box (not already cooked, just “dry” pasta as spaghetti, straight on ok?).
Hope this helps
This happens for me. For some odd reason I need a lot less insulin for the carbs in pasta than I’d need for any other carbs of the same amount in some other food.
I have to tell you, you must be “blessed.” I’m diagnosed as a type 2, and unless I take my insulin, I generally can’t eat more than 15-20 grams of carbs and hope to be below 140 mg/dl 2hrs after meal. And a “serving” (remember there are 3 servings in a box) of Macaroni and Cheese is 46 g of carbs. I cannot eat pasta in any form without insulin.
So you are lucky. I think a good rule of thumb is to eat to your meter. If you can eat something and be well under 140 mg/dl 2 hrs after meal, then you are doing fine. I know that many diabetics are extremely intolerant of carbs, whether it is pasta, canned or boxed, the mere sight of the stuff sends our blood sugar soaring.
So keep an eye on things, if you can eat something and still keep your blood sugar controlled, that is what matters.
ps. That being said, I think we can all benefit by trying to eat a “healthier” diet, and I like to think about a diet that comes directly from whole foods, lots of green veggies, avoid the bad carbs and the bad fats and little “processing.”
I’m probably really reaching here, but a food allergy, perhaps? Ask your doc (like you didn’t already think of that…duh).
Eric
I’m not alone then!