After I became physically sick from eating undercooked chicken, the thought of eating meat disgusts me. So for a month now i have been an almost vegetarian. I still eat eggs, occasionally bacon (cant give that up) and along with fruits and veggies, sweets and breads.
The crazy thing is my blood sugar has been consistently in the lower 100’s which has not been the case for years.
Does anyone know why not eating me would cause a lowering of blood sugar? I’m so curious but haven’t been able to find out why this would be so.
Protein converts into glucose with a long delay. For me eating a steak is the same as eating a bagel. The only difference is that when I eat a steak my BG starts to rise 6 hours after I am done eating.
If you want to learn more about this subject I suggest that you do a search for “TAG” (total adjusted glucose). There are several post here on TuD on this subject.
I learned about it here at Tu after being a T1 for 39 years. Really upsetting that no doctor ever mentioned it. I suspect that they didn’t know either.
In general, doctors don’t know much about nutrition. You would think that the diabetes specialists would take an interest in what food does to blood glucose levels. I think most of them are unaware of their ignorance or don’t think it’s important for their practice.
I second @Stemwinder_Gary’s suggestion to search for the total available glucose or TAG threads. It’s a real eye opener, particularly for people who limit their carbohydrate intake.
Everyone gets to choose their own diet, of course. But if the sole reason to avoid meat is because of one under-cooked incident, that seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There may be valid reasons why people choose a vegetarian lifestyle, but I don’t consider under-cooked meat to be one of them.
Cooking meat to the right temperature is super-easy with a relatively inexpensive digital thermometer. And the final result usually tastes better too.
Another thought: In his book, “The Diabetes Solution,” Dr. Bernstein talks about the “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.” The claim is that eating something indigestible (like sawdust) raises your BS by extending the stomach. I experienced this a few nights ago at a Chinese restaurant. I ate only meat and veggies, but in a larger quantity than usual. My sugars were quite high that night and into the next day. I had to increase insulin to get back in control. So volume of food needs to be considered along with protein content.
Good thoughts Diabetes Oldie! I agree with you about becoming a vegetarian, but literally thought of eating meat makes me sick. Had I not gotten sick on the chicken I wouldn’t be a vegetarian now. But I’m so happy about my blood sugar numbers that I probably won’t go back to meat.
I’m assuming you are getting the essential protein you need from plant-based foods, if you’re following a near vegetarian diet? And yes, protein will require insulin to process, but at a much slower rate than carbs. Thus it’s easier to control BS. But I’m at a loss to understand why protein from meat would behave much differently than a similar amount of protein from non-meat foods. Am I missing a point here?
Also, I’m following a near-keto diet (low carb, adequate protein and increased fat) with considerable meat each day. Over the last nine months or so, I’ve lost about 30 lbs, turned in the best lipid panel results ever and dropped my A1c from high 7’s to 5.8 Of course what works for one person isn’t necessarily true for all. But if I’m missing something, I’d like to understand it better.
