I ate a few slices of prosciutto that came in a package from the grocery store. I'm reasonably sure it made my BG jump up. The label listed carbohydrates as 0, and sugars as 0, but the list of ingredients included dextrose. Anyone else get high from deli meat? What do you think?
I don't eat meat so I can't answer your specific question, but I find it very interesting that it lists dextrose in the ingredients but then 0 for carbs and sugars!
Your body converts protein into sugar...example: 10g of protein would be like 4g-5g of carbohydrates spread out over 2 or more hours. Any food that has nutritional value will have some impact on BG. Today many PWD's consider protein when calculating a bolus.
The corner stone of the old ADA diet was low fat and it only contained about 20% protein so the clinical world decided it was not necessary to consider protein when calculating a bolus. Today many PWD's diet may contain 60% protein or even more so a bolus calculation will have a lot of error if protein is not covered with some insulin. It is also hard to deal with large amounts of protein if you are not pumping bolus insulin.
Admittedly, I don't count g protein when I bolus, as I do for carbs. I do know to kick in a couple other grams of bolus to compensate, though. Kind of like leaving a tip in a jar. Maybe a 50%g listed 2 hour squared bolus for protein is a good idea? I already subtract 50% listed fiber from my bolus for carbs.
Maybe "do you bolus for protein" would be a good thread.
That said, This was a relatively small amount of protein. And it seemed to push my BG up 50-100pts soon after I ate. So I still suspect the dextrose. I did eat it as part of a breakfast, though: 2 hard boilded eggs, 1 Wasa cracker, cream cheese, 2 sour olives + the 3 thin slices of proscitto. probably not more than 3-4g. I boulsed for 9g carb.
I find it interesting, too. I'd given up meat (but not fish) for a while, but once I started eating low carb, I figured I could't pull off both, so started eating meat again. I do like to take a break from it and substitute soy or mushrooms sometimes, though.
Yeah, it's hard. That's why I don't eat real low carb, but just under 100. Sometimes you just have to make choices.
This actually explains a lot. I had an endocrinologist who treated protein as a "free" food and insisted it was fine even when I had ketones. I quit doing that as well just because I figured high blood glucose = overworked kidneys already?
Yes, I need to have insulin to cover any kind of meat I consume. And, if there is a lot of fat included, such as a cheeseburger, even more.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't the prosciutto (dextrose or no dextrose) but all the other stuff you ate along with it. For me, that delicious-sounding spread would have to be bolused as if it was 20g of carbs, even if the 'official' carb count was less. Don't forget the protein from the eggs, for example, would eventually get converted to glucose too.
The dextrose would have been in the brining solution used for curing the prosciutto. But since prosciutto is cut so thinly, the amount in what you ate would have been almost negligible. I'd be willing to bet that there were fewer carbs in the dextrose than the meat itself (accounting for the eventual conversion of protein to glucose).
I've been thinking about it. What is my normal breakfast is:
3 egg omlette, with vegetables sometimes spinich, peppers, usually mozzerella, crisp bread + cream cheese, coffee. I bolus the same for it, and my BG barely moves.
This time, there was probably more protein + lack of vegetables.
I am going to try to bolus more accurately for protein. When you eat fat, only about 10% gets converted to glucose, though. And it slows down everything else a little. If you're eating a cheeseburger, the main culpret would probably be the bun.
I also should mention that I was visiting family. That's why I was not eating my normal breakfast. This morning, I tried to recreate the same breakfast. All out of prosciutto, though, so I ate 3 slices (1 serving) of capicolla, instead. Listed as 7g protein, 0g carb, 0g sugar, 3g fat. However, the ingredients list included both dextrose and sugar. This time I omitted the eggs, ate a stalk of celery, the same 2 olives, and 1 Wasa cracker + cream cheese, cup of coffee. Same bolus for 9 carbs. Ratio is 7:1
BG jumped up 40 pts immediately after eating. I corrected. It remained somewhat elevated when I checked 2 1/2 hours later.