Thanks Gerriann,
I tried a piece of whole grain toast with peanut butter and it raised my BS 25 points. I don’t think that’s too bad for a little enjoyment in food? But then again I’m new to all of this. What do you think?
About the vegetable… You are right. My wife bought some bean sprouts and when I looked at the packet this evening I noticed they had 18g of carbs per 100ml… Yikes…
Thanks again for your comments, Paul
Hi John,
I have found a couple of “breads” in the last few days. One is a pita bread which is called “Pita Gourmet” I buy the “High Protein” version which has 10g of carbs, 5g fibre & 5g protein… I think the fibre cancels the carbs for a net carbs of 5g carbs per half pita. I only use half for the 5 grams and stuff it with turkey, cheese & lettuce… Its been my favorite meal so far!
I have also found a bread called Dimpflmeier although I think they are both Canadian… This bread has 24g carbs & 6g fibre per 2 slices so 9 net carbs per slice? I had a piece of this today with peanut butter and raised 25 points… Good/Bad I’m not sure but think thats acceptable?
Thanks again for your feedback… I appreciate it all… Paul
I am somewhat confused that you are here advocating that diabetics shoot for lower numbers than non-diabetics. 115 is not too high for a non-diabetic after a big meal.
I am still wondering if you are on meds, T1 or T2, and what exactly is it that you eat, which doesn’t ever raise your BG over 115, and apparently, usually a lot less.
Please share the details. Inquiring minds want to know 
Thanks,
John
If you have a fasting blood sugar of 80-90 mg/dl then a blood sugar rise fo 25 points is great. If you have a blood sugar rise of 100 mg/dl, but return reliably to undere 100 mg/dl 2 hours after eating, that is also great. Everyone (including non-diabetics) will experience a blood sugar rise when they eat carbs. You are no different. Just don’t think you need to place unrealistic expectations on yourself, particularly expectations that don’t really help you. Don’t seek to spike your blood sugar to obscene levels, but if you return to 100 mg/dl or less at 2 hours after eating, then you are going great!
ps. A cup of raw bean sprouts is 6.2 g of carbs with nearly 2g fiber for a net 4.2 g of carbs. You should be able to eat 3-4 cups with comfort, enough to fill your plate and spill on the floor.
non diabetics do not see 100 point rises in their blood sugar. Ever. If they do, they have a problem, or are standing on the ledge of a problem.
not good to go about saying non-diabetics spike anywhere near 100 points. A healthy pancreas can pump out all the insulin you need.
They told this story to my mom. She would test near 200 several times a day, and they said it was because she ate half a dozen milky ways from the vending machine in the managed care facility. No. She was diabetic, but at her age, the doctor didn’t make a big deal of it. Would have been nice if he had told the family tho, since genetics plays a part in all of this, and I was of the impression that no one in my family was diabetic.
Might have been good information I could have acted upon sooner had I known.
John
Hey John,
And here is the problem for me… The more I research the more I realize that some people say 115 is too high for them while others say a spike of 100 is ok as long as it comes down after an hour. Lots of different opinions to what is acceptable… At this point I’m still unsure but starting to get a better picture…
I think I’m going to go with the numbers at Blood Sugar 101 and try to keep them somewhere between 120-140, 1-2 hours after a meal…
Are you on meds?
Thanks, Paul
Blood sugar 101 has a great chart showing normal blood sugar reactions to meals and a 100 mg/dl rise is actually “normal.”
Certainly your point is well taken, and if you eat every hour or two, spiking your blood sugar, that will have a clearly bad effect over time, but transient rises for three short periods of time for your main meals are a probably a secondary concern.
When I was new to diabetes, I wanted to do everything as perfectly as possible so I could evade every bad thing that could happen. But doing that can be a serious pain. You need to balance all the cr*p you have to deal with. I’ve decided not to worry about the rises at 1 hour. If they are too high, they will be reflected in my 2 hour numbers and I will have to start taking action.
You misunderstood me Geriann. I meant “can’t eat” as in “can’t eat salads etc”. I gave up a lot of foods I loved cos they were too carby and opted to eat amongst other things a salad every day which I first hated.
People should not say they can’t eat this or that because they don’t like it even when it’s good for them.
I agree with what you say John. It all comes down to listening to our own bodies.
The two hour test recommendation was because often people’s bg RISES after the one hour test. That certainly has been my case.
In the beginning I tested one, two and three hours after and found for me that two hours is the best. So that is right for me and obvioulsy it is right for you to do it one hour after.
So the doctor shouldn’t have said that it should be done ONLY two hours after and I shouldn’t have quoted that doctor without qualification.
It’s a bit embarrassing for me as I’m always going on about the mistaken one size fits all attitude!
I’m very distrustful of doctors and all the other members of that rag tag army called the medical profession.
Frank
Maybe your body is more sensitive to carbs first thing in the morning/
Mine is and I avoid carbs as much as I can.
Frank
Hi Libby,
So am I correct in that with LADA this will eventually progress into Type I? I haven’t had the test for LADA yet. Do you think its something I should have?
Any recipes would be appreciated.
Thanks, Paul
Hey John,
And here is the problem for me… The more I research the more I realize that some people say 115 is too high for them while others say a spike of 100 is ok as long as it comes down after an hour. Lots of different opinions to what is acceptable… At this point I’m still unsure but starting to get a better picture…
I think I’m going to go with the numbers at Blood Sugar 101 and try to keep them somewhere between 120-140, 1-2 hours after a meal…
I am not on any meds.
You are doing the right thing trying to stay between 120-140 1-2 hours after you eat. I guess some people can stay beneath 115 all of the time, but I think there is some medication involved in that, because even non-diabetics will bump up towards 120 with a heavy meal, albeit briefly. Unless you are on meds, its unrealistic to think a diabetic can have the same numbers as a diabetic. On the other hand, we are all different, so I suppose anything is possible, but not for me.
I think a spike of 100 is a problem, unless you started out at 35 Still, I think our bodies are pretty resilient for the most part. If a number comes up in the 180s for part of an hour, I have no idea what the long term effect of that is, and frankly, I don’t think anyone else does either. Unless you figure to keep eating whatever did that to you, I wouldn’t pay it much more attention than making a note that its not a good food for you. I take some solace in noting that even when I screw up and bang up against 160 or so, within an hour, I am back at or under 100, so some parts of my system still work pretty well. I just don’t want to force it, and use up whatever good stuff I have at the moment. Might need it one day
Time was, 180 was the number to stay under. Now its 140. Who knows where they come up with this stuff? When you figure meters, even in labs, can be 20% out of wack, those two numbers could well be the same, depending on the meter and strips.
BP of 140/75 used to be okay, now its 125/70. Stick around, and they will want us all at 100/50
I think what you see on bloodsugar101 is the right place to shoot for. Its hard, so don’t go thinking that a big spike is the end of life.
I have not been over 200 that I know of, since I was dx’d and took the fasting test. Been up in the 180s a few times, but its been a long time since I went much past 150. I feel okay about that. Good grief, we do have to live, and in order to do that, we have to experiment and test, test, test.
Your breakfast muffin seems like a good thing. Glad you have a wife who is supportive and willing to help you stay healthy. Take good care of her. Such are hard to find.
Happy Thanksgiving!
John
John,
As I stated in my first post to this discussion, I am a T2 and take metformin 2x day. Basically, I am insulin resistant.
You might want to go back and read my posts thoroughly because there seems to be some confusion. For example, I didn’t say that I “never exceed 115”…quite the contrary…I write about (on several occasions) what course of action I take when I go high. What I did say is this, “At one hour after eating, I want to see my bs right around 100. If it is higher than 115, I check again in 30 minutes, if it is still higher than 115 I either get on my exercise bike or take a brisk walk.” Having said that, it isn’t often that I am over 115. The combination of metformin, exercise and careful monitoring of carb consumption has been very successful for me (so far).
I’ve already written about a few of the things that I eat in several of my posts…including my carb consumption goals. I don’t know where you are going with “Apparently, you never eat any carbs?”
My dx was in April of this year with a fasting BS around 220 (I can’t remember the exact number) and a A1C of 11.2. My last blood workup was in July…my A1C was at 6.2. Last week I went to the dr for something unrelated to my D and he asked if he could do blood workup… I don’t know the results yet. Quite frankly, I didn’t ask for the blood workup because I am only mildly interested in the A1C results. I know it will be somewhere in the mid 5 range. My confidence comes from the fact that in the early months after my dx, I spent a lot of time and energy learning and researching my options then testing to figure out what works for me. I did what Paul seems to be doing now…gathering the information that is needed to develop a plan. I read the guidelines for diabetics that says 120 to 140 is a good goal. I also read other information that implies this goal is too high. Obviously, my decision was to take the harder road and aim for tighter control. At first it was difficult and I was constantly thinking about what I needed to do. With less than a year behind me, it has become second nature and I spend much less time even thinking about it.
At my dx my dr told me that I will eventually need insulin (I might) and I will have complications from my D (I might). His experience is that most people don’t take ownership of their diabetes management. He is surprised at my attitude and the hard changes that I have made for my health. I don’t know where I will be in 5 or 10 years and I don’t even have one year behind me yet, however, I can assure you I will do my darnedest to ensure that diabetes doesn’t rob me of anything more than it already has. For me, and me alone, I don’t believe it is an absolute conclusion that my disease is a degenerative disease. If it turns out that It is, it won’t be because I failed to make the life changes that needed to be made.
There is a lot of information out there and I have found the Blood Sugar 101 speaks to me.
The chart displayed doesn’t show a 100 mg/dl rise. You really need to read the text that was provided with the chart. The beginning of that text is here:
“Normal blood sugars after a high carbohydrate breakfast eaten at 7:30 AM. The blue line is the average for the group. The brown lines show the range within which most readings fell (2 standard deviations). Bottom lines show Insulin and C-peptide levels at the same time.Graph is a screen shot from Dr. Christiansen’s presentation cited below.”
The link to the page from BloodSugar101 is here (if the link doesn’t work, copy and paste it into your browser):
Previously answered…
Hi Gerriann,
Thanks for this… I know exactly where you are coming from. I am beginning to learn that the lower I keep my numbers the better it is going to be in the long term. I am starting to weed out the foods that spike my numbers past the “normal” range and its all a matter of will power and attitude to cut that food out and replace with something that doesn’t spike.
I’m not on any medication at the moment but aware it may eventually come to that, but like you it wont be because I haven’t tried to manage this the best way I could.
If you have any recipes you could share with me I would greatly appreciate it…
Hope your having a great thanksgiving!
Paul
I am sorry that I cannot reply to some posts. The REPLY option is not showing on most of them, so I have to fake it…
bsc said:
“Blood sugar 101 has a great chart showing normal blood sugar reactions to meals and a 100 mg/dl rise is actually “normal.””
And I said no it doesn’t. I read the chart, and no where does it indicate that a 100 mg spike is normal for a non diabetic. I didn’t say it, I was refuting the claim.
Happy Thanksgiving!
John