Strange observations (food and environment)

Almost one year after diagnosis of LADA still honeymooning and have some strange observations with respect to some food and envir. factors.

1) apple tea, apparently loaded with carbs (20 carbs in one dose I take) lowers my BG to the point to have lows shortly after ????. The same thing with wallnuts, I could eat enormous amount of carbs from them with no changes in BG (with 1 h, 2h and 3 h measurements). Had I taken the same amount of carbs from rice or potato I would be high 2 h after (14 or so).

2) cheese when snacked at night gives me highs in the morning ( normally don’t have them) ?????

3) Whenever on vacation or even a business trip (away from home in Canada) the insulin requirements go down even though the same amount of carbs I eat and same if not less exercise I get. I even stopped taking insulin for three days in Turkey and BG was always in low to normal range (4-6). I start to think something in my home or office is making me sick ( a lot of people at work have autoimmune diseases). My alternative hypothesis is that heat (all my travel is to warmer places) is doing good to my honeymooning pancreas.

Anyone else with these observations?

I don’t have any ideas about #1 or #2, but one explanation for #3 is stress. Stress often makes blood sugars high, so maybe i you are constantly stressed at work, you might need more insulin, but when you go on vacation and relax you need less?

It’s hard to get a handle on cause & effect being LADA with some natural insulin production.

There’s a lot of fiber in walnuts & also fats that may account for your result. How much cheese do you usually eat at night & what kind?

I need less insulin when on vacation also. For me, it’s being relaxed & away from the usual stress. Warm weather also has a positive effect on me as does a lot of sunlight.

Thanks Gerri and Erin,



I thought about stress as perhaps being the cause except that in Turkey I was on work related trip and yet the same thing happened.



Cheese at night : Gouda or bergeron classique, both lactos free approximately 100 g (very ashamed to admit that but on my credit I am a very slim person with excellent cholesterol ration so I like to think that I am allowed to do that:))



With respect to walnuts I don’t think it is only because of fat and fibers. That is supposed only to give a slower rise but not “no effect at all” especially when you eat 500gr a day (I am not exaggerating, I had walnuts craving and my hubby bought 1.3Kg pack from cosco and half of it was gone in 1, 5 day. During that time I was checking my BG every hour and noting (BG between 4 and 6).

I went on a trip to a much warmer beach climate once and went to a restaurant down the beach to indulge in their homemade pasta. When I went to bolus for it the needle broke and I didn’t have another with me. I figured I’d be sky high and correct when I went back to my room. I never went high at all and remained on minimal doses of insulin the whole trip which went back to normal when I returned to my mountain climate.

maybe we all have altitude sickness and need to stay on nice warm beaches for treatment.
oh that does sound nice lol

So, can we get our doctors to prescribe a tropical destination vacation? And get the insurance co. to pay for it, too? :slight_smile: Wouldn’t that be awesome. :slight_smile: Maybe in a different world . . .

I like your thinking, spica and erin!

thank you all.

I may have found the answer to my questions on walnuts and .



I came across this article on tudiabetes

"Last month in Nature Medicine, UCSF Diabetes Center researcher Michael German MD reported that he and his team have solved an age-old question in diabetes, “How does the onset of pregnancy enable a woman to double the number of islets in her pancreas?” His team’s answer to this question is serotonin, a hormone produced from the amino acid tryptophan, found in high-protein foods. When two pregnancy hormones, prolactin and placental lactogen, trigger the gene for tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (Tph1), the enzyme for making serotonin, the amount of serotonin in the beta cells increases 1,000-fold. As the beta cells release this newly manufactured serotonin, it binds to serotonin receptors (Htr2b) on the surface of the beta cells and stimulates beta cell proliferation. After birth, the process is reversed when an inhibitory serotonin receptor (Htr1d) is activated on the beta cells, stopping beta cell proliferation and reducing the number of beta cells to normal pre-pregnancy levels. This exciting research suggests that gestational diabetes may occur if a pregnant woman is not ingesting enough protein early in her pregnancy, or is on psychiatric (mood, depression, appetite) medications that may affect serotonin production. Simple dietary solutions and/or new drugs may prove useful in treating this ever-increasing condition of pregnancy."



From my previous readings, I know that walnuts activate serotonin production so it does happiness (serotonin is so called happy hormone).



So it may all be because of serotonine.

If this was so should not the SSRI be wonderful for diabetics. Or do you need to be pregnant at the same time.

Good point Anthony. I will try to look at it.
However, I would still prefer walnuts, less side effects and better taste :)))

Your right the SSRI bad effects show up immediately and the good effects can take years if ever. walnuts are yummy and diabetic friendly immediately.

Thanks for this info. I had read that SSRI's "may alter glycemic control in diabetics" and that diabetes meds may have to be adjusted accordingly, but I had no idea of the mechanism.

I'm not sure I completely understand this though. Are they saying that gestational diabetes can be caused by SSRI's?