What IS It With Some Foods?

I just love how little sense IR makes.

Normal, white wheat pasta never annoys my BG, no matter how much I eat of it. Three french fries and I'm over 140. More than that and I'm over 140 for hours, even with exercise.

Soup with barley in it? Guaranteed to be a problem. Multigrain Cheerios and milk first thing in the morning? Not. An. Issue. (And there's barley in there.)

Oatmeal? Problem. Sweet potatoes? Problem. Tuna and ONE serving of Ritz crackers (18g of carbs?) Problem. Homemade cookies are fine, ALL packaged cookies are issues. Pizza? No problem.

What gives here? I'm so confused! (And yes, I know that potatoes are THE forbidden food, or at least they are for me. I rarely eat french fries, and when I do, they're mooched from a friend.)

Has anyone else found that some foods are never an issue and some are? And that number and type of carb makes little difference?

Understanding how various foods affect your blood sugar is far more complicated than just counting carbs. Even if you count the carbs right, french fries or pizza having carbs with significant fat has a very different impact on blood sugar. And we are all individuals, some of us react very differently to certain foods. Wheat products I actually "double count" because I have such a wild reaction to products containing wheat. A sandwich with two slices of bread might count out as 24g of carbs, but to me, it I would have to count it as closer to 50g (needless to say, bread is not a regular part of my diet). I have few "forbidden" foods. Perhaps transfats and ground glass. There are foods I avoid or eat very, very little, but they are not forbidden. I just choose to not eat them.

I thought about fat content, but some of the "okay" foods have little, if any, fat in them, and some of the "worst foods ever" have tons of fat in them. For me, potatoes have always been an issue, so I don't count french fries as part of the list when I try and find a pattern.

Also, I don't usually label foods "forbidden", either, but potatoes, for me, will bring my BG up just as fast as juice does. That is a food I do not eat.

What really annoys me are the foods that are 50/50.

I don't find it hard to avoid foods that ALWAYS make me high. But if there's a 50/50 chance of me making it work if I craft "the perfect bolus", and I really want it, it's much harder to convince myself that I shouldn't give it a shot ...

But, then again, last night I had sushi, which is one of those foods that I just cannot get right, ever. (I actually don't really like rice in any other form, but sushi is sooooo good!) It was really good, but then I spent the rest of the night stuck at 16-18 (around 300), even with multiple corrections.

Oh, I SO know that story!

I try to avoid things like pizza, but as a college student, it happens sometimes despite my best efforts. When I was a freshman (read: before everything went absolutely crazy), pizza was a 50/50 food. Then it was a never food, and now it seems to be fine.

But some foods, like risotto, are 50/50, and they drive me nuts! Do I eat it? Do I not? The craziest thing is that the 50/50 foods seem to have a small window of opportunity--I can have bread if I only have one slice because it's under 25 carbs. That seems to be the trick for me--the minute I hit 25 carbs, I spike. (Except potatoes. White potatoes were created by the devil.)

I thought I was the only one with 50/50 foods! Oh, it's so good not to be alone!

I try to limit foods to below 30 g at a time, too. Except for lately; I have been doing terrible with diabetes control, mostly due to life being VERY busy and stressful lately!

I am very allergic to white potato and am pretty sure eating a few fries would kill me ... so I fully agree that they were created by the devil! :) On the other hand, at least I don't have to worry about being tempted by that particular food.

In general, over 30g seems to be a massive issue for me...except where pasta is involved? Like I said, makes NO sense.

Ooh. At least you're allergic to something junky. I'm allergic to nuts, and that's a very good, healthy food/snack. *sigh* It's a shame sometimes.

A few months ago I started an Excel spreadsheet where I intedned to track foods to see if some had patterns, with plans to avoid food that spiked me more than 50% of the time. This never got going because I was so busy, but I think it would be a really helpful spreadsheet to have.

Food allergies in general are highly annoying ... but yes, if I had to pick one then potato isn't a bad choice for a diabetic. :) I used to be allergic to nuts when I was a kid, but outgrew it by my teenage years. As a result, I don't really like nuts all that much, although I've grown to like things like almond milk. It would be an annoying allergy for trying to eat low-carb, though.

I've considered it, but I'm trying to not obsess over my one-hour spikes anymore, since I'm on Met now and my endo doesn't want to hear about the highs unless they're over 200 2 hours after eating and/or make me feel too sick to function.

Nuts are a horrendous allergy to have for low-carbing! And my allergist told me that because I developed the allergy as an adult (I'd just turned 14), I have about a 5% chance of outgrowing it and a 60% chance of becoming allergic to other nuts. I'm officially allergic to four, so I guess I'm not outgrowing anything! In fact, they just keep getting worse.

I think allergies developed in adulthood are WAY more annoying than those from childhood. I've been allergic to potato my whole life, so I don't miss it. One of my best friends used to LOVE nuts but then developed an allergy out of nowhere in her 30s, and she misses them all the time.

I developed a ton of seasonal/environmental allergies as an adult in my 20s, and I truly hate them. I can't be near dogs (much less pet them) without a reaction, and I love dogs. Right now I can't walk around outside without feeling like I can barely breathe. My allergies get worse every year, too. This is the first year that multiple prescription medications still aren't enough to keep them in check. Pretty much everywhere I go, I'm allergic to something.

The past few weeks I've been hating allergies more than diabetes, which is really, really hard to do!

I don't miss nuts a whole lot, though almonds and peanut butter would be nice. Protein and low carb and all that stuff. And almonds, from what I remember, tasted good. And cashews. And pistachios.

So I have a bunch of other weird allergies, but oh, god, the seasonal ones! I've been hoarse for the past two weeks and I have this awful cough at night and I CAN'T BREATHE! Zyrtec seems to be doing squat, so I'm going to try adding Claritin. Pataday also does NOTHING. The funniest thing is, I don't test positive for anything outdoors. My allergist told me that I'm allergic no matter what, but one of my doctors freaked out a little. Apparently she likes patients who are "normal". Too bad I'm not. (When I told my allergist that the bloods showed no seasonal allergies, she said "You have seasonal allergies. The blood test says you don't. All that tells me is that you have seasonal allergies and that you aren't a normal patient. But I already knew that. I don't expect you to come back as normal for anything." Man, I miss her.)

So far (fingers crossed), I've had worse allergy years. The most memorable one was when I told everyone I had the cold from hell...for three weeks (!) before I finally figured it out. And then nothing worked and I was miserable from the allergies, how badly they made me feel, and the side effects from the drugs I was taking. And they didn't get better until finals. I went through so many boxes of tissues...

I wonder how much of this is the propensity to use a conservative carb/ insulin ratio set with an eye (by the doc...) of aiming at 140 or 120 so if one has some extra carbs, the result is *boom* an elevated BG.

If your ratio is calculated to be 10 to one and you have a 60G serving of sushi you'd have 6 units but, if the ratio was really 8 to 1, you'd take 7.5 units. While this isn't a huge difference, since I've been pumping, I've noticed that even a .1 or .2U difference in my ratios of carb to insulin will make a pretty significant difference in the "big picture" of the pie chart representations of my BG in CareLink. Even without those tools, perhaps the answer is in the insulin more than it's in the food?

Just a note about allergies. I had taken Claritin for years but found it made me hyper and sleepless at times. On the advice of a Pharmacist changed to a low dose drug found in Claritin. Now I take Loratadine 10 mg once in 24 hours with good results. Bonus : Cheaper and less drug required.
Lorri

The weirdest allergy I had was during my teenage years when I was allergic to cold. I couldn't even go for a walk in the evening during the summer without breaking out in hives wherever I had bare skin. I couldn't go swimming at all without full-body hives; the one time I tried, I ended up with hives, collapsing, and nearly passing out (did not realize at the time that this could be life-threatening ...). Thankfully, I outgrew that as I outgrew my teens. That has to be one of the worst allergies ever!

And as a kid I was allergic to mint, or at least it was an asthma trigger for me. I'm fine with it today. How weird.

This year I've been taking extra-strength Reactine (Zyrtec), Pataday eye drops, Nasonex nasal spray, plus saline eye drops and nasal spray as-needed and Ventolin as-needed. The only place my allergies are mostly okay is in my apartment, where I've spend lots of time and money allergy-proofing. When I'm out in the "real world", depending on where I am, I can barely function.

When I randomly developed environmental allergies in the middle of student teaching I thought it was a cold, too. Then it went on and on for months, and got worse, and I finally went to my doctor. That was five years ago, and they've gotten to the point where I'm seriously considering allergy shots this fall. The worst part for me is that allergy "season" is spring (trees), summer (grasses), and fall (weeds). The only time I get sort of a break is for few weeks or a month during the winter ... as long as I'm not around dogs or cats or dust/dust mites or feathers or mould. *sigh* At least all my allergy tests are positive, otherwise I'd be going a bit crazy, I think.

Pizza makes my blood sugar go crazy. I check one hour after eating it and my sugar is fine then a couple of hours later it is outrageous. I am the same way with milk and cereal and it doesn't matter what type of cereal it is. I have come to the conclusion that the milk is affecting me. I usually bolus more when I have cereal and milk. Most days that works but sometimes I will have a low.I love fries and have found if I go out to fast food and order a kids meal my sugars will be great. I know what each kids meal carbs are. lol

Unfortunately anything with nutritional value has some kind of impact on my BG.

There is a huge difference in how a food impacts BG depending on if it contains complex carbs or simple carbs. Most pastas have complex carbs so it impacts BG a bit slower then a simple carb like potatoes. Pasta can still be a big problem for someone who is insulin dependent.

I have a problem with Potatoes causing a rapid spike in BG but it does not last for a long time and my I:C works.

Pasta causes my BG to boil over for many hours after my insulin has ran it's coarse and I will need to correct my BG 4 to five hours later, my I:C never covers pasta...

Large amounts of any food is usually a problem for me, everything in moderation is my best choice....Just a big piece of steak can cause my BG burn out of control for 6 to 8 hours.

Food is not my friend..it brings discomfort and constant worry to my daily life....

I found out that I can't eat ice cream or more than a 1/4 cup without having highs. But I can eat french fries and they won't bother my bg's. I think t his is part of the diabetes that makes it an individual disease. We all react to things a little different. My husband has learned to deal with stress and his diabetes well, I get a little niche in my life, and my numbers go through the ceiling. You will learn what triggers you, and what doesn't....and about the time you think you have it all figured out, your body will change and you'll have to learn again. I keep a journal of those foods, what happened, and what or when they changed if they did. I do the same with meds and insulin doses.....that way I have proof to show the doc and my team as to what is going on, that makes sense or makes no sense.