Ok so for some reason, it seems like everytime I eat potatoe salad (potatoes, onions, eggs are the basics) I seem to over count my carbs? Yet, when I eat potatoes by themselves, I don’t seem to have this problem? Any idea’s of why there seems to be a difference in what each is worth? Has anyone else had this problem or maybe give me some advice, thanks
The fat in the mayo & eggs slow down the absorption is my guess. The effect on BG may be delayed past 2 hours.
Are you eating the potato salad cold? Like after it’s sat in the fridge for like 12 hours, or so? Starches, such as potatoes, will develop resistant starch in the fridge… This is a type of fiber that cannot be digested by the body, in effect (along with the added protein and fat, like Gerri mentioned) lowering the glycemic load of these kinds of foods. The same happens with noodles, if you leave them in the fridge for 12 hours or so, and eat them cold.
Excellent point about resistant starch.
If you mean that you are having hypo’s it is probably because fat(mayo) and protien (eggs) can massively slow carbohydrate absorbtion. It is for this reason that on the pump you have the oprion of a square wave and a dual wave bous. If you are on a pump, if you are on MDI I think there is away around it by giving halve the dose you would have given but twice over 2 hours but it’s been a while since I was on MDI so it might be worth asking you DSN. Alternatively you could use a very light fat mayo and use a little less egg. but then maybe it wouldn’t be a proper potatoe salad then?
There is a “theory” that some of the starch in potatoes is “resistant.” The resistant starch in potatoes can supposedly be emphasized by not completely cooking and serving the potatoes cold. Well, that is exactly what you do with potato salad. Further, vinegar is a common ingredient in potato salad (at least german style), further decreasing the effective carbs. Well, that is my story, I think it’s partly hooey, but whatever.
Well these are very good answers and I hope I am able to better judge the amounts. It’s also been suggested that because there is usually onion and egg added the portion looks bigger plus most people cube it so it sort of stacks and again changes the perception of the actual amount of potatoes. I’ve never heard of this resistant starch before and is really something to consider. Now any idea of how much “resistant starch” affects the potatoes? Maybe like a percent or something? For example a cup of potatoes salad= 20 carbs so now it’s 20% less carbs because of the resistant strarch. Good to mention the pasta as well as I’ve eaten a bunch of it in cold salads too. I wonder if rice would be affected that way as well? Surprised my diabetic clinic didn’t say anything, I’ll have to meniton it. does anyone know of any articals on it? Also, the way to bolus was mentioned and now I almost always use the square wave because I used to go low everytime I ate, lol. It was very bizarre b/c I’d be eating and yet going low at the same time. Great dinner time conversations though! Thanks for the input.
Here is some background
Laura Dolson on resistant starch (http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrition/a/resistantstarch.htm)
A website on the topic (http://www.resistantstarch.com/ResistantStarch)
An assessment of resistant start intake in the US (http://www.adajournal.org/article/S0002-8223(07)01932-3/abstract).
Personally, I believe that most of the resistant start stuff is baloney, and that really, raw foods are basically indigestible. Major parts of things like potatoes when cold and only partly cooked are still indigestible.
Here is an article from 1986 on the topic http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/9/4/401.abstract. And here is another “classic” from 1944 (http://www.jbc.org/content/156/1/203.full.pdf).
Now as to your particular question. There has actually been a study of that (http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v59/n11/full/1602238a.html) “Vinegar dressing and cold storage of potatoes lowers postprandial glycemic and insulinemic responses in healthy subjects.” That study was also discussed in http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/articles/diabetes-news/3308.
Now, aren’t you sorry you asked for more information?
Thanks so much, I passed these articals and sites onto my diabetic educators for others to learn about as well. You might think it’s baloney but after these lows, it explains a lot for me. My last low, I was at a friends place for a bbq. So I ate and all of after about 1 hours after I ate I was getting a really bad head ache and feelling sick to my stomache. Finally after throwing up once, my husband asked if I’d tested my bs after dinner. I said no, it’s not been 2 hours yet and I just ate a huge dinner. So I tested and was 2.1 and he was right. Because I still felt sick to my stomache, I had a very hard time getting anything into me. I turned off my pump and didn’t turn it back on for 3 hours because that is how long I took to come out of the low. I kept drinking pure maple sugar and eating crackers and it just stayed below 3 for a total of 3 hours. It was crazy and it’s happend now a couple of times, not that dramtically but still lows.