Anyone find that foods listed as "safe" spike your blood?

Hello @retiredteacher . My name is Brenda and I'm a Type 1 diabetic. I am a health educator at a pediatric hospital and I work in the Weight Management and Diabetes Prevention team. I am also a certified Diabetes Educator. Answering to your post, It has been my experience with my personal diabetes that bread, rice, pasta, potatoes and cereals of any kind spike my blood. I do have to say that although there is much literature about the following, I still have not found anything scientifically proven that when I stress my blood sugar numbers go bonkers! There have been times in my life where I have taken very detailed, honest food diaries and even on the days that I had 0 sugar, if for some reason I had a bad day-my sugar levels were high. So I am a believer in that blood sugar levels will spike on some of us depending on stress levels. I know somewhere in here I should speak on how hormones are the problem but still, like I said before I have not found any REAL evidence that this is a cause other than my own personal experiments. When speaking on sugars: whether it’s in a piece of fruit, your soda or a pastry, sugar is made up of the same two components: fructose and glucose. The molecular structure and composition of sugar molecules is the same no matter where they come from. Neither type of sugar is better or worse for you, but your body processes them differently. Fructose breaks down in your liver and doesn’t provoke an insulin response. Glucose starts to break down in the stomach and requires the release of insulin into the bloodstream to be metabolized completely. The ratios of fructose and glucose are pretty much the same in both fruit and table sugar. Most fruits are 40 to 55 percent fructose (there’s some variation: 65 percent in apples and pears; 20 percent in cranberries), and table sugar (aka sucrose) is 50/50. Don’t get the idea that because the sugar composition is the same in fruit and cake, they’re interchangeable. (Seriously, they’re not.) For one thing, fruit offers good stuff like vitamins, antioxidants and water, while candy and desserts are nutritionally void. Fruit also tends to have less sugar by volume. Half a cup of strawberries: 3.5 grams of sugar. Half a cup of strawberry ice cream: 15 grams. Plus, whole fruit has a lot of fiber, which actually slows down your body’s digestion of glucose, so you don’t get the crazy insulin spike (and subsequent crash) that candy causes. That also means your body has more time to use up glucose as fuel before storing it—as fat. Even dried fruit, a notoriously sugary treat, has all the fiber and nutrients of its plump forbear. But do watch out for dried fruits with added sugar (check the nutrition label), and don’t eat a ton just because they’re smaller. Picture how many pieces are in a handful of raisins compared with a handful of grapes. See what we mean? On average, Americans don’t eat enough fruit, so don’t cut it out of your diet in an attempt to limit your sugar intake! Sugar itself isn’t toxic. But getting too much of it from cookies and cake is.

I could go on and on-but to be honest with you your numbers are not so bad. 155 and 150 are what I would say "semi-safe" for a diagnosed diabetic. You are doing a great job if those are the numbers that alarm you. Oh, and don't beat yourself exercising. I found that my patients that have a walking routine of 3 to 4 times a week for 20-45 minutes decrease their medicine intake within 6 months. Losing weight is not easy for everyone. Forget working out hard everyday and expecting to see a difference on the scale within 2 weeks-our bodies don't all work that way. You are beating yourself up and that is why you are frustrated. I totally understand you- your post really came out at me because I could completely relate to everything you were saying. Just know that you are not doing bad at all. Knowing everything that I know, working in the field that I do, I still have those bad-high days. I control it by meditating, walking and just taking a step back to breath. Like I said we are not all the same, every person's diabetes is different but I hope you read this and find that I too share and can attest to this diabetes. Hang in there-

In Health,

Brenda

Jump to this post

@brendisha79 I know that with age, our pancreas might not work as effectively. Since you are in-the-know regarding diabetes, I'm just wondering about A1C: does the "acceptable or normal" level rise with age given the aging of the pancreas (and also given no complications such as kidney problems, vision problems or neuropathy)? Teresa

Jump to this post

Hello @retiredteacher . My name is Brenda and I'm a Type 1 diabetic. I am a health educator at a pediatric hospital and I work in the Weight Management and Diabetes Prevention team. I am also a certified Diabetes Educator. Answering to your post, It has been my experience with my personal diabetes that bread, rice, pasta, potatoes and cereals of any kind spike my blood. I do have to say that although there is much literature about the following, I still have not found anything scientifically proven that when I stress my blood sugar numbers go bonkers! There have been times in my life where I have taken very detailed, honest food diaries and even on the days that I had 0 sugar, if for some reason I had a bad day-my sugar levels were high. So I am a believer in that blood sugar levels will spike on some of us depending on stress levels. I know somewhere in here I should speak on how hormones are the problem but still, like I said before I have not found any REAL evidence that this is a cause other than my own personal experiments. When speaking on sugars: whether it’s in a piece of fruit, your soda or a pastry, sugar is made up of the same two components: fructose and glucose. The molecular structure and composition of sugar molecules is the same no matter where they come from. Neither type of sugar is better or worse for you, but your body processes them differently. Fructose breaks down in your liver and doesn’t provoke an insulin response. Glucose starts to break down in the stomach and requires the release of insulin into the bloodstream to be metabolized completely. The ratios of fructose and glucose are pretty much the same in both fruit and table sugar. Most fruits are 40 to 55 percent fructose (there’s some variation: 65 percent in apples and pears; 20 percent in cranberries), and table sugar (aka sucrose) is 50/50. Don’t get the idea that because the sugar composition is the same in fruit and cake, they’re interchangeable. (Seriously, they’re not.) For one thing, fruit offers good stuff like vitamins, antioxidants and water, while candy and desserts are nutritionally void. Fruit also tends to have less sugar by volume. Half a cup of strawberries: 3.5 grams of sugar. Half a cup of strawberry ice cream: 15 grams. Plus, whole fruit has a lot of fiber, which actually slows down your body’s digestion of glucose, so you don’t get the crazy insulin spike (and subsequent crash) that candy causes. That also means your body has more time to use up glucose as fuel before storing it—as fat. Even dried fruit, a notoriously sugary treat, has all the fiber and nutrients of its plump forbear. But do watch out for dried fruits with added sugar (check the nutrition label), and don’t eat a ton just because they’re smaller. Picture how many pieces are in a handful of raisins compared with a handful of grapes. See what we mean? On average, Americans don’t eat enough fruit, so don’t cut it out of your diet in an attempt to limit your sugar intake! Sugar itself isn’t toxic. But getting too much of it from cookies and cake is.

I could go on and on-but to be honest with you your numbers are not so bad. 155 and 150 are what I would say "semi-safe" for a diagnosed diabetic. You are doing a great job if those are the numbers that alarm you. Oh, and don't beat yourself exercising. I found that my patients that have a walking routine of 3 to 4 times a week for 20-45 minutes decrease their medicine intake within 6 months. Losing weight is not easy for everyone. Forget working out hard everyday and expecting to see a difference on the scale within 2 weeks-our bodies don't all work that way. You are beating yourself up and that is why you are frustrated. I totally understand you- your post really came out at me because I could completely relate to everything you were saying. Just know that you are not doing bad at all. Knowing everything that I know, working in the field that I do, I still have those bad-high days. I control it by meditating, walking and just taking a step back to breath. Like I said we are not all the same, every person's diabetes is different but I hope you read this and find that I too share and can attest to this diabetes. Hang in there-

In Health,

Brenda

Jump to this post

I have the same problem and here is what i eat. Anything i want only very small portions. Cherries, pineapple,melon for snack....eat every 2 hours

Jump to this post