The Number One Tool for Improving Your Health This Year
 

According to Dr. Georgia Ede:

Since I already have the BG meter and strips, I decided to begin to measure 1 hour postprandial. So far, I've gotten considerable insight into which foods spike my own BG. Naturally, they are my favorites. LOL I really love raw jicama sticks, but apparently they are too high in carbs for me (126 mg/dL 1 hour after eating them.) Canned chili also gave me high readings.

Most of the foods I regularly eat read less than 100 mg/dL 1 hour postprandial.

Anybody else doing this kind of experiment?

I haven't done that kind of testing for a long time, but I did do it during the first year when I was still quite insulin resistant. I found my biggest "problem" low carb foods were:

Overcooked/pureed vegetables in my LC soups, especially when having the soup stand-alone or before a meal. I was eating carrots in limited quantity at the time. My BG did little after eating raw veggies (including carrots). But veggies cooked to near the texture of baby food spiked my BG big time. Same number of carbs in the veggies, but completely different BG reaction depending on how they were prepared and what I ate them with. Having that veggie soup after a meal of mostly protein and fat was far better than having it first.

Carbs in sauces really spiked my BG. A 3 carb serving of stir-fry sauce tossed into sautéed meat & veggies seemed to suck straight into my veins. I had a far bigger BG reaction than I expected for so few carbs.

After these experiments I changed how I ate. More raw veggies, far less soup, and rarely have stir fry with anything other than a little soy sauce.

My insulin resistance did eventually improve. After that happened my BG reaction to such things has tempered quite a bit. I stopped getting readings above 150 to 200 from a 10 to 15 net carb meal. In fact it rarely cracked 100 after a meal. So I stopped checking my BG except for the occasional FBG.

Good to know. I was shocked when my meal of coffee with 1 scoop MetRX unflavored protein powder, 1 scoop collagen peptides (unflavored) some HWC=96 mg/dL. Description:giant lettuce, tomato, tuna and my home ranch salad=95 mg/dL.

I think I'll experiment with eating the raw jicama with protein and see if that tamps down the effect of the jicama carbs.

This is sound advice from Dr. Ede. I don't use my glucometer as much as I should. I should measure again the meals that I eat consistently (my "go tos" so to speak) to see where I am and then whenever I eat something new or infrequently to understand exactly what happens to my BG and get a baseline. The difference between raw and cooked veggies makes sense. My assumption is that the rate of digestion and absorption is slower when eating raw compared to being cooked and soft.

A doctor advised me to always include a fat source if eating something with carbs. He said it was fat, not protein, that would best slow down the carb absorption. Also it's possible to see a change in blood sugar (possibly higher) when eating protein without any carbohydrate. If I understand it correctly, this is because protein triggers insulin release. Not as much as carbs, but some in order to process the protein. So the liver, to avoid blood sugar dropping dangerously low, releases glucose from stored glycogen. So a higher glucose reading could possibly result, but it would be from the body's own released glucose stores rather than carbohydrate consumption.

I have a question about the testing. Never done it before. Do you take a test before eating and then an hour after eating to compare them? Do you take it an hour from the first bite or the last bite?

The first test of the day is after you wake up in the morning (fasting glucose) - before you eat. Then you can test after meals to see the glucose response of those particular ingredients, and try to find out what if anything is problematic with raising glucose.

Great article Glenda, Love Georgia Ede and that she is writing more often again!

Mojolissa, I followed the protocol exactly (yes before also) as Dr William Davis explained. He had two articles on his blog with the same titles.

2016: https://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2016...ng-blood-sugar/

2017: https://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2017...ol-weight-loss/

But he had suggested this in his books, etc since about 2012. Very Helpful if you are dealing with hunger between meals. Dr Westman keeps his program very simple, at the two week follow-up most everyone says they are no longer hungry, cravings are gone. If not, be sure you are following the program, and if still get cravings then a tool like this might help figure out why.

I find this fascinating. It suggests insulin resistance is not just a matter of how any carbs you eat. It also throws other things out of whack that are meant to work together.

I got us each a free meter several years ago, this scared DH off processed food to a great extent. I did mine to show him what it was like low carb.

Today was a yoga day so this was my schedule:
BPC 4am
Walked 1 hour
Yoga 8:30-10am
gigantic first meal lettuce, pico de gallo, mayo, avocado and canned tuna
1 hour post meal BG=77

Seems to me that exercise is also a factor.

I'm thinking of getting a breathalyzer. They say the cheap ones can't tell the diff between breath acetone and alcohol. Also, the breath meters are supposed to be the most accurate way to measure ketones in actual use (as in not wasted.)

Anybody have one of these? I'm doing Therapeutic Keto, not weight loss keto.

Not me, but I heard this MD who is with Virta, and also a principal in a new Breath Ketone meter. Latest in design, supposed to be reasonable price, sounded good but still pre-order. The link at end of this description. http://lowcarbmd.com/episode-9-dr-ethan-weiss

I just placed my order for one of the breathalyzers. I'll report back. Did I or didn't I waste a bit more $$ in my quest for health. :lol:

Thanks for sharing this. It reminded me that I have a ton of strips about to expire, so I may as well use them up.

I'm happy this was reported in Psychology Today. Hardly anyone realizes the affect diet can have on mental health. When I was a lab tech back in the 90s, every newly admitted psych patient had a BG workup. Of course, I'm sure most clinicians are barking up the wrong tree and advising LowFatHeartHealthyWholeGrains, but it would be nice to at least start acknowledging it.

Two big surprises:
- Having very lean meat (Buddig turkey slices) and salsa with no added fat resulted in no BG spike. (That's the morning readings below) Pleasant surprise, I guess, though I was almost hoping for an increase because it was already low. I'm glad I fall into Dr Ted Nieman's eat-lotsa-protein-fer-cryin-out-loud camp.
- Sushi, which I thought was an acceptable occasional treat meal with no particular negative consequences, sent my BG to 8.0 (145-ish?) 1 hr PP. :exclm: And then after 2 hours, it was 8.2!! An hour after that (a little more than 3 hrs PP) it was still 6.9. WTH?



(Side note: the Precision Neo's default PP goal is 5.5 - 10.0!! WHAAAAAAAAAT??

Experiment will continue.

I recall reading some on Fathead blog a million years ago about doing this testing, and how what he'd eaten earlier in the day or even the day before seeming to affect (reduce) the carb-effect of something like a potato if the prior food had been solid LC protein-fats. My memory is super fuzzy here so pardon me if this isn't totally accurate, but I think the base is probably sound: meals don't happen in a vacuum inside a living system.

Food with it, before it, and maybe other things (exercise?) are likely factors as well. And how it's prepped, as K said. I suppose if you make it too easy to digest, it does so rapidly, likely increasing the BG impact.

I used to be profoundly insulin-resistant. I had huge dark areas under my arms. A glucometer when I began LC was enlightening. (Including about NOT eating, when my blood sugar looked like a mountain range, of falling too low, then being kicked up to compensate, in a cycle all day. Not eating is more a problem for me in high-BG than eating anything LC.) I think I'm relatively stable now (e.g. no extreme responses) but I should probably consider doing a measure cycle out of curiosity again.

PJ