Do you pre-bolus for them?
I’m so glad that at least the Moderna vaccination did NOT effect your BGs!! Hope you are back to your energetic self today!!
Bananas??!! Yes, they spike me! I love them so I DO eat them, too, just not usually a whole one! I also like the potassium they provide! I eat pieces in my yoghurt, and will sometimes eat 1/2 banana before a run! So for these purposes, I don’t usually need a correction but I don’t think this is the same thing you are experiencing. I’d probably need a correction, too, if I just ate a whole banana. I think that is fine, though, as long as you catch the spike! Enjoy your bananas, and potassium!
I pre-bolus 15 minutes whenever I am in target range.
Oh God, do I enjoy them! A ripe banana is like a yellow gift from God. Yummmm!
DM, did you know that the sugar content of a banana varies with how ripe it is?
As a banana ripens, the starch in it turns to sugar. So the more ripe it is, the more carbs it will have, and the more insulin you will need!
Yes. I know that, but thank you, bc now everyone else who has read this thread will know it too!
I’m still trying to find a loophole to eliminate the spike. Maybe a long pre-bolus?
Yeah, either that or more insulin.
I think that today I will experiment with more insulin and see how that goes. Each time I spike after eating the banana, my BG goes up by almost the exact same amount; so, my corrections are usually the same. I think I will try to give myself the amount of insulin I usually need for my correction and see if that works. Ya never know until you try Thanks
I shoulda known that you already know about the banana ripeness thing. You are like a master in the D class.
what’s ur opinion about taking more insulin up front? I only have had to correct with about 1/2 a unit an hour later ?
And even though when the carbs count for a single banana says it has aproxamately 27/28gms I usually cover for 30gms instead. (which obviously has not been enough, despite the fact that my ICR is right on target.)
Yeah, that is definitely what I would try.
Bolused for 3gms of extra carbs and added .35 units. Will keep you posted You know how much I love these experiments!!!
TOTALY OFF TOPIC: MY BANANA EXPERIMENT PART 2:
so I came close to target yesterday, but instead of spiking or remaining flat, I ended up dropping to 50 a bit later after lunch. Today I will try an new experiment with a riper banana. I will bolus for 35gms up front without adding any extra units. It is a large banana, so instead of blousing for the 27 recommended grams, I would have figured to bolus for about 30gms. But since it is more ripe, I am adding onto that, and since it is larger, I am adding onto that, and since I seem to need more insulin, I am adding onto that. Get it? We’ll see what happens.
Will keep you posted,
DM
THE LASTEST RESULTS:
so I bolused for 36gms of carbs for my banana experiment. It was going very well. Now mind you, I am eating it with thick freshly ground peanut butter, so that may slow down the digestion and require a dual bolus in the future.
I bolused at 11am. My ICR is 1:8. It was a large, ripe banana. (it was delicious!). 2.5 hours after my bolus my BG went from 80 to 104. “OMG”, I think to myself, “this is wonderful.” But then I tested again at 4 hours post bolus and my BG had come up to 113. This is still not bad at all. I think I just might be on to something here. As Eric is always reminding me: “over bolus for foods you are uncertain about, because if you end up giving yourself too much insulin, you can always eat more; and it is far easier to correct a low BG than it is to correct a high one.”
I have run out of bananas, but hope to do a repeat of this test next week.
Now I know that we are all different, that our D can be very different, but IMHO, if you want to eat a large, very ripe banana with fresh peanut butter (no sugar added, etc), try over bolusing and see how it works for you. You might be pleasantly surprised!
ENJOY!
DM
I’m just curious. Did you prebolus by a few minutes in addition to upping the bolus?
I enjoy good bananas as well, and have been using 20 grams of carbohydrate, entered
into a pump 15 to 20 minutes in advance, and gotten good results most of the time.
Dave
So long as my BG is under 120, I always pre-bolus 15 minutes before eating. If my BG is higher, I will not eat after bolusing until my BG comes down into TR (which can be, sometimes, about 1/2 hour). If my BG is high, (above 150), I will take an IM injection and wait for 1.5 hours before even bolusing at all.
But to answer your question, Yes, I pre-bolus 15 minutes before eating the banana! I should be astounded that you only need to cover for 20gms of carbs for your bananas. But then again, nothing about D surprises me anymore!!!
I despise bananas. Just had to put it out there. I’ll check back in when we’re on to apples or grapes or something really amazing like champagne mangos!
I dont know if thats a compliment or an insult. Its kind of like being an “A” student in the “Slow Class.”
Does the variety of banana matter do you think? I’m assuming that the bananas you had are Cavendish?
I grow my own bananas. And they’re a variety that is small but thick and deliciously creamy. Ducasse is the name. Because they ripen quickly when the bunch is cut (literally overnight) I spend a week with high numbers due to eating so many, even after freezing half of them and giving some away.
*side note, I live in the Australian state of Queensland and each state has nicknames for each of the others. Qld’ers are known as banana benders ! Anyway here’s the bunch I picked last week! I aim for 6u per 2 bananas, but usually need to correct later (I’m MDI)
Damn that is a massive banana bunch. How many times a year do you get a haul like that?