I’m back with more about salads and really wondering if anyone else experiences this:
At home, I grilled 1/2 chicken breast with olive oil, put it over a plate of romaine lettuce with cut up tomato, Parmesan, less than half a hoagie roll cut into croutons (estimated about 20 carbs), and homemade creamy dressing made with buttermilk, mayo, and herbs. I took 6 units and sat to watch a movie with my son. My ratio for other meals has worked at 1:6. Here I took extra because I was going to be sitting. My blood sugar rose to 287 after an hour. I went to workout to bring it down. Worked out for 20 minutes, working muscles and a sweat. Blood sugar came down to 200 mid workout, but rose to 287 again 20 minutes after finishing the workout.
So, it is not hidden carbs. Is it the fiber? Is it taking too many units and causing my liver to compensate by putting out more sugar? Does anyone else have this experience?
@Pates, does this phenomenon only happen with salads and light meals?
Salads mainly
We don’t have this issues, and we eat a similar meal every week, sometimes twice a week.
I can see how the exercise can lower then raise you if you were doing an anaerobic workout, but I can’t explain the initial rise, other than the voodoo of diabetes. Hopefully someone has figured this one out.
I don’t have that issue, but I also don’t eat carbs like that with my salads typically—the only times I’ve had anything but a slow steady rise from salads have been when there are carbs in the mix.
That said, my understanding of exercise’s effects on blood sugar is that if your aim is immediate reduction of blood sugar, you would be best off doing lower intensity cardio, vs a workout that works muscles and is higher intensity. The latter may be more likely raise, not lower, blood sugars, which could at least explain the second spike.
@Pates, I also think with @cardamom that the second spike may possibly be from the exercise: my son will spike from some exercises such as weights, or even biking at some intensities. It is fairly repeatable, so, trying a specific type of exercise several times gives a good idea of whether you would expect a rise or a drop!
The first spike is still a bit mysterious. Spiking to 287 from, I assume, roughly 100, is a hard spike that would be unexpected for us. My assumptions:
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you prebolused by however long it takes for you to “turn the corner” and get your insulin to activate before you ate. For us, that is typically 45 minutes or so. So your BG was going down from insulin activation when you ate.
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you were comfortably in range when you ate, say, about 100.
If that is the case, I can see three possibilities. The first is unlikely:
(a) your hoagie, buttermilk or mayo are carrying more carbs than you think. But I imagine you would know that by now if you use them often. This, however, is the primary source of issues for us.
(b) the meal is so dense in proteins and fats that you see a fat/protein peak in it. This happens to us frequently, but only for rich meals: pizza, rich pasta, Cajun cooking with high butter content etc.
(c) the carb density of your meal is so low that you need to “TAG” i…e also dose for proteins and carbs. The TAG theory typically calls for 40% dosage for proteins and 10% for fats, although these percentages vary somewhat per person.
Finally, there is the possibility that your liver would discharge carbs because it expects a much larger meal., But 20 carbs, at least for us, is not so small that we would expect to see that. On the other hand, possibly you eat a lot more carbs on average than us?
I can’t speak to croutons on a salad, but I know for me, I recently tried a soup with croutons and had a crazy (for me) spike from it, even with dosing what seemed like adequate insulin. I know it was the croutons because I’ve had the soup several times since then (with 1/2 the insulin) and been fine.
Were you rising before you ate? Sometimes if I’m already on the rise before eating, the food seems to spike things up much higher than expected, even if I take appropriate insulin.
Also, Dr. Bernstein (and maybe others) states that just having a full stomach can cause a blood sugar spike. So, depending on the volume of salad eaten, this may have been a contributor.
As others have mentioned, intense exercise can also cause a spike.
If you use a pump, an ineffective infusion set may be a contributing factor.
I’m thinking that most likely it’s a combination of factors… What is your BG control usually like? Is a spike to 287 totally out of the ordinary for you, or is it a number you hit fairly regularly?