Whey protein: BG effects?

Type 1 & LADA
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Hey guys,

This morning, I ate 20 grams of whey protein isolate (no carbs, 100% protein) with my normal 100 grams of oatmeal for breakfast. Big spike in BG 2 hours later. I’d say I took 20-30% extra insulin bolus to correct it, compared to my normal breakfast oatmeal without the added whey protein.

Have you guys experienced this? I understand whey protein increases insulin production in non-D population, so maybe I’m experiencing the same thing, without the benefit of a functioning pancreas.

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reading your post reminded me to check my cgm … thanks!

I’m a little ocnfused about what happened in your diet this morning? Did you change your meal bolus to adjust? Can you revise and resubmit?

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Sorry @bostrav59 , not very clear language. I ate my normal breakfast, except with the addition of 20 grams of whey protein isolate. This spiked my BG way more than usual post breakfast, which caused me to take about 20-30 percent more insulin over the normal dosage for that breakfast.

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IME 20g of whey protein isn’t enough to cause that much of an overshoot. In large doses protein can cause gluconeogenesis, but doubt 20g of gluconeogenesis would be anywhere near the ballpark of 100g carb worth of oatmeal.

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Thanks @mike_g . Oatmeal is one of my favorite topics, because for me the amount of milling of the oats has big effects on their glycemic index and so also on my glucose levels. Steel cut oats (which I love) has a much lower glycemic index than instant or quick oatmeal. Makes a big difference in what happens to my blood sugar.

Oat Groats, which are unrolled / uncut whole oats, have the lowest glycemic index of all variations. They taste great too. I can’t find them in any supermarket - at least not in Boston area. We found some at a Korean supermarket in NJ. And I think you can get them over the internet. It takes an hour to cook them.

Oh yeah, but back to the whey protein isolate … I don’t know anything about that stuff, but I have learned that seemingly small changes in diet can have big effects on your glucose readings. If I were in your situation, I’d try another experiment but up your insulin bolus a couple of clicks (I don’t know how sensitive you are on insulin, so you have to judge that). See what happens…

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Thanks for the thoughts.

@Karl.n , you’re right, it’s not that much protein, but I have the impression whey protein was observed to have this effect per studies (so Google says).

@bostrav59 , oat groats sound great, I’ll check them out. Yeah, just gonna observe over the next few days to see what happens

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This from UK Diabetes in 2019 is interesting to on protein.

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Thanks CarlosLuis - here’s a highlight from the (small sample) study:

The new research showed that higher amounts of protein in meals increased the amount of insulin needed by about 50 per cent. The results also showed that the amount of extra insulin needed varied significantly between different individuals.

I haven’t looked closely at the study, but I wonder if they looked at insulin needs within one individual over time. My guess would be that insulin needs vary significantly within one individual over time as well.

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I have often heard a standard of using 1/2 your normal ratio for protein as you do for carbs.

If I ate nothing but protein, I would still need insulin for it (besides the basal).

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