Yogurt

@daisymae I eat Stonyfield whole milk Greek yogurt every day. It is the only plain yogurt I have found that actually tastes good. Only 5g carbs and it certainly doesn’t act like it’s high glycemic…

I knew a diabetic years ago who had to cut out all dairy while breast-feeding (baby had allergies), and when she did that and then tried to eventually add it back, she realized how much it consistently spiked her blood sugar. Seemed like perhaps an immune/inflammatory response, since it wasn’t related to the carbs, and she eventually concluded that she needed to remain largely dairy-free post-breast feeding as well) and just expect spiked when she had some. If that’s the case, it was probably the protein, not the lactose, so you’d expect lactaid milk to still cause the spike. It might be interesting as an experiment to try a lot of clarified butter in some dish, which has no dairy proteins, to see if that still spikes you, and/or to try using some dairy-based protein powder to see if that spikes you (if yes, suggests a reaction to milk proteins).

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That would be a great experience to run. This could potentially explain the reason for the two camps: intrinsically, it is hard to understand why such a low GI food could be so difficult to deal with for so many diabetics.

@daisymae, @TiaG, maybe you would be willing?

I gave been trying to find these ever since @kenrick posted them with no success. Are you guys able to find them where you live?

We cook with ghee all the time and don’t notice any particular adverse effects. Also milk does spike Samson but it doesn’t have the same effect as yogurt, so not sure if milk protein intolerance (casein?) would be the issue.

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Is lactose degraded in yogurt?

it not the amount of carbs v. low carbs in the yogurt. the yogurt i like has only 6gms of carbs per serving. i’ve tried compensating for 10 grams of carbs and i still spike. and/or if i don’t spike immediately, after 1 -2 hours, my bgs are in the 200s; all from a little container of plain yogurt with no sweeteners. it looks so innocuous , but it has a more significant effect on me than when i eat chocolate. go figure :wink:.

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@Michel Yes, I’ve tried a few flavors, and to me they all taste very chalky, with a terrible aftertaste.

It’s really difficult to maintain a good taste when they take out all the stuff that makes it taste good (fat and sugar).

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Yes, as a lactose intolerant person, I can eat many yogurts ok, especially more basic ones, however some of the more processed ones (like Yoplait) are terrible. In most yogurt, the bacteria metabolizes the lactose, but I think in some, they add back in unprocessed skim milk which still has loads of lactose. However, lactose intolerance shouldn’t lead to greater blood sugar reactivity to lactose-containing foods—if anything, the opposite, since the lactose isn’t being metabolized (and instead is rotting in the intestine, causing all the GI distress).

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This is my son to a tee!

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so does anyone out there have any solutions to this problem? i am trying to take it as a challenge b/c i really like my yogurt and would LOVE to have it w/ bfast. i could literally eat it every morning.

should i try doubling the carbs i enter into my pump the same way that i do with my milk? should i try a dual bolus? i know that in the morning i can have some weird reactions to food that do not effect me at all during the rest of the day and into the evening (from noon on) (such as Peanut butter, 1/2 & 1/2 ) not a clue as to why; it just is. (and btw, my I:C morning ratio is dead on the money with all other food, so i know that that is not the problem)

ALL SUGGESTIONS EAGERLY WELCOME. i will try almost anything you guys have to offer :blush:

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I don’t spike with yogurt at all. But I am insulin resistant in the morning. The less sleep I have, and the earlier I eat the more insulin resistant I am (if I eat around 10:45 I am not very insulin resistant). Part of that is that, in the morning, insulin works slowly for me. So I should prebolus earlier, but I can’t because I don’t wake up early enough.

For you, if you spike with yogurt like I spike with morning cereals, maybe you should prebolus earlier to make sure it won’t spike too much? I also use a different carb ratio in the morning that is higher: I use 1/7 for the morning but 1/10 for dinner.

It seems that some yogurt brands will work better than others, based on the thread here: that is new info to me, and I am excited to learn that! Because of where you live, you probably have better access than most of all to yogurt brands: would it make sense to do some comparison testing and see if some yogurts work for you?

If you spike really fast with yogurt, which seems to be the case, that probably means that somehow it is not a low GI food for you: @TiaG posted that fascinating thread recently about how it is possible that everyone has different GI calculations. If that’s true for you, you won’t need an extended bolus.

So, if you spike early, I probably would start with a regular simple bolus, but higher than usual. @Kaelan mentioned his different morning bolus: I would really look into that for you too if you take yogurt at breakfast like we do. Then, if things don’t work out by playing around with prebolus duration and with bolus ratio, I would look into extended bolus, but only if you notice that you are spiking late, for instance 2 hours after you ate.

Btw, we do a second late injection for such things as pizza, where we do get some late spiking: so we know that, for us, that is sometimes needed.

i do a dual bolus for pizza as well, but i need to do it b/c of the fat content slowing down the absorbtion of all the carbs. i spike after 2 hours of eating so i set my pump to do a 2 hour square wave bolus. maybe thats what i need to do with the yogurt. great suggestion. i will add that to my list of many experiments :wink:.

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I can NEVER make yogurt work. I still eat it, and try to get out walking immediately after. I have tried the full fat, zero fat, sweetened ones, plain ones, they all make me spike. My favorite is a honey flavored one, but it spikes me the worst. My second fave is plain full fat sweetened with SF vanilla starbucks syrup, then adding toasted coconut, nuts and warmed up frozen strawberries with Splenda (they are better than fresh IMHO, taste almost like a strawberry syrup) and a dollop of PB on top. It ends up having so much fake sugar that it’s not healthy, but I do love it.

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My solution is to mix yogurt with cottage cheese. Generally less sugar in the CC and more protein. About 10 to 1 Cottage cheese to yogurt. May add flavoring from the drops that are used to flavor water. (EG Mio, liquid Crystal Light).

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That’s a great idea!

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You beat me to it @MM2 - we always have Fage full fat yogurt in the house because my wife loves it, but I prefer cottage cheese - particularly the ‘farmer’ or ‘pot cheese’ variety. Throw in a handful of organic blueberries and/or strawberries and good to go. My favorite light summer lunch, and no worrisome spikes.

I do the same, 3 heaping tblsp of berries with 1/4 cup Fage, Greek yoghurt, full fat and 1/4 cup seeds (flax, hemp, chia mixed in cup of hot water). This mix helps with the BG spike.

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The lactose in typical yogurts, unsweetened, spikes me. Plus, I’ve always been lactose intolerant. Lactaid simply converts the lactose to glucose, so is not a help.

I eat Kite Hill unsweetened almond yogurts. They have several versions: Greek, high protein, creamy. All are quite low carb comparatively. I use monk fruit to sweeten. They are easy to include in a low carb diet, and delicious!