Eat To Your Meter

I use a lot of test strips - until I have a really good handle on this, I want to know how different foods affect me.

For your diabetes to be "controlled" you MUST control those after-meal spikes. ("Spike" - when your blood glucose rapidly increased to a high number within an hour of eating.)

That means testing each of them, and that means "eating to my meter."

Here is a really good article about it, and has a lot of "why" - I'll copy and paste the "how," but please read the whole article.

NOTE: If I'm testing a new food, I do the one-hour test so that I know how much the food changes my blood glucose at this highest point.

So, here is how you “eat to your meter.”  Take a blood glucose reading before a meal.  Eat your meal.  If you are NOT diabetic, test your blood glucose 1 hour after a meal (if diabetic, test 1 1/2 hours after a meal.  If you are diabetic and commonly experience blood glucose levels over 200, then test 2 hours after a meal).

If you experience more than a 25-30 point spike in your blood glucose between your pre and post meal readings, then identify the carbohydrate (grain, starch, legume or fruit) on your plate.  THAT FOOD IS NOT YOUR FRIEND!  (Article: “Should I Eat Fruit?  How About Grains, Starches and Legumes?”  HERE.)

What do you do if you find a food that spikes you over the target range?  Well, next time, try cutting the portion of that food to a very small amount.  For instance, I would personally have a significant blood glucose spike from 10 strawberries, bur very little spike from 3 strawberries.  So, I have learned my limit with this particular food.

If you still have a significant blood glucose spike from the food after consuming only a very small portion, then, in my opinion, this food has to be eliminated from your diet.  Why?  Because your body cannot process this food without significant blood glucose rise.  If you continue to eat foods that cause a significant rise in blood glucose, you will eventually need medication (or MORE medication) to help you process these foods.  To me, no food is worth more medicine and the side effects that come along with it.

Now, when you find a food that causes very little blood glucose spike, put it on a “safe” list.  After a few weeks of testing like this, you will have built up a nice sized safe list, and you will have eliminated obvious trigger foods.  Concentrate your meals around your “safe” foods.  Once I have determined which foods are “safe”, I personally, no longer test for those foods.

I did this several years ago and built a “safe” list for myself.  I have chosen stricter targets for myself, choosing to keep my post-meal blood glucose <100.  I literally have dozens of items on my “safe” list that cause less than a 5-10 point spike in my blood glucose.  Many of the foods I eat have almost NO glycemic impact.  Here is an example of one of my pre-meal, 1-hour and 2-hour post-meal blood glucose from a food on my “safe” list.