:-)

[Guest guest]

I had a feeling that is what you

meant, Marilyn! But didn't you

agree that we weren't going to

tell people what they were

" allowed " to eat and what not?

I do say we all as diabetics have to monitor our blood glucose, testing to

find out what is good for each of us as we are not all the same ;-) Maybe you

missed that post!LOL

Didn't you agree that everybody is

different and has different

requirements? Otherwise, who needs

nutritionists? They could just

print it out in a pamphlet to be

handed out to one and all for ever

more!

I say that at least once a day to one of my groups or another at least once a

day I bet!

For one, I certainly would not let

anybody tell me what I am " allowed "

to eat and what not! This might be

a part of one particular

nutritionist's personal notions for

one particular patient but I have

never seen any *evidence* for any

general limit *per meal*. These

things average out over the day or

in some cases over many days.

Actually, this is exactly what my diabetes Educator taught our class. It is

the generalized starting point. about 45 carbs per meal, up or down,

depending what the other issues we are dealing with.

> Sometimes, with some meals, it is

> easy to have some now, then wait

> an hour or two and have the rest

> of your portion. This causes less

> of a spike in BG's.

Yup good idea. You may even find you are not hungry enough later and save it

for another meal. :-)

I certainly do not accept that idea.

That way you are extending the

period of elevated BG past the

minimum time for AGEs to form and

are more likely to get a contribution

to your HbA1c out of it, not less.

To each his own. Ask your diabetes educator. They may have a different idea

than yiurs ;-)

The relationship is not linear. I

have tried dividing a standardized

meal into parts and spreading them

out over a period. It was clear to

me that there is an elevated BG

" overhead " per sitting. In other

words, if a particular meal on a

particular day causes a particular

person's BG to rise to a maximum

(here I mean the real maximum, not

just the reading at any particular

time) of 40 mg% above baseline for

the whole meal, dividing it into

two parts will result in each half

reaching a maximum not of 20 mg%

above baseline but, for example,

30 mg%. The sum of the parts is

more than the whole.

Then I would surmise you were putting way too many carbs out there for

yourself. Maybe being a couch potatoe ;-)

According to my results, there is

a significantly greater (30% greater)

" total area under the curve " from

breaking up a carbohydrate-heavy

meal into parts than from eating it

all in one go and waiting 4-5 hours

before eating the next meal.

I believe that this is because the

diabetic glucose response is

asymmetric - it rises much faster

than it falls (whereas in a non-

diabetic both take place at about

the same rate). So by dividing a

meal into parts, a diabetic gets

two or more slow falls ( " tails " )

instead of just one and hence a

significantly higher total average

elevated BG than they would get

from eating all at one sitting -

and it is the time-average

elevated BG over several days,

and not a spot BG reading taken

at any particular time that has

been shown clinically to correlate

the closest with the HbA1c.

As I understand it, the A1c is a three month index of what your bg's are

doing. If your A1c is bad, you need to rethink your eating, disallowing as many

carbs as you are having. If your A1c is good, congratulations, you are doing

something right. probably walking more, exercising more, as well as eathing

healthier. We are all the only ones who can " finetune " our instruments. If you

eat in the closet, it will not be a secret for long! LOL

> So by watching the carbs amounts,

> I can pretty much tell what a meal

> is going to do to me.

I think that you mean you get a

good idea of what your BG meter is

going to indicate when you decide

to take a reading some time after

but by a long way that is not the

whole story of " what a meal is

going to do " to you! You may have

a BG meter but you do not have a

glycosylation meter!

I think you must be bored, or not have enough to do. How about volunteer

work? ;-)

To me, steering your nutrition on

the basis of isolated BG meter

As I test 5 -6 times a day, and keep a journal, I fail to see where an

isolated reading comes in. Maybe those you know are not staying as faithful to

their

diet as they should.

readings is like steering a car by

glancing at the fuel gauge every time

you turn a corner! In the long run,

it is not going to give optimum

results.

I am just giving my personal views

on the subject, Marilyn (just like

the nutritionists do!) as a Type 2

diabetic and I don't expect anybody

to agree with me but the basic

objection to claims that there is

an " allowed " way for diabetics to

eat remains the same.

I guess you didn't have the same classes I went through. They were very

generous in their information, and yes, they showed us we could eat " anything "

as

long as we did it in moderation and made allowances for it. I am not saying

run out and have a 1/4 pound slab od chocolate cake everynight, but if you are

careful, keep a good eye on your numbers, we are allowed to have whatever we

want within reason. Then again. there is always someone trying to push the

limit, right? :-)

There must be

a better expression for it than

that! If you claim that it is

" recommended " then you might want

to say who recommended it and on

the basis of what evidence.

I can only assume you mean " allowed carbs " . As I stated, as long as you are

testing well, in good numbers, having a good A1c, I will agree with the

dieticians that you are allowed whatever they say is a number based on your

caloric

and diabetic needs.

Regards

Hugs, marilyn

Marilyn

Moderator for

Diabetic_Recipes

dnevessr@...

Opinions expressed are solely

my own and should not be

mistaken for

Professional advice.