Can tell me about bolus for all nutritional values??

[kt89]

im confused. can protein and fibre and other nutritional values in foods spike my bgls?

at the moment i use the 1:10 ratio. im still very ignorant of my condition and unsure about my diet etc.

if i were to eat celery and peanut butter would i have to bolus extra for the protein?

how does each nutritional value effect bgls?

what is an example of a 'perfect' day in terms of meals which cover all the right food groups? (low fat, carb, calorie etc.. but enough dairy/protein/fibre for the day)

!!

[matingara]

as i understand it, if one ate sawdust (100% pure, indigestible cellulose (aka fibre)) one's BGL will rise.

this is known as the "Chinese Restaurant Effect".

as to a "perfect" day of meals. in my opinion, there is no such thing. there is no such thing as "right" or "wrong" food groups. these are allusions that are created and subsequently written about in silly magazines in order to promote FUD and keep the "B" ark people off the streets.

the "right food group" for you is the one that keeps your BGLs in range. the "wrong food group" will do the opposite.

i suspect you could eat nothing but steak for weeks on end and probably be more "healthy" than a yoghurt-swilling, macrobiotic centred, anti-oxidant soaked "health" nut.

-- Joel.

[kt89]

hahaha awesome.

well thanks that makes sense. i guess i was really worried about not getting enough of one food group or too much of the other.
the dietician seemed to stress that to me and i've been overly obsessed with counting out everything. i had an unexpected rise in my bgls this arvo and thought it must have been cos of lots of fibre. maybe it was? or maybe im getting a cold *sniff*

[matingara]

hahaha awesome.

well thanks that makes sense. i guess i was really worried about not getting enough of one food group or too much of the other.
the dietician seemed to stress that to me and i've been overly obsessed with counting out everything. i had an unexpected rise in my bgls this arvo and thought it must have been cos of lots of fibre. maybe it was? or maybe im getting a cold *sniff*

regarding this sudden rise kt. what was the size of the rise? over what time? what/how much had you had to eat, after which the rise occurred?

as i said, eating a bucket of sawdust will raise your bgl. and it has no carb, protein or fat values whatsoever. did you eat a lot of "someting"? more volume/quantity than you normally would?

:)

-- Joel.

[TommyC1]

Lots of reasons your BS might rise other than food. That's why you need to do correction bolus's sometimes.
Other than corrections I only bolus for carbs unless my meter tells me that something else consistantly raises my BS.

Tommy

[kt89]

umm it was at about 7.9 when i woke up, which i was bummed about because i want to keep it between 4 and 6 (is that too determined?) well i want to keep it tight in the range in general.

i had banana and yoghurt for brekky at 6.30am and took 7u for 50.8g carbs cos it was up a little i thought 2 extra would be good, is that the right thing to do?

i was 3.1 by 9.22am in class, and got the shakes but i had some sultanas (15g carbs) to fix that. i had the same thing happen the day before at 10am and was going to catch it by having the snack at 9.30 but it caught me first.. hmph.

then i was..5.1 when i tested at 12pm right before lunch. i had a pumpkin/low fat fetta/baby spinach salad which had some nuts in it and a dressing and two pieces of celery with a bit of peanut butter. in total i calculated it to be 27g carbs. So i took 3u. then at 2.20pm when i tested i was up to 7.9 (and i was like ahh im almost out of my range and im over 6!) i read on here that if you keep your levels below 6 that you have less wasted glucose in your blood stream and lower the risks of complications so i wanted to stay between 4 and 6 after reading that.
i thought maybe because the salad had 9g fibre and almost 22g protein that i should have done a bigger bolus for some of the extra nutritional value.. hm!

[TommyC1]

Best I can offer is keep a logbook and look for patterns.
From doing that I know that some carbs hit me harder than others and I need more insulin with breakfast than other meals.
I alo know that my BS is going to go up at random times for reasons I can only guess. So for me corrections are as important as carb counting.

Tommy

[kt89]

thanks :)
how would you do a correction?

[TommyC1]

You need to find your correction ratio. Your best bet is to talk to your Dr. or Diabetes Educator to get that set up. !Different people will have different ratios and what works for me may get you into trouble!
When I was taught how to match my insulin to my carb intake I was also given a correction ratio of 1:40. That means that 1u of Novalog brings ME down 40 mgdl (2.2 mmol).
I was taught that for every 40 mgdl over 120 mgdl (6.7 mmol) I could take 1u of Novalog to bring me back down. So if I was at 200 mgdl I'd take (200-120)/40 = 2u of Novalog to bring myself down.
I was also taught to be VERY carefull about taking corrections too close to pre meal bolus's or other corrections. !Novalog stays in your system for a few hours and you can send yourself hypo pretty quick if you start stacking up your rapid insulin!
The Book "Think Like a Pancreas" has a very good explanation that I found complemented what my educator taught me.
I can't recomend that enough for anyone taking insulin.

Tommy

[TommyC1]

I forgot to mention.
I might do a correction along with my premeal bolus. So I'd just add that to what ever I calculated for the carbs I was going to eat.
Or I might do a correction two or more hours after eating. That's when I really have to be carefull about stacking doses.

Tommy

[CaitE]

It seems that with a bs of 7.9 to take 7u of insulin for a banana and yogurt is the likely cause of the low by 9:30.

Also, a post meal sugar of 7.9 seems reasonable to me. I think you're more on the right track than you think. What was your sugar by dinner? did it come down to the 4-6 range?

[sumi]

Hi KT,
Not being a type 1, I wouldn't try to answer your insulin /bolus questions, but I wonder if you are confusing people who are talking about keeping their A1C level under 6.0.

[DanG]

Also, a post meal sugar of 7.9 seems reasonable to me. I think you're more on the right track than you think.

I agree with this.
I would say be careful about maintaining that 4-6 range.
After 20 years living without a meter - mere testape to see if blood sugar was spilling into the urine - and another bunch of years trying live, but avoid spending a dollar per test strip, I am still quite healthy, living many years well outside the range of 4-6, probably. That is, 35 years of what you might be astounded with. Probably sugars well above your feared 6 - probably well into the 8-10 range for years. Plenty of times well below, but management is not pure 4-6. Oh, and probably 30 years with lente insulin which is animal derived but unobtainable these days in USA.

If you want to stress-out about 4-6 - enjoy yourself.
Life has more to do with eating well and other things - don't stress about 4-6. I would counsel you to forget about low fat - read what fat does in your body - it is brain food, fundamentally. Scrap the lowfat jazz. Eat real, whole, unprocessed foods regardless of claims to low whatever - it is real food, i.e. whole milk yoghurt. And, enjoy life - don't stress about 4-6.

[Jonathan_R]

as i understand it, if one ate sawdust (100% pure, indigestible cellulose (aka fibre)) one's BGL will rise.

this is known as the "Chinese Restaurant Effect".

as to a "perfect" day of meals. in my opinion, there is no such thing. there is no such thing as "right" or "wrong" food groups. these are allusions that are created and subsequently written about in silly magazines in order to promote FUD and keep the "B" ark people off the streets.

the "right food group" for you is the one that keeps your BGLs in range. the "wrong food group" will do the opposite.

i suspect you could eat nothing but steak for weeks on end and probably be more "healthy" than a yoghurt-swilling, macrobiotic centred, anti-oxidant soaked "health" nut.

-- Joel.


I would add to this, that the glycemic index and glycemic load would assist in determining which foods will cause spikes, or be "bad" foods.