ice cream give you high blood sugar 3+ hours after eating?

[mma2charlie]

has anyone else experienced this isseue? my endocrinologist warned me about it, but i never really noticed the pattern until recently. My blood sugar is great premeal, 1hr and 2hrs+ post prandial, but hour 3.5 hits and the sugar starts a risin'. I can't simply think it's a coincidence that in these situations, i had about 1/2 cup-1 cup of ice cream as a special [and infrequent!] dessert treat...bad mistake. 3+ hours after eating and maintaining perfect blood sugars, my numbers start to creep up and then rise by leaps and bounds. at 3+ hrs post-prandial, i was at 133 so i took an extra bolus on my pump (because i was clearly on the rise). about 20-30 minutes later i was at 175 and 20+ min after that i was at 245!!! took more insulin and wouldn't you know it, i'm still in the weeds at 227. I'm on my way down, thank god, (had gone up as far as 252) but what is this thing with ice cream? i heard it was the fat that slows absorption and then causes a rise, but can anyone offer any additional info?

[Moonglo]

What you had heard sounds correct to me. The fat slows the absorption of the sugars, but once the fat has been dealt with, the sugar shows itself more aggressively, if that makes sense. It's not just ice cream that does this... if I eat like I used to do regularly, and have chicken tenders and fries for dinner Friday night, my bedtime bg will look okay, but my morning numbers can be as much as 20 points higher than normal, in my experience. If I did this more often, I imagine this effect would get worse and worse.

[yannah]

yes my spike is at 3 hours with ice cream

[Subby]

That sounds correct - what additional info were you after?

Normal icecream can definitely outstrip a normal rapid bolus, for me. I find this with a lot of high/mod carb/high fat foods. It will depend a bit on the icecream. Of course, for a fully insulin dependent type 1 there is no natural dealing with any spike... so it's all up up and away if insufficient insulin at the right time, and the spike continues to have some legs. Sounds like you may have found a problematic food for you.

With a pump, you have an excellent tool to try and compensate for that issue, although the only real way to get the right settings is to experiment a few times. There's also no guarantee you will find the solution for a particular food, as least in my experience it can sometimes be too tricky or not worth the risk of highs to try and counteract the processes going on.

Something to bear in mind is that some of us find that the body gets more insulin resistant as the BG rises into higher territory. Also of course, that some foods break the rules of carb counting all up. Dosage might need to be modified on these levels, too.

Much as you will see "eat full fat" a lot around the board, that tactic makes the most automatic sense in a type 2 scenario. It might actually make sense to try low fat icecream (if it really is substantially lower fat) as it may match your insulin action better. It may not. Experimenting is the only way.