QuestionGood Afternoon,
My name is Susan and I am curious what I may be doing wrong. I am a very tight controled diabetic, A1C's as low as 4.8. Over the last couple years I have gained some weight. I decided to go the health route with dieting. I have oatmeal and nonfat yogurt for breakfast, fruit for a morning snack, salad, broccoli, lean meat and a whole grain english muffin with a bit of butter for lunch. Then another piece of fruit in the afternoon. For supper, I eat a meal o, the go bar and another nonfat yogurt. The weight is coming off, my cholestrol is fantastic and I feel wonderful. The only strange thing is that when I eat my complex carbs (oatmeal and english muffin), they are taking longer to break down. When I was not eating as healthy, by the time my meal dose of insulin wore off, my sugar was stable. Now, I need to keep watching it for about three hours after and keep taking small doses of insulin. I have a insulin pump, so this is easy enough to do. I guess I am asking if there is something wrong with the combination of foods I am eating,anything you could suggest would be appreciated. Also, there is alot of stress in my life right now, and I could probably exercise a little more.
Thank you!
Susan
AnswerDear Susan,
The reason for your blood sugar behavior after the foods you've mentioned can be in their glycemic indexes (GI). You haven't specified what kind of oatmeal you eat, but here are the numbers:
Oatmeal, slow cooking, GI = 53
Oatmeal, fast cooking, GI = 66
Yogurt, full-fat, GI = 22
Yogurt, nonfat, GI = 32
Note that the fast-cooked oatmeal has rather high glycemic index meaning that after such meal, blood sugar level rises higher than it would after, say, steel-cut or whole grain oats. Interestingly, no-fat yogurt doesn't seem being beneficial for blood control since it has significantly higher GI. Recently, many diabetic dietitians agreed that adding 'good' fat to the diet help to control blood sugar since it decreases carbohydrate absorption - not only slows it down as the yogurt GIs indicate. You might want to talk to your doctor about this.
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