I posted
previously about my recent blood test results. I was surprised by an A1C of 5.9% given that my fasting blood glucose as 84 and my triglycerides were 104. I also eat lowish carb usually in the 100 to 120g a day range, occasionally higher or lower.
An A1C at that level supposedly maps out to an average blood glucose of around 123. I know this can vary and be misleading if you have long-lived red blood cells.
From research, I know that results like I received could be valid if I was spiking really high blood sugars which took a long time to come down. I wanted to know so I bought a meter and have been testing my blood glucose. My fasting blood glucose in the mornings have 87 to 94. I had one outlier at 110, but I retested 20 minutes later (without having eaten) and got a reading of 87. So I think the 84 fasting result at the end of December seems reasonably accurate. (I'm using a Relion Prime meter which my internet research indicates tends to read slightly high).
I have also been testing after meals, usually 1 and 2 hours after although occasionally I vary from it. Some of the results have been surprising. It is clear to me that some foods
do raise my blood sugar to a higher level than I would like. Others are a bit more equivocal. And, some carbs do nothing bad at all.
I read Jenny Ruhl's book on how to do this. She gives 2 potential targets to shoot for. One is to be at 120 after an hour, 100 after 2 which is what she says truly normal people end up at. Another option (which I gather is more for people not truly normal but which she seems to think is sufficient) is 140 after 1 hour and 120 after 2 hours. She says is up the individual which target to shoot for. My thought is to be close to the 120/100 most of the time, with it rarely going over and to work really hard to never go above the 140/120.
My results so far have been interesting. I’ve tried during this time to eat as normally as possible so I can get a feel for my usual diet. I did eat a few things that, in actuality, I eat only a few times a year but I wanted to see what they would do. I put things with carbs in 3 categories: OK, Problem, Borderline/Mixed. (Things that aren’t carbs are all OK for me in terms of blood sugar).
Since I’ve been testing my total daily carbs have ranged from 46 to 129. Average daily carbs is 99.
Would appreciate any feedback from those of you who have looked at this kind of thing.
Things that so far are OK:
Pistachios (9g carbs)
Quest bars (25g carbs, 16g fiber or 21g carbs, 17g fiber)
Dark chocolate square (4 to 7g carbs depending on whether 70% or 86%) – at least 70% cocoa (this is one square which isn’t a problem. That is only about 60 calories.)
Whole wheat tortilla with high fiber, with hummus, and half cup blackberries (25g carbs, 13g fiber) – I had this twice and neither time did do anything problematical
Whole wheat tortilla with high fiber, with scrambled egg, lowfat cheese, bell pepper (13g carbs, 8g fiber)
Tuna Salad Sandwich – this was on 2 pieces of 45 calorie whole wheat bread (19g carbs, 5g fiber) – Much better than I expected. 118 at 1 hour, 106 at 2 hours, and 100 at 3 hours.
Problem:
Salad with chicken, greens, bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, 3 T. friend wonton strips, 2 T. Lite honey mustard dressing (38g carbs, 6g fiber) – 140 at 1 hour, although it was down to 99 at 2 hours. Next time I will do this without the wonton strips
Tortilla chips (about 18), chicken fajitas with 2 whole wheat tortillas, about 3/4 serving Mexican rice, few bites of charro beans (94g carbs, 9g fiber) (this is a meal I rarely have, but wanted to see the result) – 160 at 1 hour, 135, at 2 hours, 116 at 3 hours, 90 at hours. Definitely not having this. I think at least the chips and rice have to go. I might be able to have 1 of the tortillas, but not sure. Will check next time we go there.
Panera – Thai Chicken Salad, Mediterranean Flatbread, chips - (73g carbs, 8g fiber) 158 at 1 hour, 136 at 2 hours, 108 at 3.5 hours. I was surprised by this as it was so much worse than the BBQ chicken salad, turkey chili, and chips that I have in the borderline/mixed category. However, this meal has more refined carbs and slightly more carbs and a little less fiber.. Specifically, the fried wontons on this salad (the BBQ chicken has corn and beans instead) and the flatbread itself (the other meal has turkey chili with beans instead). Both meals have 1 oz. chips. I don’t actually usually eat this meal, but wanted to test it out. The BBQ Chicken salad with turkey chili is my common meal there.
Panera – Cinnamon Crunch bagel. I expected this to be bad. I don’t often have this, but was curious. My blood glucose was 87 right before starting to eat it. An hour after eating it was 179. Holy cow! At 3 hours (I was not able to test at 2 hours) it was back to 100. No more of these for me.
Potato chips, 1.87 oz (35g carbs, 2g fiber) – 121 at 1 hour, 131 at 2 hours, 102 at 3 hours. This is a larger serving than I usually eat (1 oz). 1 oz. might work out OK for me, perhaps with a meal, but need to check.
Borderline/Mixed (these are things that don’t go above the 140/120 and are close to the 120/100 but might go a bit above or where I need to investigate more)
Panera – BBQ chicken salad (half), cup turkey chili, 1 oz. Panera potato chips (64g carbs, 14g fiber) – Somewhat to my surprise this was 118 at 1 hour. I wasn’t able to test at 2 hours, but it was at 112 at 3 hours and was 79 at 4 hours. I was reasonably happy with it and think it would be fine if I dropped the chips. I’m going to try this meal again and test at 2 hours.
Luvo Chicken Verde Poblano Burrito (38g carbs, 6g fiber) – I had this a couple of times. Did not go above 120 at one hour but was a little over 100 at an hour. It was....OK...but I don't love it that much that I necessarily want to keep it to try again.
Luvo Breakfast Burrito (38g carbs, 4g fiber) – Was 95 at one hour, 111 at 2 hours, 124 at 3.5 hours and 107 at 4.5 hours.
Grilled fish with a Green Giant vegetable medley that had potatoes as one of the vegetables. (32 g carbs, 2g fiber) – Kind of surprised that it was at 126 at 1 hour, but was 95 at 2 hours. I want to test this one again.
Skillet crisp fish with green beans and almonds. (27g carbs, 3g fiber) (This is Gorton’s Skillet Crisp Fish with have a light flour coating. This was baked in the oven) – 122 at 1 hr, 20 minutes. 116 at 2 hours 20 minutes and still at 109 at 3 hours. This didn’t come down as quickly as I would like. Again, I probably just won't buy this fish again.
Mediterranean buffet – Hummus, Falafel, tabouli, small amount of pasta salad (oil dressing), chicken shwarma, fattoush salad, 1 small piece of baklava – (82g carbs, 10g fiber – this restaurant doesn’t give nutritional info – estimated from similar items elsewhere) - Was not able to test at 1 hour. Was 111 at 2 hours. Will try this again and not include any baklava. I think without the baklava, it will probably be OK for me.
Conclusions – I don’t really see anything that would equate to an A1C of 5.9%. Most of the food that I ate during these several days didn’t create any issue at all and isn’t mentioned. There were only a few times that my blood sugar ever got above 140. I looked back at what I was eating before the A1C. It was a little higher carb (my test was on 12/30 right after holidays). So I could see my average blood glucose being a little higher then than it is now, but looking at what I was eating then I can’t see it actually being that high. I wonder if I'm just one of those people with long-lived red blood cells.
That said, it is clear that I do react negatively to some carbs so I want to modify my diet so I don't have it going as high as it did with some of those meals.
Going forward, pretty much any meal below 25g carbs seems OK. Meals between 25g carbs and 65g carbs
may be OK depending on what it is. The more refined carbs the less OK it is, even if the total carbs are still relatively low. The few things that I ate above 65g carbs (the Mexican food meal, the bagel and the salad/flatbread Panera meal) all raised my blood sugar a lot compared to anything else and what is notable are the refined carbs in them.
On the other hand, I don’t see a need to avoid all grains. A single whole wheat tortilla with hummus or with a scrambled egg in it did fine. Also, a square of dark chocolate was totally fine so I don't see a reason to avoid eating that which I do a few times a week.
My sense from this is that I can fairly easily tweak my diet to avoid refined carbs that raise my blood sugar. I already don’t eat them a lot (I ate more during this period so I could test what was problematical). Some of the problem or borderline meals could be easily modified (no baklava, no chips, etc.). My 100g or so of carbs doesn’t seem to be a problem. Even my higher carb days (in the 120s) weren’t problematical as a whole, unless individual meals created a problem.
I don’t see a reason from this to lower my total carb intake specifically, but this does suggest to watch how many total carbs I eat at a meal and to avoid even relatively small amounts of refined carbs (such as the wonton strips). Those don't seem very difficult changes for me to make.
