[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #00adef;”] L[/dropcap]ast week I shared my 3 most surprising lessons from my continuous blood glucose monitor experiment.
I was pleasantly surprised by the response.
So here are some other lessons which are changing the way I eat.
3 Foods I’m Going to Start Eating
1. Puff Pastry
Years ago I used to make puff pastry on the regular. Given that it’s 50% butter, I was wondering if the fat content would be enough to offset the blood sugar rise you’d expect from the flour.
So I made some fish pot pies with puff pastry lids.
I kept my pastry serving small at around 50g (2oz) (no problems finding takers for the extra).
Was pleasantly surprised that the pastry caused only a modest increase around 8pm (see graph below).
While I wouldn’t recommend pastry every day. It’s something I’ll cook from time to time. Curious to see what will happen if I replace some of the flour in the pastry with almond meal.
2. Lentils
I’ve already shared how a large bowl of Lentil Soup caused a late night spike.
But a modest serve of Lentilotto (like risotto but made with red lentils) was a-OK (see graph below). So I’m enjoying lentils again about once a week.
2. Homemade Ravioli
I love making this almond pasta for the boys as it’s much more nutritious than dried pasta with the egg and almond meal. And cooks in 2 minutes.
But it does still contain flour, so I haven’t been eating it.
Super excited to test a batch of lamb shank ravioli using Almond Pasta.
Again, I kept my serving modest (didn’t weigh it). And there was no major spike (see graph below).
So if you come to my place on the weekend, I might just cook up a batch of ravioli.
NOTE: The large spike on the left is from lentil soup the previous evening. The slight increase at 9pm is from the ravioli.
The Larger Servings of Protein Experiment
After reading about gluconeogenesis and the concept that our bodies are able to convert protein in to glucose, I’ve been very conservative with my protein serving sizes.
I was keen to see what would happen if I ate an extremely high protein meal.
So one night I had a 300g (10.5oz) fish steak with a side of canned mackerel 75g (3oz) and a few salad leaves. Definitely not a recipe I’ll be sharing any time soon.
Interestingly my blood sugar had a modest spike around 11pm (see below) even tough I had eaten practically no carbs for dinner at 6.30pm.
Planning to experiment with this further but currently thinking that modest serves of protein (around 150g / 5oz) are best for stable blood sugar.
More on my diabetes journey
- 6 Surprising Lessons from Having Gestational Diabetes
- 3 most surprising lessons from my continuous blood glucose monitor.
- Is restricting your diet really bad?
- How to Cater for Different Diets Without Cooking Multiple Meals
- How I Got Pregnant at Age 43 (even though I have PCOS)
- 3 Reasons I LOVE Eating Low Carb
- 3 Biggest Mistakes of Low Carb Bakers
What about you?
Is there anything you’ve reintroduced to your diet recently? Any experiments you’d like me to do?
Let me know in the comments below.
As always, have fun in the kitchen!
With love,
Jules x
Hi Jules! I’m curious – are you just monitoring or are you also wearing some sort of pump? Or maybe, in general, are you trying to cut the use of synthetic insulin out entirely? I ask because if even a large amount of protein leads to spikes, this seems difficult/unreasonable to manage without supplemental insulin. Of course, maybe you’re just aiming for a blood glucose range most people with diabetes are not trying for?
Hey Ash!
I’m glad you asked. No I’m not using any insulin so no need for a pump. Just monitoring out of curiosity :)
Mary Joan Oexmann defined Total Available Glucose (TAG) for insulin-dependent diabetics as follows:
100% of all grams of carbohydrates convert to glucose AND
58% of all grams of protein convert to glucose AND
10% of all grams of fat convert to glucose
The formula is (1 x grams cho) + (.58 x grams protein) + (.10 x grams fats) = TAG.
Perhaps this can help you with meal planning.
Wow I haven’t ever seen it explained like that Debbie – Thank you!
In his book ‘The Clever Guts Diet’ Michael Mosley talks about The Personalised Nutrition Study’ done at The Weizmann Institute in Israel.
Eating exactly the same foods….had had very different impacts on blood sugar levels.
Plus more, from pages 80 and on..
Thanks for reminding me Jo. I read that book when it first came out and found this fact fascinating. Another excellent reason to self experiment!
As before, your experiment information is interesting. Years ago, from a low carb diet book (not Atkins), I learned that protein above the amount you need is converted too glucose. I’d sort of forgotten that. Fortunately, I prefer a balance of foods -enough protein to keep me going, plus lots of veggies and some fruit.
Isn’t it funny how we forget things Susan :)
Jules we just tried your kale carbonara. Wow. Stunning is an understatement. My wife suggested adding mushrooms which was our only variation. Thank you for sharing that recipe with us.