Oatmeal and high blood sugars

For questions or comments about health, diseases, exercise or weight.

Moderators: JeffN, f1jim, carolve, Heather McDougall

Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby terribhappy » Fri Oct 28, 2011 1:36 pm

Well gang, I have been ultra faithful for a solid week now and had high hopes of lowering my blood sugars. I had a bowl of oatmeal this morning with a banana and a bit of New Stevia. WOW, that tasted excellent and all I could think of was "I can really do this"!! 3 hours later, I got a terrible headache and felt dizzy, very sleepy and flushed. I took my sugar and it was 340 3 hours after eating the oatmeal.
I don't take insulin and took myself off of the Glucophage as Dr McDougall suggested he does with all new patients. I had been doing okay and the sugars were not but a few points higher on the diet even without the Glucophage.
Any clues here what the heck happened to knock me on my butt? My fasting sugar this morning was 224 and I was pretty happy with that with no meds. But, when it goes over 300, I start feeling TERRIBLE. I am open for suggestions. It seems that starch overload along with the sweet banana was just too much to handle.
I really, really, really want to succeed at this but at what costs? Everyone is yelling at me saying I'll be sorry and end up in the hospital from eating all those carbs and stopping the Glucophage. As of about an hour ago...... I am pretty scared!!! Should I be or is this just a huge adjustment for my body to handle. I am probably one of the most "Insulin Resistant" people on the planet. HELP... :crybaby:
Image
terribhappy
 
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 6:23 pm

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby pinkrose » Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:36 pm

Sorry you are not feeling well and that your BG has been high, Terri.

What are your height and weight? If you have plenty of extra weight, take heart! The weight reduction will probably give you the results you want.

Have you been exercising? Exercise (even strolling !) can help you to regulate your BG.

In regard to the composition of your meals (especially if you want to reduce your weight), try this: Eat about 1/2 unadulterated colorful low starch veggies (greens, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, carrots etc.). Eat about 1/2 unrefined starches. This should give you a lower glycemic load than eating only starches and fruit for a meal.

You can also eat a cup of beans daily. Beans may also help to stabilize your BG. Dr. Fuhrman says the key foods for diabetics are greens and beans.

I am glad you have found us here, Terri, and I hope you will refine what you are doing until you are feeling much better and your BG readings are significantly lower. Be patient methodical and I think you will get very good results! :nod:

Please keep us posted! :-D
User avatar
pinkrose
 
Posts: 4829
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:18 am
Location: Nanning, China

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby terribhappy » Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:49 pm

pinkrose wrote:Sorry you are not feeling well and that your BG has been high, Terri.

What are your height and weight? If you have plenty of extra weight, take heart! The weight reduction will probably give you the results you want.

Have you been exercising? Exercise (even strolling !) can help you to regulate your BG.

In regard to the composition of your meals (especially if you want to reduce your weight), try this: Eat about 1/2 unadulterated colorful low starch veggies (greens, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, carrots etc.). Eat about 1/2 unrefined starches. This should give you a lower glycemic load than eating only starches and fruit for a meal.

You can also eat a cup of beans daily. Beans may also help to stabilize your BG. Dr. Fuhrman says the key foods for diabetics are greens and beans.

I am glad you have found us here, Terri, and I hope you will refine what you are doing until you are feeling much better and your BG readings are significantly lower. Be patient methodical and I think you will get very good results! :nod:

Please keep us posted! :-D



Thank you Pinkrose,

Your info is most encouraging and helpful. I am 5'11" tall and my weight right now is about 298. I agree with you about less starch with the sweet fruit. That speckled Banana with that oatmeal was just too much for my body to deal with at this point. I will try the Oatmeal with the Stevia and save that piece of fruit for a snack. I may even hold off on the banana until I get more stable. More green veggies and 1/2 the starch. I will definately try this. I did a whole bean burrito with a bit of rice and a ton of pico de gallo fresh salsa last night. It was awesome and my fasting today was 224. Well, I guess there is hope?
Thanks again for the help and anyone feel free to jump on this issue too. I love getting feedback from the veterans. ;-)
Image
terribhappy
 
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 6:23 pm

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby SactoBob » Fri Oct 28, 2011 5:11 pm

Pinkrose has asked some very good questions and given you some very good things to work on. Learning what to do takes everybody time, but the suggestions pinkrose gave you will help a lot. For education, have you seen Dr. McDougall's diabetes video on youtube? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iosoXlr3ZVI

I am guessing and hoping that your goal is to reverse your diabetes. In other words, get to a point where you are taking no medications and your blood sugars are below diabetic levels. Dr. Fuhrman's book, as mentioned by pinkrose is also a good resource. If you want to see what this kind of eating looks like, you could browse my blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iosoXlr3ZVI

Getting thin is really important in diabetes, and you should be on a program to get thin rapidly. Maybe the simplest test is the "plate test" used by Jeff Novick (lots of good info in his forum). Check that 95% or more of the calories on every plate come from intact whole plant food in the form it comes from nature (you can slice, dice, peel or cook it). You have to avoid to the max any processed or refined foods. As the weight comes down, the sugars come down too and the spirits go up. You could read about some of the Star McDougallers who have reversed diabetes in that section of the site. I reversed mine and am still working on it, as I always will be.

The Pleasure Trap is a great book. You can view one of Doug Lisle's Pleasure Trap lectures at Youtube. I think that the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii has a channel there. Also look at some of the other speakers that discuss diabetes, like Dr. Shintani.

The hardest part is breaking the addictions to the old food and setting new habits. For example, if you followed the food that I ate in my October challenge at my blog, you would lose an impressive amount of weight while your sugars went down. Although that seems easy, you might well experience a lot of withdrawal symptoms, and that is why you are buying the Pleasure Trap book. Good luck.
SactoBob
 

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby GeoffreyLevens » Sat Oct 29, 2011 3:45 pm

Jellen wrote:(My fasting levels in 2 months have dropped from 180 to 84.)
Jellen, that's fantastic! Great work.
GeoffreyLevens
 
Posts: 5871
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 6:52 pm
Location: Paonia, CO

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby MixedGrains » Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:08 pm

I don't have specific information to back this up, but I've developed a terrible suspicion about non-nutritive sweeteners, even the natural-ish ones. My suspicion is that they can alter your insulin response in some way when you eat them, which can result in jacked-up blood sugars.

As an experiment, you might consider trying the same meal (oats and banana) without the sweetener. I've had good results using a bit of apple juice for cooking liquid if I couldn't abide the lack of sweetness. My own blood sugars stay quite stable after a meal of whole rolled oats (not quick oats) cooked with a banana in half apple juice, half water.
MixedGrains
 
Posts: 369
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2011 4:24 pm

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby somnolent » Sat Oct 29, 2011 10:44 pm

If I recall correctly, bananas have a high glycemic index, especially ripe bananas, so maybe that was indeed the culprit. It is good that you have a glucometer so that you can check your blood sugar after different meals and see what works better for you.
User avatar
somnolent
 
Posts: 1006
Joined: Mon Oct 13, 2008 5:36 pm

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby Chumly » Sun Oct 30, 2011 12:32 pm

It may be worth looking at the glycemic index and loads of the foods you are eating at this time. Some foods have a very low GI/GL that will work in this program like beans, barley, berries and non-starchy vegetables that may help you lower your blood sugar and enable you to lose weight faster.

Michael
Chumly
 
Posts: 1374
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2008 11:05 am
Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby jay kaye » Mon Oct 31, 2011 10:41 am

terribhappy wrote:

I did a whole bean burrito with a bit of rice and a ton of pico de gallo fresh salsa last night...........
Thanks again for the help and anyone feel free to jump on this issue too. I love getting feedback from the veterans. ;-)


I'll assume that from above you are easting some refined products i.e. the tortilla from your burrito. Try cutting out all refined and processed products, particularly refined grain products as they tend to spike up BG readings. For me I make the my "burrito" using large lettuce leaves as the wrap, or just put the beans/rice/salsa over a bowl of chopped cabbage.

Don't be discouraged. You are moving in the right directions. Important beneficial changes to your body start with in a few weeks of being on this WOE. You will only get better over time.

j
jay kaye
 
Posts: 734
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 1:35 am
Location: Santa Barbara-near Rincon California

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby Gweithgar » Mon Oct 31, 2011 12:47 pm

Check out this if you've got time, too.
http://www.drmcdougall.com/video/diet_d ... betes.html
Cet animal est tres mechant; quand on l'attaque, il se defend
(This animal is very wicked; if attacked it defends itself)
User avatar
Gweithgar
 
Posts: 2360
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:47 am
Location: Madison, WI

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby Donna R » Thu Nov 10, 2011 11:18 am

terribhappy you've gotten good responses. but this is assuming you have diabetes 2 that can be controlled by diet. if you even think you may have insulin dependent diabetes, get to the doctor!

good luck and keep us posted, we care.
~ Donna
Donna R
 
Posts: 916
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 2:28 pm

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby terribhappy » Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:34 pm

Donna R wrote:terribhappy you've gotten good responses. but this is assuming you have diabetes 2 that can be controlled by diet. if you even think you may have insulin dependent diabetes, get to the doctor!

good luck and keep us posted, we care.


I have been diagnosed with Type II about 12 years ago. I have been on and off Glucophage so many times I have lost count. I hate the way it makes me feel. I really want to do this with diet but when I start McDougall's, my sugars go back into the 300 to 400 range and scare me crazy. That is when I revert back to the protein (free range, organic, cage free) to get those sugars back in line. I have stopped all dairy, all seafood with no problem, no red meat or pork. and only use a smudge of olive oil now and then. I love fruit but it gives me the same reaction oatmeal does. I have developed adversity to wheat (gluten) over the years and try to avoid that too. I look for Gluten free alternatives. Can anyone tell me why the sugar goes up eating healthy and if it does about HOW LONG before it will turn around and start behaving? Do I need to really worry about that spike? I really prefer this way of eating but I just get too worried when the sugars get so high.
Image
terribhappy
 
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 6:23 pm

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby pinkrose » Sun Jul 01, 2012 5:20 pm

terribhappy wrote:
Donna R wrote:terribhappy you've gotten good responses. but this is assuming you have diabetes 2 that can be controlled by diet. if you even think you may have insulin dependent diabetes, get to the doctor!

good luck and keep us posted, we care.


I have been diagnosed with Type II about 12 years ago. I have been on and off Glucophage so many times I have lost count. I hate the way it makes me feel. I really want to do this with diet but when I start McDougall's, my sugars go back into the 300 to 400 range and scare me crazy. That is when I revert back to the protein (free range, organic, cage free) to get those sugars back in line. I have stopped all dairy, all seafood with no problem, no red meat or pork. and only use a smudge of olive oil now and then. I love fruit but it gives me the same reaction oatmeal does. I have developed adversity to wheat (gluten) over the years and try to avoid that too. I look for Gluten free alternatives. Can anyone tell me why the sugar goes up eating healthy and if it does about HOW LONG before it will turn around and start behaving? Do I need to really worry about that spike? I really prefer this way of eating but I just get too worried when the sugars get so high.


Terri, in October (over eight months ago) you reported your weight was 298. What is it now? That is probably the most important key to reversing your DM. :!:

If you have only 10 or 20 pounds of extra weight, maybe your BG readings will be normal. We do not know. Please share your results with us! :-D

Be strong! Keep us posted! We want to celebrate your successes with you!!! :nod:
User avatar
pinkrose
 
Posts: 4829
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:18 am
Location: Nanning, China

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby Rohirrim48 » Mon Jul 02, 2012 10:05 pm

I was having the same problem last week, but now my blood sugars seem to be settling down. I really don't think you should be taking yourself off your meds until the readings start getting much lower. I tried it for 1 day, and hit 340, which I had never seen before. Back on metformin for me, immediately. The drug doesn't bother me in any way, but I still want to get off it asap.

I have been experimenting, and my readings go up when I have very much oil, so I'm watching that closely.

What type of oatmeal did you have? Instant, whole oats, steel cut? That will make a major difference. And really ripe bananas are high GI foods - I try not to eat the really ripe ones.

Hope you get it figured out soon.
Rohirrim48
 
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 12:23 pm

Re: Oatmeal and high blood sugars

Postby Rohirrim48 » Mon Jul 02, 2012 10:07 pm

Jellen, congratulations on the great results! :-D
Rohirrim48
 
Posts: 28
Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2012 12:23 pm


Return to Health Issues

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests



Welcome!

Sign up to receive our regular articles, recipes, and news about upcoming events.