What am I doing wrong?! ( blood sugar levels)

[user1471556443]

I did a fasting blood sugar test at home with a glucose meter and obtained a reading of 5.5 which is classified as being pre diabetic!!
I am very slim, 5'5 weighing 8 stones 2 with a bmi of 18.9.
I do have a serious sweet tooth and regularly eat chocolate and cake every day.
I am now going to cut down on my sugar consumption but has anyone any other ideas how I can reduce my sugar levels.
Apart from eating lots of cake, I think my diet isn't too bad but maybe I am wrong?
Breakfast - one cup of coffee, no sugar plus one banana.
Lunch - fruit and vegetables and water
Dinner - large portion of pasta / curry / fish etc.
Cake is eaten after dinner daily.
Will now stop the cake but should I be cutting down on all carbs at dinner even though I am eating v little during the day?

My GP recently told me that the fasting glucose test as a standalone test means very little and that they often find someone will have a one off high fasting glucose score but have perfectly normal levels upon correct testing. Have you got health anxiety? If so you really need to start listening to the good advice you have received on this thread. Oh and I think it would be pretty bloody obvious to anyone that snaffling chocolate and cake every day might affect glucose levels so no idea why you even started the thread!

Sorry OP but you sounds as though you are suffering from anxiety and an eating disorder. Your body is craving cake in the evening because you aren’t eating enough during the day. Please go and speak to your GP and be honest.

www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_care/blood-sugar-level-ranges.html

Reduce refined carbs and sugar intake.

According to this website, you've got nothing much to worry about.

Go to your GP for help.

The op has already cut out protein and fat from most meals. Those saying cut the carbs - she’s going to starve herself. Which I think is actually what she wants to do but with a ‘medical’ justification.

Op - go to your gp and tell them the truth about your eating. You really need help.

The only way to diagnose diabetes would be to get some fasting bloods done (a proper blood test not a finger prick test) and to have your hba1c checked.

If you have genuine concerns you need to go and speak to your dr and get some proper bloods done. You are not pre diabetic until those tests have been done and the results analysed by a trained health professional.

OP, introduce more protein AND fat when you cut out the carbs. Good snacks are nuts and cheese. Buy full fat dairy products (at least for yoghurt and cheese, even if you prefer semi-skimmed milk for tea). Then if you basically eat protein, fat and vegetables for most meals, you won't feel hungry and you will get everything you need to be eating. It's not a question of cutting out carbs without replacing them with something else!

Pre diabetes is definitely a thing! Op I'd advise getting a hba1c test at the GP. I'm prediabetic but do need to loose weight. I'm going to try reducing carbs and increasing fat and protein. The always hungry plan buy Dr luwig maybe worth a look. But I think there's many versions of this type of thing. There's a really good explanation of how refined carbs impact our blood sugar levels.

I'm always surprised at the tone people take on these threads being quite rude and aggressive diagnosing eating disorders etc! Especially when people are looking for advice. I haven't been using MN long though! Good luck.

If your blood sugar really is an issue (and I totally agree with PP saying you should get this checked out properly by your GP), then this is how I'd suggest you change your diet:

Breakfast - one cup of coffee, no sugar plus one banana
You need more protein and fat (generally), so I'd suggest that you replace this with full fat Greek yoghurt, with a small handful of berries or nuts/seeds. Or, eggs - boiled, scrambled, fried - make a good breakfast.

Lunch - fruit and vegetables and water

Salad, with some kind of protein element, so tuna mayo (full fat mayo), cheese, chicken pieces - with other veg in the salad like cucumber, celery, peppers. And an oil-based dressing (home-made, so you know it doesn't have any added sugar

Dinner - large portion of pasta / curry / fish etc.

Ditch the pasta (and rice if you're having curry. Have your fish/meat with vegetables instead - but avoid potatoes.

Cake is eaten after dinner daily.

Definitely ditch this!

Is this thread a windup?

The OP claims to be a health professional and seems to know all about fasting blood glucose levels, can use a blood glucose meter and knows their BMI... but can't figure out that fruit, pasta and cake are all carbohydrates or how to eat more protein?

Ice cream face - it absolutely is true for type 2. You either have a response to carbs/sugar that is well within normal ranges - or you’re higher than those ranges. Just because you’re only a bit higher doesn’t mean it’s not flagging up a potential issue.

The data is still very much out on “reversing” it. My own view, formed after a few years of experience with testing a lot, and reading websites such as the reddit diabetes sub or the diabetes.co.uk website, is that you can control it - but you can’t cure it. If your blood sugar is too high, the chances are you’re always going to have to be more careful than someone with a totally normal response.

My last reading was well within normal limits - but it was only there because I cut out pizza and pasta and rice and really cut down on snacks and bread etc. If i’d eaten all the pizza and garlic bread and ice cream that i’d wanted during those 3 months, the reading would have been higher.

If I had no trace of diabetic disposition, what i’d eaten would be pretty much irrelevant as my body would have regulated to keep the blood sugar within a very tight range.

I have type 2 diabetes, and before diagnosis last October I had been in the pre-diabetes range for a long time, despite my efforts to eat healthily and get a handle on it.

5.5 is a normal reading. Perhaps at the upper end of normal, but it is a normal reading.

As a healthcare professional I would have thought you would have been aware of the need for an HBA1C blood test, possibly repeated at several intervals, rather than self-diagnosis using a home kit.

The OP is a dentist. Which puts rather a different spin on things, I think.

PrioryGhost

I think you're confused about type 2 diabetes - you said it was like pregnancy i.e. you either have it or don't. This is untrue. As you get older you can develop increased insulin resistance and/ or be unable to produce sufficient insulin. This doesn't happen overnight and can absolutely be borderline or pre-diabetic. Without action it gets worse over time so being pre-diabetic is definitely a warning that you may become diabetic if you don't take action. That said you wouldn't determine that you're pre-diabetic from a single fasting sugar level.

A dentist who eats cake (usually full of refined sugar) in the evenings!

Dentists would know (for different reasons - effect on teeth etc.) why that might be inadvisable.

PrioryGhost, just to clarify for you, pre-diabetes is real. It is correct medical terminology and is regularly used.

My GP told me I was pre-diabetic a long time before I crossed the line and became a type 2 diabetic. Try googling pre-diabetes before you dismiss it as like being "a little bit pregnant" or anything like that. You don't tend to become a type 2 diabetic overnight. There is a lead up to it, i.e. pre-diabetes.

Dentists would know (for different reasons - effect on teeth etc.) why that might be inadvisable.

Surely everyone knows why that's bad for your teeth without doing dentistry? Most of us are unhealthy due to lack of will power or because we think whatever we're doing is worth it not because we don't know that smoking/sugar/Mcdonalds is bad for us!

Very odd responses
The OP doesn’t seem hysterical in the slightest.

OP how come you eat so little during the day? Why just fruit and veg for lunch?

In fact it’s a bit concerning that the OP wants to improve her diet to avoid a serious condition - and she’s made out to be some kind of health freak

Not sure why the OP is getting so much stick for her concerns? Why all the bitchy comments? Jeez would you talk to your friends like that if they had the same concerns? Probably not because I can't imagine anyone would stand for it in RL. Pre-diabetic is a thing for Type 2. Google it. OP, honestly, go to the doctors as soon as you can because it's best hearing it from a medical professional who can give you solid advice. X

What on earth are you doing self diagnosing? And then asking MN for dietary advice, are you bonkers? Go to the relevant health professionals if you have a concern, It is clear you have no understanding about diabetes or diet so you ask a load of strangers with no qualifications

You are a dentist??

I honestly don't know why ppl are getting so abusive? obviously I know that eating cakes and chocolate is contributing to this high sugar level which is why I have ALREADY said that I have eliminated this now.
I think suggestions of adding more protein to my breakfast and lunch are excellent ideas, I will definitely do this and perhaps have smaller portions for dinner
Thanks to everyone who has given constructive advice.
Ppl coming online to diagnose me with anxiety and eating disorders are really not v helpful and are v far off the mark.
I don't believe that I have said anything hysterical and I think being concerned about a fasting blood glucose reading of 5.5 should be a legitimate concern to any intelligent person?
To all the ppl saying this reading is fine, please just look at normal ranges for blood sugar levels and do not comment on threads without doing your research as you are misleading ppl

And yes I am a dentist, are ppl going to abuse me for that, too now??

Also to all the ppl saying that 5.5 is a normal blood sugar reading, I think a lot of you are in denial about what is normal and what isn't? This is why we are in the middle of an obesity crisis because ppl have become so used to shoving huge quantities of food down their gobs and thinking this is normal??

Cut out simple carbs and start eating complex carbs! Anything with a low Glycemic Index is what you want to aim for (wholewheat products)