Gestational diabetes...

[mamof32b]

Getting my head around having the GD, my dietician said get used to reading labels. But what's an OK level of sugar in something, should I be looking at less than 5g per slice/bag/bar or whatever it is I'm looking at or is 10g/15g OK. Or what's ok?

I have had to work out by trial and error as some things can have the same amount of sugar in g but will affect my blood glucose differently. It's really annoying!!

My hospital are encouraging me to eat 175g of carbs a day split between 3 meals and 2 snacks. I really struggle to eat that many without my blood glucose shooting up. So about 50g of carbs per meal and 25g per snack. Obviously healthy, low GI carbs are much better than sugar/white bread/pasta/potatoes/white rice etc.

Ive joined the gestational diabetes uk mums facebook group and their website gestationaldiabetes.co.uk has loads of advice, if im unsure of anything I just post a pic of the label and usually someone gets straight back with advice as to whether it is ok. Ive only had it 2 weeks, think I might have to go on metformin got a 9.8 after my dinner last night and had a few highs in first week too.

Thank you for your replies, I'm trying to get my head around it. Was gutted when I found out. Tried to join a Facebook group but heard nothing back yet
Trial and error it is so.

It's so difficult. I can eat the exact same thing and get very different readings. It's really upsetting but you just have to go by trial and error for some things.

Make sure you're pairing your food. Having protein and fat with your carbs helps slow the release of sugar and prevent spikes.
There is some trial and error to begin with as your tolerance can be quite individual. A lot of women (I'm one of them) find their insulin resistance is higher in the morning. I can tolerate a lot more carbs in the evening than I can in the morning. I also find eating a protein based bedtime snack keeps my fasting numbers down, as it stops my body thinking it's starving over night and dumping glucose into my blood stream.
Some of the NHS advice isn't great (eating cereal and low fat foods for example aren't great when you have GD). I second the suggestion to look at the GD UK website and join the FB group.

I find those labels totally useless too. Basically the nhs says:

high – over 22.5g of total sugars per 100g
low – 5g of total sugars or less per 100g

But as others said - this can impact your blood glucose differently depending on what the food is, what time of day you eat it, what you eat it with etc.

What food items are you struggling to find?

It's the snacks, something I can pick up really quick between the main meals. Like today out and about forgot the snack. so if I'm reading labels, so go for something 5g or less of sugar....

It's more about the carbs than the sugar, and you can have more than 5g as you will need more carbs throughout the day. But I am affected differently in the morning than the afternoon. Fruit for me on its own sends my sugar sky high, but a bit of chocolate doesn't! I think because of the fat. I hate the fact that I can't eat as much fruit as I normally would. Try and plan snacks. Yoghurt? Cheese and oatcake? Peanut butter on oatcake? Nuts?

I have good results with oatcakes and peanut butter, sliced Granny Smith apples with peanut butter, mixed nuts or seeds, cheese and a digestive.

Nuts and babybel are my go to snacks. I also use them to pair with carb snacks, so I can tolerate a pack of crisps with a babybel or a couple of squares of dark chocolate with some nuts.

Thanks for the advice, I see what you mean about what works once can be another story at another time. Trial and error, frustrating at times.