I was planning to work on cutting some tree branches, so I figured it was a safe time to experiment with eating leftover potato. What I hadn’t planned on was an interruption from my mother, asking to take her grocery shopping.
So I had eaten around 200g of food. 57g of potatoes and carrots — not a lot –, and around 150g of eggs, greens, and roasted bell pepper. I also had a decaf ice coffee with dry splenda (sucralose with maltodextrin, a sugar).
The blood glucose numbers, in mg/dl were:
12:30pm, 106, starting eating 1:00pm, 116, 1/2 mark 1:53pm, 148, 1.5 hour 2:45pm, 128, 2.25 hour
So, that’s two hours in, and I’m still over 20 points higher than when I started. The BG didn’t spike at 30 minutes, so the food was digesting. I missed the 1 hour measurement – and that’s usually the peak. The 1.5 hour reading was 42 points higher than fasting. The 2.25 hour reading was 22 points higher than fasting.
These higher numbers were read when I was walking around the supermarket.
I’m going to go saw some wood. That will probably lower the glucose down into the 100 range.
(Update: Nope. Despite doing physical work, the sugar stayed in the 115 range for hours. I ate some dinner, and that kept the sugar topped up in the 115 range, too. I was hungry later, and ate some more peanuts.)
LCHF Guidelines Say…
You want to eat around 10g of carbs per meal.
The potato and carrot have around 14g of carbs. This is why potatoes are NOT on the Food List.
The other foods would probably total around 10g of carbs. So we’re looking at 20g to 30g of carbs.
Guidelines say you want to see a spike of not more than 20mg/dl.
Normally, I see a 20mg to 30mg rise. It’s lower if I exercise, and higher if I do not. It goes higher if I eat a lot of food.
I saw a rise of at least 42mg/dl. I probably missed the peak. The high reading of 148mg/dl was still kind of high. I think non-diabetics see this kind of rise, as well, but not from eating a quarter of a potato. They’re slamming donuts and frappuchinos.
To put this into “potato chip bag” units, this is 1/3 to 1/4 bag of potato chips. It’s like “nothing”.
2 responses to “Can Diabetics Eat Potatoes? An Experiment with Small Amounts of Starchy Food”
Last night after a normal sized supper, my belly got bloated, rock hard and uncomfortable. I got up every single hour with a very dry mouth, needing to use the restroom. In spite of taking Prandin, Glimpride, Amlodipine-Valsartan 5-160mg, Metoprolol Succ ER 100mg, and the optional Hydralazine 25mg vasial dilator med at 11 p.m., I tossed and turned in a fever-like hot bed, freezing on top and sweltering where I was in contact with the sheets. When I got up for the third time at 3 a.m., I checked BP and was 170/72 p79 with glucose at 190. I took all the meds to control all this and “no dice”. Being 4 hrs past last dose, I took a Hydralazine to rescue myself and a Prandin tablet. I woke up four more times and got up at 7 @ 152/88 GL 199. I was gasping. Today, I had a Glucerna for breakfast and still was tight bellied as I hung onto the pew at church. Lunch (fat free sandwich roll) made me really uncomfortable. Supper is an hour away @ 160/87 P 84, GL 201. I’ll take meds but I wonder what this is. Belly is still rock hard. Almost afraid to eat. Don Diabetic II, heart patient with Multiple Myeloma (currently in remission and off chemo).
Yikes! That doesn’t sound good at all. Maybe you should go to urgent care. Did you catch a cold? Did it seem like food poisoning, or maybe an allergic reaction? When I get ill, I switch to a mostly liquid diet of broth. Chicken broth with a lot of spice, mainly.