This Is Nuts!

[VydorScope]

Okay... how does CAFINE play in to all this? Do I need to aviod it or what?

[penguin]

Ok, ok... flax meal then. :-) In combination with gluten-free hot cereal. Most gluten-free dry cereals are just too carb-y for me. :-(

I eat the gluten-free dry cereals as dessert at night most of the time. My blood sugar problems are usually just in the morning after eating.

Mmmm....cereal

The lundberg hot rice cereal is good, and I agree on the flaxmeal for that. It's tasty...well, as long as it's flavored well enough

Caffene may or may not play into your hypoglycemia. If it's in moderation (ie: 2 cups of coffee a day when you're eating something) you're probably ok. Remember that caffiene makes your system run faster, including processing sugars.

[tarnalberry]

I eat the gluten-free dry cereals as dessert at night most of the time. My blood sugar problems are usually just in the morning after eating.

Mmmm....cereal

See Vincent, proof that dealing hypoglycemic stuff is an individualized "figure out what works for you" sort of thing. ChelsE knows she does fine with dry cereal, so she has it; I know I don't, so I primarily avoid the stuff. (Though, I'll add that if I'm eating well, I can sometimes deal with it in the afternoons.) She knows a soda will help her in a crash so she looks for one; I know it'll make me feel way worse after about 20 minutes, so I avoid them. We've both figured out "right" for us, now you get to experiment on yourself. :-P

ChelsE makes a good point that, in the middle of a bad crash, it can be hard to bring yourself to eat - I've been good enough about eating fairly balanced that I haven't had a really bad crash in years. (Eating that balanced can be more annoying than eating gluten-free sometimes.) I had forgotten how bad it can get. She's right - if it's so bad that you feel you can't eat a darn thing, take in whatever you can get. I'd find that I'd often be stuck in the car, though, and couldn't get to any other sustained food source to follow it up, which was the problem, because I knew I'd just crash even harder. That's a good reason to keep something with you at all times.

You'll get the hang of what works for you, though it'll take a little trial and error. You may want to find something portable that works for you which you can keep with you at all times, just in case. It's better to avoid those dramatic blood sugar swings in the first place, and once you get the hang of it (like the gluten-free diet), you'll find it's not too hard.

If you can go back to dairy, though, let me remind you that cheese and a good full-fat yogurt is your friend! :-) Ooo... that was my favorite hypo-snack, particularly the yogurt, which naturally has a good combination of fat, protein, and carbs.

[VydorScope]

Yea, Im a bit lost right now on what is good. Cuase I look at yogurt and it looks alwfull high in carbs, yet everyone says its good. Chesle told me to look for a "better" yogurt, like StonyField Farms, and my store carries them, so I did, well all my store carries is "Fat Free" which I figured was a bad asnwer. They also have StonyFiledfarms "Yo baby" made with whole milk but I could not rember if it was gluten-free? I did have some cheese earlier.

When I wsa doing atkins it was more like 25-30% protein, 60-65% fat, the balance in low gylimic carbs. I wonder if that would work now. Still need find my Atkins books with the gyclomic charts.

EDIT: as for dry ceral goes, Im not realy sure that I care if I have to give it up, I opnly like it cause it was so darn easy for breakfast. I think though I will replace it with a high protien breakfist to pad me for the day...

[tarnalberry]

Yeah, it's sad that natural, whole-fat, plain yogurt is so hard to find. You'll find that plain yogurt is usually lowest in carbs, and you can add some jam/jelly to sweeten it, but at your own quantity without getting quite as much sugar as they often add up to. If you have Trader Joe's nearby, they have greek yogurt that's tasty, and higher in fat/protein. I was always a fan of Strauss yogurt, which isn't too high in sugar. You don't have to go nearly as carb-avoidance dealing with hypoglycemia as you did doing Atkins, not by a long shot. If it helps you to start there, that's fine.

(BTW, if you google "glycemic load", you'll get a useful table. It's a bit more useful than glycemic index, because it deals more with the items converts to sugar in your own body for a standard serving size. It's still not an exact science, because it varies by individual (yes, sugar conversion rates vary by individual), and by what else you're eating in the same meal. But it's an improvement over glycemic index lists.)

You don't have to avoid it - having 10g or 15g of sugar isn't so bad if you're eating balanced, as long as you're also looking at the 5g or 7g of fat and 8g to 12g of protein that most yogurts also have. (Those numbers could be fairly off... it's been years since I had real yogurt...)

The only dry cereal I miss is shredded wheat. Obviously haven't had that in a while. ;-)

[elye]

Again, we're all so different, and because I'm a diabetic I could be VERY different in my needs and reactions...but when you mentioned caffeine, Victor, I thought I'd mention that for me it acts almost as strongly as a shot of insulin in reducing my BS. I can go from 6 (which is equal to about 102 in the American measurement--we Canadians use the British mmol readings) down to 3 (48) very quickly after a cup of coffee. Maybe something to be mindful of...

So glad you're figuring all this out! And glad you're going to your doc.

[VydorScope]

Again, we're all so different, and because I'm a diabetic I could be VERY different in my needs and reactions...but when you mentioned caffeine, Victor, I thought I'd mention that for me it acts almost as strongly as a shot of insulin in reducing my BS. I can go from 6 (which is equal to about 102 in the American measurement--we Canadians use the British mmol readings) down to 3 (48) very quickly after a cup of coffee. Maybe something to be mindful of...

So glad you're figuring all this out! And glad you're going to your doc.

Yea, hope this is thte last new diet I have to learn! Costing me a ton in food evverytime have to try somthing new!

[elye]

Just out of curiosity...and perhaps you haven't found out the answer yet--what do the strips cost there in the States? I've heard that we pay more up here, and it is ridiculous at about 95 cents apiece. I test six or seven times a day, and there's no reusing these things. I am very lucky to have insurance that will cover this. I honestly do not know what people do who need to keep tight control and don't have medical insurance...guess they don't test...

[VydorScope]

Just out of curiosity...and perhaps you haven't found out the answer yet--what do the strips cost there in the States? I've heard that we pay more up here, and it is ridiculous at about 95 cents apiece. I test six or seven times a day, and there's no reusing these things. I am very lucky to have insurance that will cover this. I honestly do not know what people do who need to keep tight control and don't have medical insurance...guess they don't test...

Dunno the testor came with 10, and 10 of the little needles. I still have one left. But prbly wont need it now. But the Pharmistic warned me they were expnesive.

[TCA]

Glad you're getting in with your doc. something to point out that you probably already know - Most gluten-free food choices are a much higher glycemic index than good for you gluten foods. If you don't have a problem with gluten you might want to consider keeping some no gluten-free snacks and foods at work so that your son won't be tempted, but you can have a balanced snack. This change in your diet may have made the hypoglycemia more evident. For example: A good whole grain bread with meat cheese and veggies for lunch might work much better than the very high carb gluten free breads or pastas. Hope you're feeling better soon. Remember to eat often!

[VydorScope]

Ive been thinking about why this is only comming out over the last few years... anyone have any ideas to what coudl be an underlying CUASE of hyposugarsutff?

I can remeber being a sugar junkie, pretty much all my life... heck last night I was just thinking about how I often got up in the middle of the night ate some rasins and went back to bed.

[elye]

All I know is that your hypoglycemia is caused by your pancreas producing too much insulin. It's the opposite of diabetes mellitus. You've got too much, and I don't have any. Too bad we can't work out a deal of some sort, cause I'd certainly be in the market for all of your exra insulin! :

[VydorScope]

All I know is that your hypoglycemia is caused by your pancreas producing too much insulin. It's the opposite of diabetes mellitus. You've got too much, and I don't have any. Too bad we can't work out a deal of some sort, cause I'd certainly be in the market for all of your exra insulin! :

Heck I donate blood, why not insulin?

[tarnalberry]

I *think* it can simply come with age, particularly if you have a history of consuming a fair amount of sugar, or a history of not getting 'enough' exercise (where 'enough' is defined by your body). Gotta love genetics.

[VydorScope]

I *think* it can simply come with age, particularly if you have a history of consuming a fair amount of sugar, or a history of not getting 'enough' exercise (where 'enough' is defined by your body). Gotta love genetics.

When I was "yonger" I was in Track, Cross Country, and Martial Arts. Prehaps it was too mcuh exercise!

[tarnalberry]

When I was "yonger" I was in Track, Cross Country, and Martial Arts. Prehaps it was too mcuh exercise!

But what about now? ;-) (I worry about my husband on this front ... he's a carb-aholic himself. Getting him to switch from Sprite to Gatorade was a huge score in the carb-realm! ;-) )

[VydorScope]

But what about now? ;-) (I worry about my husband on this front ... he's a carb-aholic himself. Getting him to switch from Sprite to Gatorade was a huge score in the carb-realm! ;-) )

When weather is nice I walk about 90mins a day with my wife. Its nice connect time away from the phones/computers/etc. Broke my treadmill, but used to run couple miles on it, need fix it. Much lighter excersie now, but getting some at least.

[elye]

Don't forget the side-effect of resistance training--increased blood sugar. For a diabetic that's a very undesireable thing, and I have to be really careful when I weight train and adjust my insulin and eat less, etc. You hypos want increased BS half the time....so pick up some weights!

[VydorScope]

Okay,

Im sposed ot eat ever few hours, right? So ummm, what about sleeping? As I mentioned above I used to wake up and eat rasins... couple-few times a night... Loadup on protein before bed?

[Matilda]

..

[tarnalberry]

Okay,

Im sposed ot eat ever few hours, right? So ummm, what about sleeping? As I mentioned above I used to wake up and eat rasins... couple-few times a night... Loadup on protein before bed?

That's definitely an option, and if I've had problems with blood sugar, I'll do that, or I'll wake up feeling crappy. (Mind, 'load up' might only be having an egg, but I'm a 5'2", 118lb woman ;-).) Once you find a good place of stabilization in the consistency of your diet, you may (no guarantee, of course) find that you can go longer without any adverse effect on your blood sugar, which makes it all the easier to deal with bedtime.

[elye]

Throughout my lifetime I've had many dangerous middle-of-the-night episodes where my BS was below 2.5 (about 35) and my ever-vigilant husband could tell I wasn't consious. So, I have very quickly learned that eating just before I get into bed is paramount (as is keeping my suppertime insulin dose low, but that isn't an option for you). Raisins are great, and again, with PB or an egg--even a big handful of raisins and peanuts or almonds. I think it is true that your body can get better at going longer periods of time without food, i.e. through the night. Like babies learning to go through the night without a feeding....

[VydorScope]

hroughout my lifetime I've had many dangerous middle-of-the-night episodes where my BS was below 2.5 (about 35) and my ever-vigilant husband could tell I wasn't consious.

Well see thats what makes this differenc with this and doing Atkins to loose weight. Alot more pressure to get it right LOL

I mean thats scray... if he was a sleep would we loose you?

[elye]

Maybe...I try not to think too much about it, and just make certain my BS is above 7 (118) before I get into bed. Fortunately, I wake him up if I'm that low, because I tend to shake and mutter things. So you could say I'm something of an expert on low blood sugar experiences, at least of the diabetic kind...again, hypoglycemia presents a somewhat different approach to it all, but I'm sure we both feel the same way when we've crashed....weak, confused....LOUSY!

...Hey, I should bring some thirty-pound dumbbells into bed with me...weight-lifting being a BS elevator...

[penguin]

...Hey, I should bring some thirty-pound dumbbells into bed with me...weight-lifting being a BS elevator...

How romantic

I've gotten up in the middle of the night to eat something, but it's rare. I usually drink milk in those instances, because I can't stand to eat. Normally my blood sugar is pretty level by nighttime, and I usually snack so it's not a problem for me. Different for everyone.