Understanding the blood sugar roller coaster...

trojanbb

Sigh.... I am just waiting the junk food advocates to show up. "I lost 700lbs on taco bell alone!" "I know a lady who eats ice cream at every meal and she is the skinniest person I have ever known!" They don't want to believe this. They will come in here and try to put everyone through the ringer who even suggests a healthful diet.

The difference in blood sugar levels in a normally functioning human and different carb sources and their effects on body composition are minimal. Unless you are a top competitor in your given sport, I would be more than a little suspicious if you claimed to notice the difference. If you are a diabetic or are taking insulin, then that's a different story.

To hear any average gym goer go on and on about insulin, carbs, and blood sugar is a bit laughable...because it really doesnt matter. It's WAY down on the list of priorities for optimal body composition. Again, diabetics and recreational insulin users are a different story.

JUDDDing

Actually that would be detrimental to a diabetic. They are already undergoing unregulated gluconeogenesis; the last thing they need to do is release a boatload of cortisol to drive their liver further into glucose over-production.

Boy is it. It's one of the many things I personally tried. Fasting with severe Type II diabetes = ridiculous liver dumps. I've got logs of my personal readings as I learned to control my D that would blow your mind.

What really surprised me is what happened when I tried to exercise post-fast (ie: in the morning before breakfast). Instead of utilizing the circulating glucose for the activity, I continued to have greater and greater levels released into my circulatory system. It only worsened as I increased the intensity. I tried this on multiple occasions and stopped each time at a blood glucose level nearly 300mg/dl (about 16.6mmol/L for any non-Americans.)

Now that I've learned to control it (no insulin, diet and exercise only) even while exercising my CGMS shows me max at about 130mg/dl (about 7.2mmol/L) and I'll get slightly under 70mg/dl (3.9mmol/L) when my liver decides to pump me back up.

I don't think there is as universal of a lesson here as you seem to think.

I'm type II for 10+ years and I have fasted on alternate days since 1/1/2013. My last A1C (last week) was 5.6.

Exercise provides no increase in my blood sugar - quite the opposite in fact. Fasted or not.

JUDDDing

Except that diabetes is sometimes cured with weight loss.

No. Controlled is not the same as cured. Weight-loss, diet and exercise can control diabetes. There is no cure. None. Period.

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/item/diet-reverses-type-2-diabetes#.UWcc1bWkoYN

If you have normal beta cell function and glucose response - you can think whatever you want.

Time2LoseWeightNOW

mamax5

My hubby ate a bunch of processed junk and now he has type 2 diabetes!! His glucose levels can be as high as 400-500!!! He scares me. Hopefully his wake-up call at the doctor today will stick! Oh, and he doesn't eat a ton of candy bars either...he's eating things like corn dogs, pizza rolls, (fake)wheat bread, regular potatoes, McD's food. Things that a lot of people don't realize is sugar. Oh, and over eating as well.

stealthq

Taking out all the quotes back and forth just to shorten this ...

I don't understand this instance that unless something causes something 100% of the time, it never causes it. A shotgun to the head never causes death I suppose, since it doesn't always cause death.

Re: Down's, my question was referring the remark about curing it with an untested procedure.

No, no, that's not what anyone is saying. You're trying to equate the specific and the general and it doesn't work that way.

The general: What is the cause of death? The cause of death is the cessation of specific functions of the brain (using brain-death as the definition of death).

The specific: What is the cause of death for a person who was shot in the head so that the brain was damaged to the point it ceased to function? The gunshot wound caused the damage which caused the death.

Different questions, different answers. It's important to keep them straight. Lots of misconceptions out there and widespread misuse of terminology.

The Down's question was answered. If you remove the cause before it has had an effect, you never have a problem at all (again, definition of cause). It's the same way you could cure cancer (at least that one instance of it) if you were able to detect, locate, and remove the first cancer cell before it ever divided or metastasized. This is part of what your immune system does all the time, after all. What is pretty nifty is that they have been successful in removing the extra chromosome from some of an adult Down's patient's cells. It didn't reverse damage that was already done, of course, but it reportedly did improve his condition.

caribougal

Second, no one, not one person on this site that I have EVER SEEN in over two years...says processed food is good for you. But yes, a calorie is a calorie when it comes to weight loss. Any number of REAL, peer reviewed studies (as in...not crap links that the used car salesman on the corner could have written) have proven it. Additionally...it it weren't true, I couldn't have done what I did first hand.

I have seen posts on MFP say that processed food is good for you. I was once even told "there is plenty of scientific evidence that carbs, protein and fat are good for us" as a reason why McD was healthy.

There are plenty of "prcessed foods" that are good for you, and this is generally agreed apon by all but the most hardcore true believers of the cult of Paleo.

Greek Yogurt is a highly processed food. It is also near universally agreed that it belongs in the "good for you" column. There are plenty of other examples like this.

How, exactly, is Greek yogurt "highly processed"? Yogurt = milk and/or cream + active cultures + low heat + time, and if you want greek style, strain with a cheese cloth. Doesn't seem highly processed to me. Now, you might argue that a mass produced greek yogurt like Fage uses big mechanical strainers (I actually have no idea about this, just guessing). That's an industrial version of the cheese cloth. I have no clue how Fage makes their yogurt, but the fact that they list the same 2 basic ingredients as a homemade version (milk/cream + cultures) does not imply highly processed to me. Maybe you think it's processed because the cultures change the characteristics of the milk? That seems like something only the most hardcore true believers in the cult of "if it's not raw, it's processed" would say.