Pre-diabetic

Remove the smoothies and see what happens.

Why your consuming foods that's basically work against you for treating IR is concerning though. Who told you to do this. On a glycemic level and insulin response kefir is no better than white bread, then your adding sugar with berries.

Yeah, diabetic neuropathy is a thing...but neuropathy can occur for other reasons too.

I agree, if you think it's the smoothie then stop using it for a while and see if it helps. Is kefir something new in your diet? I've never used it, but it has a lot of sugar. I would substitute 60g of nonfat Greek yogurt and four ounces of milk (1% or nonfat).

20g sugar in the kefir
9g in the milk/yogurt combo.

My personal thoughts from having family members with diabetes is that with your known diagnosis of pre-diabetes don't mess around with this. Get is checked out by your doctor. Second, I am with Neaderthin, smoothies do not seem like a good food choice. I know they are convenient, but the amount of carbs you would be consuming in one smoothie of the ingredients you mentioned would be far higher than I would suggest for pre-diabetic. You want to reduce carbs, increase protein. Fruit smoothies don't really accomplish that.

OP, I'm with riverside. It could be food, but it could be something else. I have had less severe neuropathy (post-chemotherapy long-term effect, so similar syndrome with different cause). It is worse if I'm fatigued, and worse if I'm walking/standing much more than usual. Those are just examples, not definitive.

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

I'm confused... isn't kefir just fermented milk, same as yogurt? Just curious, I'm not saying it's good, bad, or indifferent.

It's a different fermentation process, so different details in the final product.

This conversation is further complicated by the fact that there are various brands and types of kefir (sweetened or not, different fat content, etc.). Here's the label for the 0% fat unsweetened commercial kefir currently in my refrigerator. This is Lifeway brand 0% fat, unsweetened (9g carbs per cup, all of it inherent sugar put there by the cow).



Further, that comment about insulinemic index and glycemic index being like white bread is IMU inaccurate. It's the satiety index that's similar. Depending on kefir type, it's low to moderate GI (30s vs. 100 for benchmark white bread).

The insulinemic index is relevant to OP, of course, and that is relatively high for kefir.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23378456/

Conclusion: Kefir is a low- to moderate-GI food; however, its II was high. Although kefir had higher water content, the SI of kefir was not significantly different from white bread.

In case it's not clear, the abbreviations here are:

SI = Satiety index.
II = Insulinemic index
GI = Glycemic index

Are you sure that the foot pain is neuropathy, as opposed to plantar fasciitis, heel spurs, arthritis etc.? If you are also upping your walking or activity, there are lots of possibilities (or sometimes these things just come on randomly without any major changes.)

Just a random thought. When I was obese and we would travel, I would walk miles and miles, losing track from the wonder of new things to see. By the time we’d get back to the hotel my feet would be numb and I felt like I had peg-legs. It was unbelievably painful.

Basically, it was the unfamiliar exercise of excessive walking combined with inappropriate shoes and obesity.

If you’ve recently begun walking enthusiastically, as so many of us do when beginning weight loss, that might potentially be the problem.

But with a history of pre diabetes I’d sure as heck ask my doctor, and then make a beeline for a running/walking store to get fitted for proper shoes.

I can’t tell you what a difference good shoes made for me in comfort, and ability to continue and then increase steps. .