What did I learn from continuous glucose monitor as a diabetic?
When I was comfortable with doing some experiments with food, after taking control of my diabetes, I got this Libre2 Freestyle CGM and used it for 14 days and tried all the food that traditional medicine advocates for diabetics and the food that normally diabetics eat on a daily basis because they are told to do so. I will leave it to my readers to interpret results on what affect every food had on my blood glucose level. This is a very eye-opener and I would suggest everyone who still believes in wholegrain and healthy oats, fruits and other high carbohydrates stuff, should either try a CGM for 14 days or should do finger-prick reading using a glucometer before and 2 hours after meal and they will know how each food is impacting their blood glucose.
IMPORTANT:
- Please note that I tried to be as specific as possible in what I ate or when I did any exercise or any other activity that might have affected my blood glucose, including the carb calculations.
- Carb calculations are approximate, but its in a good average range, give or take 5 gms in total carbs. I have put down in the chart the food that I ate, but even if you don’t understand all the components, you can still understand the type of carbs and the quantity to give you an idea what type of food causes what type of spike and how long it stays.
- Data was compiled in an excel sheet, so please ignore any spellings or typo mistakes. If you don’t understand any data, just send me an email, and I will be happy to reply and explain.
- Please note everyone responds to carbohydrates differently, what works for me, may not work for you. You need to do your own experiments to understand your response to a certain food.
- Libre2 sensor is not very accurate when blood glucose is within normal ranges. In my case, it was always 1-1.5 mmol or 15-25 mg/dl off when the readings were below 9 mmol. The reading was even more inaccurate when I was doing any physical activity for example exercise. However, main reason for doing the experiment was to understand the sugar spikes and the curve vs insulin response. Also, to see the dawn phenomenon and night glucose readings.
Daily Patterns:
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Day-14
I hope this clarifies how differently types of so-called healthy carbohydrates affect a diabetic blood glucose levels.
If you have any question, please comment below and I will reply as soon as possible.