Re: My non-diabetic friend

Jenny <lottadatacarbs@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Uncle Enrico wrote:
>> My overweight, non-diabetic friend who registers normal fasting readings
>> at her doctor's office had the following blood glucose reading after a
>> typical meal at the senior citizen's center:
>>
>> Meal: spaghetti with tomato based sauce, low-fat milk, chocolate cake
>> (small serving), salad with ranch dressing.
>>
>> One hour postprandial: 113
>> Two hours pp: 146
>> Three hours pp: 116

> Enrico,

> Your friend's numbers are well within what most people would consider
> normal, though not perfect and certainly there is enough of a swing
> there to cause tiredness.

> A swing up to 170 or 180 would be much more troubling, particularly if
> it stayed elevated for more than an hour. But since pasta digests slowly
> her peak at 2 hours rather than 1 is explainable and it cleared fast.

> Given the enormous carb intake in her meal, I really don't think she has
> diabetes or even pre-diabetes. If she wants to lose weight, cutting her
> carbs way back will probably help a lot, and it will eliminate the
> energy swings, and it might also be very good for her heart attack risk,
> but I don't think she needs to be frightened about getting diabetes any
> time soon.

> This is especially true if she is a Senior. She could be looking at
> another 20 years to get from where she is to diabetes--if she was
> actually going that way. But some degeneration in blood sugar seems to
> be very common among older people many of whom never develop diabetes.

> I've tested people who think they are normal who have fasting glucose of
> 110 mg/dl on rising and who are over 140 mg/dl 2 hours after eating a
> single roll and butter. That kind of response is more worrisome,
> especially since these people are younger, not fat, and have a family
> history of type 2.

> --Jenny

Apart from diabetes, however, the combination of high blood sugar and
high insulin which someone with IR can suffer from, or someone normal
who simply pigs out on big high carb meals, is something that
predisposes the body to lay down fat. It will do this even if laying
down the fat leaves you with insufficient fuel for normal activities,
i.e., you may be dieting, you may feel pretty hungry a lot of the
time, but you'll still put on weight.

The way to get out of this vicious circle of fat deposition is to
lower post prandial BG readings. The question of diabetes is
irrlevant. That doesn't mean it's not important, it just doesn't
matter to this high-BG high-insulin fat-deposition problem.

--
Chris Malcolm cam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

.