Testing Blood Glucose Levels on a Low Carb Diet – Facts and Myths

Testing Blood Glucose Levels on a Low Carb Diet – Facts and Myths

Low Carb Styles

Last month Jimmy Moore started testing his blood sugar after eating popular low carb products. Here’s the facts and myths about blood glucose levels when eating low carb.

Saturday was the first time I heard about Jimmy Moore testing his blood glucose levels after eating some of his favorite low carb foods. While Twitter is a great place to keep in touch with your favorite bloggers, it’s easy to miss important tweets – unless you think to pull up their most recent posts. While most low carbers stop by Jimmy's blog every day or two, I quit doing that about a year ago when videos became the norm there. At that time, I didn't have a high-speed internet connection, so wasn't getting anything out of that blog.

Saturday, I just happened to be reading the tweets of the people I follow on Twitter when Jimmy announced his blood sugar testing results from eating Julian Bakery’s CarbSmart breads was in. Since I now have high-speed access, I clicked on the link he provided, and began to read the post.

Dreamsfield Pasta Digests the Same as Regular Pasta

It quickly became apparent that in my absence, I’d missed Jimmy’s first test using Dreamsfield Pasta; so I followed the link back to that first experiment. When I saw what he actually did – how he compared the coated pasta to regular pasta – I gained a new respect for him. I never thought I’d ever see him confront low carb products in the way he’s currently doing. However, there are a few myths about blood glucose levels and low carb diets that need addressing.

A lot of diabetics can tell you from their own experiments that Dreamsfield Pasta digests the same as regular pasta, and that’s what Jimmy’s self test clearly showed as well: there is no such thing as protected carbs. However, he stopped testing his blood sugar after 180 minutes. Pasta takes 5 to 7 hours to digest completely; and most diabetics and pre-diabetics see a sharp rise in glucose somewhere between 5 and 7 hours. For those who don’t, they generally see much higher fasting glucose the following morning.

Also keep in mind that while both the Dreamsfield and regular pasta curves on Jimmy’s chart are within safe margins for glucose toxicity, you can clearly see that Dreamsfield’s pasta digests slower – but that means potentially higher insulin levels over a much longer time period, since blood sugar levels kept bouncing. Plus, we don’t know what happened between the significant 5 to 7 hour period.

Julian Bakery’s CarbSmart Breads

When eaten the way Jimmy would normally use bread, Jimmy’s curves fit well within safe margins for glucose toxicity – even when eating regular wheat bread. What we learn is that his blood glucose levels tend to spike much faster than the average person. If testing at 1 and 2 hours, as recommended, you could easily be deceived.

At 1 hour the low carb breads left Jimmy’s sugar level at just above or just below 100 mg/dl; and at 2 hours, the raisin-free bread was back to his typical fasting level. Even the raisin bread stayed about the same as where it was at 1 hour. The chart is extremely enlightening, because the 9-grain bread (not low carb) actually gave Jimmy the best blood sugar control.

Low Carb Myths

Now, you may be tempted to interpret these results as Dreamsfield Pasta and Julian Bakery deceiving low carbers; that low carb bread and pastas must have more carbohydrates than what the label claims. But that isn’t necessarily true. Why? Because blood glucose control doesn’t fall in line with how many carbs you eat. That’s a low carb myth.

The glycemic index is another myth that spawned the South Beach Diet and other low glycemic plans, but the folks who participated were healthy non-diabetics. That makes the chart (even the glycemic load chart) useless for those with insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, or diabetes. Eating low and lower glycemic foods like berries or even vegetables doesn’t guarantee good blood sugar control.

So What About Low Carb Dieting Itself?  

When you eat only low carb foods, the body down-regulates basal insulin levels, the amount of insulin you store, and the enzymes needed to digest carbohydrate foods. If you haven’t been eating carbs and you suddenly eat something like bread or pasta, your blood glucose levels will rise higher than they otherwise would – if you ate that amount of carbohydrates on a daily basis.

Results won’t be accurate – unless (like Jimmy) you just want to test these foods within a low carbohydrate context. If you want to know your true level of glucose control, you must eat carbohydrates for at least 3 or 4 days prior to testing. You can’t just go from 20 or 30 grams per day to 60, 80, or 100 grams without raising your blood sugar levels for a couple of days while your body re-learns how much insulin to store, and up-regulates necessary enzymes.

The Role of Food Sensitivities

In my own experience, food sensitivities play a major role in blood glucose control. If you have undiagnosed celiac disease, gluten intolerance, or a wheat allergy or sensitivity, low carb products can raise your blood sugar higher than safe, even though it might not raise someone else’s. That’s because the inflammation produced by allergies, sensitivities, and autoimmune issues keeps your body in a state of alert.

The body uses extra glucose to both heal inflammation and fight off invaders. Plus higher cortisone levels also keep blood sugar and insulin levels elevated, as well. But there is also the strange phenomenon of food individuality.

Since I began testing my glucose levels, I’ve learned that the number of carbohydrates I eat doesn’t accurately predict the amount of glucose produced from food, nor whether or not my body is able to store and dump enough insulin to handle what I eat. It doesn’t predict whether my insulin receptors are working properly. Glucose control depends on what type of defects I have in my metabolic system, and whether or not my immune system is working properly.

That translates into some pretty freaky results. For example, my daughter-in-law (a diabetic) can eat white rice with her meat and veggies, and her blood sugar stays within acceptable limits. But if she tries to eat the same amount of brown rice, her glucose levels go through the roof. That’s backwards to what the glycemic index says should happen.

If I eat 40 carbs of homemade gluten-free oatmeal bread (2 slices like Jimmy ate in his experiment), my blood glucose levels go above 140 mg/dl at 1 hour – putting me in glucose toxicity. In fact, the homemade gluten-free hamburger bun I tried last week sent my sugar level soaring to 175 mg/dl at 1 hour, and stayed high for 2 hours before dipping back down below 120 mg/dl (the safe zone). But – if I eat a 40-carb baked potato, my blood sugar level only goes up to about 105 and then returns to normal, around 84, by the 2nd hour. That makes white potatoes a perfectly acceptable maintenance food for me.

Everyone is Not Insulin Resistant

The biggest myth floating around low carb circles today is that if you’re overweight or obese, you’re insulin resistant – period. Carbohydrates will raise your blood sugar, low carb diets will automatically correct that, and lowering insulin levels is a good thing. However, some of us don’t make enough insulin. We’re insulin ‘sensitive’ – not insulin resistant. Lowering our current insulin levels can result in glucose toxicity. That’s not a good thing.

But that’s why testing your own blood sugars and finding what foods work for you is so important.

Low Carb Veggies, Fruits, and Pesticides

Low Carb Veggies, Fruits, and Pesticides

Low Carb Styles

The Environmental Working Group released their latest “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” listing for pesticide contamination today. So how did low carb veggies and fruits do?

Avacados make a great low-pesticide choice

Non-starchy vegetables and low-glycemic fruits are the mainstay of a healthy, low carb diet. High in fiber and nutrients, and low in carbohydrates and calories, they help to keep blood glucose levels from spiking too high. However, environmental contaminants like PCBs, arsenic, dioxin, cadmium, bisphenol A, and mercury can interfere with the body’s metabolic processes.

A low carb diet is designed to lower fasting and post-meal insulin levels, allowing the body to have ready access to its fat stores. But pesticides (including herbicides and insecticides) can increase or impair insulin secretion, or damage beta cells themselves. While most organic vs. non-organic arguments stem from what feeding your family organic vegetables would cost, many scientific studies clearly show environmental toxicants are associated with an increased risk of diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

The path to diabetes is paved with insulin resistance, fatty liver, autoimmune problems, and beta cell damage or death – so there’s much more at stake for ignoring the part pesticides play in our metabolic issues than just cost.

The Worst Low Carb Veggies and Fruits

Most low carb dieters zero in on how many carbohydrates a particular vegetable or fruit has per serving, while ignoring everything else. But if you look at the Environmental Working Group’s updated “Dirty Dozen” list published today, you’ll find many low carb diet staples are loaded with pesticides:

• celery
• strawberries
• spinach
• bell peppers
• blueberries
• lettuce
• kale and collard greens

Those strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries low carbers hold up to the world as proof that yes, we do eat fruit, could actually be doing you more harm than good. The EWG found 13 different pesticides detected on a single sample of strawberries; and raspberries were even worse – they had 51! Celery weighed in at 13 different chemicals and came in at #2 on the dirty list, bell peppers had 11, and collard greens had 10; but cucumbers, a low carb salad staple, contained as many as 68. The lettuce and spinach greens themselves? 66!!!

So what about those famous “can’t live without” Jalapeno Poppers? The Dirty Dozen only lists sweet bell peppers, not hot peppers. However, according to the EWG’s website, farmers might treat hot peppers with as many as 97 different pesticides; and if you minced them into a bowl of homemade salsa with cilantro, the cilantro adds even more.

The Best Low Carb Veggies and Fruits

Onions, corn, and asparagus had no detectable pesticide residues on 90% or more of the samples. The others on the list were very low, so if you can’t afford to go completely organic, the following listing is a great place to cut corners:

• onions
• corn
• avocado
• asparagus
• sweet peas
• eggplant
• domestic cantaloupe
• kiwi
• cabbage
• watermelon
• sweet potatoes
• grapefruit
• mushrooms

While most low carb dieters generally shun corn, peas, and sweet potatoes, starchy vegetables and tubers have their place on the Atkins Carb Ladder and make good pre-maintenance or later-on OWL additions to the diet, when you can afford to spend more carbohydrate grams. A 5- to 8-gram carb serving of melon is extremely small, so it too is best to save for later on.

Benefit of Eating Pesticide-free Vegetables and Fruits

When you eat organic produce, pesticide levels in your tissues begin to drop. That creates less stress on the body, and less risk for getting diabetes and other metabolic problems. Some pesticides are endocrine disruptors. They:

• disrupt beta cell function
• interfere with carb metabolism
• are toxic to the immune system
• impair mitochrondria function
• can cause intestinal inflammation
• impair insulin secretion
• cause pancreas to over secrete insulin
• destroy beta cells

Because of how hormones work, endocrine disruptors can have opposite effects, depending on the dose. So pesticides can be accumulative – though some studies show damage from a single exposure. While most beta cell death is actually caused from glucose toxicity (blood sugar levels higher than 140 mg/dl), pesticides' insulin secretion impairment leads to that toxicity.

While pesticides are not the only chemicals that can harm your endocrine system (meds like cortisone, prednisone, and SSRI’s also can contribute to metabolic issues and diabetes), always consider their potential for harm when choosing which low carb veggies to buy and eat.


*Photo by Eric Skiff

Peas Are Not Evil!!!

Peas Are Not Evil!!!

Low Carb Diet

I stopped by The Lighter Side of Low Carb’s Facebook fan page the other day, and noticed that Cleo had posted a picture showing what her personal USDA plate looks like. She had 3 strips of bacon, an egg, and 3 peas smiling up from the plate. While most of the comments shared how they would personally alter the foods in the graphic (I would have added another egg and more peas, myself), the one comment that caught my attention said - “Peas are evil.”

There seems to be a common tendency within the low carb community to demonize foods not listed on the Atkins 2002 Induction menu chart. But I don’t know how or when that ever got started. I took a quick trip back to 1970 (one of the two Atkins’ books that survived the flea bombs that destroyed almost everything I owned last year), but Dr. Atkins’ advice didn't even insinuate that peas are evil. He said:

“…additions are interchangeable and flexible. You can make any of these additions any week that you choose. I could be very arbitrary and specify exactly what you may add each week. It would be simpler, much less confusing, and with less possibility for error. But I don’t impose that rigidity on my private patients, so why should I do that to you? I am so committed to making this a livable lifetime diet that I am letting you select your own variations, within the rules set up by your biological rule book.

PUT BACK WHAT YOU’VE MISSED MOST. The idea is simply to gradually return to your diet first what you missed most. You may not choose to put back any of the small carbohydrate additions I’ve suggested. You may prefer something different that you will pick out of your carbohydrate gram counter. Custom-tailor the diet to suit your life-style.

All that matters is that you add back to your diet a little carbohydrate at a time, and that you stop adding carbohydrate when you’ve reached your CCL.”

So that kind of rigidity didn’t come from the original Atkins’ Diet. Nor did it come from the versions published in 1992 or 1999. In those mid-range books, Atkins’ Induction was even more lax than it was in the 70s, because dieters had the option of tossing out the Induction menu chart, and just eating anything they wanted, provided they only ate a maximum of 20 carbohydrates per day (not net) for the first 2 weeks.

Dr. Atkins Changed His Diet Plan in 2002

In 2002, Dr. Atkins introduced the Carbohydrate Ladder. This ladder specified which foods were best to add back, and in what order, to help with blood glucose control – because at that time, Dr. Atkins believed the glycemic index was correct. But even so, he still did not make the carb ladder a rule. What he said was:

“Look at ‘The Power of Five’ on pages 150-151 for other suggestions of foods you can add to your daily menu. Most people find it best to add back foods in a certain order – what I call the Carbohydrate Ladder.

Note that few people will be able to add back all these food groups in OWL. Those on the second half of the list tend to rank higher on the glycemic index and are more commonly introduced in Pre-Maintenance. Following this order tends to minimize blood-sugar surges that could reactivate cravings.”

Now, the glycemic index was created using people who did not have metabolic syndrome (insulin resistance), pre-diabetes, or diabetes, so it’s of little use if you’re interested in minimizing blood-sugar surges. In fact, my recent experiments on myself have showed no correlation between the number of carbohydrates eaten at a meal, and the amount of blood glucose that’s still in the bloodstream one or two hours later.

The Carbohydrate Ladder Does Not Demonize Peas

What I find interesting about this carbohydrate ladder is the actual foods Dr. Atkins lists, because if you hang around low carb individuals for a while, sooner or later, you’ll hear them demonize most of these foods - especially peas, corn, beans, and whole grains. In fact, if a newbie dares to admit they ate something from this list, they’re apt to get told that what they ate isn’t allowed on a low carb diet.

So what are these foods that Dr. Atkins recommends?

• more salad and other vegetables on the acceptable foods list
• fresh cheeses (as well as more aged cheese)
• seeds and nuts
• berries
• wine and other spirits low in carbs
• legumes
• fruits other than berries and melon
• starchy vegetables
• whole grains

Sounds like what used to be called a natural, whole foods diet. Which means peas are not evil – and saying so can give newbies and oldies alike, a distorted picture of what a low carb diet actually is – which isn’t true.

The real Atkins’ Diet is about finding your own personal level of carbohydrate that will allow you to keep losing body fat most weeks. And while some of Atkins theories and beliefs haven’t withstood the test of time and scientific testing, his diet continues to be about personalizing the foods you choose to fit your likes, dislikes, and lifestyle.

While it may be quite accurate to say “peas are evil for me,” – that evilness doesn’t hold true for everyone. I’ve lost over 100 pounds to date on some form of a low carb diet, and I’ve done it eating corn, corn tortillas, peas, mixed veggies, and other starchy vegetables. If I’d had to stick with only the vegetables listed at level 2 on the carb ladder, I’d never have come as far as I have.

The New Atkins For a New You

It’s my current understanding that the most recent low carb diet supported by the Atkins Nutritionals company doesn’t talk about the carb ladder at all. That it limits added dietary fats to 1 tablespoon of good fats (like olive oil) per meal, raises the consumption of veggies to something like 6 cups per day on Induction, and that it attempts to move folks in a more realistic direction of understanding serving portions.

However, most low carb dieters who entered the fold with the 2002 version of the Atkins Diet reject most of those ideas. Like the individual who left a comment about Cleo's plate graphic, they have no problem screaming "peas are evil," even though that isn't true.


The version they grew up with works for them, so that’s the diet they want to keep following. Nothing wrong with that. I just wish that more of them would extend the same courtesy to those of us who entered the fold with the 1970 and 1992 versions; because it can be quite lonely sitting out on that limb.