New Fruit Experiment!

Ok… I have new readers so let me cover three things… important things.

1) Every thing we do is an experiment.  Get it?  Everything you are is a result of all your actions or inaction.   What you do, eat and touch will affect you in some way.  Will it be positive… or negative?

2) Nothing happens in a vacuum.  When it comes to Blood Sugar this is particularly true. There are many things that can affect blood sugar so one must be careful in making blanket statements. I didn’t say don’t make them… we just need to be careful. :)

My favorite example of #2,  “It rained today and my blood sugar went up…. rain must make my blood sugar go up” … be careful of drawing conclusions, there are almost always more factors involved.

This is my first ‘documented’ experiment in quite awhile for me. … ’bout damn time! ;)

3)  If you do not have normalized blood sugar… I do not recommend eating fruit … period.  Normalize your blood sugar and then add foods back in… but Test TEST TEST!

4) Lastly… I was once an obese drug AND INSULIN DEPENDENT diabetic …

The Experiment

Until today I have pretty much eaten the same things … for months. Primarily fatty meats, veggies, a little wine and maybe a few fermented foods.  I rarely eat fruit …except for an occasional avocado. 

The other day I found a blackberry vine or two and ate the only ripe berries I saw…. about 3 or 4.

Yesterday I revisited the location and the vines… BAM!  were exploding with blackberries!!

As noted above I rarely eat fruits … I NEVER eat bananas, oranges, apples etc…..

Periodically (several times a year) I will eat a handful of blackberries, blueberries …  I’ve tested them in the past and I’ve had very little response from a handful.

Today was Different

I started eating a handful of berries … and then another… and then another.  It was a primal experience. :)    I was in a feeding frenzy!!    The thought crossed my mind that I usually only eat like this when MEAT is involved!

I KNOW I had at least 5-6 handfuls … but I ate a lot of ‘singles’ … for this experiment I’m going to ‘guess’ that I had (8) handfuls of blackberries … could be less but was probably more.

I did some checking online and a ‘handful’ equates roughly to 1/2 cup…. roughly.

Assuming I had (8) handfuls, that equates to (4) cups of Blackberries.   According to Nutritiondata.com that’s approximately a total  (40) grams of carbohydrates, (16) grams of which are sugar.

I did not plan this experiment, so I did not take a ‘before’ Blood Sugar reading…. however here is my  1 hour post ravenous feeding.

 

My Daily goal is to stay below 100 mg/dl  ‘all the time’ … I know I exceed it occasionally,  but it’s a goal.

 

My ‘absolute’ goal is to NEVER, NEVER exceed 120 mg/dl …   so this was NOT GOOD!!

I know I exceed this too but typically ONLY when I perform extremely intense exercises.  I can live with momentary high BG if it’s for the right reasons, and ‘right reasons’ for me is intense eXercise.

Having said all of the above … 126 mg/dl, if it’s temporary is not a big deal.  I still don’t like it … a goal is a GOAL! :)

So the test will come in the next hour.  If you test blood sugar you know that BG can keep rising well into the 2nd and even 3rd hour depending on many factors including the fat/protein load of the meal consumed.  This was ALL fruit … fiber and sugar so I would expect the 2nd hour to be lower…..

Here is the 2 hour post meal reading.

 

Note :   Back below 100 mg/dl at the 2 hour mark … I am very happy about that!!!

It shows that my pancreas kicked out enough insulin to get the job done … and that my body was letting the insulin do it’s job … which is removing sugar from the bloodstream.

I wanted to take one more blood sugar reading at the 3 hour mark…. just to confirm the downward trend.  Here it is….

 

Obviously I was ELATED at this number … my Blood Sugars were now well within normal ranges.

If your blood sugars are high, here’s a post to help reduce them, https://www.diabetes-warrior.net/2012/02/17/reader-question-how-to-reduce-high-blood-sugars/

 Summary

So what is the ‘take away’?

Although I do not know exactly how much sugar/carbohydrates I consumed…  it was DEFINITELY much more than I typically eat.  I usually eat between 0 -10g of carbs … per day! … with most of that being from fibrous leafy green vegetables.

Yes my blood sugar spiked up higher than I would have liked… but my body ‘handled’ it very well.

I was a drug and insulin dependent … taking (4) insulin shots a day.

Today, I am totally drug and insulin free… I attribute it to following a primal lifestyle.

Shouldn’t YOU give it a try?

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Here are previous ‘high carb’ experiments.

https://www.diabetes-warrior.net/2012/05/03/dear-pancreas-you-may-rest-now-glucose-tolerance-test-results/

https://www.diabetes-warrior.net/2011/12/11/follow-up-datewiththedevil/