Can a Diabetes 2 patient have canned beans for lunch and stay within guidelines?
At noon I ate a can of Bush's Country Style Baked Beans, with a teaspoon of dry cocoa powder (NO SUGAR) sprinkled on top. (This keeps down chocolate addiction cravings.)
The can says a serving size is half a cup and there are 3.5 servings in the can at 160 calories each.
Fat, one gram. No saturated fat or cholesterol. Five grams dietary fiber. 6 gram protein. 16 gram sugars.
At 1PM, my blood sugar was 181.
At 1:15 PM my blood sugar was 195.
At 1:50 PM my blood sugar was 166.
I went out and shoveled off the front sidewalk.
Then my blood sugar was 135.
My guideline is a booklet from the Patient Education Center: "Type 2 Diabetes, Monitoring and Controlling your Glucose." (Online at www.patienteducationcenter.org)
It says these are the target numbers recommended by the American Diabetes Association:
Before meals: 90 to 130
2 hours after the start of a meal: less than 180
A-I-C (I don't know what that means, maybe target) Below 130 to 80
It appears to me that both the doctor and I were marginally correct, but that it would be a good idea for me to either eat a "real serving" or half-a-can at most with a salad, or to mix the beans with something low calorie and low glycemic. The Canadian "best practices" recommendations are that sugar is okay if it is less than 10% of the day's food intake. That's OVERT ACTUAL sugar. And schedule exercise after lunch instead of a nap.
It's almost impossible to get specifics out of anyone about this stuff. My guess is it's because no one really knows very much and, anyway, everyone is different.
From the point of view of global ag and vegetarianism, beans should not be off the table. Anyway, I like'em. Peas, too. Legumes in general. If cows ate them instead of corn, according to my ag mag, they would be happier and make better meat. A ranch girl should know that.
My blood tests came in the mail, including the results of the A-1-C test, which is a three-month record left in the cells by hemoglobin. Don't ask me how. My score was 6.7, which is about what it was last time. According to the ADA, 6 is ideal (normal) and 7 is as high as the score can go safely. When I was diagnosed, my score was 11.4. At that score, my retinas hemorrhaged.
ReplyDeleteWhat this means is that my mark is "needs improvement," but not "totally flunking." The doctor wanted me to go back to taking one pill in the morning, which I did today. My finger stick scores went down to the eighties, which is not entirely comfortable.
Prairie Mary