Monday, October 02, 2006

I want my Raisin Bran Cereal

I was Dx'd a type 1 diabetic late in life several years ago at age 39, so I've had at least 35 years of enjoying any cereal that I wanted to eat: Cap'n Crunch, Wheaties, Cheerios, Rice Krispies, Boo-berry, Franken-berry, etc., etc.

As I grew older, I settled on the healthier cereals, enjoying wheaties, and my all-time favorite, Raisin Bran. The sugar-bomb cereal no longer appealed to my palette, and I was no longer into Saturday morning cartoons, 3 feet away from the TV, stuffing my face with this un-healthy junk. When I was a kid, we weren't as health conscious as we are now. My dad, a type 1 diabetic from age 19, would also have wheaties or cheerios, sprinkled with a healthy dose of the most disgusting sweetener that I ever tasted, sweet-n-low (forgive me if you enjoy the stuff, but I could never get past the after-taste). He never had the tools we have now; if he did, and saw the cereal response pictured here, perhaps he would have skipped the cereal.

I tried my best to limit the post-prandial spike- it still shot up to around 280 as you can see. This despite a bolus 20 minutes prior to eating, and starting with my BG at 94. I limited the carbs to about 37 grams, using light soy milk with only 5 grams of CHO for an 8 oz. serving. It took almost 4 hours to get my BS back to 100!

I'm not giving up just yet. I'm going to add some low-carb peanut butter and crackers to the meal to delay the carb absorption. I feel that I deserve at least 50 grams of carbs per meal. I'm not willing to go the low carb route; heck I went on the pump so I could eat somewhat like I did prior to my diagnosis, I'm hoping that with some more tweaking, I can enjoy my Raisin Bran.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's funny! As a type 1, cereal like Capt'n Crunch and Marshmellow Maties is my #1 weakness.

I found that Symlin to be a way to drug myself to slow down that peak... but the peak was just delayed -- if I forgot to test hourly, it would jump to 300 two hours after eating.

Now, I do what you do -- dose early, and eat with buttery toast and an egg, when I'm really trying to slow down. (Symlin's too gosh darned expensive, and three jabs (basal, bolus, Symlin )in the morning isn't any idea of fun!

Gary said...

I hadn't heard about the delay in the peak; if Symlin just delays the peak, it wouldn't be of much use for me.

I'm not sure if my insurance covers Symlin (BCBS Federal), I'll have to check on it; if it covers it, I'm willing to give it a shot.

I have managed to keep the peak below 200 on some of my favorite foods- just tried it on a banana walnut muffin, with an early dose and I was at BS=90 prior to the muffin. Unfortunately, I was only able to eat 'half' the muffin.

I want the full muffin, darn it! I've tried doing the same with half a bagel (Dunkin Donuts Poppyseed), but no luck, I shoot well up into the higher 200s. I use cream cheese on the bagel (with extra insulin in a combo/dual wave bolus), but it doesn't seem to help me much with slowing down the absorption.

Thanks for your sharing your experience with Symlin.

-Gary

Anonymous said...

Gary,

I've had good luck with Frosted Mini Wheats - I don't get a big spike (though I do have to do a dual-wave bolus so the square part can catch a later rise). Don't know if that appeals to your palate, but it works for me. Good luck!

Eric J.

George said...

I am going to have to find a box of FrankenBerry. That was my favorite cereal as a child!

Good luck. I hope you figure it out soon.

Sarah said...

I use symlin only for breakfast and I have successfully eliminated my breakfast spike! I also eat whatever cereal my heart desires, anywhere from sweetened wheat biscuits to honey nut cheerios. I just count carbs and check two and three hours post meal to make sure I'm on track. I have had a lot of problems with symlin at other meals, but for breakfast it ROCKS!

Gary said...

I think I'm leaning towards giving symlin a try after reading all of your comments. I've tried to reduce the 'raisin bran' spike, but haven't had much luck.

I haven't tried the frosted mini-wheats yet, but I tried the Kellog's Special K high protein, low carb cereal the other day with some low carb soy milk. I really like regular Special K, but NOT this stuff. Tastes a little like cardboard; the crunchy variety.

I think I'd rather suffer through an injection than eat that stuff again, but I'll try a couple of more times. Maybe it will grow on me? And then, off to the Frosted Mini Wheats. No fond memories of that when I was a kid!

Anonymous said...

Symlin might work-- people seem to have different responses to it, for some (like milemastersarah) it works really great.

But wouldn't you really rather have a nice little STEAK or DENVER OMELETTE for breakfast? Man those green peppers and ham chunks, with a good Salsa (505 'medium', thankyou!) and a bit of Swiss is a great way to fire up the morning!

fsck the cereal. I'm a man with taste, not a child or a horse! To keep the fat down, stay with a lean steak (i.e., trimmed top sirloin, NOT rib eye) and keep the portion really small- 4 to 6 ounces is plenty for breakfast. Or leave 1 or 2 of the yolks out of the omelette. As an extra bonus, the omelette fluffs up better with more white and less yolk.

You wanna real WAKE-UP call, trim that steak the night before, and marinate it by rubbing in Walker's Wood Jerk sauce (the wet kind, not the dry rub).

Eat breakfast like a man, not a horse.

Gary said...

Hey Rick, that meal sounds often, I do love a good steak once in a while. I will give that recipe a shot on the weekend.

No time during the week to rustle up a meal like that though; I'm up around 430-500 to head off to the gym most days!

Of course, I could ask my wife to do it, but I'd probably get a raw steak thrown at me at that hour- she's the night owl and I'm the early riser!