Dawn Phenomenon
Recently on my Keto Diet journey I've started waking with really high blood sugar. And yet I've not had carbs to cause this raise. I've since learned of a thing called the Dawn Phenomenon. This is where when your body is waking up after a nights sleep, your Liver releases glucose to give you that boost of energy to get cracking. As a diabetic I don't have the insulin to deal with the amount of glucose the Liver dishes out. It's like it doesn't care, as it's not its job to regulate glucose amount only supply it. I never noticed this before as I would always have breakfast and take a dose of insulin to counter the carbs. I didn't realise that I was also producing a load of extra glucose which was spiking my blood sugar higher than I'd have expected. Catch 22 But if I'm not consuming carbs, and yet my blood sugar rises, so I have to still counter with Insulin (though not as much as I used to), but insulin is counter fat burning. What to do? How to keep my blood sugar down when I wake. Well, I was on the diabetic.co.uk forum and had some great advice. Eat something which would act as a Liver Blocker. @ickihun says "I originally used nuts or cheese as a liver block when I followed lchf diet. I now use a small amount of carb which can absorb any floating insulin I have at the end of the day." So last night I had 6 hazelnuts around 10:00 and was in bed by 10:30. This morning I woke with blood sugars at 5 mmol/l. Smack bang perfect :) My ketosis was lower than I'd have liked, but it wasn't bad. Perhaps the nuts had a few extra carbs than I'd have liked. Experimentation is needed. So, if anyone is struggling with BS spikes in the morning, give this a try.
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Andrew CoyleI've been a Type 2 Diabetic for over 11 years, and now Insulin Dependant. I'm finally learning that the advice I've been given around nutrition and med management is wrong. Archives
September 2017
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