Gestational Diabetes: What do you eat?

[SoFullofHope]

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[atomic sagebrush]

My opinion is that skim/lowfat dairy is terrible for gestational diabetes and will fall totally out of favor within the next 5 years. Skim/lowfat dairy has many more carbs than full fat and I wonder if the reason why your blood sugar rose after eating the berries and yogurt was the low fat dairy and not so much the berries. Eating skim milk cheese is TERRIBLE and I strongly advise you not do that. full fat cheese has NO carbs! Much of the diet advice for gestational diabetes was based on research done in Type 2, obese, middle aged, nonpregnant diabetics. I really do urge you to eat full fat dairy and NO skim.

Here is a link to what I find to be a very helpful site on GD. https://www.gestationaldiabetes.co.uk/gestational-diabetes-diet/ (they sell stuff, but most of the info is free)

Starving yourself and your baby, eating only low fat food and very few calories - this is not the way to go. This will be just as harmful as another 2 weeks on a slightly imperfect diet. I really urge you not to get so hung up on every morsel of food that you are afraid to eat anything. Just be sensible, focus on protein, healthy fats (avocado, eggs, and nuts are great), and eat lower carb foods. The carbs you do eat, choose healthy carbs like vegetables, whole grains, and YES even fruit. Some fruits are better than others and see the link above, there's a very well done list of the fruits that are better. Berries, grapefruit, kiwi, tart apples.

[Kelbear]

Are you able to exercise at all - like gentle to moderate paced walking for 20-30 mins? I had gestational diabetes with ds1 which I was able to control with diet and regular gentle exercise. I found gentle exercise 1-2 times a day for 20-30 mins did wonders for my levels. As atomic suggests try to fill up on veggies (high fibre helps with pregnancy constipation too) and whole grains. I would try swapping to full fat dairy instead of skim too as this worked better for me. It was also suggested to me to eat 5 smaller meals or 3 meals and 2 snacks rather than larger meals and also protein like chicken etc is good to help you feel full but not raise sugar levels. Make sure you eat protein of some sort with each meal or snack (meat, chicken, egg, cheese etc ) as this helps too

[BunnyGirl19]

I get GD every pregnancy. I also strongly agree with not eating low fat or skim options. Full fat is better at keeping sugar levels stable. Berries and citrus fruits like grapefruit are ones that are okay to eat. Meats and cheeses are good food options as well. I’m probably a bit of an outlier on this, but I cannot eat whole grain options for carbs and have decent levels. My sugars go really high and stay high for hours. My nutritionist recommended rye as a good option for grains/carbs that are good for sugar levels and it seems to agree with my body.

[SoFullofHope]

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[SoFullofHope]

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[SoFullofHope]

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[Kelbear]

Dear Kelbear,

Thank you so much!

They say that, basically, bedrest would be best for me due to the notch I've got, but with a toddler, that doesn't work anyway, so moderate-pace walking is definitely an option as I've gotta go shopping for fresh stuff for him every day anyway and if I choose shops which are a bit further away, I'll easily manage to walk about 1/2 hour each way :-)

I'm eating a lot of veggies already but I haven't always combined them with protein, so I'll definitely do that, and having several smaller meals sounds much more doable as well as there's not so much time to get hungry in between 0:-)

How is your son now? Did your GD harm him in any way or was your dietary change enough for him not to get affected? *hoping for the latter*

My son was born healthy and on the smaller side (6 pound 8) so he had no ill effects from my gestational diabetes at all. He is now a healthy bouncing 2 year old. I really hope just trying a few different things in your diet helps and if you can exercise just a little that might help too. Try not to stress as it is unlikely that your Bub will be adversely affected in just a few weeks. Definitely eat if you feel hungry, just try to keep in mind less processed high sugar carbs and more veggies, protein, and smaller amounts of carbs

[SoFullofHope]

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[SoFullofHope]

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[atomic sagebrush]

What do you mean by spike, though?? I am concerned they have explained nothing to you and you are mistaking normal rises in blood sugar with spikes. And how fast is it dropping after you eat?

You cannot live on just cucumber. Your baby needs food!! Try cutting out the bread first before the dairy because you need that fat for your baby's brain to develop. We gotta figure out something for you to eat here, even if you do end up on insulin because starving yourself is not going to work.

[atomic sagebrush]

And what about avocados, is that something you can get ahold of?

[SoFullofHope]

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[atomic sagebrush]

People are told anything from 130 to 145. Did you test again at the 2 hour mark?

I think that if you are having some readings in normal range (both fasting and not fasting) that is very encouraging.

Some people just can't do the bread. I would see what happens without the bread. The important thing is NOT to replace the dairy with SKIM. It may end up you can't do dairy (or at least milk) but we just don't want you to have skim dairy because it is worse than nothing.

It is not unusual for blood sugar to vary like that because it's not just the food you eat but lots of other things that go into it (the amount of exercise you've had, the time of day, etc) It's not necessarily that you're doing anything wrong, just that the body is complicated and a lot of variables come into play.

[BunnyGirl19]

Dear BunnyGirl19,

Thank you very, very much!

It's really mean that you get GD during every pregnancy :-( That must be so tough!
Has it ever negatively affected any of your children or were they all born healthy? I really hope they were!

Full-fat sounds much tastier, and if it's even better to keep blood sugar levels stable, that's definitely what I'll do :-)
I think I'll really have to give the berries another chance then; sounds like it was really the low-fat yogurt rather than the berries that sent my levels up :-P And I just loooove grapefruit!

Oh no, GD with every pregnancy and unable to tolerate whole grain? Now that's really mean; I am so sorry to hear :'-(
However, using rye wouldn't have necessarily occurred to me, so I'll definitely include it in my meal plans from now on as well!

My kiddos were all healthy and within an average range for their gestations. They were a little early due to having a blood clotting disorder, but my GD was well controlled. I did end up on small amounts of insulin around 28 weeks with all of them because eventually my pancreas just doesn’t produce enough insulin to handle low carb meals. I was told that during pregnancy the pancreas needs to produce 4x the normal amount of insulin.

[BunnyGirl19]

My parameters were under 95 fasting and under 120 two hours after a meal. My fasting numbers were harder to control until we figured out what was causing them to be high. When you go too long without eating your sugars get low and your body tries to compensate by burning fat stores (I think?) to make more glucose, which causes your levels to rise. What ended up keeping my levels in the right range for fasting was to set an alarm about the midway point between dinner and when I normally wake up in the morning. When I got up I’d drink an 8 oz glass of whole milk and then go back to bed. My levels would then be in a good range when I woke up. It’s quite possible you are experiencing a similar bottoming out and rebound effect with your blood sugar levels.

[SoFullofHope]

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[SoFullofHope]

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[atomic sagebrush]

RE testing 1 and 2 hours after a meal - I was just thinking it may reassure you to see your number still dropping 2 hours after a meal.

The fasting blood sugar is something a lot of people struggle with and you may find this helpful. https://www.gestationaldiabetes.co.uk/high-fasting-levels/

:agree: with trying to stop the bread - the fat for your baby's brain is really really important esp. if she may come on the early side so we need to do what it takes to keep getting a good level of fat every day.

Huge (((hugs))) - I really do hope this will prove to be nothing to worry about at all soon.

[SoFullofHope]

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[atomic sagebrush]

Crossing fingers, toes, and eyes that you will not need the insulin!! FXFXFX:fx:

[SoFullofHope]

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[atomic sagebrush]

Oh that's great news So Full!! You got this!!! :superhero:

[SoFullofHope]

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[SoFullofHope]

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[atomic sagebrush]

I'm going to look on the bright side here, SF, and say that maybe this is just what needed to happen for your baby to get enough weight on in case she does come a little early. I am very sure it's no fun at all having to do the insulin but sometimes it helps me to think "well maybe this happened for some reason I don't know and it's so things can come out ok in the end." I know that's obnoxious, probably! :) I am hoping that it's very easy and not traumatic at all for you. :heart:

[SoFullofHope]

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