Can i use post-prandial glucose & ketones in order to infer insulin response?

ketones
insulin
testing
glucose

(sue) #1

over the past couple of weeks i’ve been getting familiar with what my fasting and 1-hr, 2-hr post-prandial glucose readings are.

(in mg/dL)
during extended fasting: 50-70
normal fasting: 80-87
1 hr pp: 90-120 (depending on what i eat)
2 hr pp: 90-110

so when i eat a home-cooked ketogenic meal my glucose barely peaks and remains relatively steady, like 85, to 95, then to 90.

but recently i started VSL#3 DS, a probiotic which contains maltose. i emailed the company and got the nutritional info for it.

image

yesterday i took 2 packets (~13g total carbohydrates) with about 1 tbs of sour cream right before my meal (beef with korean fermented bean paste cooked in lard with green beans)

i measured glucose & ketones

fasted: glucose 86 mg/dL, ketones 5.3 mmol
1 hr pp: glucose 92 mg/dL, ketones 5.5 mmol
2 hr pp: glucose 93 mG/dL, ketones 3.5 mmol

i did not do any activity and sat on the couch during this time. so i noticed my glucose remained very steady but then ketones dropped at the 2 hour mark. Can I test post-prandial glucose + ketones in this manner and somehow use that information to infer what my insulin response is to certain foods?

background info: 27 yo female, diagnosed pre-diabetic, borderline diabetic in the past, PCOS. ketogenic on and off past 4 years, stuck with it since July 2017 and down 40 pounds this year (currently about 142 lbs). most recent HbA1c from August was 5.0% and fasted insulin was 6.2. i’ve taken metformin in the past but not for the last 4 years. i currently fast 2-4 days a week, and estimate that i’m between 27%-30% body fat (only have a hand held body fat monitor)

the reason i’m interested in this is because if glucose numbers stay steady it’s difficult to determine whether i can tolerate things like sweeteners, the maltose in my probiotic rx, etc.

for example, i had one outlier 2 hr post-prandial of 140 mg/dL and i suspect that’s because a bit after my meal ended i took the VSL#3 as a shot with water, and not mixed with fat/protein. don’t know what my ketone readings were that day however.

TIA!


#2

BG is the best proxy for insulin. A rise in BG after consuming sweeteners (or whatever you wish to test) is an indication of it eliciting an insulin response. If you test it prior to and 30 minutes later and its risen by more than 10%, whatever it has an effect on you.

The fact that when your BG rises it takes a long time to fall back down, is merely indicative of your IR.