Testing for insulin and glucose levels

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #1

It would be great if I could test for these things in my blood (cheaply and easily of course) and I think it would be interesting to see what was going on right after I ate… During a daily fast… And at the end of a fast.

But also, to be totally honest, I want to see if artificial sweeteners are having much, if any effect on me personally. I keep reading that this is a grey area, and that it might be different for different people.

As much as I love my Splenda, if I found out it was spiking my blood levels like 2 or 3 maple bars, I’d be stupid not to stop eating it. But if I can see little or no difference, then I’m totally not concerned with consuming it.

What kind of tests should I be looking for ?

Edit; So I was looking at test kits, and it seems most are for glucose ? …which, correct me if I’m wrong, but if my glucose levels are down, my insulin levels should be good (up) correct ? No need to test for both ?

(Wendy) #2

There is no at home test for insulin so you can only test for glucose and or ketones.
If your glucose is low then you’re insulin should be also, though if your insulin resistant technically your insulin could be high to make your sugar lower. But if you are showing ketones then you’re insulin is low. (I personally don’t test but there is nothing wrong with testing your levels to help you check all those things.)

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #3

Hmmmm. I thought insulin and glucose did the opposite ? So if one was high, the other was low, no ? I saw a video that said something like this… But maybe their is another hormone I’m leaving out ?

I used a strip earlier today which said my ketones were in the 4 range. Down a bit from last week, but then I hear they often stop working after a bit anyway.

Anyway, I feel like I’m doing great… I just want to confirm this with numbers…

(Ian) #4

I use a Keto Mojo to measure both Blood Glucose and Ketones. Should help to check on how you respond to different foods or sweeteners.

#5

You may want to review what Keto Connect did for their testing…

(Jane) #6

You can do your own test on sweeteners with a blood glucose meter.

Get a baseline reading 3 hours after the last time you ate. Mix up the amount of Splenda or whatever you are testing in a glass of water and drink it.

Test your blood at 30 min, 1 hr and 2 hr after drinking the sweetener.

If your glucose DROPS it means you released insulin to lower your blood sugar. The sweetener should not raise your blood sugar but that doesn’t mean you don’t have an insulin response to it.

Since we can’t measure insulin directly at home we have to assume it from blood glucose readings. If no insulin response your blood sugar should not change ( by more than the accuracy of your meter).

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #7

And it’s better than the test strips ???

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #8

Cool. I’ve watched these guys before. Will watch this later. Thank you :slightly_smiling_face:

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #9

Okay, cool. Thank you. I’m definitely going to do this.
Thank you :slightly_smiling_face:

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #10

Blood ketone levels measure what matters. Test strips measure wasted ketones.

Many people’s urine ketones go down when fully fat adapted. Your body gets better at making and using what you need, not excess.

(Paul H) #11

So for Type II Diabetics… We eat Carbs or sugars that especially cause a rise in Blood Sugars for carb energy and we use insulin as a transport to get glucose into cells for either immediate energy or fat storage. Well over time there so much blood glucose in our system the Pancreas is making way more insulin than we should normally need to try and get the glucose processed. The excessive blood sugar/glucose damages numerous things in the body and cells become resistant to insulin even though the pancreas keeps producing. So we don’t process glucose efficiently and thus BG is always higher and and it’s a vicious circle… They are both high…with insulin trying to process BG. Low carb…reduces the need to produce insulin. Low carb is lower insulin. Too much Insulin is a sign we are storing too much or making fat. That’s why we want to minimize BG spikes. That’s how I see it for me. If I said anything wrong please set me straight.

(Bob M) #12

Only problem is glucagon. I’ve tested my blood sugar using a CGM with massive amounts of protein. Protein causes insulin to go up, but my blood sugar is stable. Why? Glucagon, which counteracts the rise in insulin.

I have not tested with sweeteners though, since I try not to eat those.

(Jane) #13

Are you saying since we can’t account for glucagon that the test for blood sugar drop after consuming 0 cal sweeteners isn’t relevant? I will stop recommending it if so.

I tested Splenda and liquid stevia in the manner I posted. My BG dropped over time with Splenda. Got a slight rise from stevia but within the +/- tolerance of my KetoMojo meter.