Blood glucose monitoring

“Canola oil-enriched diet may benefit people with diabetes” and “Canola Oil Helps Fight Type 2 Diabetics: Study” – headlines like all headlines grabbed my attention. But when I read further, the study¹ compared two groups of participants - (1) a low-glycaemic index diet with a canola oil–enriched bread provided as a supplement (test) and 2) a high wheat-fibre diet emphasizing whole-wheat foods. Further details - the test diet included 4.5 slices of canola oil–enriched whole-wheat bread whereas the control diet included 7.5 slices of whole-wheat bread without canola oil per day. And so, it’s not just canola oil.

I was diagnosed as having gestational diabetes at week 32 of my pregnancy with my #3. Being on the lower end of glucose intolerance (my reading was 8.0 slightly above the cut-off 7.8mmol/L for 2-hour 75g OGTT), I only had to do some diet changes, no drugs, no injections. But that alone was so so so hard. I went through dietary counselling with a nutritionist and was taught on carbohydrate exchange. I had to monitor my blood glucose level to ensure that it is between 4.4 to 5.5 mmol/L before meals and 5.5 to 6.6 mmol/L 2 hours after meals, 7 times a day for 2 consecutive days a week. The blood glucose monitoring allowed me to tweak my diet, know what and how much I can eat.

Recently, my friend Lynn was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at week 25 of her pregnancy. Lynn, below is the blood glucose monitoring record that I had used.

• Record the readings in the ‘Pre’ and ‘Post’ columns. ‘Pre’ and ‘Post’ refer to before meals and 2 hours after completion of meals, respectively. The ‘Late night’ reading is the one taken at three hours after completion of dinner.
• Record the time upon completion of a meal in the ‘Time’ columns. The ‘’Time +2H’ is the time that the ‘Post’ reading should be taken and the ‘Time +3H’ refers to the time for “Late night’ reading.
• The yellow bars are for dietary recordings, in particular, foods that contain sugar or will breakdown to sugar in the body
• If a reading falls out of the target reading, alter your diet and monitor until you achieve target readings for two consecutive days. 

 For example:

Reference

1. Effect of lowering the glycemic load with canola oil on glycemic control and cardiovascular risk factors: a randomized controlled trial. Diabetes Care. 2014 Jul;37(7):1806-14