Blood Sugar and food

[Earthwoods]

Why does pure meat or fish have any effect on blood sugar? I’be been a Diabetic all of my life and I can eat all the meat I want without effecting my blood sugar. Why are cats different?

 

[Julie and Honey]

Why does pure meat or fish have any effect on blood sugar? I’be been a Diabetic all of my life and I can eat all the meat I want without effecting my blood sugar. Why are cats different?

Good question, obviously zero carbs in 100% meat. If it has any effect, it is very minimal. May have something to do with cats metabolism?

Found this, although it is for humans, may explain it some...protein does have low level glucose production, albeit primarily in the liver, but small amount in blood..again, humans, but may be similar in cats?

• Protein: Although our bodies change some of the protein we eat into glucose, most of this glucose is stored in our liver and not released into our bloodstream. Eating protein usually has very little impact on blood sugar.

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Cat ain't that different if the food were pure protein it would be almost no carbs also for them, that is why for our sugar babies we look for food that is high in protein that makes it more likely to be low carb, but other ingredients added to the food like gravy, rice, peas, flour, etc can add a lot of carbs to the food

 

[Earthwoods]

Good question, obviously zero carbs in 100% meat. If it has any effect, it is very minimal. May have something to do with cats metabolism?

Found this, although it is for humans, may explain it some...protein does have low level glucose production, albeit primarily in the liver, but small amount in blood..again, humans, but may be similar in cats?

• Protein: Although our bodies change some of the protein we eat into glucose, most of this glucose is stored in our liver and not released into our bloodstream. Eating protein usually has very little impact on blood sugar.

Thank you for your reply. The reason I question the potential of pure meat to raise the BG is that my vet does this curve thing every few weeks to determine the amount of insulin my cat needs. The problem is she says only two meals a day and absolutely nothing in between. I asked about pure meat and she just insisted on the two meals. It’s difficult when you have eleven cats that are always interested in what their sister cat is eating, and ignore their own. I was trying to make everyone happy.

 

[Julie and Honey]

Thank you for your reply. The reason I question the potential of pure meat to raise the BG is that my vet does this curve thing every few weeks to determine the amount of insulin my cat needs. The problem is she says only two meals a day and absolutely nothing in between. I asked about pure meat and she just insisted on the two meals. It’s difficult when you have eleven cats that are always interested in what their sister cat is eating, and ignore their own. I was trying to make everyone happy.

Just so you know. You can do curves yourself at home, stress at the vet raises their blood sugar, so the vets data will not be as reliable as if testing at home. If you are not home testing, we would be happy to help introduce you to testing and help you along. Since you are on limited funds, you can use an inexpensive human meter to test, want one with strips that need small amount of blood, like .5. I am sure you have your hands full with that many cats! I saw you posted to Prozinc forum and you are diabetic yourself, so you understand testing is important for you to know how much insulin to take, it is the same for cats

Just let us know if you need help with anything else. If you want to create a signature for your kitty with particulars, that is helpful for people to better answer questions.

Setting up your signature (light grey text under a post). Here's how:
click on your name in the upper right corner of this page
click on "signature" in the menu that drops down
type the following in the box that opens: kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using and dosage amount /glucose meter you're using/what (s)he eats/any other meds or health issues (s)he has. You can add your name, and a geographic location (sometimes the time zone matters) Be sure to SAVE when you are finished.

Feel free to post future general health questions to main Health forum and Prozinc or dosing concerns to Prozinc forum.

Also as a side note, with decades of experience here, we have seen many times that vets are not 100% knowledgable about feline diabetes. A lot of their vet schooling only covers a day on the topic and if they don’t specialize in their practice with diabetes, some info they give may not always be the best for the cat, including food choices (low carb wet food is best and does not have to be expensive food from vets office), how much to feed, starting dose and increases, etc. May not be the case with your vet, but thought I would mention it.

 

[CandyH & Catcat]

can make a difference if you are insulin-dependent diabetic or type 2 -- if you are type 2, that's most likely what your cat has -- and as a general thing at least in humans, frequent small meals are the way to go, to help keep the swings of blood glucose smaller, lesser dips, lesser spikes

I can see the rationale for the feeding schedule AT THE VET since then they can see how high and how low your cat will go -- but for home use, and your cat's comfort, it's my opinion (and no I'm not a vet ! ) that it's better for long term, to feed snacks, small meals, at least for the first few hours after injection, and test if you can, at home, to find out when your cat hits nadir -- this is important information for you to monitor the insulin dose

welcome to the most knowledgeable community as far as feline diabetic management goes! glad you are here

 

[Veronica & Babu-chiri]

Thank you for your reply. The reason I question the potential of pure meat to raise the BG is that my vet does this curve thing every few weeks to determine the amount of insulin my cat needs. The problem is she says only two meals a day and absolutely nothing in between. I asked about pure meat and she just insisted on the two meals. It’s difficult when you have eleven cats that are always interested in what their sister cat is eating, and ignore their own. I was trying to make everyone happy.

As they mentioned is better to help you avoid big peaks and then big dips to give small meals, and the schedule is also a bit influenced on the insulin you are using if you are using the fast acting insulins like Vetsulin, Caninsulin or Humulin N then is important for him to eat at the same time you give the insulin besides having small snacks during the day, if you are using long lasting insulins like Lantus food schedule is not that important but is still good that he has some food after you gave the insulin and the schedule for his small snacks depends a lot on the cat and the time he has his nadir (lowest number during the day).

When you have more than one cat I think the best is to get everyone on a diabetic friendly diet that way you do not need to worry about him getting food that he shouldn't and the rest can see he's eating the same, the non diabetic even though they do not strictly need this diet they will very much benefit from it since it's a more species appropriate diet, mines became more active and even their coats improved