Latest / Mocktail Minutes / What's the deal with CGMs? with Cara

Transcript

What's the deal with CGMs? with Cara · Mocktail Minutes

0:21
Baylee: Hello everyone.
0:22
Baylee: Welcome to Mocktail Minutes.
0:24
Baylee: This is Baylee and this
0:26
Brianna: is Brianna.
0:27
Baylee: So we have our mocktail every episode, every Thursday.
0:30
Baylee: Today I'm drinking, it's called Sound.
0:32
Baylee: I found it on Thrive Market.
0:33
Baylee: It's the blood, blood, orange, vanilla, black tea, pretty tasty, not too bad.
0:39
Baylee: So fun option for you there.
0:42
Baylee: What are you drinking, Brianna?
0:43
Baylee: I
0:43
Brianna: have recess.
0:44
Brianna: I don't know if I'm just like late to the game and this is like a popular thing.
0:48
Brianna: I dunno, but it has magnesium and adaptogens in it.
0:51
Brianna: It's supposed to like calm your mood.
0:52
Brianna: I don't really know if it works, but.
0:55
Baylee: It's fun.
0:55
Baylee: It tastes good.
0:56
Baylee: That's a good one cuz tonight we're filming a little later.
0:58
Baylee: Usually we do Monday mornings, but we're doing, we're doing a night episode, so yeah.
1:02
Baylee: Little calming.
1:03
Baylee: Drink,
1:04
Brianna: calm myself.
1:05
Baylee: Yes.
1:06
Baylee: So we are actually doing a two episode launch today.
1:09
Baylee: So we have, our first episode is on blood sugar control and what you can do to help manage your blood sugar just beyond the food.
1:17
Baylee: But as our little bonus episode today, we have Cara with us to talk more about blood sugar.
1:23
Baylee: Go ahead and
1:23
Cara: introduce yourself, Cara.
1:25
Cara: Yeah, I'm Cara, I'm one of your fellow Metabolism Makeover coaches and I'm also a certified diabetes care and education specialist.
1:32
Cara: So I've been in the field of looking at blood sugars for about 14 years now.
1:38
Cara: So I just get really excited to talk about blood sugar balance and all the things that can impact it, that even go beyond food.
1:45
Cara: When Brianna was talking about her.
1:47
Cara: Adaptogenic drink or adaptogen.
1:49
Cara: She's drinking.
1:50
Cara: For Mother's Day, my husband got me this really cool.
1:53
Cara: It was almost like a kombucha but it was made with Rishi and a whole bunch of different mushroom blends.
1:59
Cara: It tasted like a cola drink.
2:01
Cara: Mm-hmm.
2:01
Cara: But that was really fun.
2:02
Cara: I think it was called like GTS Alive.
2:04
Cara: Have you guys seen the GT Kombucha brand?
2:07
Cara: I have not, I'll have to look at them.
2:10
Cara: Yeah.
2:10
Cara: So he found it at I'm in the Midwest, so he found it at Hy-Vee, but it had some erythritol but it didn't have any added sugars, but it tasted very much like a cola and it was made with mushrooms.
2:21
Cara: So if you're looking for more adaptogen drinks, that could be another one to add to your list.
2:25
Baylee: Yes.
2:26
Baylee: I love that.
2:26
Baylee: And you posted, didn't your husband get you an array of different drinks for Mother's Day?
2:31
Cara: Yeah, a whole bunch of different kombucha.
2:33
Cara: So it's, it's wild as I get these days and so think comes super often, but I do really enjoy him.
2:40
Baylee: Yeah.
2:40
Baylee: That's so fun.
2:41
Baylee: He knows the weight to your heart.
2:42
Cara: Yeah.
2:42
Cara: Yeah.
2:43
Cara: I
2:44
Baylee: love it.
2:44
Baylee: Yes.
2:45
Baylee: So we're gonna kind of jump in.
2:46
Baylee: We have some questions that some Instagram followers ask us that they wanted to know from you.
2:53
Baylee: So, I guess our first question would be kind of jumping into this.
2:57
Baylee: I have recently worn A C G M and I messaged you a lot about it.
3:01
Baylee: So do you wanna just kind of talk about when maybe the right time is to try out A C G M?
3:07
Baylee: Maybe who it
3:08
Cara: would be good for?
3:09
Cara: Yeah, absolutely.
3:10
Cara: So cgm, which is a continuous glucose monitor it's a device that you wear in your arm and it measures the glucose that's in your interstitial fluid, which follows the same path as your blood glucose, but it's a little.
3:23
Cara: Further behind it.
3:25
Cara: So I think before you wear it for anybody, I think it's good to understand that a blood glucose value versus a sensor glucose value, if you were to check them at the same time, they'd always be slightly different.
3:36
Cara: I bring that up because I get this question a lot.
3:37
Cara: So if you are someone who needs to, you know, monitor blood sugars for health reasons, so if you have diabetes or gestational diabetes, something along those lines, oftentimes people might feel like, oh, it's not accurate.
3:50
Cara: But it's just because there's a little bit of a lag time.
3:53
Cara: So to answer your first question anybody who wears one, I feel like you just need to be well educated on how it functions and what it's actually measuring so that you're not going into it feeling completely blinded.
4:06
Cara: I also feel very strongly that somebody has to be a little bit further on their health journey to wear a continuous glucose monitor.
4:13
Cara: I don't think it's for everybody to just go out and get one unless you have a little bit of an understanding what might impact your blood sugars.
4:21
Cara: And then again if you've had some training on the actual device itself and what it is you're looking at.
4:26
Cara: Cause otherwise it's like, you know, what does this number mean?
4:28
Cara: Why did it spike?
4:30
Cara: so many factors that could impact it, that if you can't kind of decipher some of that, then it might not be beneficial, right?
4:37
Brianna: It might not really give you any information you can use.
4:40
Brianna: That's a good point.
4:41
Cara: Yeah.
4:41
Cara: I think, oh, go ahead.
4:42
Cara: I think
4:42
Baylee: it's to where knowing kind of what you're looking at too is helpful and that's where like having a dietician in your back pocket is going to be beneficial because I think it would be kind of nerve-wracking to start wearing a CG m, have no idea what these numbers even mean.
4:57
Baylee: And even for me, like I did become a little obsessed with it just because I was curious.
5:02
Baylee: It wasn't like, An unhealthy type of obsession, but I would be on it just like staring at my blood sugar After meals you're doing?
5:10
Baylee: Yeah, like just looking to see what was happening.
5:13
Baylee: So I think it is important to know what's going on and something that, like I knew in my head, but I wasn't thinking about it.
5:20
Baylee: When I put it on I freaked out because I was like, there's a needle in my arm.
5:25
Baylee: It's not actually a needle.
5:26
Baylee: So, yeah.
5:30
Baylee: The needle does not stay just for everyone, so everyone knows.
5:35
Cara: Yeah, just like a little, I explain it as it's basically a little eyelash that is under your skin.
5:41
Cara: The needle is only there to insert the, the little eyelash so it can get your.
5:46
Cara: Your interstitial glucose values, but that's a good point.
5:49
Cara: There's a lot of people that have fear about a needle being in their arm.
5:52
Cara: It's not just you, Baylee.
5:54
Cara: Yeah.
5:54
Cara: And your video
5:55
Brianna: was funny.
5:56
Brianna: The reel you took of you like putting it in, like you were so hyped up and then you're like, oh, it's done.
6:00
Brianna: Like it
6:01
Baylee: was, it was so dramatic and ridiculous.
6:03
Baylee: And I tried to do it to myself and I was like, I cannot do it.
6:07
Baylee: I was like, I'm gonna throw up.
6:08
Baylee: I'm gonna pass out all just trying to do this.
6:10
Baylee: So I had to have my boyfriend do it for me.
6:13
Baylee: That's good.
6:14
Baylee: I did not even feel it go on until I looked at my arm and saw it sticking there, like, okay, now I'm gonna puke.
6:20
Baylee: I
6:20
Cara: know, I'm good.
6:21
Brianna: So one of the reasons why people would wear one is to kind of like gauge their, blood sugar, like how well their body is balancing blood sugar, what certain foods do what to your body, all that good stuff.
6:31
Brianna: So obviously after a meal, your blood sugar is gonna, rise, you're putting sugar into your body.
6:38
Brianna: So what is a typical range you would see after a meal?
6:41
Brianna: What would you consider a normal type of blood sugar spike?
6:45
Brianna: And maybe for how long?
6:47
Brianna: Yeah, from baseline, I guess I should say cuz every specific
6:50
Cara: numbers are different for everyone.
6:52
Cara: Yeah.
6:52
Cara: So if you are using a baseline it depends on truly what your starting point is and what your goals are.
7:00
Cara: So if you're somebody who feels like you don't have any glucose intolerance issues, you don't have diabetes, you're really doing this to make sure you have optimal function with your blood sugars, then I would say you shouldn't have more than a 30 point rise kind of throughout the day.
7:15
Cara: So if you started at 80, then ideally you might not spike above 110 after your meal.
7:23
Cara: I can tell you from personally wearing a CGM and then working with CGMs a lot, I think statistically like 85% of the population has some metabolic dysfunction, and so blood sugars when you have metabolic dysfunction are going to be impacted.
7:39
Cara: So if you have any of that, like I think keeping a range of 30 can be really hard.
7:44
Cara: I would say.
7:45
Cara: I.
7:45
Cara: For a lot of people if they can keep their spike to 40 or 50 or less, or just 40 or 50 like throughout the entire day as far as how your blood sugars move, that would probably still be very well controlled.
7:58
Cara: And then obviously if you're somebody with some known glucose intolerance, I think you have to look at all things like you do on the spectrum.
8:05
Cara: If you're someone who is maybe spiking 80 points with meals at a starting point, your goal might just be, can I get to a 60 point spike?
8:13
Cara: Or, you know, eventually a 50 point spike as my end goal.
8:18
Cara: So, yeah, it just depends on a person's starting point.
8:21
Cara: Yeah, I think
8:22
Brianna: that's important to mention because people always want exact numbers and it's like that's everyone's different.
8:27
Brianna: So is there foods that you see, like clients and patients react very differently to like, I feel like one of these is corn.
8:36
Brianna: I feel like corn is like the one that I know know of the most.
8:39
Brianna: Like some people have really high spikes and then some people don't.
8:42
Brianna: So like, what are some foods that may be considered like, oh, don't do it.
8:46
Brianna: That might not impact people like we think it does.
8:49
Cara: Okay.
8:49
Cara: Yeah.
8:50
Cara: You know, it, this is just so across the board, I would say bananas are something that I hear a lot of people have a fear around, like, oh, I can't eat bananas.
8:58
Cara: And really any fruit along those lines where sometimes they'll wear CGM and recognize that, oh my gosh, that food didn't spike me as much as I thought it would.
9:06
Cara: You can also have the opposite like you mentioned corn last summer.
9:11
Cara: I remember wearing one.
9:12
Cara: And it really depended on how I ate the corn, how much of a spike I would have, so I could easily spike my blood sugars, 60 to 70 points from eating corn, which is a lot higher than what my goals are.
9:25
Cara: But I could also eat corn just fine if I front load it with a bunch of soluble fiber.
9:30
Cara: And had, you know, protein and fat and other things with it.
9:33
Cara: And of course activity levels played a role in that too, depending on what activity was before and after.
9:38
Cara: So that's a hard question to answer because there's so many factors that can go into it.
9:43
Cara: And even just circling back to your original question, like what should a person's blood sugar be after a meal there?
9:49
Cara: Because there's so many things that can factor into it, like a woman's cycle, what your stress levels are, what your sleep was the night before, how you moved throughout the day, that even when you wear a cgm, I think you have to be very a aware that it might not just be the food.
10:04
Cara: Right.
10:04
Baylee: Yeah, that's an important point.
10:06
Baylee: And even when I was wearing my C G M, it was funny, well, funny looking back, not funny at the time, but I actually had a panic attack while I was wearing it.
10:15
Baylee: And so when I was looking at the graph, it honestly, if you have ever been a Six Flags, it looked like the Mr.
10:21
Baylee: Freeze ride where my blood sugar just went like straight up.
10:24
Baylee: I was like, oh my gosh.
10:25
Baylee: More than ice cream.
10:27
Baylee: Literally more than anything I ever ate a panic attack, increased my blood sugar the most.
10:32
Cara: Yeah, it's crazy.
10:33
Cara: that's so true.
10:34
Cara: Like I, when I've worn one, I've even seen that with like we get so used to just accepting that we have daily stress.
10:40
Cara: So every morning when I get my kids out the door for school is always a rush.
10:45
Cara: And I mean, every morning when I would have that CGM on, I would have a spike and it would be nothing to do with what I ate.
10:52
Cara: I've literally
10:53
Brianna: started breathing techniques during the morning for that exact reason.
10:57
Brianna: Cause I'm like, I know like my blood sugar is through the roof, like trying to get the kids out the door.
11:03
Brianna: So yeah, that kind of brings us to another question and you kind of touched on it a little bit, but what besides, cuz people I think are so focused, and you probably see this a lot cuz you work with people with diabetes, but they're so focused on just foods and there's so many other things that impact your blood sugar.
11:18
Brianna: So, Yeah.
11:19
Brianna: Do you wanna touch any more of those?
11:21
Brianna: I mean, I know you kind of listed'em, but,
11:22
Cara: yeah.
11:23
Cara: Well, I mean, we can even start with, you know, when you mentioned the breathing exercises.
11:27
Cara: One of the benefits to wearing a CGM is, Across the board, I think that we can hear that stress impacts our blood sugars or, you know, we can hear that, okay, it helps to eat fiber before your meal before you eat the rest of your carbohydrates.
11:42
Cara: But there is really a lot of power in seeing those numbers yourself and how you, you personally respond to it.
11:48
Cara: So other factors that.
11:50
Cara: You know, just to touch on the stress and you, you're asking, what else can really impact blood sugars besides food Stress is huge, and I loved that when you brought up the breathing techniques.
12:00
Cara: So there's been lots of research that has been documented in practices of yoga and meditation and how powerful things like yoga and meditation can be to lower a person's overall baseline blood sugar.
12:14
Cara: Other things would be if you have sleep apnea, I can't tell you the number of people that are like, oh, I don't sleep well, I don't sleep well.
12:20
Cara: And you know, we get'em to wear their C P A P machine and all of a sudden their blood sugars just drop 15 to 20 points and without them changing anything else.
12:28
Cara: And it's because again, like your body is stressed out when you're not breathing well.
12:33
Cara: Yeah.
12:33
Cara: So that can be huge.
12:35
Cara: You know, I think the thing too is like when we have metabolic dysfunction, Which is what type two diabetes is, right?
12:41
Cara: It's a form of metabolic dysfunction.
12:43
Cara: The other thing I, I think that it's really powerful to know is your goal when you're trying to address these blood sugars is really how do you get to the root cause, which is insulin resistance?
12:54
Cara: And what are all of the things that you can do to improve insulin resistance?
12:59
Cara: Which it takes time, like that takes a lot of lifestyle modification.
13:02
Cara: Sometimes it's looking at mineral intake.
13:05
Cara: I can't tell you how much this is overlooked.
13:08
Cara: We focus so much on macros, so you know, what's your protein carb fat, you know, what are you eating there?
13:14
Cara: But we don't look at, are they getting enough magnesium or potassium on a daily basis because those minerals are very powerful and your cellular metabolism.
13:23
Cara: And so that is still food related, but I think that gets overlooked cuz we don't veer in on that.
13:29
Cara: It's not the
13:29
Brianna: typical, like your macros, and you're like, how much magnesium are you eating?
13:34
Brianna: What's,
13:35
Cara: what's magnesium?
13:36
Baylee: Yeah, we gotta remember those micros too.
13:40
Baylee: And another thing that is kind of weird with blood sugars, doesn't, alcohol affect our blood sugars kind of weird where it will make our blood sugar decrease, but then also if we're having like a really sugary drink, it's gonna affect it too.
13:52
Baylee: And then even I've read like the next day you can have lower blood sugars in the morning, which can give you that more, that hangover feeling where you just feel even worse.
14:02
Cara: Yeah, absolutely.
14:03
Cara: So it's funny that you mentioned the alcohol because sometimes I'll have these people that really like their nightcap.
14:09
Cara: Mm-hmm.
14:09
Cara: And they're like, I need to do this because when I have my nightcap, I have lower blood sugars in the morning.
14:14
Cara: And the way I explain that is when our body is detoxing, it can't focus on making sugar and part of our liver's role is to also make glucose or sugar for us.
14:24
Cara: So basically when you first start drinking, it spits out like whatever little stores of glucose that you might have.
14:30
Cara: But then it doesn't make anymore until it completely detoxes or gets through most of the detox of the alcohol.
14:37
Cara: So yeah, you can end up having low blood sugars anywhere from like, Four to six hours later is oftentimes what I'll see with people.
14:46
Cara: But you have to realize the bigger impacts of that too.
14:48
Cara: So like alcohol disrupts sleep, so then long term we know poor sleep can actually raise again your baseline blood sugars.
14:56
Cara: So it's one of those kind of like fad diets.
14:58
Cara: I always say you can see a potentially a short-term.
15:03
Cara: Fix when it comes to your blood sugars, but long term you're probably not doing your body any benefits by routinely drinking alcohol to lower it.
15:12
Cara: Yeah.
15:13
Cara: It's
15:13
Baylee: probably not a good practice to get into.
15:16
Baylee: Yeah.
15:17
Baylee: And just like all the other things that alcohol does to your body, I wouldn't recommend it, but yeah, it definitely affects your blood sugar.
15:23
Baylee: And kind of going along with this, so we ideally wanna keep our blood sugar kind of between 60 and one 20.
15:28
Baylee: Correct.
15:29
Baylee: Like when we're looking at
15:30
Cara: Yeah.
15:31
Cara: Yep.
15:31
Cara: If you have optimal metabolic function, those are great numbers.
15:34
Cara: Mm-hmm.
15:35
Baylee: So if someone is not wearing a C G M, how can you kind of gear if you're in the right range?
15:41
Cara: So you can feel it sometimes.
15:43
Cara: So if you have big swings, I think you can notice a difference.
15:47
Cara: So if your blood sugar drops really quickly, sometimes even if it's not low, people will feel maybe a little bit shaky, or they'll just notice that, you know, they're more irritable.
15:57
Cara: Maybe they feel tired, or they have an energy crash when their blood sugar drops fast.
16:02
Cara: Indigestion.
16:03
Cara: So I know people have said that.
16:05
Cara: Oh, I noticed.
16:06
Cara: Like their heartburn will flare up when they have big blood sugar spikes and swings.
16:10
Cara: So, yeah, but then you also have to know that some people are so out of tune with their body or we just think that, okay, we can have mood swings or we don't have good energy because of a poor night's sleep that it's easy to miss some of those like signs that you might be having.
16:25
Cara: There's a reason why like diabetes or high blood sugars or, you know, fatty liver disease, which is all this like metabolic dysfunction, right?
16:33
Cara: It, it's a reason why it's sometimes called like, a silent killer because sometimes we just don't really feel it.
16:38
Cara: And then sometimes we do when we have big swings.
16:41
Cara: Yeah, I think, yeah, usually when
16:43
Baylee: my, when I can feel it getting low, I get pretty shaky.
16:46
Baylee: And it was funny when I was wearing the C G M and I was like, I'm kind of hungry, but I ate like two hours ago.
16:53
Baylee: I'm not usually hungry.
16:54
Baylee: And I looked at my blood sugar, I was like, oh, my blood sugar's dropping pretty quickly, so I would get
16:58
Cara: like hungry.
17:00
Cara: Yeah.
17:00
Cara: Yeah.
17:00
Cara: That's another good way to gauge it.
17:02
Cara: Mm-hmm.
17:03
Cara: I think
17:03
Brianna: it's hard for people to judge it because we, like you said, we're really out of tune with how our body works and how we should feel.
17:10
Brianna: And most people think it's bad to feel hunger or like, you know?
17:13
Brianna: Mm-hmm.
17:14
Brianna: You should, you know, don't feel hungry, like push through it, you're not hungry or like curb your appetite with like this supplement or whatever.
17:19
Brianna: So it's, it's hard to like really gauge, okay, is my blood sugar too high?
17:25
Brianna: Is it too low?
17:26
Brianna: If you're kind of at a tune.
17:28
Brianna: Without your body and like your normal hunger
17:30
Cara: cues.
17:30
Cara: Yeah, absolutely.
17:32
Cara: Yep.
17:32
Cara: I will say too, sometimes
17:33
Baylee: I kind of, when I'm talking to clients and everything, I compare it to, if you were to go to Olive Garden, you have breadsticks, you have a big bowl of pasta, and then you come home and you're like, I need a two hour nap.
17:44
Baylee: That means you probably overdid it on the carbs.
17:46
Baylee: Like you get to feel really tired
17:49
Cara: too.
17:49
Cara: Yes, absolutely.
17:51
Cara: Mm-hmm.
17:51
Brianna: I think this might, this might be one of our last ones unless you have anything to add, but I know this gets asked a lot, so what can cause like low sugar dips during the night?
18:02
Brianna: yeah, like I get this question a lot are people are constantly like waking up in the middle of the night and like, well, why is my blood sugar dipping?
18:08
Brianna: Like, what can do that and what can you do to help it?
18:10
Cara: so that's a great question.
18:12
Cara: There again are several different factors, but one of the things that I'll most commonly see is actually undereating carbs during the day.
18:20
Cara: So you know, if you never eat carbs or you are a very strict low carb diet, then that can definitely factor in.
18:28
Cara: So if people add like a starchy carb or some form of carbs to every single meal oftentimes that will help to stabilize it out.
18:37
Cara: Another factor that I'll see as far as like you know, evening dips would be if people are trying to fast for too long.
18:44
Cara: So I know people will talk about doing like a 12, 14, 16 hour fast and, you know, our blood sugar is meant to kind of ebb and flow and so, when it dips down, our liver is like our safety mechanism and it will kick in gear and make glucose for us at night.
19:01
Cara: That's why people can go days without eating cuz their body is still getting forms of glucose.
19:06
Cara: But we don't necessarily want it to always dip down like that.
19:09
Cara: We like to have some reserves put in.
19:11
Cara: And so even just looking at supper and maybe doing a few more carbs at supper or shortening that fasting window can make a big difference.
19:18
Cara: Activity levels.
19:20
Cara: So maybe somebody is like, okay, I eat carbs throughout the day.
19:23
Cara: I don't fast for more than 10 to 12 hours.
19:26
Cara: Sometimes if you have days where you're super active again, you're gonna burn through those carbs faster because it's carbs are quick energy.
19:32
Cara: So that could be another thing that needs to be analyzed as.
19:36
Cara: As far as you know, maybe altering that.
19:38
Cara: Another thing that can be really beneficial is, you know, remembering that we talk a lot about carbs, but fat really is the best blood sugar stabilizer.
19:47
Cara: So if you are someone who is prone to having low blood sugars at night, then having a snack that contains, 10 to 15, 20 grams of fat before bed, along with maybe a little carb, can really just help to like slow down how quickly your body is going to.
20:03
Cara: Digest that without getting that dip throughout the night.
20:06
Cara: I really liked,
20:07
Baylee: Dates in peanut butter or dates and cream cheese, kind of like a before bed type of snack and just having a few of those.
20:14
Baylee: And I found that to be helpful.
20:15
Baylee: But that is something that I have seen a lot of people where like I am sleeping terribly.
20:20
Baylee: So then they start working on their blood sugar management just through changing up their meals during the day and they're like, now I'm sleeping.
20:26
Baylee: And a lot of times it's because our liver is essentially waking us up with our blood sugar dropping.
20:32
Cara: Yeah.
20:32
Brianna: Mm-hmm.
20:33
Brianna: Just another reason why low, low carb is not great guys.
20:36
Cara: Yes.
20:38
Cara: And actually speaking of that, again, like there are so many studies on low, low carb that if you are someone that has diabetes or known glucose intolerance long-term, it typically makes your blood sugars worse.
20:51
Cara: Mm-hmm.
20:52
Cara: And you get.
20:52
Cara: More volatility with your blood sugars cuz you lose some of that metabolic flexibility.
20:57
Cara: And we alter our gut biome, so we have to remember a lot of carbs contain prebiotics, which are gonna feed our good gut bacteria.
21:03
Cara: And if we alter that or we're not getting enough of that, then it's gonna, again, long term down the road, we're gonna probably see worse results than what we're striving for.
21:13
Baylee: Do you have kind of on the low end recommendation of how many carbs people should aim to get for at least in a
21:20
Cara: day?
21:21
Cara: Yeah, and you know, because of how our body works, I always say it's really more per meal.
21:26
Cara: And there's always some individualization here, but.
21:29
Cara: I would say at the end of the day, if you are not probably getting in like at least close to a hundred grams of carb for most people you're probably doing your body a little bit of disservice.
21:41
Cara: And that's even still on the low end.
21:43
Cara: You know, again, there's some different things that can factor into that, and that's total carb.
21:47
Cara: That's not just starchy carb.
21:49
Cara: So I think we have to remember that this doesn't necessarily have to be all starchy carbs, but.
21:55
Baylee: Yeah.
21:55
Baylee: And then kind of thinking like per meal too.
21:58
Baylee: I think I've read before it's like 60 grams is kind of that high end threshold, if usually what our
22:04
Cara: body can handle.
22:05
Cara: Yeah.
22:06
Cara: Yep.
22:06
Cara: I usually tell people that anywhere between, again, depending on activity level, anywhere between like 20 to like 30 grams of carb is probably good on the lower side for most.
22:16
Cara: And then, yeah, 60 grams as an upper end, unless you're super, super active.
22:21
Cara: Most of us, probably more than that.
22:24
Cara: I'm not, yeah, me either.
22:26
Cara: Me
22:28
Baylee: wanna be, I'm not.
22:29
Baylee: That's another question.
22:30
Baylee: Yeah.
22:31
Baylee: I try to be, it just doesn't work out.
22:33
Baylee: I'm not an athlete anymore.
22:34
Baylee: It's, it's fine.
22:37
Baylee: Like what are your thoughts, cuz I know a lot of people, if you wanna share your thoughts on like, fruit, carrots, potatoes, because there's a lot on social media where they're like, Don't eat fruit, don't eat blueberries, don't eat carrots cuz they're too high in sugar.
22:51
Baylee: I don't agree with that.
22:53
Baylee: What are
22:53
Cara: your thoughts there?
22:55
Cara: Yeah, a hundred percent agree with not agreeing with that.
22:59
Cara: and because we were touching base earlier on just the importance of micronutrients.
23:05
Cara: I think statistically I was reading that 96% of the population we are deficient in potassium.
23:13
Cara: Yeah.
23:13
Cara: And this is really potassium that's available to us at a cellular level.
23:17
Cara: And all the foods that you just mentioned.
23:18
Cara: So I say the biggest sources of potassium are fruits.
23:22
Cara: Roots.
23:23
Cara: So potatoes, beets, winter squash, and probably dairy.
23:28
Cara: But those are like the three biggest things where we get the highest amounts of potassium.
23:31
Cara: And again, if we're not getting those good minerals, then we can have worse blood sugars because not everything's gonna be available at a cellular level, and that impacts insulin sensitivity, how magnesium is gonna function, because magnesium and potassium really like each other.
23:49
Cara: So, yeah.
23:50
Cara: That's a little bit of science.
23:52
Cara: Fruits and roots are awesome for micro minerals, so if we cut'em out again Yeah.
23:57
Cara: Not a good thing.
23:58
Cara: Yeah, and I've
23:59
Baylee: kind of seen people too where they get scared to almost eat the blueberries, so then they're choosing like some high fiber cracker.
24:06
Baylee: I'm like, no.
24:07
Baylee: If you're choosing between a high fiber cracker and berries, I would go for the berries if that's what you really want.
24:12
Cara: Berries.
24:13
Cara: Yeah.
24:13
Cara: Yeah,
24:13
Brianna: that too.
24:14
Brianna: Not only.
24:15
Brianna: Yeah.
24:15
Brianna: Not only is that's what you want, but there's so much more nutrients.
24:18
Brianna: Mm-hmm.
24:19
Brianna: In foods like Whole Foods,
24:21
Cara: fruits.
24:22
Cara: Yeah, I think when we got really into counting macros and I mean there's so many fad diets too, like.
24:30
Cara: Octavia or Ideal protein where we get so used to eating these packaged foods that are supposed to be fortified with all these nutrients, and then it fits into this perfect little macronutrient box that it just pulls us so far away from being connected to the Whole Foods and understanding like, you know what it does for us.
24:53
Cara: So, Yes.
24:55
Baylee: eat your fruits and vegetables.
24:56
Cara: Yeah, don't be
24:57
Brianna: afraid of'em.
24:58
Brianna: And don't be one of those people that think, I don't need carbs cuz my body makes carbs.
25:03
Cara: Don't do that.
25:04
Cara: You'll feel better if you eat carbs.
25:05
Cara: Absolutely.
25:07
Cara: All right.
25:08
Brianna: Yeah, so this was really insightful.
25:10
Brianna: Thank you so much.
25:10
Brianna: I know this is like, you know, blood sugar is like one of those things where.
25:15
Brianna: I don't know.
25:16
Brianna: I just feel like it's getting more and more popular, which is fantastic cuz people are starting to think about their blood sugar before they need to per se.
25:23
Brianna: So, but I also know that like continuous glucose monitors, some people think like you have absolutely have to have one.
25:29
Brianna: So I, yeah, in the beginning,
25:31
Cara: like if you don't know what you're doing with it, Yeah, probably not great for you.
25:36
Cara: there's other things too that like people could ask for without having to wear something.
25:41
Cara: So I'm a big fan of getting a fasting insulin level.
25:44
Cara: If you suspect that you have some metabolic dysfunction, that'll give you some good insight into maybe what your insulin resistance levels are, and you don't need a CGM for that.
25:54
Cara: Yeah.
25:55
Cara: So absolutely.
25:56
Baylee: This was super helpful.
25:57
Baylee: Thank you for answering all of our questions.
25:59
Baylee: Is there anything else you want to add or anything we
26:01
Cara: missed?
26:02
Cara: No, I mean this is a complex topic so we could go on and on, but I really good little taste of some of the things too maybe consider when it comes to blood sugar management.
26:13
Cara: So yeah.
26:13
Cara: All right.
26:13
Cara: Thanks for, it was fun.
26:14
Cara: This is my first podcast, you guys.
26:17
Cara: You did great.
26:18
Cara: Yeah, you did awesome.
26:19
Baylee: No, thank you for coming on.
26:21
Baylee: And do you wanna share too, where people can find you and
26:23
Cara: connect with you?
26:24
Cara: Yeah, absolutely.
26:25
Cara: Right now the best way to connect with me is through social media.
26:28
Cara: So at Real Digs Nutrition.
26:30
Cara: My name's Kara and I'd love to see people pop over to my page and ask me questions if they have any blood sugar ones that come up.
26:37
Cara: Yes.
26:38
Baylee: All right.
26:38
Baylee: Well, thank you everyone for joining and I hope you enjoyed this little bonus episode.
26:44
Baylee: Feel free to ask any questions over on Instagram to any one of us and we'll point you in the right direction and get'em answered.
26:50
Baylee: All right, we'll see you guys next week.