“Glucometers Gone Wild”: One Man, One Glucometer, 10 Very Sore Fingers!

A family practice doctor I work with recently introduced me to the Chicken, Apple & Cranberry Garden Fresh Salad at Burger King. It is elegantly described on the Burger King website as:

“Our Chicken, Apple & Cranberry Garden Fresh Salad perfectly blends seven premium lettuces, crisp apples, sweet dried cranberries, and crumbly blue cheese. Served with Ken’s Apple Cider Vinaigrette and topped with your choice of juicy tendercrisp or tendergrill chicken.” – BK Marketing

“Doctor I ate Healthy – I Got The Salad”

I will preface this by saying that this is not a “healthy” nor slow carb meal alternative by any means, but I am on the road and it sounded great, so I indulged. Of course I went with the TENDERCRISP chicken, because both options were “tender” so I figured what would be the harm?

I am currently testing a theory that I can better modulate my food choices by monitoring my blood glucose response to certain foods. So, I have been poking my finger and checking my blood glucose levels often, usually 6-8 times per day.

Today, I checked my finger stick blood sugar after a 2 mile run combined with a 30 minute gym workout, and then 1 hour after my Chicken, Apple & Cranberry Garden Fresh Salad. I repeated my finger stick glucose again roughly 2 hours later.

I also added one 12 oz. ice cold Corona for good measure.

Upon returning home I decided to search the Burger King website for nutrition data to see just how exactly my blood sugars were responding to certain carbohydrate loads. As you will see below, the above meal with the crispy chicken has about 54 grams of net carbs and 37 grams of sugars (or simple, “fast” carbs). This does not include the croutons which were another 9 grams of carbohydrate.

[note color=”#e5eef6″]Note: I ran and worked out, you may not know this but a pre-meal workout can have a glucose lowering effect that can last for up to 16 hours. I hope in the future to repeat this test with the same exact meal minus the exercise. I predict a significant elevation of my post meal (postprandial) blood glucose.[/note]

What if I didn’t drink the beer? Or what if I replaced my Corona with a nice Merlot? What if I chose the “Tendergrill” chicken instead? These are going to make some pretty interesting future tests. I also took 300 mg of alpha lipoic acid in the morning. I suspect this made no difference at all in my post-dinner blood glucose levels. It will be interesting to test the effects of ALA on my postprandial blood glucose measurements in the future.

Here is the nutrition data of my crouton laden “sinless salad” with a side by side comparison to a traditional BK whopper meal. (click on individual images to enlarge)

BK Salad nutrition data	BK Whopper nutrition data

What blew my mind was what happened when I toyed with the selections next to various ingredients on the Whopper meal, specifically the ketchup. Go ahead and give it a try, it will give you a whole new respect for those little packets of Heinz 57.

So here are my blood glucose readings:

• Pre-meal (Chicken, Apple & Cranberry Garden Fresh Salad at Burger King) and post-workout blood glucose: 82 (not bad considering I downed a stale croissant that I snatched from the free continental breakfast table this morning 30 minutes prior to my workout)
• 1 hour post meal and 3 hour post-workout blood glucose: 105
• 2 hour post meal and 4 hour post-workout blood glucose with 1.5 hours post ice-cold Corona (I was sipping slowly while writing this post): 99

OK, so there you have it. This has been a very unofficial look at blood glucose response to a typical “healthy alternative” American fast food meal. I want you to know that my food choices today were strictly in the name of good science!

I will be beginning a fairly comprehensive look at home finger stick blood glucose response to “everything I can think of”.

I am hoping to expose some hidden truths about blood glucose monitoring, how it can effect our body fat, if it can be an effective way to lose weight in an attempt to control blood insulin levels and increase my insulin sensitivity.

I would also like to gain further insight into claims regarding some supplements and the effects they have on blood glucose levels in various states.

Interestingly, I have had several elevated morning blood glucose readings. Just the other day I awoke to a reading of 112 with a pre-sleep blood glucose level of 84. I had gotten little rest, and woke with red eyes. After eating a high protein breakfast my blood sugars dropped nicely down to 74 pre-lunch.

Very curious indeed!

[note color=”#f5f8fa”]You can sign up to receive updates via RSS or email or check out the upcoming 4 Hour University. If you are feeling especially generous please share with a like, it makes me feel happy and that should in turn make you feel happy

[/note]