I did some glucose meter checking -- yup, 140-160mg/dl peak range when eating things like unripe banana, raspberries and wild blueberries, cherries, oranges, etc. With meat and veg, I peak around 100-110 and generally spend most of the day under 100, although this requires a lot of fat for calories and puts me into ketosis. With preworkout dates, I get a spike up to 160, followed by a strong urge to not workout very hard (despite BG never really experiencing much of a crash.) Pre-workout carbs effectively ruin my workout before I even start.
It's not realistic for me to hit a hard enough exercise soon enough after eating to make a difference for the spike -- if this is the goal, I can just eat something like cauliflower and artichoke hearts instead of fruit and pop a grape seed extract, then workout when it's comfortable.
When eaten at the end of a fatty / protein-rich / fiber-rich meal consumed leisurely over 30-60m, BG seems to rise for much longer and stay elevated for much longer than just eating an apple on its own, but it's a smoother ride up and down with maybe a slightly attenuated peak. Exercising before a meal and using glucose disposal supplements further attenuates the spike into the 130-150 range. A good 2 hours after a meal, BG is usually down under 100, or at least under 140.
White rice / boiled sweet potato can get me up to the 160-180 realm (briefly.) Interestingly, legumes with fat can supply a ton of carbs with a relatively uneventful rise in BG. I'm not sure if it's wiser for me to eat more legumes (I have concerns about the lectins), ignore these little spikes from fruits / starches (low lectins and higher in polyphenols), or simply stay meat + veg based for the micronutrients and use fats for the calories, where I'm rocking chronically depressed insulin levels 24 / 7 with stable glucose all day every day.
My last HOMA-IR test measured 0.2 and A1C measured 4.9% (while experimenting with a HFLC diet). I exercise daily (HIIT, compound lifts, sprints, rock climbing) and fast for 14-20hrs a day. While avoiding carbs beyond 30-50g from veg, I do notice better focus, productivity, energy, and mood (although exercise suffers, muscles appear smaller, and hunger / body fat increases.)
I've also read that ketosis dramatically increases glycation via methylgloxal production which is several times more destructive as fructose / glucose, with further complications via lower liver glutathione and higher postprandial lipids / tgs / insulin resistance (which can lead to higher fasting BG and higher spikes for otherwise low-GI meals, driving up more potential for glycation.) On the other hand, I have noticed that really carby meals which hit 160-180, while being horrible for energy / focus, have excellent effects on subsequent workout performance and body composition via insulin signaling / glycogen stores / increased lepton and thyroid hormones.
I'm not quite sure what to make of this n=1 data. For now, I'm on the meat + veg ketogenic bandwagon. But this seems like more of a hack than solution... and if this does increase glycation, that'll be kind of ironic / needlessly masochistic.
Edited by brosci, 09 January 2017 - 08:09 AM.