--there is a balance involved, but everyone's is individual.

And it is true that once you've becme diabetic--even pre-diabetic (disturbed glucose tolerance), the blood sugar swings tend to be, calorie for caloire, wider and more erratic than they are for "normals". (This is part of the reason that true reactive hypoglycemia a few hours after meals, indicative of insulin resistance, is considred a forerunnner of diabetes--the body is becoming less able to absorb the shocks and keep glucose within a narrow range.)

I do agree with Mrs. D that the hemoglobin A1C is a much better indicator of your situation overall than a series of blood glucose readings are. Blood glucose readings are notoriously dependent on outside factors even among "normals"--just how glycemic your last meal was, how good your liver function is, whether you've been exercising, and so on.

I'm sure, for example, that I could convince any doctor I had glucose dysregulation if I had them do a glucose reading about an hour to an hour and a half after I've eaten one of my son's classmates' birthday cake slices. But if you took it two hours later, you'd say I was hypoglycemic. The link is the insulin resistance, and the overproduction of insulin driving down my glucose level before it gets very high (and in glucose tolerance testing, it never gets than high--but that's only a 75mg dose). It's gotten to the point that I watch the insulin levels more closely than the glucose readings.

Though I'll occassionally cheat at special events, I've really tried to follow the Zone-diet type principles--balanced diet of carbs/protein/fat, eating small meals at regular intervals (not three meals a day--more like five smaller meals), and protein-oriented snacks when I have them. I also try to do as much weight-bearing exercise as my cervical spine will tolerate (admittedly not as much as it used to--can't wait for the pool here to open), as muscle tissue tends to handle insulin best and reduce resistance. (Staying away from the "white foods"--except for caulifower--helps too.)