The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers–the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike. A list of carbohydrates with their glycemic values is shown below. A GI is 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 inclusive is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.

The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn’t tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food’s effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn’t a lot of it, so watermelon’s glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.

Foods that have a low GL almost always have a low GI. Foods with an intermediate or high GL range from very low to very high GI.

Both GI and GL are listed here. The GI is of foods based on the glucose index–where glucose is set to equal 100. The other is the glycemic load, which is the glycemic index divided by 100 multiplied by its available carbohydrate content (i.e. carbohydrates minus fiber) in grams. (The "Serve size (g)" column is the serving size in grams for calculating the glycemic load; for simplicity of presentation I have left out an intermediate column that shows the available carbohydrates in the stated serving sizes.) Take, watermelon as an example of calculating glycemic load. Its glycemic index is pretty high, about 72. According to the calculations by the people at the University of Sydney’s Human Nutrition Unit, in a serving of 120 grams it has 6 grams of available carbohydrate per serving, so its glycemic load is pretty low, 72/100*6=4.32, rounded to 4.

http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

This should be your eating bible for life for the hole family.
Don’t forget the exercise. Its as important as meds. and diet.

Kitty
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http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

Nuts, beans, peas and lentils have a very low GI index.
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I put my cat on a diet of Wellness Core (grainfree dry) and believe it or not Fancy Feast, but only certain varieties. The chicken feast, whitefish feast and salmon feast do not contain grains or byproducts. Any of the "formed" ones (morsels, grilled, etc.) contain stuff that will raise blood sugar. I fed him only the Core dry (out all the time) and a quarter can of the Fancy Feast twice a day. Not only did his blood sugar go way down, he came off the insulin completely within a year as his spleen kicked in again (that’s what the vet said after the cats blood glucose went down to a dangerous level with no warning after getting his normal insulin injection). He was not diabetic again until he got very old. He died at 17 and a few months before he died the vet said his blood sugar was normal again - without insulin.

The grain free, high protein will also allow your cat to lose a little weight (think of it like an Adkins diet for cats - Catkins!). Cats do not process grains well. What doesn’t turn to fat, turns to sugar. The less grains your cat eats the better.

I do recommend getting a human glucometer (the finger prick kind) so you can monitor your cats glucose levels. This is very important with a diabetic cat. The trick is learning to use it on a cat, but there are many videos that show you how if you just search it.

Good luck!
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Had a diabetic cat

I really don’t think there is any need to give your cat prescription food.
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Animal welfare volunteer. Owner of 6 cats.

Your cat should probably be on a high quality wet cat food, such as wellness or Innova Evo. That link above will help teach you about the nutrition labels and show you what to look for in quality foods. You basically want the ingredients to be meat, no bi-products, in the first few ingredients.

You basically want low sugar, high fiber (protien)…so make sure you do not feed those "semi-soft" foods..one that look like hamburger? They can be high in sugar.

I just found out my cat was diabetic. So I started him on a high quality canned food diet, and hes doing very well. Purina DM is not very good a food to be honest. I have had patients with diabetic cats that were fed the high quality wet foods, and some of them were resolved of the diabetes within a year or two. Others remained better regulated.

Also,be sure to consult another vet. A second opinion is always good in a case like this. Especially with diabetes because every cat is different in how they respond to treatment.

ADD: I agree, I have 3 cats and one is diabetic. They all eat the Innova…its too hard to separate and feed different foods! I did try doing a mix of wet and dry, but things really improved when I stuck to just the canned Innova. I monitor his blood sugar at home with a meter, and keep a little "journal" so to speak And as I look back I see a marked improvement!!

I hope my cat (and your too!) will be one of the many cats that seem to re-regulate and do well over time and no longer need insulin!

P.S.-Heard the Yahoo Group for Diabetic Cats was great also, will be joining soon! You should give it a try as well!
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However, the cookies wouldn’t have raised your blood sugar as much as if you ate them on an empty stomach. LOTS of normal, healthy people eat that many cookies at once so don’t worry….just don’t keep them in the house all the time until you feel in better control! I bet if you didn’t feel any worry or guilt towards the cookies, you wouldn’t have thought so hard about them and wouldn’t have eaten them at all.

Anyways, sounds like you had a healthy day so be happy you didn’t end up at Mcdonalds and start fresh now…drink lots of water tonight and tomorrow is a new day!
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Low GI 55 or less most fruits and vegetables (except potatoes, watermelon), grainy breads, pasta, legumes/pulses, milk, products extremely low in carbohydrates (fish, eggs, meat, some cheeses, nuts, cooking oil), brown rice
Medium GI 56 - 69 whole wheat products, basmati rice, sweet potato, table sugar, most white rices (e.g. jasmine)
High GI 70 and above corn flakes, rice krispies, baked potatoes, watermelon, croissants, white bread, extruded breakfast cereals, straight glucose (100)

If you’re looking for a specific food, I’d suggest looking it up on this site: http://www.nutritiondata.com/ which has the Glycemic load listed for each food.
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index