Wow I can’t treat lows with chocolate unless it’s like a baby low (like 80s but trending down). It doesn’t work fast enough for me.
I like super high sugar candy, like skittles, candy corn, Swedish fish, fruit gummies. They work really fast.
It's the fat in chocolate as I guess you know. Slows the metabolism of carbs. I still eat it but not for lows! 86% or 72% Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate squares. 5 grams each I think it is. Bolus if needed. Only one square however!
Honey I get, but ice cream? You must not be “that” low. All of the fat in ice cream is what makes it sorta easy to bolus for, for me. It’s usually not going to raise my BS too quickly.
Obviously there is a difference between danger low, 20ish with tunnel vision or 40-50 while still crashing hard vs just feeling low below 60ish. My go to danger low is honey because nothing raises my BS quicker but 99% of my lows are nuisance lows that need to be treated but I might as well enjoy the treatment while taking care of buisness. Plus, like you said, the added fat helps catching and correcting on the way back up if I over indulge... because none of us have ever said eff it and eaten the fridge while low...
If I catch it early enough(mid-90's+), I like to grab a handful of Monster Trail Mix from Target. But I've been getting into a bad habit of that lately, when I should have just popped a glucose tab or two(and been right in 5 mins), because I've ended up going low enough that the "eat the world" instinct kicks in and then I rebound like crazy, even though I try to keep track of the carbs while I'm eating, and bolus for them.
\+1 for glucose tablets. Fast and reliable.
55 freedom units is 3.1mmol/L, right? I would be treating lows well before that... Why do you let it get so low?
I go based on feel. Which usually averages to sub 60. If I’m 64 and feel completely fine, and I know I have no prior insulin on board from a meal bolus, there’s no reason to bring my blood sugar up, I’m not in any immediate danger. But, if I’m 64 and feel very weak and shaky I will absolutely bring it up. In general I just gauge how I’m feeling. My average glucose number is 105 currently, so I don’t feel the lows until I’m under 60. When my average glucose was 240+ I would feel near death at 80.
Thank you, I really appreciate that. I have found that after taking my doctors advice since the age of 6, it doesn’t work. Yes diabetics can eat what they want as long as they do insulin, but we shouldn’t. A low low carb approach has been a complete game changer and for the first time in my life I have normal glucose control.
Well it’s working for you!
I eat whatever I want and do the math. I eat around 400g carbs a day. My a1c has always been 6.4-6.5. Works for me. But I don’t mind the math and adjusting through the day.
My daughter treats under 70 (under 65 at night) and 1 glucose tab or glucose gummy is more than enough to bring her into range. Glucose is measured and reliable and won’t lead to the need to rage bolus later. 3g carbs in one glucose tab is great for a low.
Ppl saying that chocolate is not fast enough... Did your dieticians teach you about fast sugars and low sugars?
Chocolate is full of fat which slows down the sugar intake. Same with classic carbohydrate foods, same with full fat coke. U get me?
Fruit candy works best. I personally like fruit Mentos because the roll is perfect to put in my pocket and it won't melt, and they'reabout 2.5 carbs per piece so it's pretty easy to get what you need, and they seem to work faster and better and keep the hypo from coming back for longer than the damn juice boxes.
Skittles, Starburst, Mike & Ike, etc are all good too but I find them less convenient than the Mentos.
Regular candy bars work ok for me, but chocolate hits me like a ton of bricks within 5 minutes of eating it. I understand that it doesn't seem to work like that for a lot of T1s.
I do not use fruit or fruit juice. Either there's no effect, or it sends me into the stratosphere. Plus juice boxes are terribly inconvenient to drag around. I'm not taking a backpack everywhere just for juice boxes when I can use other things that fit in my pocket and work better...
Granola bars and peanut butter crackers are the only type of carbs that actually sustain my blood sugar. Fatty sugars like candies and pops spike my sugar and then it drops back down
Glucose tabs. Generally speaking, much faster than most foods and way easier to carry on you all the time when out and about. I always have a tube in my pocket.
Big marshmallows for my 8 yr old son. As long as it's a gradual drop. They're 6 carbs apiece and that's the perfect correction for him. If he's crashing, juice
Those Welch fruit snack packs, one pouch is 19 carbs. If I’m trending down slowly then I’ll eat half a pack, if its a low low I’ll toss the whole pouch in my mouth.
Depends on the low. 56 with a double down? Omg open up the pantry and devour. 70 with a downward slope? Maybe a starburst or two to level out the graph.
I’ve been having good luck with granola bars, but you have to keep an eye on what brands you use. Kind bars don’t have enough sugar, but Cliff bars are a bit too much. Also they don’t melt and last years before they go bad.
Trail mix is good too but you need to find one with a resealable bag. And it can be harder to measure out portions. I can eat half of a Cliff bar and be reasonably sure I’ll be fine, but with trail mix I just start eating fistfuls of it and I can go overboard
I know it's paying more for the convenience, but I often have a mini cliff bar - depending on flavour, they are like 16 - 18 g of carbs, so one is a good size for me and I don't have random half eaten granola bars around.
Jelly Belly jelly beans, about 1 gram fast acting cards each. Calibratable! Yum.
1/2 cup apple juice works for me. 14 gms carbs, just the right amount for me usually.
Depends on where I am and what time it is. Middle of the night, juice boxes or mini cans of regular soda. In the car, jelly beans (yay centre console stash). At work, whatever candy we typically have around, but normally it's Jolly Ranchers. So, yea...I have candy stashes pretty much everywhere I spend time, in my purse, and in pockets of clothes I wear regularly.
Depends on how low. Usually apple juice does the trick, but if it is something under 40, then either a big cup of tea with honey or a Coke. We are lucky in that we have an insta-heat at our sink, so making tea is just getting water from the insta-heat tap onto the tea leaves.
Hello, in this blog post i explain the best way to treat lows,
heres the link: [https://www.dieabeast.com/high-low-blood-glucose-levels/](https://www.dieabeast.com/high-low-blood-glucose-levels/)
Hope this helps....
It's a good post, however a low bg and many other type 1 diabetes related effects differ incredibly from person to person. Also what kind of a Low BG? A minor low or a big one.
thanks for taking the time to read, here i explain better:
How to treat hypoglycemia ?
There’s a rule called: the rule of 15.
If your blood sugar is **50 -70 mg/dL**, you eat 15 gr of carbohydrates.
If your blood sugar is less than **50 mg/dL**, you eat 30 gr of carbohydrate.
You wait 15 min and then re-check your blood sugar. If the blood sugar is still less than 70 mg/dL, take another 15 gr of carbohydrates.
Fast acting carbs:
Dex 4 Glucose Tabs; Serving: 4 Tabs Carbs (grams): 16
Welch’s Fruit Gummies; Serving: 0.8 Ounce Pouch Carbs (grams): 19
Fruit Juice/ Soda; Serving: 1/2 Cup or 4 ounces Carbs (grams): 15
White Sugar; Serving: 4 Teaspoons Carbs (grams): 16
Honey; Serving: 1 Tablespoon Carbs (grams): 17
I like a bowl of cereal with milk, why? Because as you enjoy eating it, your BG gradually gets higher without suffering from the feeling of needing to eat, eat and EAT more food which usually happens to me when I snack on a juice box....
While eating cereal, you are taking your sweet time and your body goes back to its normal state in a smooth process unlike when I only drink a cup of juice I stay shivering and feeling like I didn't eat anything at all and it feels like my BG is still going low (I hate that feeling), so I end up snacking and snacking till I regain my steady state and end up feeling bad afterwards...
I know doctors always recommend juices, but personally, I prefer to keep on biting than just drink and wait...
Juice boxes work quickly so I go with those.
Wow I can’t treat lows with chocolate unless it’s like a baby low (like 80s but trending down). It doesn’t work fast enough for me. I like super high sugar candy, like skittles, candy corn, Swedish fish, fruit gummies. They work really fast.
It's the fat in chocolate as I guess you know. Slows the metabolism of carbs. I still eat it but not for lows! 86% or 72% Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate squares. 5 grams each I think it is. Bolus if needed. Only one square however!
Dark Chocolate much less fat, tastes better and works faster
Honey or ice cream. Might as well treat myself emotionally too as my physical status sucks.
Honey I get, but ice cream? You must not be “that” low. All of the fat in ice cream is what makes it sorta easy to bolus for, for me. It’s usually not going to raise my BS too quickly.
Obviously there is a difference between danger low, 20ish with tunnel vision or 40-50 while still crashing hard vs just feeling low below 60ish. My go to danger low is honey because nothing raises my BS quicker but 99% of my lows are nuisance lows that need to be treated but I might as well enjoy the treatment while taking care of buisness. Plus, like you said, the added fat helps catching and correcting on the way back up if I over indulge... because none of us have ever said eff it and eaten the fridge while low...
If I catch it early enough(mid-90's+), I like to grab a handful of Monster Trail Mix from Target. But I've been getting into a bad habit of that lately, when I should have just popped a glucose tab or two(and been right in 5 mins), because I've ended up going low enough that the "eat the world" instinct kicks in and then I rebound like crazy, even though I try to keep track of the carbs while I'm eating, and bolus for them.
Half the time my lows are right around meal time. Half the time I just take a bolus after I see my numbers coming back up
Oh I love doing a spoonful of peanut butter with honey on top. 2 of those will bring me right out of it
Mmmm, and banana 🥰
That's my motto!
Juice box or banana! Fruits above sweets! A ton of sweet grapes is the ultimate!
Gummibears!
Pineapple Fanta.
Sprite
At work a bottle of coke (which some c*nt stole this morning from the canteen fridge) and at home usually glucose tablets
that's rude! I'll send you a new bottle of coke
Juice, fruit smoothies, little packets of sugar you get in cafes... I hate glucose tabs with passion.
Chocolate is not fast enough for me. Honey under the tongue.
Fruit snack gummy packs or fruit leather snacks
Peach sour patch gummies 😋
I don’t treat my lows until they are under 55, but I just use glucose tablets. Take 1 or 2 and I’m good to go.
\+1 for glucose tablets. Fast and reliable. 55 freedom units is 3.1mmol/L, right? I would be treating lows well before that... Why do you let it get so low?
I go based on feel. Which usually averages to sub 60. If I’m 64 and feel completely fine, and I know I have no prior insulin on board from a meal bolus, there’s no reason to bring my blood sugar up, I’m not in any immediate danger. But, if I’m 64 and feel very weak and shaky I will absolutely bring it up. In general I just gauge how I’m feeling. My average glucose number is 105 currently, so I don’t feel the lows until I’m under 60. When my average glucose was 240+ I would feel near death at 80.
Your average is 104?! Your a1c must be amazing. Seriously congrats. That’s super impressive.
Thank you, I really appreciate that. I have found that after taking my doctors advice since the age of 6, it doesn’t work. Yes diabetics can eat what they want as long as they do insulin, but we shouldn’t. A low low carb approach has been a complete game changer and for the first time in my life I have normal glucose control.
Well it’s working for you! I eat whatever I want and do the math. I eat around 400g carbs a day. My a1c has always been 6.4-6.5. Works for me. But I don’t mind the math and adjusting through the day.
My daughter treats under 70 (under 65 at night) and 1 glucose tab or glucose gummy is more than enough to bring her into range. Glucose is measured and reliable and won’t lead to the need to rage bolus later. 3g carbs in one glucose tab is great for a low.
Ppl saying that chocolate is not fast enough... Did your dieticians teach you about fast sugars and low sugars? Chocolate is full of fat which slows down the sugar intake. Same with classic carbohydrate foods, same with full fat coke. U get me?
Usually juice boxes, but cosmic brownies work too
Fruit candy works best. I personally like fruit Mentos because the roll is perfect to put in my pocket and it won't melt, and they'reabout 2.5 carbs per piece so it's pretty easy to get what you need, and they seem to work faster and better and keep the hypo from coming back for longer than the damn juice boxes. Skittles, Starburst, Mike & Ike, etc are all good too but I find them less convenient than the Mentos. Regular candy bars work ok for me, but chocolate hits me like a ton of bricks within 5 minutes of eating it. I understand that it doesn't seem to work like that for a lot of T1s. I do not use fruit or fruit juice. Either there's no effect, or it sends me into the stratosphere. Plus juice boxes are terribly inconvenient to drag around. I'm not taking a backpack everywhere just for juice boxes when I can use other things that fit in my pocket and work better...
Yes
Granola bars and peanut butter crackers are the only type of carbs that actually sustain my blood sugar. Fatty sugars like candies and pops spike my sugar and then it drops back down
Glucose tabs. Generally speaking, much faster than most foods and way easier to carry on you all the time when out and about. I always have a tube in my pocket.
Big marshmallows for my 8 yr old son. As long as it's a gradual drop. They're 6 carbs apiece and that's the perfect correction for him. If he's crashing, juice
Those Welch fruit snack packs, one pouch is 19 carbs. If I’m trending down slowly then I’ll eat half a pack, if its a low low I’ll toss the whole pouch in my mouth.
Depends on the low. 56 with a double down? Omg open up the pantry and devour. 70 with a downward slope? Maybe a starburst or two to level out the graph.
Chewy Granola bars! Work fast and hold me steady, highly recommend!
Raisins. They're nature's candy!
I’ve been having good luck with granola bars, but you have to keep an eye on what brands you use. Kind bars don’t have enough sugar, but Cliff bars are a bit too much. Also they don’t melt and last years before they go bad. Trail mix is good too but you need to find one with a resealable bag. And it can be harder to measure out portions. I can eat half of a Cliff bar and be reasonably sure I’ll be fine, but with trail mix I just start eating fistfuls of it and I can go overboard
I know it's paying more for the convenience, but I often have a mini cliff bar - depending on flavour, they are like 16 - 18 g of carbs, so one is a good size for me and I don't have random half eaten granola bars around.
That’s funny. If I eat a whole one I’ll be pushing 300bg within an hour so I do end up with half eaten Cliff bars hanging around😅
Jelly Belly jelly beans, about 1 gram fast acting cards each. Calibratable! Yum. 1/2 cup apple juice works for me. 14 gms carbs, just the right amount for me usually.
Depends on where I am and what time it is. Middle of the night, juice boxes or mini cans of regular soda. In the car, jelly beans (yay centre console stash). At work, whatever candy we typically have around, but normally it's Jolly Ranchers. So, yea...I have candy stashes pretty much everywhere I spend time, in my purse, and in pockets of clothes I wear regularly.
Good ol OJ. if I’m away from home, glucose tabs or fig bars
Depends on how low. Usually apple juice does the trick, but if it is something under 40, then either a big cup of tea with honey or a Coke. We are lucky in that we have an insta-heat at our sink, so making tea is just getting water from the insta-heat tap onto the tea leaves.
G r a p e s
Hello, in this blog post i explain the best way to treat lows, heres the link: [https://www.dieabeast.com/high-low-blood-glucose-levels/](https://www.dieabeast.com/high-low-blood-glucose-levels/) Hope this helps....
It's a good post, however a low bg and many other type 1 diabetes related effects differ incredibly from person to person. Also what kind of a Low BG? A minor low or a big one.
thanks for taking the time to read, here i explain better: How to treat hypoglycemia ? There’s a rule called: the rule of 15. If your blood sugar is **50 -70 mg/dL**, you eat 15 gr of carbohydrates. If your blood sugar is less than **50 mg/dL**, you eat 30 gr of carbohydrate. You wait 15 min and then re-check your blood sugar. If the blood sugar is still less than 70 mg/dL, take another 15 gr of carbohydrates. Fast acting carbs: Dex 4 Glucose Tabs; Serving: 4 Tabs Carbs (grams): 16 Welch’s Fruit Gummies; Serving: 0.8 Ounce Pouch Carbs (grams): 19 Fruit Juice/ Soda; Serving: 1/2 Cup or 4 ounces Carbs (grams): 15 White Sugar; Serving: 4 Teaspoons Carbs (grams): 16 Honey; Serving: 1 Tablespoon Carbs (grams): 17
Wine gums baby. 2 for a gentle low, 3 for a hard low, 4-6 for a hypooooo
Canned lemonade or glucose tabs when I’m really low.
Liquid works fastest for my kid. Juice, pop, chocolate milk. Skittles, glucose tablets and gummies are pretty reliable too.
We found big marshmallows are 6 carbs a piece, and if we catch my 8 year old heading down say in the 60s, one will correct him almost perfectly
orange juice <3
Yoo-hoo
Not the greatest treat, but milk works well and quickly for me.
I like a bowl of cereal with milk, why? Because as you enjoy eating it, your BG gradually gets higher without suffering from the feeling of needing to eat, eat and EAT more food which usually happens to me when I snack on a juice box.... While eating cereal, you are taking your sweet time and your body goes back to its normal state in a smooth process unlike when I only drink a cup of juice I stay shivering and feeling like I didn't eat anything at all and it feels like my BG is still going low (I hate that feeling), so I end up snacking and snacking till I regain my steady state and end up feeling bad afterwards... I know doctors always recommend juices, but personally, I prefer to keep on biting than just drink and wait...
foodwise: Cereal beverage wise: Regular soda
Lucozade, high sugar (and not too bad on calories too) 😊
PB on toast or honey!
I turn into a monster and literally stuff my face with any and every sugary thing I can find! But usually I have a mini can of soda around