I prefer the orange flavor- but always follow with water.
I have them everywhere- purse, work backpack, home.
They are not my favorite thing- but they keep me from eating everything in sight.
I don't think there is such a thing as a good tasting or palatable glucose tab. I'm not a big fan of orange flavor in general, so I would not go for it in a glucose tab. But if I do get low, I would much prefer a few jordan almonds, a handful of sweetened dried cranberries, some grapes or cherries depending on the season than I would the chalky taste of a glucose tab. While I suppose it's good to know exactly how many grams of carbs you are eating to correct a low I can easily look up the carb content of a handful of grapes, and I can stop at a handful.
I must be crazy because I actually like the glucose tabs and I would eat more of them if I could without going up too much- the reli on brand at walmart is my fav so far- I tried a sample of dex 4 from the hospital which I didn't like that much. reli on flavors: favorite is fruit punch- they all remind me of sweet tarts without being so sour which irritates me. I also use jolly ranchers and various other hard candies, soda/oj. my endo said use only 2 0z of oj or fruit juice for a low to start.
I was thinking about trying Glucolift also but they are more expensive...
I agree we may as well eat something we really like when we're low which is why I bought some of my favorite super sugarified dandelion burdock soda, but most of the time I run for the glucose tabs and or I forget about the soda being there although I did use it as well for my last two lows.. I do actually like the g tabs too though.
I hate glucose tablets and only use them if desperate. I buy tiny boxes of raisins. They are perfect for bringing up a low, good for you, and not so tasty that you over-do.
Candidly would prefer a low to having to eat these nasty horse pills of chalk. Yuck.
If that is all that is available, a whole bunch of stuff has happened, and they are the dead last resort.
Agree with acidrock, starbursts, jellybeans far preferable... but my method is icing/glucose tubes though. Tubes never melt, easy to carry/store, and some even float too >: D. Nobody ever eats them.... candy some will swipe unknowing.
It depends on how low I am as to what I will treat it with. If I'm not too low I'll eat something that I like. Something like a rice krispy marshmellow treat. I LOVE those but, I actually don't enjoy eating it when I'm low because I tend to eat it really fast. And if I'm really low I'll treat it with glucose tablets. My preference is Reli-on brand from Walmart. The watermelon flavor is my favorite. But, my insurance company pays for my glucose tablets and they send me DEX4 in orange flavor. DEX4 is not so good in my opinion.
I don't mind the taste of glucose tabs, but it's the texture that I don't like. To me, the chalkiness makes them difficult to swallow and I find them very hard to chew and they take too long to dissolve. And they're expensive.
I've also tried the jelly beans but I feel like those take a little longer to work because the gumminess needs to be digested I guess.
I've found that, for me, sweetarts work best. Sweetarts actually work faster than glucose tabs for me. I buy the long wrapped rolls of sweetarts, break the roll in half and stick the half roll in my pocket at all times. I'm never tempted to eat them for fun, because I just don't like tart candies that much. Perfect for me because I know how much each sweetart will generally raise me so pretty predictable.
I tend to look at them as medicine - and if they do not taste good I am unlikely to over-treat my lows :) I have tried the Glucolift tabs, and they do seem a bit less "dusty." And ok, they don't taste so bad either. At home though, I tend to rely on the Trader Joes version of Jelly Belly - 1g of carb each so easy to track consumption.
I think they make the tabs taste bad on purpose, that way it encourages you not to eat them like candy. At least they don't call them "chalk" flavor or "tabasco."
I use sweet tarts and smarties. Both sweet tarts and smarties are 100% glucose, just like the tabs. Most other candy is not glucose, but some mixture with fructose or sugar alcohols. I look for big bags of them after valentines day, often they will have a package of 50 in separate individual packages intended to give out with valentimes. And after valentines day they are marked way down.
I am soooooo cheap.
I buy the Dex4s at Costco. By the way, you don't need a membership to shop at the pharmacy at Costco.
The old Dextrosol tabs were really good for lows, much different in taste than the new Dex4 tabs.
I use Rockets quite often now. Two rolls of Rockets have 14 grams of carbs.
Skittles are also very good, although a little chewy if you're trying to get the sugar into you super fast. Jelly beans, orange juice and 7-Up are also my common choices.
I always liked the lemon tasting glucose tablets when they were available, but as the nice little old lady I talked to told me after she said they were no longer available, "I don't think they were too popular." They used to be part of the Reli-On bottle, but now that isn't available, either. So, the watermelon are the best. Grape's good. So is raspberry. But now, after reading the last entry by Brian in this string, I might look at Sweet Tarts. I know they're good. And they just might work. And I like anything that satisfies my taste and my strong appetite for being cheap.
I carry apple or raspberry ones--I can't stand the orange, and I've only tried the cheapest ones that I could get. I couldn't tell you what brand that was off the top of my head.
On the other hand, I'm going to have to start carrying something else. The other day, I was in the grocery store, and round about checkout, I could feel I was getting low. I checked, and sure enough--low. But I was so thirsty I couldn't bear the thought of eating the dusty tabs--and my semi-functioning brain couldn't convince me that I should. My dad was with me, and he told me to buy a can of dr pepper from the vending machine, and we shared it so I didn't rebound high.
If you don't like the chalkiness or taste of tabs or smarties/sweetarts, and don't like the flavors of gels, you can simply use corn syrup. Make sure it isn't high fructose corn syrup. Corn syrup is pure glucose dissolved in water. And it has no flavor at all. It's good for home use, but not very convenient to carry around, though I'm sure you could put some in a pocket-sized screw top bottle if you really wanted to.
Personally, I'm partial to smarties (though not so partial to them that I'll decide to eat them when my BG is normal), and carry them where-ever I go. I save them for an emergency, though, and will eat something else (preferably raisins, dates or other fruit) if it's just a normal down-trending BG.
The most common corn syrup we have round these parts is Karo. Karo claims "Corn syrup contains between 15% to 20% dextrose (glucose) and a mixture of various other types of sugar." They go to a lot of trouble to say that corn syrup doesn't contain HFCS, but in fact it still contains lots of fructose.
When I am low, I try to use natural sugar to bring up the number to an acceptable position. I like fruit juice, grapes, or something of that nature. I do use Glucose Tabs when necessary, especially if I am driving or am operating a machine. I like the Walgreen's orange tabs the best.
Their grape tabs are acceptable as well. I am told that Wal-Mart's mixed fruit are pretty good too.
I use the reli-on? glucose taabs from walmart. I've only tried the orange ones..they are OK I don't like how they are so big and dusty though lol. I did buy some of the fruit punch gel haven't actually tasted it yet (it smells awful to me though) but I do like having the gel next to my bed so if something happens at night I don't have to try to chew tabs lol Anyways the orange ones kinda taste like smarties to me..I don't mind them :)
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