Unfortunately, all the research i can find for this applies to non-diabetics.
While not nearly as bad as a regular soft drink, it seems that when i drink something such as a Tab or Diet Dr. Pepper, my sugar rises slowly. My sugar sat between 80 and 90 from about 8am till 1:30pm, which is when i started to drink a Tab. Sugar started to slowly rise. I keep wanting to blame basal rates, but it seems that it ALWAYS starts when i start to drink a diet drink. I'm thinking the caffeine may have something to do with this, but would that cause a rise from 90 to 150?
I get similar problems when I drink black coffee… So I assumed it was the caffeine. I have heard other diabetics saying if they drink enough diet soda it will cause their sugars to rise, but I think that tends to be a lot of diet coke (though as I easily drank a 12pack a day in college, clearly my definition of a lot may be skewed… :p). I would test it at a different time of day or skip it two or so days and see if you have the same results
My bg spikes from splenda and it seemed to spike from aspartame once in sf jello. I don't eat any of that stuff anymore and I rarely had it before D... those artificial sweeteners are linked to cancer and so are other ingredients in them. I make all my own soda now with a soda stream with all natural flavors- lemon, teas, berries etc. lime, stevia if I want to sweeten it. I only use stevia as a sweetener now, it's safe and it doesn't spike me at all. No carbs in it unless it has some added in with sugar alcohols.. watch out for those too, they act as a laxative and are not good for you. You can test with a non caffeinated, unsweetened tea or coffee to see if caffeine may be spiking you too.
If you use stevia, only use pure raw stevia extract, some manufacturers actually put sugar, dextrin, sugar alcohols, malto dextrin and other things in. Sweet leaf makes totally stevia only products in a liquid and a powder too I think.
I don't drink coffee, and only decaf tea, so i only really get caffeine from soda.
I'll go ahead and just drink water tomorrow and watch my CGM and see what happens... I figure if a diet drink causes a spike, may as well just go ahead and drink the real thing, or stick to milk and such. (I love milk)
I've never been a big fan of diet drinks or the like, but every now and then i'll drink one, and it seems to be that when i drink them, not expecting my sugar to spike, i end up spiking, whereas if i drink a regular soda or milk or something, and bolus for the carbs, next to nothing happens.
I hadn't heard of Stevia... I'll pick some up and see what happens :)
Judith, I'm going to try some baking with stevia this year and see what happens... with almond flour too... I'm so glad I found pure stevia.. I tried growing it but I can't get the seeds to germinate yet.. I will try again.. I want to make my own. those blueberries sound great!! I have some but they haven't produced yet.
I'm going to look for the Virgil's and try it :) I plan to market my own stevia drinks one day too....
There was a study done among T2's about diet soda and blood sugar rises.
If they drank diet soda when fasting, nothing happened. If they drank diet soda more or less when they'd been eating carbs, their blood sugar rose more than it would have if they'd had carbs alone. They also measured a larger insulin spike than expected, too.
The geek in me wonders what it is about aspartame and splenda's structure that gets messed up in the presence of carbs.
