hello, im am t1 and i am normally very well controlled but am working as a teacher on a language immersion course and we are staying at a place that does its own catering on site. so begins the guessing games when it comes to food.
breakfast here in spain is all carbs and the bread is yummy but cant count the carbs so gave up on that and the fruit filled yogurt for my regular yogurt and bread. i know exactly how much is in there but am continually going high, like to over 200, after breakfast. its true i am not out and about walig the dog and that, just in class all morning till lunch.
the only thing i can think of is the sweetener. its first ingredient is dextrose. i didnt have a look at my spenda before i left and never go high with the sweetener i get from cafes here either.
has anyone had weird reactions/highs to different types of sweeteners?
Dextrose is pure sugar!
why do they do that!?! thanks.
Yes, I have had spikes from splenda. Dextrose is the purest sugar, I think, that's why they use it in our glucose tabs, it's faster acting. I only use stevia now. if you're not eating bread normally it could be that is contributing too. I had to eliminate all breads/grains, starchy veggies. It doesn't matter how much insulin I take, eventually I spike high, sometimes at the next meal. An all carb breakfast is more likely to spike you also because that is usually the time when we're most sensitive to carbs with dawn phenomenon and higher insulin needs. I eat my yogurt and fruit at night.
* I wasn't aware splenda has dextrose in it!! wow, that makes sense, put sugar in a non sugar sweetener, what is the point honestly? Anyway, stevia is the way to go, nothing to worry about due to cancer implications and it never spikes me a bit.
thanks for the info. i usually dont shoot up for breakfast because i walk my dog for like an hour an a half afterwards and am honeymooning/lada-ing, and i can eat thirty carbs for bfast and then get rid of it with exercise.
here im checking two hours post prandial and correct with a unit of insulin if im above 190, but it drops me down to hypo territory two hours later, just one little unit! (no posible way to do a half).
i dont know whats going on here but got some sweetener from the café across the street to try tomorrow.
just saw stevia a couple of weeks ago. when my splenda runs out im gonna try it! thanks for the info!
Fun fact Dextrose is another name for Glucose.
OT
Sucrose (table sugar) is a disaccharide composed of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose. That means if you eat 10 grams of sugar 5 is made of fructose and 5 is made of glucose.
In hypo situations is better to use glucose because it can be metabolised by every cell in your body while fructose only by your liver. That is why glucose acts faster.
Also, glucose and dextrose from our point of view act in the same way (there is only a little difference chemically speaking).
Back on topic
In my opinion sweetener are something avoidable because you can get used to bitter or sour tastes. As a matter of fact after some time you start to enjoy flavours you didn't like before!
Surely you changed your habits and that is affecting your BG. But if you want to solve your doubts just avoid the sweetener one day and see what happens.
you're welcome :) I would toss the splenda and start on stevia right away to see if that helps. you're lucky you can eat 30g without bolus and walk it off! that is odd one unit would drop you so much. Maybe get a pen with .5 unit doses when you can. I have the novopen junior, I was so insulin sensitive when diagnosed I needed it, I'm also thinking about pendique now again, because my endo suggested a pump again and I don't think I will every be able to do that due to sensitivies and pendique has much smaller automated doses. I want to stay more stable. Good luck with figuring this out!
you dont understand how shite everything tastes here! haha!
Can't you get your own stuff and place your hands on a scale?
ive got my own bfast bread and my natural greek yogurt and so i think i should be all right now, well see how the other sweetener goes....thought about taking my scales but thought, two weeks, eh...never again, i dont care if i look like a freak.
Sweetener addiction! ;)
I've got a pocket scale that is really handy. You can use it also to deal drugs if you need!
mine is 1:5 at times, I used to drop a lot more and more quickly from 1 unit but also it depends how high I am. I remember last summer, I went from 170 to 40 in 1/2 hour while vacumning without taking anything, but my basal was way too high then and my insulin needs were dropping. 1 unit will usually drop me 40 points now.
ill keep that in mind-budget cuts everywhere here in spain, so maybe it will come in handy sometime soon! :)
I forgot to mention that I only use raw stevia extract, powder form or liquid,for the liquid I use sweet leaf natural. A lot the bigger name stevia product producers put malto- dextrin (seems to spike me if this is added in) and even sugar in with the stevia. For the powder I have been using nu- naturals, so far it seems ok. I tried trader joe's brand recently and it seemed very diluted, they also didn't list nutrional info or ingredients I think.