I found these energy packets at my REI the other day. The are small, they are easy to use and carry, and they don’t take up a ton of space. Unfortunately they are also filled with extra stuff like caffeine, potassium, and salt and they have 28 carbs per packet. Wouldn’t it be great if they had little packets of gel like this with 15 grams of carbs? I know they have the tubes, but they are pretty bulky. My son just got braces so our normal quick acting carbs (skittles, laffy taffy, airheads) won’t work any more. Tabs are also bulky to carry. This is small enough to fit in with his pump or in my wallet.
You might write to REI suggesting modifications they could make so they would be more diabetic friendly.
What about Lifesavers? They’re portable, cheap, won’t get stuck in his braces & come in lots of flavors. I can’t stand glucose tabs. Each Lifesaver is about 3 carbs of pure sugar.
I can’t use the 15 gram rule because 1 gram glucose sends me up 10 pts, so 15 is too much for me. I like smaller amounts for controlled correction.
There is a fairly new product made here (France) Glucopulse. Its a little gel sachet with 10g of glucose + zinc, vits C, E B1,6 ,and 12. It has 40.2kcal. They taste OK and are much easier to get down than glucose tabs (especially when exercising)
I think they are trying to develop a market, I’ve found a only a very few online pharmacies that sell it but I was given them at a hospital appointment. They are free samples double labelled with the makers, (.clemascience) and Acc-Chek.
they do. http://www.chocolateenergygel.com/ i got a sample of these and it tastes good (kinda like chocolate frosting) and no blood sugar spike for me at least.
I, too, can’t use 15 gram packets. Shoots me up 100. But half that size would suit me. By the way, gel packets are available. They’re just SO expensive.
Thanks for all the suggestions! I’m going to look into some of those!
I wish that Dex4 would take their gel and put it in a more convenient dispenser than those tubes…sometimes at the end of a bike ride I only want/need 15 g instead of the 25-30 g that I get w/ the ones I usually carry…unfortunately these gel packs are not really easy to only take half (they get really messy if you don’t eat the whole thing, so unless you’re standing right next to a trash can, it’s going to get sticky on something…).
Anyway you could look at the nutritional labels of the various brands that are out there, to see if any suite your carb and other nutrient needs: Gu brand gels have 20 g carbs in them (compared to Powerbar brand that has 25-30 g, depending on flavor). You could also look at Hammer Gel and Accelerade gels, as some of them have 20 g too…but again, all of these items are made for endurance activities so they are going to have extra potassium and sodium at a minimum (many do not have caffeine, but some do).