Best/worst drinks?

Loukay1

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112
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Ok, I know none of these are good when your diabetic but out of these three drinks what is best as a drink? -
- Skimmed (red) milk
- full sugar (original) cola
- fruit juice (apple not from concentrate)

Thanks!
 

TheSecretCarbAddict

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Tablets (oral)
You'd need to specify what you are optimising for, i.e., best for what? It will be very different if you are just trying to quench your thirst vs trying to recover from a hypo.
 

HSSS

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Ok, I know none of these are good when your diabetic but out of these three drinks what is best as a drink? -
- Skimmed (red) milk
- full sugar (original) cola
- fruit juice (apple not from concentrate)

Thanks!
In terms of diabetes and blood glucose levels full fat milk will probably raise your levels less or more slowly than skimmed will. Normal dairy will raise you to some extent quantity dependent. Non dairy “milks” vary depending on the ingredients.

Original cola will likely raise you a whole lot more and faster than milk

Fruit juice can cause you to go pretty high and rapid too.

That said everyone has some degree of personal variation and the best thing to do would be to test before and after consuming equal quantities of each and you’ll see what they do to you.

Personally I wouldn’t touch original cola or fruit juice, in fact many type 1 use these to bring themselves out of a hypo the glucose raising effect is that good. Milk I do have but not as a drink on its own. I have water and teas mostly. Cordials are usually ok glucose wise but you’ll have to decide on how you feel about the sweeteners used in them. Some goes for diet carbonated drinks.

*Edited for minor typos
 
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TheSecretCarbAddict

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If it is about limiting impact on your blood glucose levels, I would explore fasting liquids like water, sparkling water, coffee, tea, infusions, bone broth, etc. If you don't enjoy your tea/coffee as is, instead of milk I would add a tablespoon of double cream (it is mostly fat and would have a lot more limited impact on your blood glucose than anything containing carbs and/or protein).

As @HSSS mentioned, all of us are individual and the impact of different foods on our blood glucose levels will be different. The testing-based decisions will allow you to individualise your diet.

I like to read my nutrition labels before I consume any food. You can look at net carb content in the food and the more carbs there are per 100g, the bigger impact on your blood glucose. I'm on very low carb diet and my rule of thumb is as follows: foods with up to 5g carbs per 100g are on my safe list, up to 10g per 100g on my use sparingly list, and above 10g per 100g on my avoid list. Out of all three drinks this would only qualify milk as my safe food. Given my use of milk (with coffee/tee) I prefer to use alternatives like double cream.

If you want to dig deeper and consider how different foods impact your blood glucose levels, you might want to read up on glycaemic index and glycaemic load. These look at how different foods impact your blood glucose compared to pure glucose and the impact considering portion size, respectively.
 
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Loukay1

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Messages
112
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Thank you for your replies! Sorry for not being very clear, I was meaning to ask about what of the listed drinks would be best to keep my blood sugars low and quench my thirst? It doesn't matter how much water I drink, I constantly have a dry mouth and water does not relive it! I think this could be because of multiple medications? I don't drink tea/coffee and can't stand no added sugar drinks of any kind, the only options for me are the drinks I've listed, so would my best option be milk? Is skimmed milk the best type of milk to drink as I'm also wanting to lose weight
Thank you
 

JoKalsbeek

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I reversed my Type 2
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Thank you for your replies! Sorry for not being very clear, I was meaning to ask about what of the listed drinks would be best to keep my blood sugars low and quench my thirst? It doesn't matter how much water I drink, I constantly have a dry mouth and water does not relive it! I think this could be because of multiple medications? I don't drink tea/coffee and can't stand no added sugar drinks of any kind, the only options for me are the drinks I've listed, so would my best option be milk? Is skimmed milk the best type of milk to drink as I'm also wanting to lose weight
Thank you

Full fat milk'd be better than skimmed milk, for blood sugars and weight. Personally I do better on water when there's a slice of lemon in there, otherwise I just can't get it down properly. Too boring. ;)

Good luck!
Jo
 
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In Response

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If you don't drink tea and coffee, have you thought about herbal/fruit teas?
There is a huge variation from very herby option such as mint, very fruity versions such as berry, spicy version such as ginger as well as rooibos with all its variation such as vanilla.
In the summer, I often make myself refreshing iced tea versions by steeping my "tea" bag for an hour in an inch of boiling water and then topping up with iced water (or just ice). I tend to start my next cup when I add the iced water.
These can work out cheap if you have herbs in the garden - my mint tea is made by picking a few leaves and adding water. And mint is so easy to grow that the biggest risk is that it can take over if you don't contain it.
I don't grow ginger but make a warming ginger tea in the winter by grating a knob of fresh ginger into a flask and then topping up with boiling water. This tends to make a very strong infusion so when I want a drink, I treat it a bit like a "ginger cordial" where I pour about a third of a cup from the flask and then fill my mug with hot water. I then top up the flask and keep it gong for a day or two.

When I need more variety than my garden allows, I buy loose infusions. I am currently making my way through a bag of basil and strawberry.
 
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ianf0ster

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Your body is your own, we all react differently with regard to carbohydrates so far as both blood glucose and weight loss (or gain) is concerned.
I both normalised my Blood glucose and lost weight on a low carb way of eating without consciously cutting calories, in fact I lost 30lbs (from 12st 2lbs to 10st) in 17 weeks while doing no extra exercise and probably eating more calories due to all the fatty meat, cheese and full fat dairy I was eating.
I still eat the same way (full fat dairy etc.) and have been in T2D remission for over 4yrs with a stable weight (though I decided that 10st was too light for me and so added more cheese and nuts to my diet in order to gain back 5lbs.

So you don't need to cut fat in order to lose weight, in fact if you cut carbs then you probably want to eat more protein and more fat to compensate, so you're not hungry, cold or tired all the time.
 
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agwagw

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Messages
113
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Thank you for your replies! Sorry for not being very clear, I was meaning to ask about what of the listed drinks would be best to keep my blood sugars low and quench my thirst? It doesn't matter how much water I drink, I constantly have a dry mouth and water does not relive it! I think this could be because of multiple medications? I don't drink tea/coffee and can't stand no added sugar drinks of any kind, the only options for me are the drinks I've listed, so would my best option be milk? Is skimmed milk the best type of milk to drink as I'm also wanting to lose weight
Thank you
Hi, if you are constantly thirsty that water won't quench then it sounds as if you might be very high blood sugar (apols if someone else has said this). Can you check your BGs? That might be the root cause. Water is the best 'neutral' drink imho.
 
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Loukay1

Well-Known Member
Messages
112
Type of diabetes
Type 2
If you don't drink tea and coffee, have you thought about herbal/fruit teas?
There is a huge variation from very herby option such as mint, very fruity versions such as berry, spicy version such as ginger as well as rooibos with all its variation such as vanilla.
In the summer, I often make myself refreshing iced tea versions by steeping my "tea" bag for an hour in an inch of boiling water and then topping up with iced water (or just ice). I tend to start my next cup when I add the iced water.
These can work out cheap if you have herbs in the garden - my mint tea is made by picking a few leaves and adding water. And mint is so easy to grow that the biggest risk is that it can take over if you don't contain it.
I don't grow ginger but make a warming ginger tea in the winter by grating a knob of fresh ginger into a flask and then topping up with boiling water. This tends to make a very strong infusion so when I want a drink, I treat it a bit like a "ginger cordial" where I pour about a third of a cup from the flask and then fill my mug with hot water. I then top up the flask and keep it gong for a day or two.

When I need more variety than my garden allows, I buy loose infusions. I am currently making my way through a bag of basil and strawberry.
Thank you for all the suggestions, unfortunately I can't bare any of them, I've tried so many but my pallet can't adjust, will give the lemon in water ago though
 

Loukay1

Well-Known Member
Messages
112
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Hi, if you are constantly thirsty that water won't quench then it sounds as if you might be very high blood sugar (apols if someone else has said this). Can you check your BGs? That might be the root cause. Water is the best 'neutral' drink imho.
Yes my blood sugars are high at the moment, I had many years of well it being fairly well controlled but various life events took aver and it really just got away from me, I'm trying to make a plan to start over as if I've just been diagnosed, but the drinks are my biggest hurdle right now, thank you for replying