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"Emergency" rations?

  • Thread starter Thread starter 999sugarbabe
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999sugarbabe

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Are there some palatable foodstuffs anyone can recommend for a diabetic to carry in case one's caught out and need to eat?
I've been stuck in hospital and they have kindly provided me with a sandwich and cuppa, but frequently get held up in a queue at the doctor's way past my appointment time. I start feeling rough or peculiar, so I'm guessing I need some sustinence?
Trouble is I still don't know what is best to have to keep me going until I get home.
Someone suggested glucose tablets???
 
Type 1 or 2?

I favour a mix of carbs and fat but that really needs to be taken *before* your BG drops. Oatcakes and nut butter, or a mix of nuts and dried fruit: the protein content also has a long term effect.
 
Dextrose tablets are made for the purpose. They provide Fast Glucose ans look like sweeties, so you can be discreet with them. actually some sporty types use them for an extra boost. For something slower acting, I don't think you can beat an oatcake. The cheesy ones are nice. One american actress, I can't remeber which one, used to carry a slice of cake wrapped in clingfilm in her handbag.
 
I thought of Dextrose tablets, but believed they must be sugary and to be avoided? I really can't get my head around diabetes!
 
Hello,

Dextrose tablets are for when you have a hypo. When you have taken them you need to have some carbs afterwards. As hana says, oatcakes are perfect for this purpose. If it's just that you want some ideas of what to carry around as a snack then perhaps you could carry an apple or some oatcakes in your bag in case you get caught out and need to eat something to stop yourself from going hypo. Anything that's reasonably low carb and low sugar and portable will do.

Caitycakes x
 
Dear Caitycakes
Are you a bit confused as to what constitutes a "carb"?
Glucose is a hexose sugar and as such, a carbohydrate ( a class of molecules made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen). Starch, which is what I think you meant, when you wrote Carb, is a polymer of glucose. A glucose molecule is a tiny ring shaped thing and a starch polymer chain, is a chain of rings, sometimess branched and sometimes straight, which may be thousands of rings long. Natural starches consist of the chains coiled tightly up into grains, with cross links to hold the shape. Cooking or processing unwinds the starches. which makes them digestible
If you eat a processed carbohydrate, your digestive enzymes VERY Quickly, uncouple the polymer chains and the glucose molecules then enter your bloodstream. Eating glucose, just avoids the uncoupling process. Since glucose is very soluble in water( in your mouth and gut) and its tiny molecules get from your alimentary canal into your bloodstream almost instantaneously.
That's why taking a glucose tab works fast.>If you take the glucose already dissolved in a drink, it works even faster. If you've got your BG up to the right level in this way, there's no need to take any more carbs on top, which will out you up too high.
 
Hi Hana,

That's what I love about this forum. You learn new things all the time. I was always told that once you corrected your BG with dextrose tabs that you had to then have some small carbs to stop you dropping quickly back down again. Could I have been given this advice because I'm on pre-mix and the base insulin part will keep bringing me down?

Caitycakes x
 
caitycakes. i don't know that one. I've never heard it before and What on earth is a small carb?
 
I don't understand why you should have any more carbs on top of the glucose. You run the risk of going up too high. You're diabetic, so you can't drop your bg down fast.
I've just been reading about the dangers of going above 7, after meals. Would be just as dangerous after correcting a hypo.
 
The adivce I was given when I was MDI 15g of quick acting carb (I use jelly babies 15g=5 jelly babies) wait 15 mins then test if still hypo have another 15g of quick acting carbs wait 15mins and test again... Once you got back to normal if you are going to eat a meal within a hour then no need to eat any carbs until your meal... If you are not going to eat within a hour then have a small snack of slow acting carbs...

Works well, but there is several hitches...

If you have a new bag of jelly babies and you've lost your connective thinking and strengh how do yo get into them.... I've been found in the staff room by collegues in fits of laughter, rolling around the chairs with my new jelly bag in my hands :lol:

Another problem one ability to either count why under the infulance of hypo? And one ability to restrain one self from eating the whole bag? Causing major over treatment of said hypo :D
 
caitycakes said:
Hi Hana,

That's what I love about this forum. You learn new things all the time. I was always told that once you corrected your BG with dextrose tabs that you had to then have some small carbs to stop you dropping quickly back down again. Could I have been given this advice because I'm on pre-mix and the base insulin part will keep bringing me down?

Caitycakes x
Click to expand...
Hi Caitycakes

This is exactly what I was told. I forgot the other day to follow with some carbs, I corrected only with some detro tablets, tested and I was fine. 1 hour later I hypoed again :cry: because I hadn't had any carb -I use a biscuit / ginger oatcake (yummy)! So there is good reason to follow up with a small amount of low GI CHO, I won't make that mistake again in a hurry!

Louise
 
Yep,

I learned the hard way also. Had three hypos in one day. Apparently the "working life" of dextrose tabs is about 45mins and if you don't back up with carbs you crash right back down again. Then it's like being a "bouncing ball" correcting and dropping unless you have slow release carbs afterwards. I like to have a digestive biscuit or two. Only about 8g carbs each. The only time I don't have carbs with dextrose tabs is when I am about to have a meal.

Caitycakes x
 
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