Honey as a glucose tab / gel substitute?

I don't see why not!

I've always found honey raises my BG levels fast

try and figure out how your levels personally change when eating honey, opposed to waiting on a hypo.

I normally stick with dextro tabs to treat hypos, however if it's just a small hypo I find 150ml of fresh OJ does the trick and it tastes better!

I tend to use Coke (full fat) or juice, Couldnt think of anything worse than pure honey!

You might find honey takes too long to absorb properly as it's lower GI than glucose. Some people love jelly babies (can't think why) and use those instead to treat a hypo.

Coke, lucozade or any liquid glucose is best for severe hypo's, but for others Jelly Babies work fine in my experience.

Another option is use the gluco tab container and fill it with fruit pastels

I tend to use glucotabs, as I've never seen sachets of honey being sold in any shops.

CarbsRok said:

Another option is use the gluco tab container and fill it with fruit pastels

Click to expand...

My old gluco-tab pot has jelly babies in it

Recall a university diabetic student had some jam rubbed onto his gums
via his quick thinking and acting flat share mate late one night .
No honey in their kitchen cupboards but 'had' some jam
so flat mate smeared the jam inside his gums .

Paramedics were called and said it probably prevented him
going into a coma .
This thread title reminded me of this one incident and story .

Glucose tablets or glucogel sachets or jelly babies or fruit pastilles
are better stored in suitable places should you need them .
Like in car , by side of bed, in travel man bag (if you use one) ?
In kit bag on your person with insulin / BG test kit etc.

Sometimes you have to find which/what ? you personally prefer the
taste(s) off .
For me - its either a kiddies pack of jelly babies or blackcurrant
flavoured glucose tablets .
Only LIKE this flavour too the other ones are
For a swift or quicker boost back its the lucozade original drink .
Only ever needed this a handful of times in the last 5 years .
But find - it does work proactively fast with me .

Another if you would rather have a liquid is to perhaps try some of the little sachets of cake icing used for decorating cakes......... slight problem though regarding the colour prob not that good going around with blue lips lol.

Hi Artemis,
Honey is an interesting natural source of "sugars". It is a form of invert sugar which increases it's hygroscopic properties and this is why it does not easily go off and is often used heavily in the confectionery business.

Being a natural invert sugar it is therefore a mixture of glucose and fructose. Fructose does not have the same time sensitive effect as glucose does on blood sugar as the body processes it differently, thus it may be of greater benefit in a hypo situation to stick with a primarily glucose based approach. It should work to relieve a hypo however other sources of glucose are perhaps better at it.

J