Snack Recommendations?

For context, I'm a Type 1 diabetic who uses the carb-to-insulin ratio for my meals or snacks.

For pretty much all my life, I've been in a constant battle with my body when it comes down to my weight. I've always been very skinny and a little underweight for my age for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. And while I've always followed a healthy-ish diet and never really dabbled much with junk food (especially in light of my IBS diagnosis), I've always had trouble trying to maintain a healthy weight. There did come a point after my IBS diagnosis where I actually made good progress and I was really proud of myself. But when I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, all the work I'd put in was quickly thrown out of the window.

In order to keep my glucose levels under control, I naturally had to restrict and change my diet a bit, including cutting out foods that were negatively impacting my levels and eating smaller meals. Prior to my diabetes diagnosis, my meals were quite small anyways, but I made up for this by snacking in between. Now, however, I've had to cut out snacking entirely due to requiring insulin to eat most things (and not being able to administer it in between meals because of insulin stacking) and my meal portion sizes have shrunk a little, which as you can imagine has not been doing my weight any good. While my weight is stable, I have gradually lost some because of my current eating habits, once again leaving me struggling to put weight on. As far as my meals go, there's little I can do to change them at this point. I follow the carbs-veg-protein portions rule and can't increase the portion sizes because of what it does to my levels (I have tried this in the past and it didn't work out well). So, I feel the best way to make sure I'm eating more is through eating snacks in between meals like I was before.

Unfortunately, a lot of the searching I've done online for snack suggestions for Type 1 diabetics has been fruitless, primarily because a lot of the articles suggested foods that would require me to inject insulin. So far, I think the only snack I've just about managed to get away with is a small handful of cashews.

Does anyone here have any healthy snack recommendations that either wouldn't require insulin or wouldn't impact my blood sugar levels much? Admittedly, I've always been a bit of a picky eater and, as previously mentioned, my IBS has also forced some diet restrictions on me. But I don't have any food allergies as far as I know, so I am open to trying any suggestions people have.

becca59 said:

I’m not personally a snacker myself as I’ve never felt the need to. However, if you say for instance that you wish to eat an apple and know that you need to inject to prevent a rise. That injection is not stacking your insulin as it is taken to cover food you are eating. As long as your food/insulin ratios are correct this is ok.

Click to expand...

Hi Becca. Thank you for the reply.

I have attempted to do this in the past and it doesn’t end well. I use Novorapid, so I typically leave four hours between my doses. If I try to inject earlier than the four hour gap, the two doses cross and overpower any foods I’ve consumed, leading me to hypo. My DSNs have told me to use a 1:10 ratio for breakfast and then 1:12 for any meals or snacks that come after, and that if I need to administer any correction doses, I do so with my meal. So, I usually inject four times a day (basal insulin included).

Also, me being underweight means that I don’t have a lot of natural body fat, which causes frequent bruising and lumps around my injection sites. So, injecting for snacks is quite difficult. Unless I eat that snack with a meal, it isn’t usually safe for me to inject more than four times a day.

filly said:

I use M&S Spanish Chorizo Crisps and Pancetta Crisps both have 0.2 carbs per bag.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the suggestion. Just looked them up and they seem like what I’m looking for. I’ll see if I can obtain some and see how it goes.

sgm14 said:

Have you seen a dietician?

My endo sent me to see one and she give me lots of different recommendations to help me gain weight. Unfortunately the ones I remember will be of no use to you.

> So, I feel the best way to make sure I'm eating more is through eating snacks in between meals like I was before.

Not sure if I would agree. It is definitely one way, but I'm not sure if it is the best.

> So far, I think the only snack I've just about managed to get away with is a small handful of cashews.

Is this because you like cashews better than other nuts because I think they have around twice as many carbs as peanuts and brazil nuts, so if cashews work for you, I would expect almost every other nut would also work.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the response.

I’ve spoken to a dietician at my diabetes clinic in the past, but it wasn’t very helpful. The talk was too focused on the carb-counting aspect, and when I did try to push for food suggestions, they were very vague. I’ve sort of had to figure things out on my own since. If I’m still struggling by the time of my next consultation appointment, I’ll see if they can refer me to one for help.

Because of my IBS, I suffer with bloating, so eating big meals in one go isn’t ideal for me. Snacking meant I was able to eat little and often to reduce the bloating while also maintaining a good calorie and vitamin/nutrient intake. As previously stated above, I wasn’t much of a junk food person, especially as things like sweets, chocolate and whatnot have always caused me tummy aches even when eating them in tiny amounts (this has since been suspected to be because of my IBS), so my snack choices were more on the healthy side anyways, like mixed fruit or veg bags, for instance.

Regarding the cashews, that is true so far. I did try walnuts first, but they were a bit dry for me. The cashews I only just about get away with because the amount I eat is very small. The effect on my blood sugars isn’t too bad, surprisingly. I did try Brazil nuts today and quite like them, so thank you for the suggestion. XD I am still looking into other nuts options, so I’ll check out peanuts when I get the chance and see how that goes.

lessci said:

I'm a type 2, so (try) and keep a low carb diet. Full fat dairy (cheese, Whole milk greek yoghurt, cream in coffee), Pork Scratchings, higher fat processed meats like salami all work for me, and I've personally found my IBS much improved since I reduced my carb intake, but obviously this is my metabolism & not yours

Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply.

When it comes to my IBS, it's primarily unhealthy or certain processed foods that cause me problems. As my current diet is healthy-ish, however, the type of food I'm eating isn't much of an issue, just the amount of food I'm actually eating because of my diabetes. I do remember the DSNs at my diabetes clinic telling me that protein foods were a good source for filling an empty stomach because of the lack of carbs in them. But I have found that because of the fat in some of these protein foods, it can still cause rises in blood sugar. So far, I've seen that cheese is problematic for me in this regard, unless it's in very tiny amounts. XD

Although, speaking of pork scratchings, I completely forgot about those. I didn't eat them often and haven't done so recently, but I quite liked them. Salami also sounds like a potential option. A quick Google search into their carbs and additional sugars seems promising, so I might give them a try. Thanks for the suggestions.