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Studying Abroad in London

mooremma

Newbie
Messages
1
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
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I am a type 1 diabetic from the USA studying abroad for 6 months in London. I would love any tips or advice on living with T1D in the UK, specifically common snacks/treatments used. I tend to use juice boxes and fruit snacks but do not know how common those are abroad. Thank you!
 
Hi @mooremma hope you enjoy your 6 months in the Uk. We have juice boxes her in every supermarket and most sell little fruit boxes. I think the main thing to remember is the nutritional list on the back of foods showing carbohydrate is for total amount. I know in the USA fibre is included in total carbs. Here we list ours separately.
 
Hi @mooremma,
The most common hypo treatments used here in the U.K. are glucose tablets, jelly babies (yes, jelly sweets in the shape of babies 5g carbohydrates each - Brits don’t eat jellufied bears, they eat jellified babies), fruit juices, a sugar drink called lucozade and sugar containing cola.
A great many foods have the carbohydrate content written on the packaging and as @becca59 says this includes sugars but not fibre.
Hope you’re finding London fun despite the wet weather.
 
When you buy fruit juice tetrapaks/boxes, but be careful that they actually contain fruit juice as there are lots that contain squash, which has far fewer carbs.

Everyone has different opinions re hypo treatments, but I like Skittles - they're small and easy to count a dose (~1g CHO /skittle) and you can buy them in little packets which survive living in pockets/bags/etc. ready for an emergency.

I hope you enjoy your visit and your studies :)
 
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