• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2026 Survey »

Type 1/Diet

Actually the DAFNE website specifically excludes sugary drinks in it's FAQs
Can I really eat what I want?
Yes, except for having sugary drinks you can adjust your insulin to cover anything you choose to have.
Basically if you are choosing sugar loaded energy drinks, DAFNE doesn't give the green light to them (they are absorbed too fast , good for hypos)

If you're meaning sugar free energy drinks with lot's of caffeine, and maybe taurine.

They don't actually know the effect of these drinks on T1, the Children with diabetes site discusses them , obviously talking about children: 1 answer suggesting OK in moderation but 3 doctors basically saying no:http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/dteam/2006-12/d_0d_ec7.htm
I see that the Bournemouth hospital did a study a couple of years ago but I couldn't find any results. http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01805700

DAFNE may tell you how you can eat normally, but what is normal? Normal and healthy or normal meaning as many people eat, unhealthily.
It is great in that it means you can eat more flexibly (ie like a non diabetic) and that you can vary your meals and mealtimes This is a contrast to earlier methods which involved counting exact amounts of carbs with fixed amounts of insulin at fixed times.
In many ways it is good that you have the tools to deal with different foods but just as for people without diabetes there are unhealthy choices. As people with diabetes I think we need to be careful and that it's much safer to, for the most part, err on the healthy side.

Let's take an example; a slice of chocolate cake. You can calculate the dose for the cake and, if you do it correctly, then you can get away with a reasonable blood glucose. Doing it correctly isn't always simple though because things like exercise, health, stress etc etc vary from day to day and actually calculating the carbs may not be that easy. You may not always get it right.
Most importantly, eating chocolate cake isn't a healthy option for anyone on a regular basis.
Personally, I'll eat a small piece at one of my grand children's birthday party or on the odd occasion as part of a dessert after dinner but not every day.

If you are very active, you may well need more carbohdrates than someone who is older and less active but I certainly feel that most of them should come from healthy sources.
 
Danny - you say you need energy. High sugars are known to deprive you of energy and cause sluggishness. I guarantee that if you can keep below, say, 10mmol you will feel instantly more energetic! Go for it! Save the energy drinks for hypo treatment - they contain no nutrients so are 'empty' calories.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Ok - not read all the multitude of replies…however this might help (might not) explain it.

When you aren't diabetic the insulin that you produce is amazingly clever stuff - it responds immediately to blood sugar rises and the food that you eat, and it gets out your system really quick so you don't go hypo….even a non diabetic having a glucose drink would have a blood sugar rise. As a diabetic the insulins that we inject are NO WAY near as good as that natural stuff that we used to produce - they take longer to react even our fastest ones like novorapid still respond loads slower, so as a diabetic that peak from a sugary drink will probably kick in before the insulin kicks in and so give you a really big peak in your blood sugar which isn't great. So yes in theory eat the carbs you want and adjust your doses for it (like has been said before the more carbs you eat, the greater room there is for error as you are having bigger insulin doses which might not be perfectly set and you are guessing the carbs in your food so there is plenty of room for error the more you have!), you also at some stage need to think about the carbs that you are eating (and I would say no energy drinks unless you are low) - whether you are having some slow burning carbs like pasta and things that don't cause really big peaks (I quite liked the Glycamic index and used it when I wanted really tight control when I had kids - as not peaking too high after you eat also helps your longer term sugar levels).

Also the poor sleep and need for energy drinks….if you go to bed on a slightly lower blood sugar - say 7-10 then you will also probably find you sleep slightly better as well as you won't need the toilet or a drink or anything like that and have lower sugars overall will mean you have more energy as I bet a lot of the tiredness is probably caused by being just a bit too high. In the mean time how about coffee or a can of diet coke with some caffeine in until you get it all sorted?

Hope that helps a little bit and good luck with it all and the pump
 
Thanks for all the responses, appreciate them
 
Danny I eat what I want when I want, I carb count and cover. I'm not saying I eat rubbish all the time but I have my moments, I home cook and some days are virtually carb free, others are carb heavy. If I fancy junk food, I'll have it, I refuse to believe people who say they are never naughty with their diet, a little of what you fancy does you good. As far as I can see you're new on the pump and once you get your carb ratios and basal sorted you'll be good, I also think I read you're not long diagnosed? (I might be wrong) but if you've got your levels down that's brilliant, it's a great place to continue the good work. So well done you, the thing I try to remember is diabetes isn't a text book simple thing. Good luck with your pump.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
I don't restrict my carbs, and have actually increased them since becoming diabetic. Simply because I don't wish to loose weight and I need the carbs and insulin to maintain weight and also for extra activity. I eat what I consider a normal diet in the fact I don't restrict bread, pasta, cereals etc. I don't however eat anything I like and match it with insulin. Things I exclude from my diet are normally high carb and high fat combos such as lasagne,pizza,takeaways. Other things I don't have regular I usually treat hypos with, such as lucozade, and then follow up with 1~2 biscuits as required. food/drink very high with in carbs with an of which sugar content also high, will raise sugars very quickly before the insulin has chance to work, and continue to work after all sugar has been absorbed in the blood which can bring on a hypo. I have learnt how my body works with the injected insulin and simply adjusted that to suit my diet. Sugars majority in the 4~9 range, although 9 is becoming more rare. since pumping the high/lows few and far between. When injecting on mdi was completely knackered even with ok readings. Should say I rarely snack between meals unless doing unplanned high energy activity as that can cause issues in itself.


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Thanks for this at least I know there's other people doing the same


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Ah thanks for the response, interesting seeing everyones different views on the topic . I kidn ahave to say im the opposite and have less frequent meals and snack more, the only time I ever did have frequent meals in a patern was on the mix, ever since i've been on the pump I feel theres less of a worry with snacking as before i'd miss the injection and add it onto the next one i do pre-meal, Now you can just do it within a few seconds seems much easier to snack etc, (using the pump)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…