# Favourite healthy snacks for hypos?



## CosmicOwl (Sep 4, 2015)

I'm vegan and looking for some healthy snacks to eat after hypos, as we're usually told to eat a sandwich or biscuits etc, but I generally don't have snacks in the house and don't know what else may work as well! So any suggestions of your favourite things would be great! Even better if it's something I can carry in my bag and has a long shelf life. Thanks!!


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## Pumper_Sue (Sep 4, 2015)

It's old hat eating biscuits and sarnies for after treatment of a hypo if you work it out a sarnie is an extra 20 carbs or more, biscuits 10 carbs that adds up to a meal worth of carbs by the time you treat the hypo and demolish the afters.
Glucose tabs keep for ever and a day. 
My absolute fav is Kendal mint cake that's just pure glucose and I keep squares of the suff in a small container.


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## CosmicOwl (Sep 4, 2015)

Pumper_Sue said:


> Eating sandwiches or biscuits isn't good for treating a hypo. You need quick acting carbs.
> Sarnies and biscuits take far to long to raise blood sugars.
> Glucose tabs keep for ever and a day.
> My absolute fav is Kendal mint cake that's just pure glucose and I keep squares of the suff in a small container.



Thank you!  But I was more talking about the 15g of carbs we're recommended to eat once our blood sugar has returned to normal, sorry if I was confusing!


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## DeusXM (Sep 4, 2015)

The 15g may be unnecessary depending on what caused the hypos. That 'rule' was put in place to deal with the older mix insulins that have substantial long peaks. But if you have a hypo two hours after your bolus insulin....you probably are at the end of that injection's action profile, in which case you probably don't need an additional 15g of carbs after treating the hypo.


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## CosmicOwl (Sep 4, 2015)

The things that nurses fail to tell you eh...they've told me to have a snack for years. Thanks!


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## Pumper_Sue (Sep 4, 2015)

DeusXM said:


> The 15g may be unnecessary depending on what caused the hypos. That 'rule' was put in place to deal with the older mix insulins that have substantial long peaks. But if you have a hypo two hours after your bolus insulin....you probably are at the end of that injection's action profile, in which case you probably don't need an additional 15g of carbs after treating the hypo.



I've never followed this made up rule and I've been on insulin for 50 + years. In fact had never heard of it until I joined internet forums. As kid it was 2 sugar lumps and get on with what you were doing. Or a resounding great slap if no sugar lumps because I had given them to the pony


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## AJLang (Sep 5, 2015)

Hi CosmicOwl I have 15g carbs fast acting glucose to treat the hypo eg Lucozade or my new favourite Glucojuice. That usually works. Only if it hasn't gone up after 15 minutes do I have another 15g carbs of fast acting glucose. Touch lots of wood I haven't collapsed from a hypo for 30 years - and that was due to experimenting with lager when I was 16


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 7, 2015)

I find if I don't have something after the grape juice I use as my hypo treatment my blood sugar goes up and up for a while and then plummets and I hypo again.  Anything like a sandwich would be disastrous though - far too many carbs!  I usually have a TUC biscuit, which is 3g of carbs - I'm afraid it's not vegan though, and not very easily to carry around with you.

The things I do find useful for carrying around are dried apricots - I wouldn't use them to treat a really bad hypo, but if I'm between 3-4 I often don't bother with either the grape juice or the biscuit, I just eat a dried apricot.  Works for me.


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 7, 2015)

Oops - accidentally posted that before I'd finished <doh>

Sue - I meant to say, I asked a dietician if I could use Kendal mint cake to treat hypos when I was first diagnosed and she said it wouldn't work because the mint oil would slow down the effect of the sugar too much.  I do wish I'd known she was wrong!  Will get hold of some and try it ...


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## Pumper_Sue (Sep 7, 2015)

TheClockworkDodo said:


> Oops - accidentally posted that before I'd finished <doh>
> 
> Sue - I meant to say, I asked a dietician if I could use Kendal mint cake to treat hypos when I was first diagnosed and she said it wouldn't work because the mint oil would slow down the effect of the sugar too much.  I do wish I'd known she was wrong!  Will get hold of some and try it ...



It's pure glucose so how does she work that out?  1 of those squares is 15 carbs


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## KookyCat (Sep 7, 2015)

Mint is the only acceptable way to deliver sugar to my mind, so I've had to steer clear of mint cake and mint crumblies because I know I wouldn't be able to stop myself   instead I stick with the jelly Devils and have a face like a scalded cat whilst chewing the blighters (yuk!).  Maybe the nurse thought that peppermint oil had the same impact as fat on carb digestion....in which case she must like her mint cake super minty!


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 7, 2015)

Yes, it was because the oil was fat - I've just found her email and it says:

" ... due to its ingredients sugar, glucose, water and peppermint oil (oil = fat thus not suitable) which you have listed. I would not recommend using this as a form of hypo treatment. It is important that hypo is treated with fast acting carbohydrate thus stick to grape juice or glucose or hypofit ... "

But if it works for you, Sue, it's definitely worth my trying it!  I love mint, and I can't have glucose tablets or jelly sweets because I'm allergic to citric acid.  The only portable glucose I can find which doesn't contain citric acid is a gel (used to be Hypofit, now GSF syrup) which is supposed to be mint flavoured (though without any oil) but is actually revolting, so I know the scalded cat face feeling well ...


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## DeusXM (Sep 8, 2015)

I think your nurse just isn't using her brain. Yes, there is oil in Kendal Mint Cake but it's a tiny amount. In fact, if you look at the nutritional information for both KMC and grape juice, the contents are near identical (and KMC has 0g of fat because the amount is so, so small as not to be measurable).

Furthermore, the sugar in grape juice is a combination of fructose and glucose. Fructose does not directly raise your blood sugar - it has to be processed by the liver first. Whereas in KMC, the sugar is all glucose, which goes straight into your blood.

So logically, standard KMC is a more effective hypo treatment than grape juice (which makes perfect sense, because it's a survival food designed to give an immediate energy burst).

Perhaps your nurse is assuming you're talking about chocolate-coated KMC? Otherwise she just seems to be entirely unaware of the impact of proportions of ingredients.


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 8, 2015)

Thanks - that makes sense, and explains why it takes a bit longer for me to get over a hypo when I treat it with grape juice than it does when I treat it with glucose powder.  Though the GSF syrup has glucose, sucrose, and fructose in it, and that works more quickly than either - maybe it just has more of the glucose though, it certainly sends my bgl up higher than I want.

It was the hospital dietician, btw, not the nurse, who told me not to have the mint cake.  I had assumed she specialised in diabetes and should know what she was talking about, but it doesn't sound like it!


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## DeusXM (Sep 8, 2015)

Ah, dieticians...or, how to pretend to be a medical professional with limited training. 

Don't forget, these are the same people who are convinced that pasta and bread don't affect your blood sugar because they break down slowly and steadily.

Just to return back to the original question, an effective way to balance everything out with hypos is an energy drink and a small amount of a banana. The energy drink provides a very quick lift, the banana sugars provide a bit more to keep you on the level, and importantly, bananas contain potassium. Insulin lowers potassium levels as well as sugar and there's a theory that the hypo hangover is the result of low potassium - so boosting your potassium will make you feel less drained after a hypo. Indeed, when someone is hospital treated for DKA, often they will have their potassium levels monitored because the insulin required for treatment might be quite substantial, and therefore lower potassium levels dangerously.


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 8, 2015)

They put me on intravenous potassium when I was in hospital with DKA (when I was first diagnosed with diabetes), along with the insulin and glucose.

I eat a lot of bananas, but I find the problem with them as snacks is that a whole one is much too much and I can't work out how to keep the rest fresh until I next want one - any ideas?


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## AlisonM (Sep 8, 2015)

What about dried fruit? Small, easily portable and convenient.


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## Annette (Sep 9, 2015)

What my Mother does re bananas is to cut the whole banana (skin included) in half. This then just leaves the top round section open to the air. She then covers this with clingfilm to seal it.
She has half a banana every day with her breakfast, and they certainly last overnight. The greener the banana to start with, the longer they keep. You might want to cut a slither off the top when you go to eat the remainder, if you don't like the slightly slimy layer that can form, but the rest should be fine for a limited while at least!


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## TheClockworkDodo (Sep 9, 2015)

Thank you, Annette


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