Please help me understand. Testing artificial sweetener

[Jean1]

I am a long term T2D. I am trying to test an artificial sweetener to see if I can use it. I had a drink with this sweetener at 11:30am today my bs was 84 and I was fasted. My reading at 1:15 was 72 and 72 at 3:30. Initially I thought this good but then I read that since it went down it was bad because I had to release insulin to bring it down. I have not eaten anything during this time. I’m not sure why I’m so uncertain about this but I am.

[carolT]

It’s hard to say unless you can compare it to what your bs readings are on a normal day. How long after waking was the initial reading of 84? Is it possible you have higher glucose in the morning and it naturally went lower during a day of fasting? I would expect to see a transient dip in glucose followed by a recovery reaction if it was just a reaction to the sweetener. Also, it would be interesting to see some numbers at 30 and 60 minutes.

[Jean1]

Thank you for helping. My waking bg @ 6:30 am was 88. I took Pioglita/met 15-850mg. I will be able to do this test again later today when I can control my testing times better and let you know the results. If you can refer me to any literature on how to test this and interpret the results, I am willing to read but I just wasn’t finding stuff that seemed on point. I love podcast as well. Thank you again!!

[carolT]

Here’s some basic instructions for testing response to foods:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How can I test to see if my blood sugar increases in response to ingesting x?
You’ll need a blood glucometer to test the glucose in your blood, and you are going to chart a Glucose curve in response to that food.
Start at least 2 hours after your last food (4 if you are type 2 diabetic), and at least 2 hours after you have woken up.
Take a Time 0 measurement - this is your baseline.
Eat the food in question, and set your alarm to 30 mins.
Take a Time 30 measurement - this is your glucose spike from that food
Take a Time 60 measurement - this should show your glucose coming back to baseline
If not at baseline take another test every hour until you are close to your baseline

How can I test to see if my insulin increases in response to ingesting x?
This is something you can do to test to see if you brain is going to play tricks on you and secrete some insulin when you eat an artificial sweetener. It doesn’t happen to everyone one and the only way to find out is to test.

What you can do is do a glucose curve and see if you are still at baseline at T30 (the sweetener doesn’t produce glucose in your blood), and then your glucose goes below your baseline at T60 then you probably secreted some insulin in response to the sweetener and you will probably have to restrict use of that sweetener.

I would add, in your case try not to take medication before or during the test period as that might alter the results. And if you can also do a test with an equal amount of plain water, that will give you a great comparison.

[Jean1]

This information was very helpful! Thank you for taking the time!

[Rip55jcp]

What does it signify when your BG drops 10 points at T30?

Today, BG at 2 hours after wakeup: 94.
Baseline at 2.5 hours later: 89.
Drank electrolytes (salt and lite-salt) with MIO drops.
BG at T30: 79.

Would that indicate an immediate spike in insulin?

[Rip55jcp]

Update:

T60: BG 88

[Greengo1]

So I guess you never received an answer?

[Rip55jcp]

No, I didn’t.

[Greengo1]

I had a similar reading and was wondering the same thing.

[MrMartyJones]

I drink a ton of Mio. I’m curious to see what people say as well.

Is it really an individualized thing? Can two (metabolically normal, non diabetic) people really have different insulin reactions to the same product?