Fruit Juice

[Stuboy]

I really like fruit juices, either regular fruit juice like apple, pompegranet, blueberry etc, or fruit smoothies like the innocent smoothies...

Might seem like a silly question, but do you bolus for this?

I know you'd normally bolus for fruit if you ate an apple or a banananana or something, but it's never occured to me to bolus for drinks.

How do carbs in drinks generally act? slower than food? quicker? im interested to know how others handle fruit juices.

My dentist told me that fruit juices are good for dental health and fighting plague etc, but it's easy for them to say drink more fruit juice (id love to sub pepsi for fruit juice!) but it's not that simple when your a diabetic!

ps; sorry if this should be in dieting... wasn't sure!

[JadeMonkey]

You'll definitely want to bolus for fruit juice. They will raise your blood sugar faster than whole fruit; in fact, many diabetics use fruit juice to raise their blood sugar quickly if they have gone low. Also, most contain a good bit of sugar so you could get yourself into trouble pretty quickly if you're not paying attention.

-Jade

[xMenace]

You definately need to bolus for them! 1 cup typically contains 30g of carbs. That's a lot and easy to see why they are called hidden carbs in literature. They definately add to our society's obesity.

I find natural apple juice the easiest to tolerate, but generally they are BG killers causing fast spikes.

[Gary_W]

Hi Stuboy,

If I told you that one of my hypo cures is 150ml of orange juice and that this contains 15g of carbs, would you then bolus for it :)

Most fruit juices come in at around 8-12g of carbs per 100ml. If you drink a pint of orange juice, you've just had the equivalent of two thick rounds of toast with jam as far as carbs goes.

I always bolus for juice. It works quicker than carbs in the whole fruit as the fibre content is less. Hence my use as a hypo cure. If fact, juice works so quickly in me that I don't drink it unless it's part of a meal or if I'm hypo.

Gary

[Jan B]

Stuboy,

Those fruit smoothies have LOADS of carbs! Many of them over 100! I love them, but thankfully the last time I ordered one, I asked for a nutrition list, which was available. I had a peach/banana smoothie (one size only) and it had about 120 carbs & 500+ calories. That was from Orange Julius.

I've always used OJ to correct a low. I did learn the glycemic index isn't very high in OJ, meaning it doesn't work as fast as other juices . . . but it's always helped me out.

[morrisma]

Had a hypo last night and swallowed my calibrated 8 mouthfuls of cran-apple juice. No correction bolus obviously but I would never be able to consume that much juice normally without a bolus.

Smoothies and juice drinks are hypo-only for me. Too many calories and carbs for healthy eating.
Mike

[Scratch]

I really like fruit juices, either regular fruit juice like apple, pompegranet, blueberry etc, or fruit smoothies like the innocent smoothies...

Might seem like a silly question, but do you bolus for this?

I know you'd normally bolus for fruit if you ate an apple or a banananana or something, but it's never occured to me to bolus for drinks.

How do carbs in drinks generally act? slower than food? quicker? im interested to know how others handle fruit juices.

My dentist told me that fruit juices are good for dental health and fighting plague etc, but it's easy for them to say drink more fruit juice (id love to sub pepsi for fruit juice!) but it's not that simple when your a diabetic!

ps; sorry if this should be in dieting... wasn't sure!
I mean it seems obvious to me so I'm thinking it should seem obvious to you, but what exactly are you bolusing for?

Are you bolusing for something based upon its physical state, ie, liquid or solid?

Or are you bolusing for something for how much carbohydrate it contains? Pretty much 15 grams of carbs are 15 grams of carbs are 15 grams of carbs...

[Alice]

Another way to remember...my small carton of Tropicana oj is about 25 carbs or so...the same as a Krispy Kreme traditional glazed donut. I don't avoid juice as I take insulin...but I avoid (and do not care for) juices with corn syrup added...such as cranberry juice "cocktail".

[shabbie]

it seems it definately pays to know your juices here ;)

i always bolus for juice, havent tried smoothies yet...a meal in itself!!!

and with the carbs raising the Bg's so quickly it would pay to pre-bolus too.

pre-pumping i wouldnt take juice at all as i objected to yet another shot...now i can bolus at will!!!

[Stuboy]

ahhh doh!

I was adding a unit or two when i have a smoothie with lunch, but i usually end up drinking the whole 1liter carton in the space of a few hours... i haven't had any for over a week now since i've been trying to sort my bg's out, but i was drinking them everyday with lunch, like i said... i LOVE smoothies, but i've always treated it as just a drink... im been killin myself! :(

So lets take an innocent smoothie... 100%fruit and "nothing else". Would the carbs in one of these act faster than just eating fruit normally, because it's been processed into a drink?

i really like drinking fruit juices and smoothies, they're good for you and count as 1 of your 5 a day, so i like to get them in, but i want to be able to handle it with the insulin.

[RLK]

So lets take an innocent smoothie... 100%fruit and "nothing else". Would the carbs in one of these act faster than just eating fruit normally, because it's been processed into a drink?



Generally, the pulp and skins of the fruit are removed when it's juiced or smoothied (is that a word? *g*), so there's less fiber present. Therefore, yes, the carbs would act faster in most cases.

As long as you can figure out the right bolus, go ahead and drink your smoothie :) But, like others have said, they tend to be pretty high in calories, so you may want to watch that too.

[Evermont]

...So lets take an innocent smoothie... 100%fruit and "nothing else". Would the carbs in one of these act faster than just eating fruit normally, because it's been processed into a drink?...

Ineresting question. The reason processed flour has a much higher glycemic index than whole wheat grains is because the outer shell (which would slow things down a lot) has been removed and the inside part (called the endosperm) has been pulverized into extremely fine particles. When you eat these fine particles there is a drastically increased surface area which is attacked by simultaneously by digestive enzymes thus flooding your system with sugars and there's your 'spike'.

I assume the same principle applies with fruit but suspect that the difference is less extreme. Seems worthy of experimentation.

[JadeMonkey]

So lets take an innocent smoothie... 100%fruit and "nothing else". Would the carbs in one of these act faster than just eating fruit normally, because it's been processed into a drink?


As long as you're using all of the fruit that you'd actually eat it should be about the same. If you're getting rid of things like skins and such (say with apples, grapes, etc.) or pulp (orange juice) then you're reducing the fiber content that would normally help to slow absorption. Juices would be the big culprits here as they normally have all of the solids removed and are filtered so they are nice and clear (read: sugarwater). Theoretically if you're drinking orange juice with lots of pulp or unfiltered apple juice (apple cider is made from the whole apple which is even better) that should help to spread out the absorption of the sugars a bit and cause your BG to spike less. In any case you'd still want to take a shot/bolus to cover the carbs/sugar.

If you're trying to slow down the spike they cause I'd also suggest including some extra fiber and/or protein to help even things out a bit. I'm a big fan of the smoothies myself and always include some protein powder (helps me with the muscle pain after weight lifting as well) and flax seed (also good for the heart with the Omega 3s) in the mix as well along with whole fresh or frozen fruit and some light yogurt or reduced fat milk. Still have to take a shot or bolus but it works out pretty well.

-Jade

[tanyatype1]

Stuboy ~ I've always been told that fruit juices are bad for dental health because of the high sugar and citric acid components. I've heard recently that fruit juice can be harder on your tooth enamel than pop! :eek:

[grace girl]

I definately bolus for juice, and I've found that drinking it with a meal so there are other carbs involved seems to help with the spikes. Drinking it alone and bolusing for it usually sends me sky high, then down to a nasty low.
Over all, I prefer whole fruit!

[Gary_W]

Innocent Smoothies are indeed lovely. But as far as a T1 diabetic goes, they are anything but innocent.

We do buy them occasionally. I will have at most 200ml as part of a meal and then bolus for it accordingly. Or use it as hypo cure; it's very quick to get in (it is in me anyway). Using it as hypocure, I only drink enough for 15g of carbs, so around a 100ml cup.

innocent drinks : our drinks - smoothies, thickies, really lovely juices (http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/our_drinks/smoothies/mango_passion/)

If you drink the entire 1 litre carton of this stuff, you've consumed 148g of carbs. Only 17g of that is fibre. Could this be one of the reasons you're having BG problems? :D

With any of the pre-packaged stuff, just read the label and the carb content lights up like a Christmas tree. GI value is much less clear, and GI does seem to vary a bit depending on the person (e.g. some folks here cannot tollerate mashed potatoes but I do fine with them). IMO, bolus for what you drink or eat and blood test lots to see how badly a food spikes you. If you can live with the spike, consider it 'on the menu'.

[squidsdc]

Unless I have low bg, I stay away from juice straight-up. Sometimes I crave it though, and can only drink 4 oz of OJ at a sitting. Any other juice I'll maybe steal a sip from my husband's glass :) What I found works for me instead, and you have to train your palate to the less intense flavor, is to mix juices with seltzer, flavored seltzer, and diet sprite or diet ginger ale. That seems to work for me the best.

[Stuboy]

ooooh, so i should really only be drinking smoothies "with food" then i guess.

I dont think it's the sole contributor to my issues, but definatly a contributor. Incorrect ratio's and too much lantus was also playing a massive part obviously. But im getting that sorted now and im nearly there, but untill then i will avoid smoothies :( and fruit juice :( and just stick with diluted cordil for now.

*sigh*

Thanks for your help peeps!

ps; Pinapples, coconuts and banana innocent smoothie is my fav!