[lahl]

I've been a vegetarian for 30 years and a pump user for 21 years. My HgA1C is good - 5.6 last time I checked.

I have been using regular insulin in my pump because it's curve is closer to the carbohydrate curve of a vegetarian diet. Almost everything I eat has a longer curve than the curve of a fast acting insulin. Almost everything I eat has been cooked from scratch, I eat almost no processed food, and drink nothing but water (unless my BS is low, then I drink juice). I eat very little wheat, eggs and relatively little dairy.

Now I'm in the process of getting a new pump where I can use a split bolus which I think might give me a better post meal bs if I use a fast acting insulin.

What insulin (fast or regular) are other vegetarians using and why?

Thanks, muchly.

lahl

[Gary_W]

I am not a vegetarian, but do often eat completely meat-free meals. It's the GI that does it, not the fact that it's vegetarian IMO.

You've got 3 choices. Novorapid, Humalog or Apidra. On paper, there is very little to choose between humalog and Novorapid; some people prefer one or the other. Both have a total lenth of time in the body of 4.5 to 5.5 hours in most people, but the bulk of that happens before hour 3 so if you look at the response curve it's a lot more peaky in the short term.

I now use Apidra. On paper it is the fastest and (with a couple of exceptions I've seen on here) most people experience it as quicker than Novo or Humalog. In me, it is pretty much gone by hour 4 and starts to kick in within 10 minutes.

It will take you some time to get used to these, and if you're used to R then a 50 / 50 bolus spread over 3 hours should come close (ish) to what you are used to. A good starting point to (safely) experiment anyway. And then you can alter how much of that bolus to give up front for the higher GI stuff.

Gary

[lisa821]

I've been a vegetarian for 8 years. Here's what I've learned:

--Since you've been a vegetarian for so long, you probably know this, but...make sure you get enough protein in your diet. I cannot stress this enough. It's really important to balance proteins, carbs, and good fats. For a long time I thought I was eating really healthy with lots of whole grains, veggies, and fruits, with dairy and soy in the mix. Then my hair started breaking off/falling out, my nails got weak, didn't have much energy, and I gained weight. I was tested for thyroid stuff, but all tests came back normal. This really forced me to look at my diet. I checked out a few vegetarian online forums and saw that some people complained of the same symptoms I had. I learned that I was eating dairy, beans, whole grains, and soy products, which do have protein, but the protein:carb balance was off--beans have carbs in them, as do milk and whole grains. So I was getting protein, but the carb amounts were still getting jacked up. Then I'd take more insulin to cover the carbs. And on and on. Now that I've pushed up the protein amounts and backed down on carbs a bit for more of a balance between the two, I'm slowly losing body fat. I'm taking less insulin. My hair, skin, and nails seem to be recovering. Very weird.

--I currently use Novalog, which works very well for me. Before that I used Humalog, which seemed to work fine, too. (In fact, I don't recall why my endo switched me to Novalog.) If I'm having a very high plant-fiber meal with lots of vegetables and soy protein, I bolus for the insulin to be spread out over an hour. I'm still experimenting with this, but it seems to work so far. If I have whole-grains in the mix, or fruit, I'll do maybe a 40%:60% split bolus over 2 hours. You just have to experiment to see what works for you.

~Lisa