Best sugar -free/no added sugar sqaushes/cordials?

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Purple_Panda

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Type 2
Hi.

So I've been avoiding the "Diet Sodas" due to the impact these had on the kidneys and the effects on increased hunger and haven't drunk any since November. I have been sticking mostly to water either filtered, or bottled or sparkling. To make it a bit more interesting I have often added a bit of squash to the mix mainly of the Robinson's variety. I did Ribena No Added Sugar once. As a bit of a intrigue I decided to "test" the cordials using the BG monitor and found that Robinson's Fruit Creations Blueberry and Blackberry, and Ribena No Added Sugar Blackcurrant went through the roof (between 17 and 24 for both) whether dilute or undiluted. I did the same undiluted with Robinsons Grapefruit and it was about 7. The Robinson's Lemon Cordial was about 3.0 undiluted and when diluted was "too low" to register a reading.

I am therefore of the opinion that moving forward if I need sweet drink cravings the only one for me is the Robinson's Lemon variety.

Does anyone recommend anything else that won't shoot BG levels through the roof? I assume Lemon and Lime Cordials are the best then because they're the most "citrusy"?
 
I like Robinson's No added sugar fruit and barley in both Peach and Apple and Pear flavours. I have a pint glass of one or the other by my bed and drink it freely. It doesn't seem to have any affect whatsoever on my BGs.
 
I just diluted about a litre of water with Robinsons Blueberry and Blackberry and it measured 17.4 on the BG metre. Should I drink this at my peril?
 
What are you doing? Dipping your test strips in the prepared drink? Or in the undiluted squash?

I've just checked the nutrition on Robinsons no added sugar "Peach Fruit and Barley" and it's a bit obscure but it says "Negligible carbs". We have Morrison's own brand "no added sugar Apple and Pear fruit and barley". 0.05g carb per 250ml glass. I honestly do not have any rise in BG from drinking either.
 
A blood glucose monitor is for testing a blood sample not any other type of fluids, the result you got is nonsense and will have no relevance as to how that juice/cordial will affect you glucose level. The only way you will know what works for you is to test after drinking the diluted cordial.
 
Testing the juice/solution with the strips kind of works on the same principle i.e. the sugar concentration of the solution. Obviously with blood it's different scenario as you would hope that a lot of that sugar has been metabolised and stored in the cells etc. But it gives you a bit of an indication as to what you are ingesting.
 
I’ve never had problems with drinking any of these but my preference is for vimto, ribena or robinsons blackcurrant
 
Purple_Panda said:
Testing the juice/solution with the strips kind of works on the same principle i.e. the sugar concentration of the solution. Obviously with blood it's different scenario as you would hope that a lot of that sugar has been metabolised and stored in the cells etc. But it gives you a bit of an indication as to what you are ingesting.
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I am finding it hard to believe that the juice used as a sample would give anything like an idea of the sugar, as the glucose monitor works on the principle of the enzyme glucose oxidase reacting with the glucose in the blood sample and crating an electronic signal giving you the reading on the monitor.
 
Leadinglights said:
I am finding it hard to believe that the juice used as a sample would give anything like an idea of the sugar, as the glucose monitor works on the principle of the enzyme glucose oxidase reacting with the glucose in the blood sample and crating an electronic signal giving you the reading on the monitor.
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So by that principle it would then react with whatever glucose is present in the solution so in this case the fruit sugars in the sqaush.
 
Looking at how the strips work the reaction is basically with the glucose present in the sample that creates the charge or indeed any solution as I guess that would create a charge with the free ions. But without wishing to get into a chemistry lesson here it does give a picture of the sugar content of the solution.

The best way to do this would be for me to drink this on an empty stomach and then test over a two hour period like they do with a GTT.
 
I drink no added sugar squash all the time, tesco own, I've never noticed any significant rise in my levels.
 
Stitch147 said:
I drink no added sugar squash all the time, tesco own, I've never noticed any significant rise in my levels.
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I mean it really will depend on the squash. The vimto no added sugar still has the natural sugars in it whilst the robinsons variety lists it as negligible.

The best way is to drink some and test it later.
 
Purple_Panda said:
Hi.

So I've been avoiding the "Diet Sodas" due to the impact these had on the kidneys and the effects on increased hunger and haven't drunk any since November. I have been sticking mostly to water either filtered, or bottled or sparkling. To make it a bit more interesting I have often added a bit of squash to the mix mainly of the Robinson's variety. I did Ribena No Added Sugar once. As a bit of a intrigue I decided to "test" the cordials using the BG monitor and found that Robinson's Fruit Creations Blueberry and Blackberry, and Ribena No Added Sugar Blackcurrant went through the roof (between 17 and 24 for both) whether dilute or undiluted. I did the same undiluted with Robinsons Grapefruit and it was about 7. The Robinson's Lemon Cordial was about 3.0 undiluted and when diluted was "too low" to register a reading.

I am therefore of the opinion that moving forward if I need sweet drink cravings the only one for me is the Robinson's Lemon variety.

Does anyone recommend anything else that won't shoot BG levels through the roof? I assume Lemon and Lime Cordials are the best then because they're the most "citrusy"?
Click to expand...
Hi,

I've noticed some of the flavoured waters are quite high in sugar, but costco do flavoured cans of water. Lemon, Grapefruit and Lime, all are very subtle in flavour but they are zero carb and an alternative to drinking carbonated water.
All three of them are very refreshing.
 
I have Robinsons no added sugar a pint of or a 500ml refillable bottle and it has little to no effect on me / levels.
 
Bexlee said:
I have Robinsons no added sugar a pint of or a 500ml refillable bottle and it has little to no effect on me / levels.
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What flavour?
 
I did an experiment for you.

500ml vimto no added sugar squash. 1.5g carbs in whole thing. Tested it at 13.4

Bg before 8.4, no insulin
Bg an hour after 7.6

Given it’s both only 1.5g carb and didnt impact my blood sugar, it coming up at 13.4 on a test strip is meaningless.
 
And for my attempt at the science:

We have 5 litres of blood which contains approximately 4g of sugar. So that’s 0.4g sugar per 500ml blood as a normal concentration. Vimto has 1.5g sugar per 500ml which is approximately 3 times as sugary as blood, so vimto coming up as 13.4 which is 3 times a normal bg of 4.5 makes sense.

But that doesn’t mean you can use the blood sugar of vimto to mean it will raise your bg a lot, as that isn’t how it works.
 
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