Apologies if this has been asked, I’m knew to all this type 1 lark and so every new venture is taken with hesitation until I wrap my head around it all. I’m waiting to see the dietician still so thought I outdone ask about it here - any Latte drinkers out there? Conflicting information as to whether to drink it, how to drink it (size, milk type etc) I don’t like syrups, just a bog standard latte but should I be taking insulin for it if I choose to have one between meals etc.? Just would love to know what all you lovely people do lol! Thanks
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Lattes and type 1
- Thread starter Alistina
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Robin
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Experiment! (it’s the only way,) I’d start off by looking at the carb content, which you can find online for most coffee chains, or if you’re making your own, calculate it from the back of the milk bottle. If it comes to a carb total that is above what I'd take 1 unit of insulin for, I'd calculate the dose and inject accordingly, Then test afterwards to see what happened. In my case, the caffeine causes a bit of an extra spike, so I'd err on the generous side with my insulin. You may be different though, so give it a go and see what happens!
Inka
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- Type 1
And just to stress again for the casual reader - no food is forbidden for Type 1s. The only drink I was told to avoid was full sugar cokes, etc but even then they’re good to drink as hypo treatments or before or during exercise.
Read the carb info for your latte. If it’s a local shop with no info, pay attention to how it’s made in the description eg if it says half milk, a mug of milk with a dash of espresso, etc. You can then look at the cup size and estimate the amount of milk and bolus accordingly. Unlike @Robin I have no spike from the caffeine so bolus cautiously. We’re all different 🙂
Read the carb info for your latte. If it’s a local shop with no info, pay attention to how it’s made in the description eg if it says half milk, a mug of milk with a dash of espresso, etc. You can then look at the cup size and estimate the amount of milk and bolus accordingly. Unlike @Robin I have no spike from the caffeine so bolus cautiously. We’re all different 🙂
It was just to stop off at the local little coffee shop so I don’t have carb amounts for it like Costa does. We’ve no milk in the house so thought it would get one after stopping in at Asda for the shopping! Yes you are right I need to experiment but being new to all this, like everything else, it is all somewhat daunting! Appreciate the comments so far!
How long afterwards would you test?
Robin
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If I'd drunk it between meals, the next test I'd do would probably be just before my next meal, which would be a couple of hours later. I’d have to remember that I'd still got insulin on board, if I'd taken any, and do a mental adjustment that I wouldn’t be quite back to where I would be in another couple of hours (if I wasn’t eating again). If I wanted to know if the Latte caused a big spike in my Blood sugars I’d test after an hour, and if I was very high, I’d compare that with the figure just before my next meal, and see if it had dropped. If this happens, it would tell me that the insulin dose was correct, but the timing wasn’t, and I need to take the insulin earlier.(don’t be tempted to add more insulin at his stage, if you’re high, it’s probably a mismatch in the timing, and adding more insulin would cause a hypo later)
If you're using a meter, you’ll probably have to repeat the process several times to get a picture of what happens consistently. I now use a Libre, so I can see what my blood sugar is doing all the time, so it makes it easier to spot spikes etc more quickly.
Inka
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I’d test 90 mins later for a normal latte, but for anything unknown eg a coffee with added syrups or the like, I might test first at one hour, and then again at two hours depending on the result.
I’ve found local coffee shops much better than chains. Chains like Costa and Starbucks (“let’s just add some random sugar to everything”) can be deceptive so always check their nutritional info.
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