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What constitutes a snack?

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stevieh

stevieh

New Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi guys,
those who have read the couple of posts I've already put up will notice how jaundiced and cynical I am, being diagnosed Type1 just adds more stress to my life, which was bad enough before, I now have the triple whammy, I've been feeling the effects of 3 chronic diseases now for nearly 40 years, although diabetes isn't in fact the most dangerous of them, I'm finding it hard to deal with the food aspect, I know you mentioned DAFNE courses etc, but that doesn't help me at present (how long does the DAFNE course take, as I have work and study commitments?), could you please tell me what is the size of a snack we can eat without having to inject, because I haven't got a clue, and various ideas, so fed up of salad.
Many Thanks
Steve
 
Hi Steve, difficult for me to say what you can snack on as I am not on insulin but I was wondering if your other chronic diseases restrict what you can eat at all?
 
@stevieh generally the advice is that a snack you wouldn't have to inject for is something up to 10g carbohydrate but you may find that even that effects you if you don't cover it, if you don't want to inject I suggest pots of sugar free jelly, cheeses, cold meats etc xx
 
Depends on the snack. Some people say they're ok with snacks under 10g carbs. I prefer to stick to zero or very low carb e.g a bit of cheese, salami, ham chicken or a few walnuts. I f my BS is a bit low but not in hypo territory I may have a nature valley protein bar. High cocoa chocolate is ok to have a couple of squares of. Lindt 90% is 1.4 g per square.
Ultimately your meter will tell you what's ok for you, but you don't need to stick to a starvation diet.
 
I agree with both those posts. DAFNE takes a week, other versions of the same info are called something else and the local one I went on in Rugby (also used at Coventry and Warwick hospitals - Carbs 4 1 whereas Geo Eliot call their's GERTIE) and take place one day a week for 4 weeks. Both of these are based on BERTIE the course 'invented' and taught at BDEC. (Bournemouth Diabetes and Endocrinology Centre)

BDEC also offer an online version anyone can enrol for - however of course you don't have the opportunity either to ask questions, ask them to expand or gain the experience of the others on the course when they did whatever it was and either succeeded or failed - so I'd always recommend an 'in person' course when possible. Certainly on 'my' course we got loads of opportunity for personal one to one advice as well as the 'classroom' time.

https://www.bertieonline.org.uk/
 
It also depends on what you’re doing when you have the snack, for example before my cycle home from work I can snack on 15g without much change in my levels but if I eat even a very small apple (10g) mid-morning at my desk at work I need to bolus for it.
 
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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
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