Chris' Christian Blog

Hypoglycemia food choices

"Hypoglycemia food choices" 



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The 30 DBC prompt for February 5, 2017 is ""You're starving. You've only got $3 and some loose change on you. It's gonna be at least eight hours before you're home or with anyone who can spot you some extra cash. The only place around is a gas station convenience store. What is your go-to food/drink option? Be prepared to defend your choice...you're all a talented bunch of bloggers and I expect to see lots of questions and debates in the comments!"

I swear sometimes i think Lyn chooses these questions right out of my brain. I'm going to have to look over my shoulder occasionally to see if she is lurking someplace watching me because the questions suit me so well.. This one is no exception. You see I have hypoglycemia or low blood sugar so I have to eat several small meals throughout the day to maintain my sugar. many people confuse hypoglycemia with diabetes and believe it or not I've even had health care professionals do so. I don't know how many nurses have wanted to give me insulin when what i really needed was to simply eat. Yes. I have been there and done this too.I will admit that i wear a white rubber band medical alert bracelet that says "diabetic". That's because the first aid treatment for both diabetes and hypoglycemia is exactly the same. You give them sugar. This is done because in diabetes one of two things causes them to pass out: high sugar or insulin shock. Insulin shock is low blood sugar induced by too much insulin. If it's diabetic coma or high sugar, more sugar will simply add to it. if it's insulin shock the immediate introduction of sugar will save their life. Being a former medic I know this and wear the rubber band to tell paramedics that if I'm found passed out to give me sugar.

Now to answer Lyn's poignant question: If I had only three dollars and eight hour's before my next meal next to a convenience store, Ii'd first look for any sandwiches they may have with meat on them. At this point everybody is scratching their heads and asking is Chris Breva crazy? No, I am not. I am versed in diabetes and nutrition enough to know that the bread in the sandwich is starch, which is a complex sugar that takes about two hours to break down and a total of 3-4 hours to be used up if I'm not extremely active. The meat in the sandwich is a much more complex sugar known as protein. Protein breaks down very slowly but even it is eventually broken down into the simplest form of sugar, which is glucose. So the bread in the sandwich would provide both glucose since most bread is made using high fructose corn syrup (immediate sugar) and carbohydrates or starch, which would break down onto glucose in a few hours (mid range sugar) and protein which would break down into simple sugar several hours later (complex or long range sugar).