Comments on: A spoonful of sugar

By: mreades

mreades — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:59:49 +0000

Talk to your doctor. I can’t possibly make a recommendation based on what little info I have about you.

By: jill

jill — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:13:09 +0000

i am a diabetic and take 1 mg Amaryl mostly twice a day before main meals. my fasting sugar usually is around 150-160. I had cold last week. Since then, my fasting blood sugar has gone up by about 50 points (from 150 to over 200). Now my cold is almost cured but my sugar is not down. In the morning, when it is high, I wait eating to let it go down but it keeps going up. What should I do?

By: Rod Lee

Rod Lee — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:49:00 +0000

I am hoping you can help me out here as I recently had a couple labs of a fasting glucose of 102 and then 99. My HBA1C was 5.8 and I am 40 years old. Lipids were all within normal range and my height is 5′11 and weight is 145, so I’m thin and exercise almost daily. I follow a pretty good diet and it is already low carb as far as I know. The problem is that I don’t know why I have a FBS of 102?!?! I am doing everything right I think and even my HBA1C is approaching that of pre-diabetes. I suppose I could exercise even more than an hour a day, but I have no more weight to lose. I literally do around 200 sit ups a day and am in fairly good shape by all measures. No family history of diabetes either. My doctor didn’t seem too concerned and I am still falling within the normal range, but I’m worried that the numbers will creep upwards or am I worrying over nothing?

Without knowing a whole lot more, I couldn’t possibly say what’s going on. But I agree with your doctor (who does know much more about your health than I do) that it’s probably nothing to worry about. Just watch it. If you’re exercising and low-carbing, there’s not a lot more you can do to keep your sugar down.

By: Todd Lake

Todd Lake — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:23:00 +0000

Hi, I was wondering if you could help me out. Im a strength/power athlete attempting to formulate my own sports drink. Im combining a 50/50 mix of dextrose and maltodextrin into 2 liters of water. Im looking to reach a 6-7% carbohydrate solution, to optimize water absorption. First off, is 5 grams of dextrose/maltodextrin (weight) equal to 5 grams of carbohydrate, or is it more? Secondly, to add in electrolytes, im using Mortons Light Salt, which is 1/4 teaspoon a serving. This provides 290mg of sodium and 350mg of potassium. My goal is to create a solution that has the following profile for an 8 oz serving: between 14-15 grams of carbohydrate, 100-200 mg each of sodium and potassium. The math is driving me crazy and I’d like to nail down this formula. If you can provide any knowledge that would be great.

PS: Im combining a 4:1 ratio of protein to carbs, but that wont be hard to figure out once ive nailed down the exact amount of carbs in putting in. For flavor im using Wylers Unsweetened lemonade. It doesnt seem to have any calories, etc, so im not anticipating any problems. Thanks a lot, Todd.

Yes, the 5 grams of dextrose/maltodextrin equals 5 grams of carbs. It looks to me like you would need to add about 3 teaspoons of the dextrose/maltodextrin to a cup (8 oz) of liquid to get the 14-15 g of carb and about 1/8 teaspoon of the Morton’s Lite Salt.

Since there are about 4.25 cups per liter, to get the 2 liters you want, you would need to multiply the above figures by 8.5. That’s about 25 teaspoons of the carb and just a touch over a teaspoon of the Morton’s Lite.

This is, of course, assuming the dosages you gave me are correct.

By: Paula M.

Paula M. — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:07:53 +0000

Hello, I posted a question back in Dec. of 2007 and thought I’d follow it up. I did indeed have hypoglycemia but it was due to an acute case of hypothyroidism. I suffered memory loss, hypoglycemia, ovarian cysts, chronic fatigue, aches, pains, gained 80 lbs that no amount of exercise could impact, and kept losing words when speaking, I literally couldn’t remember the word I was looking for in conversation. I went to my doctor who tested my thyroid levels and pronounced them fine and quite average. She prescribed a high protein, low carb diet for a month and let’s see what that does. A week later, very irritated since by this time I knew bloody well it had to be hypothyroidism (ya know, walks like a duck etc.) I was at my ob-gyn’s office and mentioned what was going on to her just to keep her in the loop, as it were. She walked out, came back with a scrip for .50 mg of levothyroxine, and it changed my life. It took a while, of course, but after a few weeks I could stay awake all day, the dizziness every time I ate went away, my glucose levels rose and stabilized, and the ovarian cysts disappeared. I’m now on .75 mg of hormone and have dropped 10 lbs and going strong. I hope this helps someone else out there who may be suffering like I was. I wish my doctor had listened to the symptoms instead of the blood test and thank God my ob-gyn did!
Thank you so much for what you do,
Paula M.

By: I.Thalli

I.Thalli — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:43:19 +0000

Please dont say no amount of sugar should we intake
Daily, I eat cornflakes with milk along with1.5-2 spoons of sugar, and these days, i have started to drink green tea, twice a day, with two 5g sugar bags in it. I want to reduce my weight because i am seriously overweight of around 100 kgs, i am a 24 year female. Do suggest me please.

By: kayla

kayla — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:16:31 +0000

when you say 47 grams of carbs eaquals about 47 grams of sugar what do you mean by this? i am doing a science fair project on measure the concentration of glucose in foods and i must be very specific for my research paper.
thanks so much,
kayla

By: Michael Scott

Michael Scott — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:13:29 +0000

Dear Dr. Eades,

I’ve been a PP fan since 2002, and have recommended your books to many, many friends and colleagues. I went from 229 to 179 (I’m a 6′1″ male). Unfortunately, I slowly succumbed again to the lure of carbs, thinking I’d be safe in moderation and running half marathons, but just as slowly my weight crept back up to 205. I’ve been firmly back in the low carb, PP fold for three weeks now, feeling great, and now 199. Research led me to this blog post after I got a lab result for fasting blood glucose at 103. The physician’s comment accompanying the result was “borderline, check again in a year” (all other readings, including cholesterol and triglycerides were described as “excellent”), and I wanted to educate myself about the fasting blood sugar test.

I almost never comment on blogs, but I have to thank you and MD for your thoughtful, thorough, and patient blogging and replies to comments. I am a lawyer by profession, but I have an undergraduate degree in biology — I love science, and I very much appreciate that you take the time and trouble to lay out the science in your books and your blogging. I have learned, and continue to learn, a lot from you and MD. And I also enjoy reading about your family, love of fine food and drink, and interesting travels!

Thanks again,

Mike

Thanks very much for the kind words. I appreciate them. Glad you’ve enjoyed all the material.

By: Lorna

Lorna — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:59:47 +0000

My friend has heart problems & watches his sodium carefully….. no more than 500 mg per meal with no more than 2200 sodiums per day. My brother-in-law is diabetic and says there are no #’s as to how many mg’s of sugar he can have daily. Keeping in mind the food labels, isn’t there SOME # I can pass onto him regarding sugar mg’s per day?

My recommendation would be to take in as little as possible. I eat no sugar each day, and I’m not diabetic. I’m sure your friend could do that to, and would no doubt greatly improve his diabetes as the same time.

By: Joy

Joy — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:08:42 +0000

how long does it take for 1 gram of sugar to dissolve into the body?

and how long until sugar takes effect within the body?

Almost immediately on both counts.