Blood Sugar Test
Snacks for when you're low

When I have a low blood sugar test, it usually results in these symptoms: hot, tired, weak, shaky, anxious, and sometimes my eyes go wacky. I pour myself a glass of apple juice and make myself a piece of bread with peanut butter.

If you don’t like apple juice or bread and peanut butter, you can also use grape juice (which is very high in natural sugar so be careful), white grape juice, orange juice and any other kind of fruit juice with natural or regular sugar.

For a blood sugar leveler, you can have peanuts, pistachios, crackers and peanut butter or crackers and cheese, or just cheese by itself.

There are many other snacks you can have for a low blood sugar test.

I usually have a 12oz juice box and some pistachios (which don’t have any carbohydrates in them) with me when I go anywhere.

Pistachios work wonderful for me as a blood sugar leveler, where as with someone else they may not. You just have to find out what works best for you.

Doctors will tell you that you only need 6-8oz of juice to bring your blood sugar up, and this may be true for some people, but I usually drink around 12oz.

It’s not going to hurt you if you end up drinking more juice than normal. All it will do is bring your blood sugar up more than usual.

I on the other hand, seem to need more juice to bring my blood sugar up. However, I did start with 8oz of juice when I was first diagnosed. Then I found that 12oz worked better for me.

I would definitely start at 6-8oz of juice because you don’t want to go too high, but if that just doesn’t cut it for you then have a little more.

Don’t be afraid to do what works just because you doctor said different. Remember, you are the one with diabetes.

I’m not telling you to be against your doctor or not to listen to him/her,because they give you a lot of good advice sometimes like, doing a lot of blood sugar testing and so on. I am simply saying that you are the one that has to live with diabetes and you need to be in control rather than just your doctor.

I have about two or three doctors that I talk to whenever I go in for a regular check up. One of them has told me this same thing; don’t be afraid to change things or do things a bit different if you think you need to.

Your doctors are paid to tell you what to do for best health results but they are not paid to run your life or tell you what to do every second of every day. You are the one in control!

PLEASE REMEMBER! For those of you who have just been newly diagnosed with type one diabetes, please, please, listen to your doctor! It is very important that you understand what you are doing and have had some experience doing it before you just change things around. This is a touchy situation and it could turn the way you don’t want it to if you are not careful!

If you think you need to change something than, talk to your doctor. Ask them what they think. They are there to help you so that one day you will be independent of them and able to be responsible for your own diabetes.



Quick guide for low blood sugar snacks (PDF)

Low Blood Sugar Symptoms

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