4 ms·
I've done much N=1 testing of this proposition with a blood glucose monitor, and haven't found it to be true for me. I get a spike when I drink something sweet
by hirundo 5y ago
I've done much N=1 testing of this proposition with a blood glucose monitor, and haven't found it to be true for me. I get a spike when I drink something sweet and sugary, but not when I drink something sweetened with sucralose, aspartame, stevia, etc.
- ashtonkem 5y agoThe theory is that you’d see a drop in blood sugar after drinking something with an artificial sweetener not a spike.
- hirundo 5y agoI don't see an identifiable reaction, though perhaps some statistics can pull one out. The reaction from a sugary drink is consistent and dramatic.
- ashtonkem 5y agoI'm not entirely certain myself if artificial sweeteners cause insulin spikes, but it's worth pointing out the difference in numbers between high and low blood sugar. Normal blood sugar is what, 90-100 mg/dl or so, while the diagnostic criteria for low blood sugar starts at 70 mg/dl. Meanwhile symptoms for high blood sugar start above 200 (or even sometimes 300) mg/dl. Presumably cravings for sugary foods kicks in well above 70mg/dl too. Simply put a spike in blood sugar due to a sugary food is much, much bigger than the drop in blood sugar sufficient to trigger a change in eating habits. And that's before we consider the impact of non-insulin hormones on our behavior, such as Ghrelin, which won't show up on a blood glucose test at all.
- Paedor 5y agoAren't you measuring glucose instead of insulin though? I might expect a spike in insulin after a spike in glucose, but the other way around doesn't seem as likely.
- godshatter 5y agoSame here. It also doesn't interrupt my fasting in a noticeable way, so I don't think the insulin delivered is enough to really worry about.