Macros and Blood Glucose

Carbs. Since the day of our diagnosis, we have been told countless times that they are what we have to take into account when it comes to insulin dosage. But have you ever wondered if other macronutrients could also have an effect on our BG? The truth is, in fact, that every single thing we ingest will have, soon or later, a reflection on our glycaemia. Let's proceed by order.

• Carbohydrates: In all likelihood, you have already heard about our number one "enemy" even too many times, so i will only remember you that we can distinguish them into two categories: slow and fast-acting carbs. The first ones, also called "complex" (such as bread, pasta, rice...) will tend to produce an extended rise in your BG if compared to the latter ones, also called "simple" (such as sugar, fruit, soft drinks...), which could, on the other hand, act in a shorter amount of time. On the avreage, the digestion time of carbs can extend up to 4 hours, with a peak absorption after 1.5/2 hours. 

• Proteins: Who said that if you eat only a steak your BG will remain perfectly stable? You may have already observed that things aren't, unfortunately, as simple as this. In fact, around 40% of the proteins you ingest will be transformed into sugar in a period of time which can extend over 5 hours after your meal, with a peak around 3/3.5 hours.

• Fats: Even though this macronutrient's convertion ratio to sugar is the lowest, settling around 10%, there are some other factors which force us to take fats into account when it comes to insulin dosage, such as their extremely prolonged absorption time (up to 6 hours with a peak around 4 hours) and their incredible ability to slow down the absorption of carbs, which becomes extremely relevant when they are ingested in huge quantities and before or alongside their sugary counterpart. 

Thank you for your time. Now that you know the secrets of every macronutrient, you are ready to involve them in the process to perfectly calculate your insulin dosage, which can be also enriched by deeply useful and versatile techniques, such as the splitted bolus. Curious about it? Click here!