The other day Eric talked about maltodextrin as a faster replacement for sucrose. So my mom ordered some and last night we tried it for the first time.
I was very low, low 50s. I had already taken about 30 grams of carbs, milk (low GI) and Skittles (high GI). We mixed the maltodextrin power in water. It did not mix well, and it tasted terrible, like raw flour. However, after 5 minutes I was at 72 from 53, then, five minutes later, I was at 92 (both of these measures were on a regular glucose meter, not a CGM). When I look at my CGM curve, the main part of the gain was in 20 minutes, when it takes 35 minutes to get most of the action with sucrose (water with sugar).
This is not a reliable experiment because there were too many factors: I had had hard candy and milk beforehand, I had IOB, and I was still going down. Because of this, I will try again later this weekend. I am not looking forward to it because it tastes really bad. But, next time, I will use flavoring drops with it.
Hi Kaelan,
I know the taste of the powder mix is not great. But it is fast!
There is an easy way to use maltodextrin. Have you ever used GU energy gels? The first ingredient is maltodextrin. They have a wide variety of different flavors. Check them out:
Thanks very much @Eric! I notice my dad didn’t tell me…
I will use it for materials for more experiments so everyone in the forum can benefit. I think experiments are the way to learn with diabetes, because there are so many things nobody knows.
@Eric, I just had a look at the energy gel. They look cool but they are expensive: $36 for 24 packs. I would go through that in a week I think.
I do have some emergency gels, the same as @John58, Transcend. I have them for emergencies when I may not be able to swallow well. although I have used a few because I ran out of other sugar.
Yesterday I had another low after a long hormone high late at night. I was too tired to experiment for a long time, but I tried to improve the taste.
I took 16 grams of maltodextrin powder, that I mixed with 4 ounces of water (because 4 cabs/oz is the best ratio for liquids and carbs), and I added 3 squirts of Tang orange flavor (it’s sugar free).
I thought it still tasted really bad. But I made two mistakes, because I was not thinking well as I was low. I forgot that I don’t like Tang orange flavor, and also I put too many squirts, so the taste was very strong. But I could still taste the flour taste of maltodextrin through it.
For my next taste experiment, I am setting up some Crystal Light lemonade flavor next to the glucose supplies, so that I can remember what to use if I am low.
I had a low one morning and wanted to make breakfast. You know - low and making stuff don’t always go well together. Plus the fog of morning…
I ended up with a bunch of waffle mix and eggs all over the place. And I couldn’t really read the directions very well, so the mixture ended up being more like a “guess”.
Then I couldn’t find the waffle iron, so I tried to make pancakes with them instead of waffles. The mix was runny and lumpy, so I had what was more like crepes with giant clumps of powder in them. They were burnt on one side. But I didn’t really care.
And I didn’t do a good job flipping them either. A lot of it went into the burner on the stove.
Then I had a little problem with the syrup pouring…
So thin, lumpy, burnt waffles made into pancakes, swimming in syrup. And a big mess in the kitchen.
Although I will say that my son prepping and taking carbs last night at 2:00am was pretty funny too - he was so out of it. He ate some madeleines at one time. So, one moment, he has one madeleine in his left hand (he is a lefty), that he keeps in a weird way 1.5 feet away from his body, then he looks at me on his right side like I am an alien from Mars, and goes, in that grumpy voice: “so where is that madeleine?”
This morning, I asked him how the madeleines tasted, and he is not even remembering eating them.
The other day Eric talked about maltodextrin as a faster replacement for sucrose. So my mom ordered some and last night we tried it for the first time.
I have seen nothing to make me believe that maltodextrin will be faster than pure glucose. If anything it would be slightly slower than glucose (though possibly not to a noticeable degree) since there are chemical bonds between the glucose molecules in maltodextrin.
The cheapest and easiest to store source of liquid glucose is corn syrup (NOT high fructose corn syrup). So if you are looking for the fastest hit to raise your BG, and you don’t want to mess around mixing up solutions, you can just have a tablespoon of corn syrup (15g carb). It keeps on your shelf un-refrigerated virtually indefinitely.
