There are a few Mexican restaurants my wife and I go to regularly. They know us well, and the bartenders all know us. The bartenders have their own specialties they make for us, and some of them will make it as soon as they see us walk in.
We always get a pitcher of Margaritas. Sometimes I ask for the skinny margarita, which is made with the sugar-free margarita mix. And sometimes I ask for the regular mix, just depending on how many carbs I am looking for.
But since there is a bit of a language barrier, and I am not always sure if the margarita is skinny or regular. And since they always add extra tequila and triple sec for us, you can’t always tell by taste if it is skinny.
So I started using my BG meter to check, and have found it works well. The “BG” reading of a skinny margarita is around 100. And the “BG” of the regular margarita is always above 300.
This has helped me a lot. If I see that the skinny is not actually skinny, I just take more insulin.
There are some that will not work well. It’s sometimes tough to get the “thin” drinks to test, you can get errors on the strip. I have found thicker drinks, like milk based drinks, are easier to test.
And some meters are harder to use than others.
Test it out at home, see what you can come up with!
In the old days I would use the test-tape to check if diet soda was really served, since it was common to get regular at fast food places, in the early days of diet sodas.
I never order a soda when I go out. I just get water. Got a regular Coke once at a the movies once and suffered all night. Never again.
Watched a worker at another place use regular syrup at a restaurant. She had to make it twice before she used the sugar free syrup. Oh no. I refuse.
Just the other day I ordered Diet Coke at McD’s (the only thing I get there) and it didn’t taste right. Tried testing with my meter and got an error. That used to work like 20 years ago but doesn’t work for me anymore! I ended up pitching my drink.
Interesting. The restaurant I ordered the drink from was the same. I have been drinking diet sodas so long (over 20 yrs.) that I can not taste the difference anymore.
It also depends on the meter. Some are easier to “fool” than others. I have had more luck using the FreeStyle than some of the other meters. I still do this frequently for mixed drinks.
Definitely try using just a small amount of the drink. Just a touch.
@Eric I tried tonight, three times, no joy. I have freestyle (regular) test strips that I use in my PDM. I have to get a new freestyle meter as mine is awol!
Could it be the thickness of the margarita vs the liquid state of diet soda that helps it to work?
When I tried and failed the first time, years ago, I thought perhaps I had to use urine test strips instead of blood glucose strips. Not having any of those, I never tested out the theory.
Once I get a new freestyle meter, I’ll try again!
Thanks for the reminder; I’m glad it works for you!
I just did it tonight a few minutes ago to demo. I used regular mix so it would pop up as a high number. Here it is:
The trick is to just barely graze the strip. Put your finger in the drink, and then just barely touch the side of the strip with your finger. Just a slight amount.
I can try a video demo sometime when I have a few moments. And I can do both diet mix and regular mix to show the difference.
(And I can also put in some tequila just to make sure the whole demo is legitimate. )
i dont drink alcohol, SF or the regular, but i do drink decaf. today i had a double espresso, and when i ordered it i was insistant to the “barista” that it be DECAF. well, of course my words were useless on her ears. I was given REGULAR instead. right now i have a pounding heart, can hardly breath, am sweating, and am totally hyper-manic.
(i had to take a pill to slow me down, and even that is not working.) Damn it all
i know many who cannot live w/out caffeine, but it really does a number on me. (i can drink the Cold Brewed Starbucks, though, and i have no clue as to why. as well, it will always bring my BG down as will Diet Pepsi.
PS: the other down side from my mania is i make terrible decisions; like i thought it would really be a great idea if i went shopping for some new make-up. on a personal note, i dont wear make-up. maybe a little mascara from time to time. but, as most of you know, i spend an awful lot of my time in the pool…a place where make-up is irrelevant.
My wife mixed up some New Amsterdam grapefruit vodka with club soda. She couldn’t understand why it tasted sweet. Club soda label said zero carbs, so maybe the vodka was the source?
We pulled out the test strips to see. Results:. Mixed drink:. 225 club soda: “low”. Vodka: 81.
So the vodka had to have sugar in the bottle. The question is, why the difference in bgs vs. the mixed drink? Does straight alcohol behave differently in the test strips?
(Edit)…I see the bottle is 70 proof, lower than typical 80. This also suggests a liqueur.
To make sure I am understand this, mixing the vodka and club soda gave a 225? But testing only the vodka gave an 81? I think that is a meter error.
Depending on the meter, some of them have a hard time with thin liquids. Like they can easily give a result on something thick like honey or syrup or coffee cream, but something thin will give bad results.
Might be worth retesting and seeing if it is consistent. Try just barely dabbing the test strip and not drenching it with the test liquid.
FWIW, almost every flavored vodka I have ever seen has almost zero carbs.
So I tested the vodka again twice, using the suggested technique. Results:. 99, 109.
I called New Amsterdam to verify, and they said it contains 4.6 grams of sugar per 1.5 ounces. Makes sense to me, as any liquor with less than 80 proof tends to have added sugar.
We also added a heaping teaspoon of table sugar to a shot glass of water, and the result: ”low”. Hmm. Maybe it would work if it was corn sugar? It’s maybe too thin? Or maybe it’s a pH issue, with club soda being acidic, and our water being basic… More experiments needed.
Oh, and I failed to mention earlier, I used a ReliOn premier meter. Maybe a contour next meter would yield different results.
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(i can drink the Cold Brewed Starbucks, though, and i have no clue as to why. as well, it will always bring my BG down as will Diet Pepsi.