HYPOGLYCAEMIA—THE EXCEPTION TO THE LOW G.I. RULE
In people with diabetes who are treated with insulin or tablets the blood sugar may sometimes fall below 4 millimoles per litre which is the lower end of the normal range. When this happens you might feel hungry, shaky, sweaty and be unable to think clearly. This is called a hypo (short for ‘hypoglycaemia’).
A hypo is a potentially dangerous situation and must be treated straight away by eating some carbohydrate food. In this case you should pick a carbohydrate with a high G.I. factor because you need to increase your blood sugar quickly. Jelly beans (with a G.I. factor of 80) are a good choice. If you are not due for your next meal or snack you should also have some low G.I. carbohdyrate, like an apple, to keep your blood sugar from falling again until you next eat.
Hypos in the night were a particularly worrying problem for Jane. Her evening insulin doses had been adjusted in an effort to stop her blood sugar going too low at night, but she believed experimenting with her supper carbohydrate could also help. After trying all sorts of different foods and many 3 am blood tests, she struck the answer that the G.I. factor predicted would work—milk! Jane found that a large glass of milk before going to bed, rather than her usual plain biscuits was easy to have, and maintained her blood sugar at a good level through the night.
Sometimes, despite your best efforts with diet, tablets will still be needed to obtain good blood sugar control. This is eventually the case for most people with type 2 diabetes.
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