This past week, I’ve had a few high blood sugars that I couldn’t quite explain. Today, I finally discovered my problem: I accidentally bought and drank regular soda instead of diet. Whoops.
I noticed a couple days ago that my blood sugar simply refused to come down after my dinner. I was perplexed when I looked at my CGM to see two double arrows pointing up – and I was already at 300. I wracked my brain, trying to come up with a reason why it was rising so rapidly. Did I remember to bolus at dinner? Yes. Was my insulin expired? No. Did I do my carb counting correctly? Yes, I’m fairly certain I did. I asked myself the typical series of questions that any diabetic would ask themselves when trying to pinpoint the cause of a certain blood sugar. When I couldn’t come up with anything, I spent the evening coping with a bunch of high blood sugar readings, and it wasn’t fun.
My revelation occurred today before I ventured off to the gym. My blood sugar was about 106 – a great number, but I wanted to drink some juice to raise it just a bit so I wouldn’t crash in the middle of my workout. I went to the fridge and got a small bottle of orange juice. As I was closing the refrigerator door, the label on my bottle of soda jumped out at me. My eyes met the caloric count for one 8 fluid ounce serving of soda, and I was alarmed when it read 130. I thought to myself, that’s impossible. Diet soda shouldn’t have any calories or carbs in it. I pulled the soda out of the fridge and saw that the carb count for one serving was 32. My jaw dropped and I swiveled the bottle around so I could check the label. The word “diet” wasn’t on there. Well, I thought to myself, that explains those super high blood sugars!
I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I made such a careless mistake when I was grocery shopping. I should know by now to double check the labels before I add an item to my cart. However, I must say that perhaps it would help if companies made more of an effort to differentiate regular products from diet. For example, regular Coke has a bright red label that stands apart from the gray label that appears on diet Coke. In my circumstance, the diet soda would have had green cursive lettering in the middle of the label that said “diet”; otherwise, there is nothing that separates it from regular. It also didn’t help that diet sodas are typically placed right next to regular sodas in grocery stores. Maybe it would help if there was more of an effort put into distinguishing regular from diet, but these are just my thoughts that occurred after my incident.
At least I can say that next time I go grocery shopping, I’ll be a little more cautious and prevent myself from making the same sugary over sugar-free slip-up.
no, it’s not anyone else’s responsibility. but it would definitely make things easier if the supermarket put ALL the diet Coca-Cola products together and all the non-diet one together…same with the Pepsi products. it would make things easier for the stockers as well.
but what do i know, right? i’m made the same mistake myself, but luckily, i noticed it before i put it into the fridge and saved myself a mess of hurt.
Lesson learned, Dad!
Melinda, I fully accepted responsibility for my actions in this post and I did not intend to place blame on anyone but myself. I was contemplating ways in which life could be made a bit easier for diabetics, and I do not expect anyone but myself to manage my diabetes. Thank you for your thoughts.
Very nice piece as usual. Take your time. Don’t be in such a hurry. Love Dad.
I don’t think it’s the company’s responsibility to make sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to do.