Diabetes Questions & Answers

I make Sweet tea. I use two cups of sugar to two gallons of water. I want to share this with my friend but he is diabetic and we can not determine the amount of insulin he has to take based off this. is there a link or does anyone know how much he should take. I mean he is not drinking the entire two cups so how do you figure this out.

Tagged Insulin, Sweet

§ 5 Responses to Insulin And Sweet Tea How Much Do You Take?"

• goodwork says:

  July 11, 2010 at 8:53 pm

  Is your friend on an insulin pump? If so, kudos to him for counteracting the sweet tea with a bolus!! If he’s on injections, kudos to him for using a shot to control his sugars. I’ve been a diabetic for over 40 years and have no complications. It is possible to consume limited amounts of drinks containing sugar, but it must be done VERY carefully and the amount of sugar/carbs consumed must be counteracted by a bolus of insulin.
  Ok … two gallons of water equals 256 ounces. Since 1 cup of sugar contains 199.8 grams of carbs, your recipe contains and two cups of sugar contains 399.6 grams of carbs. If I divide the number of carbs by the number of ounces of water, it equates to about 1.56 grams of carbohydrates per ounce of sweet tea.
  Your friend should definitely do a blood sugar before calculating any adjustment, and should add or subtract from the adjustment based on guidelines shared by his doctor and/or diabetes educator or nutritionist. What I’ve shared below is merely the standard used–your friend needs to consult his doctor to confirm how his personal adjustments should be figured!!!
  If your friend drinks a 12 oz cup of sweet tea, he is consuming approximately 18.7 grams of carbs. Using the standard insulin adjustment of one unit of insulin per each 15 grams of carbs, this would equate to a required adjustment of 1.2 units of insulin. Be aware that if your friend uses a different adjustment scale, he will need to recalculate his adjustment levels.
  The list below shows how many carbs contained in varying amounts of your sweet tea and the corresponding insulin adjustment that would be needed to counteract the carbs:
  8 oz = 12.5 carbs = .8 unit adjustment
  12 oz = see above
  16 oz = 1.7 unit adjustment
  24 oz = 2.5 unit adjustment
  32 oz = 3.3 unti adjustment
  Again … this is just the base rate typically used. Your friend needs to check with his doc to find out his proper adjustment rate.
• Pedro S says:

  July 12, 2010 at 3:04 am

  as a diabetic of 30 yrs….DON’T drink any with sugar in it…if u think u can have sugar and counter it with insulin you/he need a DRs advice ,not Internet stuff.
• Balasuba says:

  July 12, 2010 at 4:59 am

  I have type two diabetes for nine years. I do not add sugar to anything. Green Chinese tea is the best choice.
• Cammie says:

  July 12, 2010 at 5:15 am

  Although, those of us with diabetes can eat everything we want, most people would not fill up on empty calories in a beverage like tea.
  That is too much sugar for anyone, not just those of us with diabetes.
  Why not make plain tea and your friend can sweeten it with whatever he wants and you can do the same ? It would be much better for both of you.
• Tsunami says:

  July 12, 2010 at 9:16 am

  need not drink it there is equal or soemthing like that you can use. i would’t give them pure sugar anyhow. that is the problem.