See my glucose variation in my blood after eating Joylent and Huel

Excellent work @davidmccarlie thank you for posting this information, very useful.

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Great comparison @davidmccarlie. I really like this kind of research. Itā€™s just the kind of thing I would do.

Presumably, the readings would be even more level if you were drinking Huel slowly or having smaller, more frequent portions of it? Personally, I graze on my Huel throughout the day, and this keeps me feeling really steady pretty much all day. Iā€™m not diabetic, but I still like doing it that way. I prefer that steady feeling rather than the ups and downs of larger meals with hours between. Having it in drink form makes it super easy to graze on it too, because itā€™s just like sipping on water.

I was sipping on it frequently today, and it kept me going so well that I didnā€™t even manage to get through all my Huel before it was time for my evening meal of ā€œnormalā€ food. Maybe Iā€™ll have the small remaining amount as a snack a bit later in the eveningā€¦

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Thanks for sharing!!!

I can make a chart for you, it will be a pleasure

However, I would like to compare your results with my results. Which units are you using?

My units, as the glucometer on picture shows, are mg/dL (miligrams per 1/10 litre)

@PacoA Sorry, I think I accidentally misled you. I donā€™t actually record my blood sugar levels. Iā€™ve never actually recorded any such data. I was just saying that I tend to like analysing things in that way too. Very kind of you to offer to do a chart for me though.

Marcus, the chart is for @davidmccarlie

:slight_smile:

@PacoA Sorry, I realised my mistake a while after I posted that.

No worries. My meter uses mmol as itā€™s scale

Yes, I would expect reduced results if the product had been sipped throughout the day. I consumed over a twenty minute period

This is the chart for David.

We have to take into account that he is diabetic, so his values tend to be larger than mine.

I took 14 and 12 measurements, and he 8, so my curve is more detailed.

On the other hand, i drank the whole drink in just one minute, he in 20 minutes.

Anyway, the difference between Huel and the competitor is clear.

I post my chart again here:

http://discuss.huel.com/uploads/huel/original/1X/1dd303b2311787677a5b2ad02ff240e7ffcbd8a9.png

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@pacoa well done, this makes it easier to compare than columns of numbers. I think there is little doubt that products with maltodextrin do produce a sugar spike.

It would have been interesting if I had consumed in the same time period as you.

Diabetics do see a rise in glucose readings, no matter what they eat. What is interesting is how quickly it returns to normal. I still see a spike if I have rice or pasta, in fact some brands of pasta produce quite a significant spike.

Since Iā€™ve been on soylent I have noticed an improvement in my sugar control. Having said that I am on metformin, gliclazide and Januvia tablets. Even with that medication, I still see an increase if I have normal food.

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@PacoA a very interesting study. Even more so with Davidā€™s results alongside as well.

Hi everyone,
Iā€™ve done some measuring as well. Whether itā€™s confirmation bias or acquiring more experience in correctly measuring blood sugar but this time my results look much more conclusive than at my first try.

My purpose was to calculate Huelā€™s and Joylentā€™s GI. For that I measured blood sugar after 1) consuming sugar 2) consuming Joylent 3) consuming Huel.
All three measurements happened on 3 different days after >12 hours of fasting. In all three I ingested 100g of available carbohydrate (thatā€™s total CH minus the fiber). Usually when calculating GI 50g of CH is used, however I find that since my blood glucose meterā€™s accuracy isnā€™t that great measuring higher values should yield better accuracy overall.
I havenā€™t had tea or coffee or anything else during the experiment, just a glass of water during the sugar one. I have to say that 1) 100g of sugar in a glass of water is almost unbearably sweet; 2) 100g of CH in Joylent is 222g of powder, which makes for ~500ml of thick shake; 3) 100g of CH in Huel is unmixable with ~600ml of water, even with a blender. I had to dilute that in 2 shakers totalling ~900ml of mixed product which is a lot, thatā€™s more than two full meals for me and itā€™s DAMN HARD to drink in the prescribed 10 minutes since the start of the measurements.
Some samplings were definitely skewed because of my darned sweaty palms. Even a tiny amount of sweat will lower the measured blood sugar because the amount of blood is also very small. Had to redo some samplings because of that.
Since the fasting blood sugar level hugely affects the calculated AUC (area under curve), when measuring the blood glucose level before eating Iā€™ve taken at least 3 samples and filtered out / averaged what I got.

I have a proposal: what if we gather some volunteers and crowd-source the GI calculation of Huel?
Until then, here are my calculated values for the GI of the powdered foods in question:
Sugar AUC = 213
Joylent AUC = 176, GI = 81 (High)
Huel AUC = 96, GI = 44 (Low)
Bear in mind that thereā€™s a reason why when a lab calculates a GI they do that on at least 10 volunteers, so take the above values with a pinch of salt.

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Very, very interesting. Thank you so much for sharing.

Guys - what glucometers are you guys using?

Which are the most accurate and easiest to use?

Not being a diabetic I donā€™t have much experience with them. Mine is a Accu-Chek Aviva. It has decent reviews and after using up ~50 test strips I think my skills of using it have improved to the level where I can use it much more reliably. I think this says a lot about the ā€œease of useā€ :smile:
In short, I hope there are better ones out there.

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I use an accu-check which is simple and convenient to use

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Mine is on the picture on the first post. Glucoman LX.

Then what do you guys think about this:

It is a screenshot from the company called MANA showing a graph of quite stable bloodsugar/energy levels, and when I looked into their ingredient list, it contained maltodextrin again.

Screenshot showing it in the ingredients.

Are they lying?

Or what about his from Nutrilent. This reasoning? Is that true, or lies?

They say they just mix their maltodextrin with other slow digesting sugars to balance it out?

Maltodextrin has a GI of 105, table sugar is 100. Yes a blend it will be lower than 105 because the low GI ingredients will bring the total down.

In terms of the mana graph I donā€™t know what this a graph of it only shows one axis, e.g. time.