Re: Square Wave bolus

[Annette A]

I always use the square wave bolus – in fact, the only time I use anything else is when (a) I’m also giving a correction does, when I use the Multiwave (so the correction goes in immediately, and the rest over 30 mins) or (b) if I’m eating something that I know acts fast and is under about 10 grams cho. Admittedly, I have slow digestion, so my tolerance is about 10-15 grams (rather than 50 grams). An hour sounds quite a long time just for a standard meal though.
I think there is a formula that says if you are eating more than (half your weight in pounds) carbs in one go, then your carb ratio may well break down. Another says that you can only digest 60 grams of glucose (and another 60 grams of fructose) per hour, so if you eat more than that, it wont absorb – where a square wave bolus comes in, I guess. (That last comes from the manufacturers of a sports energy gel, trying to sell its fructose based gel – ie you you absorb more energy using their gel than normal glucose based gels. Whether thats true or not I dont know, but maybe – no smoke without fire and all that.)
And for the record, I never eat more than 50 grams in one go (in fact, I rarely eat more than 40 grams in one go) because my innards just give up the ghost and refuse to work altogether if I give them too much to do. With resulting low bgs that wont react to glucose. Not nice. 100g? I’d be comatose…