Halloween Treats - The "Fun Size" Candy Bar

Ooooh, I love Halloween.  My pants don't, but for some reason I can convince myself that eating a dozen fun size snickers bars isn't really like eating a couple regular size ones.  I recently heard a story regarding the use of a small candy bar that is going to make it impossible for me to eat these in a couple months.  First let me throw out a little background nutrition information.  There is a growing incidence of Diabetes in this country.  Type 2 (previous called "adult onset") is expanding exponentially, to the point where adolescents are being diagnosed.  Type 2 diabetes is preceded by insulin resistance where if left unmanaged will lead to an individual's inability to maintain regular blood sugars.  The next step may be an attempt to manage it with changes in diet and exercise, but a large number of people are not identified early enough and often have to start taking oral medications immediately.  Some have let it progress too far, or the oral medications are no longer effective, and find themselves with daily insulin injections.  Okay, so for people who are maintaining their blood sugars with diet/exercise and/or oral medications the risk of running a low blood sugar is minimal, whereas those who take insulin injections need to be more careful and be sure to adjust insulin levels depending on what foods they are eating and when exercise is being done to avoid this.  Alright, enough with boring background crap.

So my friend tells me this story of 30-40 year old man who was told that since he has diabetes (we are assuming non-insulin dependent based upon his physical makeup and age) and is doing some extra exercise, he needs to be careful to avoid a low blood sugar.  In an attempt to prevent going into a diabetic coma (highly unlikely with non-insulin dependent diabetes) he must carry around with him a ziploc with a little tube of lube and a fun size candy bar.  He informed my friend's husband that if he passes out, they should turn him over and insert the candy bar into his colon.  ............  pffffft....  Excuse me a moment, I had to get a good laugh out again about this.  He was dead serious!!  He claimed his doctor had told him to follow this procedure.  My friend is going to school for nursing and had never heard of such a thing, but she wanted to see what my response was since I had worked with so many diabetics.  My initial response was to wonder why he needed the lube.  I mean really, if you're inserting a chocolate bar, like a Twix, won't the chocolate melt and become easy to insert?  Next I wondered who was going to step up and handle that particular task if this guy passed out.  And on top of that, was someone going to shove this tiny "fun size" treat all the way up to jejunum (small intestine)?  It wouldn't be as simple just popping it in his butt?  Your rectum doesn't do much, but put stuff out, and your colon (next up the line) isn't going to absorb carbohydrates.  Finally, if someone is passed out because of a low blood sugar, the first thing you want to get into their system is some pure high-octane sugar.  You don't want a candy bar because it has a nice combination of carbohydrate, protein and fat (which slows down the absorption rate of the sugar).

Take home message??  Sometimes your doctor might have a sense of humor and it helps if you do to!  Oh, and if you have diabetes and you want to carry around something in case your blood sugar runs low, how about some Gluco-Tabs or Glucose Gel packs - not a sandwich baggie with a Milky Way and lube.