The drinks people forget to bolus for, read off the labels one at a time: a can of orange soda, a glass of milk from whole to skim, chocolate milk and the bottled kind, grape juice, orange juice — and the pitcher of powdered lemonade that explains a lot about Scott's childhood. Liquids are rocket fuel; here's what's in each one.
No ratio was stated on this one, and nothing went through the estimator on the recording. Scott's person is at 110, nice and stable, thirsty. So every dose on this page is the series' standing example — one unit covers 10 carbs, nothing to correct — run afterward at the tool's default 50% fat-protein factor, so the drinks can be compared to each other and to the other pages. Your ratio is your ratio. 6:59
Scott's premise for the whole episode: people bolus for the meal and overlook the liquids and the condiments. So start with the obvious one. Jenny picks Sunkist, for reasons involving her grandfather's garage fridge.
Mid-forties for a can, whatever the can. Scott, reading down the list: Sunkist 41, Pepsi 41, Mountain Dew 46, Barq's root beer 44 to 45. “This is the number.”
Jenny's read of 41 carbs and 41 sugar: this is literally like taking teaspoons of sugar and putting them in your mouth, only liquid — and liquid absorbs faster than a teaspoon of sugar does. Rocket fuel, Scott says. Yes. You will see a change in your blood sugar if you don't pre-bolus it, and 41 grams of carb is no joke.
Blood sugar 110, stable, hot outside, thirsty. Do you just bolus 41 carbs and wait?
Gun to your head, diabetes aside: sugar or diet? Jenny would still drink the diet. Scott reads both labels.
Whole, 2%, 1%, skim: same 12 carbs, same 8 protein, and the only thing that changes is the fat. Which turns out to be the thing that changes the bolus. Also: Scott learns why it's called skim milk.
The fat is almost as much as the carb. That, Jenny says, is why whole milk lands lighter than skim — and the same goes for whole-milk yogurt and any dairy like it.
Four glasses, one ratio. The estimator only extends when there's at least one fat-protein unit in the glass — and only whole milk gets there.
Same 1.20 units up front every time. Whole milk's 8 grams of fat and 8 of protein make just over one fat-protein unit, so the tool adds a small wave; 2% and below fall under the cutoff and get nothing. That is the estimator's version of what Jenny says next.
Jenny: the protein and the carbs are the same across the four, but when you add fat there's a stabilizing effect, and in whole milk the fat is almost as much as the carb. So you'd see a lighter effect from whole milk than from skim, where there's nothing holding it. It doesn't mean no pre-bolus. It means a lower effect than the fat-free glass.
Scott heard it in an ad. Jenny answers as a dietitian.
Jenny brings it up because it's not the same drink. Scott has the Hershey's bottle, then goes looking for the ones you buy cold at the store — and finds the bunny.
Same size bottle, half the carbs, nearly twice the protein. The Fairlife's bolus is a different shape from the Nesquik's — that's the whole reason Jenny wanted it on the list.
Scott's verdict on the Nesquik: the same 41 carbs as a soda, far less healthy than a regular soda, and it comes dressed as milk. Jenny's more careful version: it has more fat and protein than the soda — and a lot more sugar than milk. Then Scott reads the rest of the label: cocoa processed with alkali, cellulose gel, carrageenan, gellan gum, cellulose gum, and the vitamin D they took out and put back.
Welch's grape and a glass of orange juice, and the rule Jenny teaches with grapes.
Grapes are the sugar bombs. Jenny's teaching number is about a gram of carb per nickel-sized grape. A 12-ounce glass of grape juice is 59 grapes.
Scott reaches for the saying and gets it slightly wrong; Jenny fixes it. The point of the grape math is the point of the saying: the juice is the sugar of 59 grapes with none of the chewing, none of the fiber, and none of the time.
About a gram of carb per grape, by Jenny's rule of thumb, against 59 carbs in the glass. Scott: “59 grapes? Oh my god.” Nobody eats 59 grapes. Everybody drinks the glass.
Scott's closing point is the opening point: the things you don't count. A tablespoon of ketchup, a can of beer — and then he finally looks up the powdered lemonade his mother kept in a gallon pitcher, and has a moment.
A gallon of it is 277 carbs, all sugar. It was always in the refrigerator, and when it ran out you refilled it at the sink. “Oh, my life didn't have to be this way.”
One cup and a third of powder, eight scoops, per gallon. Jenny's version of the same pitcher: the big orange cooler at a cookout, six refills over six hours, all sugar. “Like, just fill it with water.”
The numbers that transfer to the next one.
“You will see a change in your blood sugar if you do not pre bolus the crap out of this.”
“Mid forties for a can of soda.”
“You don't go in the field and pick a can of soda.”
“Don't drink your sugar.”
Every number on this page, with your own settings.
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