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Bolus 4 · Episode 1928

High-Sugar Drinks

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.

Scott Benner and Jenny Smith, RD, CDCES, LD
Open the Bolus 4 estimator
Carb ratio1:10
Sensitivity—
Target—
Fat + protein50%

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

01 · Bolus 4 · Episode 1928

A can of soda

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.

2:08

Sunkist orange soda — 12 oz can

41g of that is sugar
41carb
4.10u up front0.00u no wave4.10u total
41 carbs, all 41 of them added sugar. 65 milligrams of sodium, 19 milligrams of caffeine — less than most tea, Jenny says. No fat, no protein, nothing to slow it down.

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.”

Off the can · at the standing 1:10 example, nothing to correct  ·  Click any item to hear that moment
Takeaway7:12

It's teaspoons of sugar in liquid form. Pre-bolus it hard.

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.

The number, can after can8:05
41Sunkist
Orange. Jenny's pick, and the one on the card.
41Pepsi
Same number as the orange.
46Mountain Dew
The high end of the list.
44–45Barq's
Root beer. Mid-forties, like everything else.
Can you contain the spike?10:13

Blood sugar 110, stable, hot outside, thirsty. Do you just bolus 41 carbs and wait?

  1. Any carb creates a rise. This creates a big one.Jenny's honest answer: bolus what the ratio says, or more, and wait longer? It's an experiment for yourself unless you've done it before and can draw on that.
  2. Pre-bolus, drink it, watch — then maybe walkThe one-time plan: pre-bolus, drink the soda, see what happens, and possibly go outside for a walk.
  3. Not a lollipop — but not a long tail eitherScott expects it to take you up and leave you there. Jenny: it comes up quick and there's nothing holding it up; the pre-bolus is what contains the rise, and on the back end it shouldn't linger if the settings and the ratio are right. It should bring you back down despite going up fast.
Regular vs. diet — the argument the internet loves12:11

Gun to your head, diabetes aside: sugar or diet? Jenny would still drink the diet. Scott reads both labels.

  1. The ingredient lists are nearly the sameRegular Pepsi: carbonated water, high-fructose corn syrup, caramel color, sugar, phosphoric acid, caffeine, citric acid, natural flavor. Diet: swap the sugars for aspartame and acesulfame potassium, add potassium benzoate. Outside of the sweeteners, Jenny says, not a lot of difference. Neither one grows in a field.
  2. Jenny's diet soda is ZeviaSweetened with stevia (some flavors monk fruit), no caramel color. Her root beer float root beer. Scott reads its label too: carbonated water, natural flavor, stevia extract, tartaric acid, caffeine, citric acid.
  3. The cancer question, and the math nobody doesScott's read of the record: the WHO's cancer agency called aspartame possibly carcinogenic on limited evidence; its safety committee kept the daily limit where it was — a 154-pound adult would need nine to fourteen cans a day to reach it. Jenny's point is bigger than soda: sugar-free candy, baked goods, keto products all carry the same sweeteners, and nobody is adding up their aspartame by two o'clock.
  4. Do sweeteners make you hungry?Jenny, from her weight-management coaching: liquid gives you a fullness factor for a while, but if your body actually needed calories, it keeps asking — and you may end up eating more than if you'd had an apple and a string cheese. Scott's summary of the research: compared with sugar, sweeteners leave you less satisfied; compared with water, they don't clearly make people eat more. Great for hydration, not a replacement for food.
02 · Bolus 4 · Episode 1928

A glass of milk

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.

22:15

Whole milk — 8 oz glass

12carb8protein8fat
1.20u up front0.52u over 3h1.72u total
12 carbs, 8 protein, 8 fat, off Scott's label. The same glass of 2% has 5 grams of fat, 1% has 2.5, skim has none — everything else is identical. Jenny doesn't drink cow's milk anymore, but she grew up on it fresh at her grandfather's dairy farm.

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.

Off the carton · at the standing 1:10 example  ·  Click any item to hear that moment
Whole to skim — same carbs, fat in and out25:48

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.

Whole12carb · 8protein · 8fat
1.72u
2%12carb · 8protein · 5fat
1.20u
1%12carb · 8protein · 2.5fat
1.20u
Skim12carb · 8protein · 0fat
1.20u
Up frontExtended

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.

Takeaway26:22

The higher the fat, the more stable the rise — but you still pre-bolus.

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.

Does milk do a body good?23:26

Scott heard it in an ad. Jenny answers as a dietitian.

  1. It has all three macrosCarbohydrate, protein, fat — plus calcium. Whole and 2% especially. If you're judging by nutrients alone, there's quality in milk.
  2. Skim milk is literally skimmedThe fat is skimmed off. Scott, at 26 minutes into a 49-minute episode about drinks: never thought about that before in his life. Jenny: that is so funny.
  3. The hormones thing Scott heard as a kidHe checked while Jenny was talking. A large US study of 5,500 girls found milk intake after age nine didn't predict earlier first periods. Thirty-five years of repeating something someone said out loud, corrected on the air.
  4. Milk and PepsiLaverne DeFazio's drink, for the three listeners who know the reference. Scott's half-serious question: the sugar with some fat and protein behind it — is that the low treatment? Please report back.
03 · Bolus 4 · Episode 1928

Chocolate milk

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.

29:43

Nesquik chocolate, low-fat — 14 oz bottle

39g of that is sugar
41carb14protein4fat
4.10u up front0.00u no wave4.10u total
250 calories — twice a soda. 41 carbs, the same as the can of soda, 39 of them sugar, 18 added. 14 protein, 4 fat, 240 milligrams of sodium. Jenny's caveat: that's 14 ounces, not a cup. Scott's: that's how it comes in the store.

Fairlife chocolate — 14 oz bottle

21g of that is sugar
22carb23protein8fat
2.20u up front0.82u over 3h3.02u total
250 calories, 22 carbs, 21 sugar, 10 added. 23 protein, 8 fat, 350 milligrams of sodium. Scott read the protein as “three” and then corrected it against the Nesquik — “23 versus 14.” Ultra-filtered, Jenny says: more protein, less of the natural lactose sugar, more calcium, and lactose-free.

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.

Off the bottles · at the standing 1:10 example  ·  Click any item to hear that moment
The syrup29:47
One tablespoon of Hershey's chocolate syrup. How many carbs?
11g
45 calories, 11 carbs, 10 of them sugar, no fat, no protein. Scott would use two — “I want a nice dark chocolate if I'm gonna have one” — which puts 22 grams of sugar into a 12-carb glass of milk. Jenny's number for a cup of store-bought chocolate milk, from memory: around 30 carbs, about 5 fat, the same protein as plain.
Takeaway32:07

The milk and the bunny

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.

04 · Bolus 4 · Episode 1928

Juice

Welch's grape and a glass of orange juice, and the rule Jenny teaches with grapes.

34:22

Welch's 100% grape juice — 8 oz

36g of that is sugar
39carb1protein
3.90u up front0.00u no wave3.90u total
140 calories, 39 carbs, 36 sugar — none of it added, because it didn't need any. 1 gram of protein, no fat. Scott's easy math: about 5 carbs an ounce, so a 12-ounce glass is 59.

Orange juice — 8 oz

22g of that is sugar
26carb0protein
2.60u up front0.00u no wave2.60u total
110 calories, 26 carbs, 21 to 22 sugar, no fat, “a little bit of protein” — not read as a number, so it's carried here as 0. Jenny's memory said about 30 for a cup of real orange juice; the label said 26.

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.

Off the bottle and the carton · at the standing 1:10 example  ·  Click any item to hear that moment
Takeaway34:45

Eat your fruit. Don't drink it.

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.

59
grapes in a 12-ounce glass of grape juice

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.

05 · Bolus 4 · Episode 1928

Condiments, beer, and the lemonade

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.

36:47

Powdered lemonade — 1 cup, mixed

24g of that is sugar
26carb
2.60u up front0.00u no wave2.60u total
Two tablespoons of powder to a cup of water: 100 calories, 26 carbs, 24 sugar. A gallon takes about a cup and a third of powder — eight scoops — and nobody in Scott's house was leveling off the third.

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.”

Off the canister · at the standing 1:10 example  ·  Click any item to hear that moment
The ones nobody counts37:30
5carb · ketchup, 1 tbsp
Four of them sugar, and a tablespoon is a soup-spoon's worth. Scott: you can have 20 or 30 carbs in ketchup without noticing. Barbecue sauce, probably more.
10.5carb · Budweiser, 12 oz
145 calories, 1.3 protein, 5% alcohol. Not a recommendation — a comparison. Ask people whether a Pepsi or a beer has more carbs, and Scott thinks they'd say beer.
0carb · hard liquor
Jenny: the liquor doesn't have carbs. What you mix it with does — juice, regular soda, whatever it might be.
26carb · lemonade, 1 cup
The same as a cup of the good stuff from a can. Scott's family bought the white-label one next to the Country Time.
277
carbs in one gallon of powdered lemonade — all of it sugar

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.”

Asked and answered44:06
How many gallons of lemonade is a five-pound bag of sugar?
8
Scott's last piece of math, and the end of the episode: eight gallons of the pitcher he grew up refilling equals a five-pound bag of sugar. “Oh, that's why I was fat. Never mind.” His mother did what she could, Jenny says. Godspeed. Don't drink your sugar.
Take a picture of this one

Things to remember from this one

The numbers that transfer to the next one.

40scarb
in a 12-ounce can of regular soda, whichever brand — all of it sugar, none of it slow
12gcarb
in a glass of milk, whole to skim — the fat is the only thing that changes, and it's what softens the rise
1gper grape
Jenny's rule for grapes; a 12-ounce glass of grape juice is 59 of them
277gcarb
in a gallon of powdered lemonade; eight gallons is a five-pound bag of sugar

“You will see a change in your blood sugar if you do not pre bolus the crap out of this.”

Jenny Smith7:32

“Mid forties for a can of soda.”

Scott Benner8:24

“You don't go in the field and pick a can of soda.”

Jenny Smith12:35

“Don't drink your sugar.”

Scott Benner45:00
The tool

Bolus 4 Estimator

Every number on this page, with your own settings.

Open it →
The method

Meal Bolt

The tutorial the whole series is built on.

Read it →
The series

Bolus 4

One food per episode, with Scott and Jenny.

All episodes →
Everything on this page is a simulation for education, not medical advice. Nothing here should change your insulin dosing without your care team.
Read the full disclaimer
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