I always have something in my pocket to treat low blood glucose (hypoglycemia) and my new favorite thing is Welch’s Fruit Snacks. Since I use insulin to treat my diabetes, getting low blood glucose (hypoglycemia) is always a possibility. Low blood glucose is a medical emergency — but one that can be solved quickly with something that has sugar in it! Low blood glucose can happen from too much insulin, or not eating enough food, or from exercise, as well as other factors. Getting insulin dosage right is tricky, and although my insulin pump does a really great job, low blood glucose still happens occasionally.

At 17 grams of carbohydrates per bag, one bag is usually enough to fix a low, and I can fit at least 3 packets in each pocket. That is some security! I’ll never be caught in an emergency as long as I have my low blood glucose treatment on me!

I’m also a fan of juiceboxes, and I carry one in my purse.

I previously wrote about buying Smarties for a hypoglycemia treatment. While I found that Smarties (candy) work well, they don’t carry well. Their packaging is on the thin side and can break. So now I carry the smarties inside of a ziploc bag. But, I’m now preferring fruit snacks!

Fruit snacks are particularly yummy, and easy to eat when they’ve been in my pocket, because my body heat warms them up and makes them softer. I’ve also eaten hi chew candies for low blood glucose, but those take forever to chew.

I want something fast and easy when my blood sugar is plummeting. Juice has always been my go to, because drinking juice is easier than eating something, but fruit snacks are easier to carry than juice, and their softness makes them pretty easy to eat. (I’ve had a juicebox leak in my bag, which was not fun to clean up!)

At first, I struggled a bit with opening the fruit snacks packages, I would try to tear them open and vent my frustration over how they were so hard to open. I’ve become a bit wiser lately, and now realize that there’s a tiny cut at the top of each packet, and as long as I tear right at that spot, the packet opens easily.

Costco sells a large box of fruit snacks that contains 90 packets!

Fruit snacks also contain real fruit and have the vitamins A, C, and E. Looking at the ingredients, they do have corn syrup and sugar in them, so they’re not 100% fruit, but still it’s good to be getting some vitamins.

If you would prefer a 100% fruit treatment for low blood glucose, you could try grapes, or raisins. Grapes wouldn’t travel well in your pocket, but raisins might.

Also, I should emphasize that the fruit snacks raise my blood glucose FAST, which is part of why I love them. The faster they work, the quicker I will feel better. Heck, if I catch the low blood glucose before it even happens (my insulin pump has an “alert before low” alarm), then I may not even feel shaky, sweaty, or weird at all!