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What is Glucerna Good For?
I’m no diet expert, but I still get lots of emails about Glucerna and other “diabetic” food products: How or what good are they really for people with diabetes? In a new twist, I got this email from a non-diabetic reader not long ago:
Dear Diabetes Mine:
I am a 42 yr old male, in good physical shape, and I eat pretty well (healthy). My real weakness is sweets-cake, cookies, chocolate, candy, protein shakes, etc. I see advertisements for diabetic foods such as “Glucerna” shakes, etc.
Is it OK for a non-diabetic to eat these foods on a regular basis? I’m trying to find a way to get my sugar fix without the sugar.
Thanks.
This one stumped me — and intrigued me at the same time, as I’m always looking for good “fake desserts” for myself as well.
To answer the question I turned once again to my local nutrition expert Norae Ferrara for some help. This lady knows her stuff:
“Interesting. . .,” she writes,”it isn’t often that I hear a non-diabetic choosing Glucerna over dessert! To answer your question, I will assume that “good physical shape” means you are happy with your weight. In that case, then yes! It should be fine for you to have Glucerna shakes pretty frequently instead of desserts-it is significantly lower in sugar, as you desire.”
“To further explain, the reason I make the assumption that you are not trying to lose weight, is that Glucerna — or any other meal replacement drink — is, just as its beverage category implies, intended as a replacement for meals, and therefore intentionally loaded with calories.”
What is Glucerna and how is it intended for consumption? Glucerna’s original intention is as a tube feeding supplement. It is proudly labeled as “nutritionally complete,” meaning that many, many people live well on Glucerna alone. It is complete with all essential vitamins, minerals and macronutrients needed for survival.
Knowing that, it is best to think of Glucerna as a chocolate-flavored drink with a couple multivitamins and a scoop of protein powder blended into it. If you already eat “healthy” it is unlikely that you have any need for all the extra calories that go along with the vitamins and minerals.
A second common use in medical practice is for with our diabetic patients who need to gain weight (typically Type 1 diabetics). For those of you in this less common situation, we suggest Glucerna as a supplemental snack between meals. It works well given that each little 8oz bottle harbors a scale-tipping 200 calories. In a non-diabetic case, a couple cookies or a candy bar may not be any different on the waistline. But for those Type 2 diabetics out there, Glucerna is lower on the Glycemic Index, significantly lower in sugar, and a much, much smarter choice than a candy bar. Check out my comparison chart to make your own decision:
Calories Carbs Sugars Saturated Fat
Glucerna (8fl oz) 200 27g 6g .5g
Chocolate Chip Cookie 207 25g 20g 3.5g
(homemade with trans fat free margarine)
2 Reese’s Peanut butter cups (1.5oz) 230 23g 20g 4.5g
Hostess Cupcake (1) 181 30g 17g 2.5g
Thank you, Norae. Personally, I’ve got some pump weight gain going on over here, so I won’t be snacking on Glucerna any time soon.
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I once had an endo tell me to eat a slow-release bar every night before bed because I was having trouble with overnight lows. Even as a teenager I couldn’t understand eating a nasty-tasting bar instead of real food.
Posted by: mollyjade | July 30th, 2008 at 7:48 amI used to use Glucerna, but didn’t like it that much. Now I use Boost Glucose Control. Still, I can’t imagine confusing either of them with a dessert substitute.
Posted by: Lili | July 30th, 2008 at 9:59 amI also get lots of e-mail from Glucerna and it goes straight to my junk mail. The words “For people with Diabetes” is misleading and they should take it off. Why would you drink a slow-release Glucerna shake with 27grams of carbs? It will not raise a low fast enough and with all that carbs raise your blood sugar levels over a longer time than what a fast acting insulin will work(meaning more than one injection to lower your blood sugar after drinking one of those).I think they just want a piece of the billions that we already pay to stay alive.
Posted by: Fred | July 30th, 2008 at 11:26 amI used Glucerna when I had my wisdom teeth extracted. Was an easy way to consume calories on a liquid diet, and it doesn’t spike the blood sugar like the other ones do. It tastes like crap though, and I was happy to return to solid foods and throw my remaining supply in the trash.
Posted by: Wade | July 30th, 2008 at 11:59 amI have been on Glucerna twice per doctors orders on a 6 time a day regimen. 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm.
After Diagnosis:
1. To find my median
2. To control blood sugars
3. It is used for diabetics with gastroparesis
After my cholecystectomy:
Posted by: Landileigh | July 30th, 2008 at 12:06 pm1. To help people who have acute/chronic pancreatitis keep theirs calm while transitiioning from no food to food
2. It is EXTREMELY digestible and the least irritating to your pancreas
3. Because of the low low sugar, it doesn’t engage the liver as much, which helps calm it for excess glucagon secretion.
I use Glucerna shakes or Atkins shakes for breakfast almost every day. Being type 2 and not having time to prepare a proper type 2 breakfast begs for solutions like these. I’ve always really appreciated their utility, and find that they have very predictable impact on morning blood glucose.
Posted by: Glucoholic | July 30th, 2008 at 7:12 pmIm sure people use Glucerna as a shake or dessert choice because it can be pretty good if you add strawberry to it or some kind of fruit.
The only flavor I actually like IS strawberry. It is a bit pastey tasting.
I have used it in mornings for breakfast because I really hate eating in the morning, the best part of glucerna is you can make it at night put it in a drink container in the fridge and the next day it will be really chilled and easy for on the go travel, It stabelizes your blood sugars pretty good, I travel to the city to work on two trains I dont want to be plummetting and passing out in the middle of a crowded subway in NYC so for me glucerna is a good meal replacement. Actually you can use glucerna before working out as well to keep your blood sugar from dropping too.
I have heard people using it to gain weight, my aunt also uses it the same way as landileigh because she had a kidney transplant. It is easier for some people to digest glucerna rather than eating food.
As far as the chart above, I am not sure comparing them is relevant.
Glucerna does not have as much sugar as those others and is
slower to digest which is why many people use it to get in better control of their diabetes management.
Of course we all would rather have those foods for dessert and if i want a reese peanut butter cup I am going to eat it. For a quick sugar fix lol
Why the heck would i want to choose glucerna lol But, if you are on a strict diet and trying to control your Blood sugars if glucerna works for you why not?
Posted by: gina | July 31st, 2008 at 8:12 amWait a minute - what’s all this about T1’s needing to *gain* weight? (I’m wrestling with exactly the opposite problem - I want to *lose* weight, but I’m swimming upstream against my insulin!) -r
Posted by: Runehawk | July 31st, 2008 at 8:54 amYou are right Gina, for diabetics, Glucerna makes a lot more sense as a dessert option because it is so much lower in sugar. The Glucerna question was posed by a non-diabetic, and when someone (non diabetic) is looking for a sweet chocolaty dessert, in practice I recommend a small piece of the real thing! So that’s what the chart is good for.
And Runehawk- I feel you! Most of my patients, no matter what chronic condition they are dealing with, are struggling to lose weight. It isn’t easy… My most successful clients go through a lot to get the weight off–more frequent BG checks as we reduce calories, more exercise, and constant adjusments in insulin to match it. It is not recommend that you try it on your own. Hopefully your doctor has a CDE for you to work with. And as far as for those who need to gain weight–what I know is it is very rare, but when a diabetic does need to gain weight, 4 out of 5 of them will be type 1.
Posted by: Norae Ferrara, RD | August 2nd, 2008 at 8:20 pmI have some Vanilla Glucerna 8 oz. cans and it says it has 140 calories not the 200 you have — carbs are 19 and you show 27 — sugar 5 and you have 6. I don’t understand. I think these are too sweet and told the Company that and they kind of laughed.. I put cinnamon in mine though as I heard that Cinnamon is suppose to help with blood sugar control..
Posted by: rose gillet | October 29th, 2008 at 4:35 pm