Photo by V. Miller
May 25, 2005
Low-Carb Foods and Blood-Sugar Levels
What's Up with Low-Carb Foods?
Molly Lauren Pettit, 13, Portland, Ore.
Finalist, Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, 2004
Project background: As a person with diabetes, Molly is acutely aware of her need to maintain stable levels of blood sugar. She noticed the market explosion of low-carb foods. Oftentimes, the package front advertises only a few grams of "net carbs," but the FDA "Food Facts" label lists much higher figures. Molly wanted to know the real story, so she tested the impact of so-called low-carb foods on blood sugar levels.
Tactics and results: Molly hypothesized that if the foods truly contained only a few grams of carbohydrates, blood sugar levels in people with diabetes would not rise after eating them. Molly fed five subjects (including herself, two other people with diabetes, and two controls without diabetes) low-carb food bars and then tested blood sugar levels at ten-minute intervals.
The three people with diabetes experienced significant spikes in blood sugar after about an hour. "For people with diabetes, it is clear that the concept of 'net carbs' is false," Molly concluded.
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