GlucoLift…sounds like some kind of super-fab brand name from the 1960s, right? Maybe it was for a hair product to craft the perfect beehive “do”, or a popular baking yeast, or better yet some groovy, airline cocktail that you could only get on board an international Pan Am flight. I mean…check out the cool, retro, rocket logo and the little stickers that add an “ed” on the end of the logo, thus proclaiming you “GlocoLifted.”
So, what is it really? Glucose tabs, of course (this is a diabetes blog after all). Besides the cool name and logo, why do I like them? Do they taste good? Well, um no….they’re glucose tabs. But they do taste better than any other tabs I’ve had…and I’ve tried lots of tabs. I’ve found some I can stomach and some that I’ve actually gone out of my way to return because they tasted so bad. GlucoLift tabs also manage to be much less chalky than other brands. Of course, to avoid the unpleasant chalky texture altogether you can get single-serve gels and liquids, which don’t taste half bad, but around here they’re 2-3$ a tube. Treating a low with GlucoLift costs about 84 cents. That’s a big difference when you might have 1 or 2 lows a day! So “thanks” to all those companies out there making liquids and gels but I think I’ll save my “drinking” money for Starbucks and Guinness.
As for GlucoLift flavors, I use Orange Cream and Wildberry. I leave the Orange Cream by the bed for night lows. They aren’t terribly sweet or shockingly tart, so I like to think the mild flavor won’t wake me up as much. To keep things interesting, I use mostly the Wildberry during the day, which taste a little stronger to me. I haven’t tried the cherry flavor, as I have a general aversion to most things cherry-flavored.
I love that the company donates 1% of its profits to 1% for the Planet, especially since diabetes is associated with environmental risk factors. I also appreciate that they only use natural dyes. There has been an ongoing debate on adverse health affects of artificial dyes for years. Should we trust the FDA to have our healthiest interest at heart or in the end is it all about the bottom dollar for the food industry giants? For me, if I can use natural dye instead of artificial its one less adverse health unknown to deal with. Don’t we already have enough health conditions to worry about?
One small GlucoLift nitpic is that they don’t fit in tubes from other glucose tab manufacturers. I like to refill and reuse these, so I can leave tubes of tabs in multiple bags, cars, etc. They do fit in the GlucoLift tubes, which you can purchase separately, so no biggie in the end. Bottom line: Next time you need to restock on (blech) glucose tabs, remember it’s a bird, it’s a plane…no, it’s GlucoLift!
Forbes Magazine, “Living in Color: The Potential Dangers of Artificial Dyes.”