Responses to Carbohydrate Consumption Among Insulin-Dependent Diabetics

TL;DRAbstract

Healthy adults have been found to report heightened fatigue and sleepiness two hours after eating an unbalanced, high-carbohydrate meal. A plausible underlying mechanism is that the insulin secretion triggered by such a meal permits enhanced brain influx of tryptophan and serotonin synthesis by lessening plasma levels of the competing branched-chain amino acids. We tested the hypothesis that, after consuming an unbalanced carbohydrate meal, insulin-dependent diabetics would show evidence of insulin resistance and would fail to report fatigue. Self-reported fatigue, serum insulin and plasma glucose were assessed before and after healthy subjects (n = 7) and insulin-dependent diabetics (n = 10) ate a 799-calorie lunch supplying 105 g carbohydrate and 0.7 g protein. Unlike normals, diabetics failed to exhibit fatigue after consuming the carbohydrate lunch. Diabetics also showed evidence of insulin insensitivity, failing to suppress glucose to clinically acceptable levels even in the prese

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