By Reddit user Vapourtrails89. I wanted to share this exceptionally clear explanation of the mechanisms of blood sugar and diabetes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/112yj0o/why_are_high_glycemic_index_foods_such_as_simple/

The higher the glycemic index, the faster the carbs are broken down into sugar and absorbed into the blood stream. Simple carbs absorb quickly, which means that your blood glucose level will rapidly increase. This causes the pancreas to release insulin so that cells will absorb the glucose out of the blood, to prevent hyperosmolarity (the blood becoming too sugary and sticky).

The insulin release will cause your blood sugar to crash, and be stored in the cells as glycogen. This has a dual effect. It will mean you get hungry again quickly, as your brain senses the low blood sugar and sends hunger signals, and you will likely crave simple carbs as you will have learnt to associate these with a quick rise in blood sugar, which in turn produces a reward signal in the brain. This leads to a cycle of eating simple carbs, getting hungry quickly, and over eating. Excess glucose in the blood can be converted to adipose tissue, which leads to obesity.

The cells start to reach their limits for glucose storage in the form of glycogen. At this point they start to resist the insulin signal. This is known as insulin resistance. The exact mechanism for insulin resistance is not known. It seems that the more excess adipose tissue you have, the more insulin resistance you will have. It makes sense as if you have excess adipose, your cells will likely be storing as much glycogen as they can, so they are unable to respond to the insulin signal by taking up more.

When your insulin cannot bring your blood sugar under control, you have diabetes.

Diabetes can either be a failure of insulin production (type 1) or a failure of cells to respond to insulin (type 2)

Note: there's a number of disclaimers I feel I want to include regarding "miracle" diets, direct-to-consumer businesses, health benefits/risks of dieting, etc but it'd get too long to put them up here. I'll add a comment with that stuff. Also, no one is paying me to say anything here.

I decided to write about my experiences with different low calorie/diabetic-friendly/keto food options. Let me know if this is at all helpful to you :)

Magic Spoon

This is that unavoidable direct-to-consumer business; you may have been bothered w/dozens of promo codes for their cereal across various podcasts, YouTube videos, and Twitch streams. I have been on a ketogenic diet for a long while (and have had success with it*), and saw that Magic Spoon is low carb and comparably low in calories compared to other sugary cereals.

I bought a variety pack with 4 boxes for ~$40 including shipping w/promo code. $10/box is pricey, but since I used to be a cereal lover, I figured it might be worth having it to scratch the itch. All of these I had with Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk (<1g carbs.) I can't really tell a flavor difference between almond milk and low fat milk. Whole milk sells for about $3 in my market where as almond milk is about $4. Note: I am easy to please, I definitely don't have a "refined" palate. Now to the boxes:

Peanut Butter

I think maybe my expectations were off for this. I'm not a sommelier, so I'll describe flavors best I can in common folk language. This is just not good. At all. The taste is peanut-buttery, but has an overwhelming salty flavor. There's also this off-note that tastes like artificial sweetener. Texture-wise really adheres to your teeth. I finished the bowel, only because I didn't have enough time to pour a new one before work. It's been a few weeks, and I still haven't touched the box (aside from a small bowel to write this review.)

Rating: 1/5

Fruity

I had pretty low expectations from the previous box, and some anxiety about having potentially wasted $40 on food I won't eat. The smell when I opened the box was immediately that of fruit loops. I noticed the shape of the cereal was the same as the peanut butter ones. Fortunately, these didn't glue themselves to my teeth in quite the same way that the PB flavor did, but I still used my tongue to dislodge it from a couple of molars at the end. This tasted quite close to fruit loops, but overall is a unique flavor. I quite enjoyed this flavor. This cereal can sit in the bowel for some time before becoming soggy; a good quality since I typically take my time and browse Reddit/HN in the mornings while slowly working on a bowel of cereal before work. Flavor is a half-step down from fruit loops, but a step up in consistency.

Rating: 4/5

Frosty

When I tried this, this was the best keto cereal I've tried. I'd say it's the best cereal I've ever had, but that title still belongs to Reese's Puffs. It's hard to describe the flavor, something like Lucky Charms if you had a high-number of mash-mellows, but far more substantial. It isn't an especially complex flavor; it's just a "frosted" flavor that seems perfectly balanced in both flavor and consistency. Following the trend of other cereals, it doesn't get soggy fast, which I appreciate. Doesn't really get stuck in the teeth.

Rating: 5/5

Chocolate

This will be a short review: not great. It tastes like Cocoa Puffs, if they very obviously had substituted artificial sweetener for sugar. Maybe that's your thing, but I wasn't a huge fan of Cocoa Puffs in the first place. Not offensive, I'll probably finish the box when I run out of other things to eat, but not great.

Rating: 2/5

Conclusion

This scratches that craving for cereal that you miss out on when you go on a low carb diet. If you are on keto, you should note the cereal is relatively high in protein (around 13g per cup) where total fat is only 8g per cup. I'll probably purchase again, but I'll do a custom bundle next time w/fruity, 2 frosty, and maybe a different interesting flavor as a fourth.