#1656 Bolus 4 - Little Bites

Summary

Juicebox Podcast: Type 1 Diabetes

Episode #1656 Bolus 4 – Little Bites

Host: Scott Benner
Guest: Jenny Smith
Date: October 18, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this Bolus 4 mini-series episode, Scott Benner and Jenny Smith tackle real-world bolusing strategies for a common but tricky food: Little Bites chocolate chip muffins. Anchored around their user-friendly "Meal BOLT" framework, they unpack why these sweet treats are so difficult to manage for people with diabetes and share practical, achievable approaches for dosing insulin and minimizing glucose spikes. This episode blends listener experiences, humor, and science-backed advice—all with a supportive, conversational tone.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

What Are “Little Bites” and Why Are They Challenging?

• Scott brings up Little Bites chocolate chip muffins after sharing that diabetes taught him to avoid them for his own kids due to post-eating issues. (01:28)

  • “Do you know a little something called Little Bites chocolate chip muffins?” — Scott (01:28)

• The muffins are small, individually packed, “sugar bombs in a package,” as Jenny calls them. (03:23)

• Nutritional breakdown of a pouch (five muffins):

  • Calories: 190
  • Fat: 9g
  • Cholesterol: 20mg
  • Sodium: 150mg
  • Sugars: 17g (all added)
  • Total Carbs: 27g
  • Protein: 2g

  “More than 50% of these muffins is sugar.”
  — Jenny (03:16)

• Main ingredients are sugar and white flour—making for a super-fast glucose hit.

• Manufactured by Entenmann’s/Bimbo Bakeries; joking about preservatives and “fortified” labels:

  “They’re the packaged thing that looks like even after the apocalypse, they probably wouldn’t be moldy…”
  — Jenny (01:52)

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Community Experiences: Why Are These Muffins So Notorious?

• Scott shares that Little Bites are a top concern among listeners—only outpaced by foods like pancakes and Cinnabon rolls. (04:49)

• A parent’s detailed experience:

  • Daughter eats them nearly every morning on MDI (multiple daily injections).
  • Original approach: 45-minute pre-bolus; still sees a postprandial spike to 230 mg/dL, sometimes up to 300 mg/dL.
  • Experimentation leads to new routine: Pairing muffins with protein (egg or breakfast meat), eating protein first, pre-bolus of 30 minutes, plus 4–6 oz water before the meal.
  • Result: Post-meal spike now limited to 160–170 mg/dL and quick return to target.

  “A win is a win.”
  — Scott (05:38)

  “Kudos to this person, this family, honestly, for sticking with it and saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to figure it out.’”
  — Jenny (06:47)

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Applying the Meal BOLT Framework

Scott and Jenny reference their Meal BOLT approach for every “Bolus 4” episode. For Little Bites, the steps are:

1. Measure the Meal:
   • Assess carbs, protein, fat; in this case, mostly carbs/sugar.
2. Evaluate Yourself:
   • Consider blood sugar upon waking (and hydration).
   • “Is our blood sugar 150? 180? 70?” — Scott (08:50)
3. Add the Base Units:
   • Calculate insulin needed (here, ~2.7 units for 27g carbs).
4. Layer a Correction:
   • Adjust if pre-meal BG is out of target.
5. Build the Bolus Shape:
   • For Little Bites: sharp, front-loaded glucose spike.
   • Pre-bolus timing is critical (30–45 min).
   • Extended bolus? Risk of delayed crash if overdone.
6. Offset the Timing:
   • Pre-bolus strongly recommended; protein/fat before carbs slows absorption.
7. Look at the CGM:
   • “Take a look at your CGM an hour later, make adjustments if you need to.” — Scott (09:48)
8. Tweak for Next Time:
   • Repeat experiments, learn and adapt.

“If she were to make the pre-bolus that long and give a little too much insulin, there was a crash. So she gets that all figured out. It’s a tough one for me.”
— Scott (09:17)

“The proteins and the fats are huge, especially along the lines of starting with them first so that it creates almost a slower digestion to get going.”
— Jenny (06:47)

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Homemade vs. Packaged Muffins: Why Does it Matter?

• Scott compares the blood sugar impact of homemade muffins (using a King Arthur recipe: 50g carbs per regular muffin, no bleached flour or artificial additives) to Little Bites:

  • Despite nearly double the carbs, the homemade version causes less extreme spikes.

• Ingredient deep-dive:

  • Little Bites have sugar and refined white flour as primary ingredients, plus preservatives and emulsifiers.
  • Homemade uses real butter, sugar, eggs, unbleached flour.

  “Did not hit Arden nearly as hard.” — Scott (12:11)

• Jenny explains it’s the simplicity and quality of ingredients—particularly highly refined sugar/flour and many artificial additives in Little Bites—that create a faster, harder glucose spike. (13:41)

  “It’s the simplicity of the ingredients.”
  — Jenny (13:41)

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Strategies for Taming the “Rocket Fuel” Spike

• Pre-bolus at least 30–45 minutes before eating, as appropriate to your body’s response.
• Pair high-glycemic, low-protein foods with a protein/fat source, consuming these stabilizing elements first.
  • “If you start a meal with some proteins, you get a much slower glycemic hit from the carbs that you eat.” — Jenny (15:04)
• Hydration and careful observation (use of CGM) are crucial.
• Recognize that, even with perfect dosing/timing, highly-processed “sugar bombs” pose unique challenges—and removing or replacing these foods may be the easier option for some.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments – With Timestamps

• On Little Bites’ resilience:
  “They’re the packaged thing that looks like even after the apocalypse, they probably wouldn’t be moldy…”
  — Jenny (01:52)

• On the muffin’s sugar content:
  “More than 50% of these muffins is sugar.”
  — Jenny (03:16)

• On family persistence:
  “Kudos to this person, this family, honestly, for sticking with it and saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to figure it out.’ … They are now getting glucose levels that are much, much improved.”
  — Jenny (06:47)

• On tweaking the strategy:
  “What did your blood sugar curve look like? What would you do next time? This is what we’re going to talk about in every episode of Bolus 4.”
  — Scott (16:10)

• On homemade vs. packaged:
  “Did not hit Arden nearly as hard.”
  — Scott (12:11)
  “It’s the simplicity of the ingredients.”
  — Jenny (13:41)

• On food labels/marketing:
  “It makes it sound like they’ve lined a bunch of army people around our castle to fortify it. We’re gonna be safe because we fortified your mouth.”
  — Scott (04:27)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & Meal BOLT Formula: 00:00–01:25, 15:30–End
• Overview of Little Bites: 01:27–03:32
• Nutritional Breakdown & Ingredients: 02:46–04:03, 12:10–14:46
• Listener Experience & Problem-Solving: 04:47–08:29
• Meal BOLT Applied Step-By-Step: 08:29–10:52
• Homemade vs. Packaged Discussion: 10:52–14:18
• Why Certain Ingredients Impact Glucose Differently: 13:25–14:46
• Recommendations and Context: 14:46–15:29

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Conclusion & Takeaways

• Little Bites chocolate chip muffins pose a real challenge for bolusing due to their ultra-refined, high-sugar composition—resulting in rapid, sharp glucose spikes.
• Success stories center on experimenting with bolus timing, insulin amount, and strategic pairing with protein/fat—showcasing resilience and learning-by-doing.
• Homemade versions, even with more carbs, usually result in gentler glucose responses when made with basic, whole ingredients.
• The Meal BOLT framework provides a solid mental checklist for considering all variables—meal content, personal state, insulin strategy, and after-meal review.

For anyone facing a stubborn “problem food,” this episode embodies encouragement, creative troubleshooting, and gentle honesty about both the limitations and the possibilities of living “Bold With Insulin.”

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Transcript

[A]

Hello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of the Juicebox Podcast. In every episode of Bolas4, Jenny Smith and I are going to take a few minutes to talk through how to bolus for a single item of food. Jenny and I are going to follow a little bit of a roadmap called Meal Bolt. Measure the meal, evaluate yourself, add the base units, layer a correction, build the bolus shape, offset the timing, look at the cgm, tweak for next time. Having said that, these episodes are going to be very conversational and not incredibly technical. We want you to hear how we think about it, but we also would like you to know that this is kind of the pathway we're considering while we're talking about it. So while you might not hear us say every letter of Meal Bolt in every episode, we. We will be thinking about it while we're talking. If you want to learn more, go to juiceboxpodcast.com Meal Bolt. But for now, we'll find out how to bolus. For today's subject, nothing you hear on the Juice Box Podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan. Jenny, we are going to jump into our bolus for today.

[B]

Yay.

[A]

With one that I will admit got me when Arden was first diagnosed and is a food that I no longer will let my children eat. But. And I think it's diabetes that showed me that this is not a thing we should be eating. Do you know a little something called Little Bites chocolate chip muffins?

[B]

I do.

[A]

Are they.

[B]

They're not a Little Debbie product, are they?

[A]

They're made by a company called Entenmanns.

[B]

Oh, Entim. Oh, I. Well, I know Entenmanns, definitely. They'. The. They're the packaged thing that looks like even after the apocalypse, they probably wouldn't be moldy in the box at the grocery store. Right.

[A]

There's something to it because a pouch of Little Bites chocolate chip muffins, which I think, I mean, if I'm going off of how they got used in my house, it's, you know, from mornings when you got up late and the kids would grab them and go to the bus with them or something like that. Right.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And to say that the muffins are maybe, I don't know, like maybe an inch and three quarters across and maybe that high, they're not big.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

You ran. I think you get five, usually in a bag, but once in a while you only get four, you get six. It's a crazy day. You've gotten super lucky and there's six in there, but let's just go with the five. I'm looking at the label right here. So at calories, 190 calories for the pouch.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Nine total grams of fat, not so bad. There's a lot of cholesterol in them. That's interesting. 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, total sugars, 17 added sugar, 17 total carbohydrates, 27.

[B]

And what. What's half of 27?

[A]

Half? It's half of 27. It's. I don't know, let's see. 10. Like, I don't know, it's 13 and a half or something like that.

[B]

Do you know why I'm asking this?

[A]

I have no idea.

[B]

I'm asking it because 17 grams of total sugar means that more than 50% of these muffins is sugar.

[A]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what a muffin is, but it's not. It's not that.

[B]

Right. Like, these are sugar bombs in a package.

[A]

I want to point out that if this smart label website that I'm on is correct, that. That these are manufactured by Bimbo bakeries for entamins. If that's correct, you know they trolling us. Is that what's happening? Exactly. Yeah. So if I. If I switch over to the ingredients label, the first thing on the ingredients label is in fact sugar. Then it is white flour. So those are your tops. Sugar and white flour. Anyway, let's go to our. Our steps.

[B]

Is there any protein? Yes, like a gram.

[A]

I think it's 2 protein. 2. 2 grams of protein. No vitamin D. There is some added calcium, iron, and potassium. Okay. Fortified isn't my new favorite word. As we're doing this, it's been fortified.

[B]

Fortified and enriched. Yes, they're both right.

[A]

It makes it sound like they've lined a bunch of army people around our castle to fortify it. We're gonna be safe because we fortified your mouth.

[B]

It's stronger for you.

[A]

Don't you worry. Everything's gonna be fine. Now here's the real interesting thing about little Bites muffins. From my perspective and from the perspective of everybo who wrote in about little Bites muffins I have.

[B]

I didn't realize they were such a thing.

[A]

They are so high on my list, and my list is set up by how many people brought them up, so. Wow. Yes. They are only below here. This will give you some context. They are only below pancakes, Pop tarts, French Toast, Costco muffins, cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon. Oh, I haven't had a Cinnabon in a long time. Toaster, strudel, oatmeal cereal. That's the only thing that's above it on the list. So. But here somebody actually sent in a little vignette about them and, and I'm going to read it, please. She eats them almost every morning where MDI. We pre bolus 45 minutes. If we give her a half a unit more, she crashes hard. We've played around with the pre bowls too, and no matter what she goes to 2:30 and comes back down. Then this person came back, commented again 25 weeks later because I've been pulling this information together for like a year, okay? So I know people are like, oh, I didn't realize he was actually planning any of this out. So 25 weeks later she came back and said, we figured them out. We pair it with a protein like an egg or a breakfast meat. We pre bolus 30 minutes. She eats the protein completely first, then the muffins. We also do 4 to 6 ounces of water during the pre bolus to get her hydrated. She still goes to 160 or 170, but comes right back down. She used to sort of 250 or even 300 every single time we ate these muffins. And this person's like, hey, we got this down now. And I really. And thanks to the podcast and actually they thank Omnipod5 and they're all happy. But that's a win. A win is a win. Yeah, yeah, it absolutely is. But at the same time, I mean, in my mind Jenny's going, don't eat those muffins. I think that's the answer to this question. But like, I know we don't have them in front of us and we don't have a breakdown, but there's something about this specific food item, right, that just, it's like rocket fuel. I mean a 45 minute pre bowls and she was still going to 300.

[B]

And again, kudos to this person, this family, honestly, for sticking with it and saying, hey, I'm going to figure it out. I know there are a lot of, there are a lot of kids who have choice kind of issues, sensory types of issues, that it is what it is and you have to, you do the best that you honestly can. And while the parents were probably thinking we could just change this, maybe it wasn't that easy. And despite it not being food that technically is providing quality nutrition they have figured it out. Utilizing all of the strategies that they have Learned, which is 100% a win for them. They are now getting glucose levels that are much, much improved. They're also not over bolusing to achieve the results. And probably along the lines of the aid system, Omnipod 5, it sounds like they're using. Right. They've figured out by doing a lot of experimentation, how much do we have to give? What do we have to add to the picture? The proteins and the fats are huge, especially along the lines of starting with them first so that it creates almost a slower digestion to get going. Especially thing in the morning, their body's breaking that down before you put in the sugar, which is what these are. Right. I mean you read the ingredients, you can't lie about it. They're more than 50% sugar by kind of carbohydrate count. But they've navigated, smoothing that. And again on the back end, with the help of the aid and their bolisting strategy and the way that they're putting their nutrients in, they figured it out.

[A]

Yeah, no, I think it's awesome that they said to themselves, there are settings here and timing that will do. Will handle this. Yes. And they did it, which is awesome. So, like let's. Another thing to add to this, but let's go back here to our, to our checklist. Measure the meal. We did that. Evaluate yourself. You know, it's. She actually said it's the morning, like not as hydrated. She put some more water in.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, gonna come out and see, you know, is our blood sugar 150? Is it 180? Is it 70? You know, keep that in the, in the idea when you're making your bolus, calculate your food with this one here. Using our 1 to 10, you know, example number that we're going to use every time in one of these episodes, she's looking at like 2.7 units. Right.

[B]

You know, as long as your blood sugar is at target or in that target, then there's no correction.

[A]

And if not, we'll make a correction to that. If there's more, less needed. Now this is one of those where you're like, well, how do I build the bolus out? Is it, is it extended? Like, it's a tough one because it hits so hard. I mean, obviously look at the crazy pre bolas she needed just to sort of stay ahead of it. But if she were to make the pre bolus that long and give a little too much insulin, there was A crash. So she gets that all figured out. It's a tough one for me. Like, I, I know it's a, it's a sugar spike. I wouldn't feel super comfortable layering like extra basil or extended boluses over a sugar spike because it's gonna, it's going to crash the other way, right. And then, you know, take a look at your CGM an hour later and, you know, make adjustments if you need to. And then the thing she did, which is awesome, which was tweak it for next time.

[B]

Well, and something that goes along with building that bolus, especially for breakfast or the very first meal of the day that you're eating, this can definitely still be the case even on an aid system like Omnipod 5, that you don't have control of your basal anyway. So it's not like they could really shift that because it's right. It's an adapted give. But if they've had any mornings that this child has slept in or maybe didn't want breakfast, they probably had a good idea that without this meal, everything looked hunky dory, right? Everything was smooth in Target stable, there were no issues. So they knew that the bolus and how they were adjusting for the components of the meal, eventually that was going to be what created the win.

[A]

Let me ask you a question, because when this happened to me all those years ago, what I did was I started making chocolate chip muffins from scratch and I just used, I didn't do something super healthy. I went to actually remembered what it was and brought it up while we were talking. King arthurbaking.com so King Arthur makes flour.

[B]

A lot of different flour, and they.

[A]

Have some recipes on their site. So I found this, like they call it a golden chocolate chip muffin recipe. Now I'm gonna, I have the nutrition from that here to show you that it's not like some like, you know, grand experiment in good health, right? You get 12 muffins out of a batch. Now a muffin is 95 grams and with the little bites, the pouch was 47 grams. So, you know, it's twice as big. You don't have to eat the whole thing. But keeping that in mind. But there are 50 carbs in a 95 gram muffin made from this, you know, King Arthur recipe that I found. 17 grams of fat, way more cholesterol, you know, more sodium, 50 carbs, right? But it's butter, sugar, baking powder, salt, flour, eggs, milk, chocolate chips. That was it. Right. And it did not hit Arden nearly as Hard.

[B]

So then I'm sure not.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. But like let's give people some understanding why. So I just read you the ingredients of the muffins I made that was. That's what's in them. The ingredients on the little bites are sugar, bleached wheat flour, water, soybean oil, chocolate chips. And it's easy to say, oh good chocolate chips. Chocolate chips are sugar, chocolate liqueur, dextrose, coconut butter, soy lecithin, lecithin, vanilla extract. Now there's also in that eggs, modified cornstarch, dextrose, whey fructose glycerin leavening agent which would, you know, like baking soda or baking powder like that. Artificial flavors, mono and digley cyrides. Do you know that one?

[B]

Diglycerides.

[A]

Diglycerides. Salt, Sodium, sterile lactate. Sterile lactate. Potassium sorbate, which is a preservative. Sorbitin, monos. Sorbitin, monounsaturate, xenothin, gum, polysorbate 60 cellulose, gum, soy lecithin. Lecithin, whey protein concentrate. So somewhere in those words is the reason, right?

[B]

And it's mostly sugar, right. That is the major hit. It's the reason that it required initially at least a 45 minute without even really great results with that. Right.

[A]

Why does that hit harder and is more difficult to control than the one I made that has more sugar in it.

[B]

It's the simplicity of the ingredients. And the question too is your flour. And I know the King Arthur flower brand, they have quite a number of quality types of flowers. My expectation is that you weren't getting a bleached, you know what I mean?

[A]

Flour. Yes. Yeah. No, yeah. And I do, and I do that on purpose too actually. Now that the prices are all crazy, it doesn't matter anymore. But I did, you did spend I think a couple dollars more for a five pound bag back then, right? Yes, that was me trying to say, well like if we're gonna do this, like at least let's use this pure ingredients as possible.

[B]

Correct? Anyway, Absolutely.

[A]

Okay, so there you go for all you little bites fans of which like I said, God bless you. They're super easy to buy. They're super easy to give to the kids in it. And you know what, it's funny on the label I just want to say it says made with real chocolate. There's no artificial colors in it. And this one's like actually surprised me because of how hard they had no high fructose corn syrup. So what happened there?

[B]

Yeah, well, they Used sugar instead, which, you know, great again. But I think the biggest hitter that this family found was that. And it's much like the glucose goddess talks about. And I taught years before I even know who she was.

[A]

Right.

[B]

If you start a meal with some proteins, proteins and fats, you get a much slower glycemic hit from the carbs that you do eat. Now, the nature of the carbs makes a difference as well, which we've talked about. But if it's going to be a carbohydrate like this one in particular, definitely help yourself by adding something in that's providing a stabilizing base.

[A]

Awesome. Okay, I appreciate it. This is, I mean, this is going to be a good one. People love this. These chocolate chipmunks. I also want to say I thought they were good too. That's all. In each episode of the Bolas 4 series, Jenny Smith and I are going to pick one food and talk the through the bolusing for that food. We hope you find it valuable. Generally speaking, we're going to follow a bit of a formula, the Meal Bolt formula. M, E, A, L, B, O, L, T. You can learn more about [e-mail] Meal Bolt but here's what it is. Step one. M Measure the meal. E evaluate yourself. A, add the base units, L layer A correction. B, build the bolus shape, O, offset the timing. L, look at the CGM&T tweak for next time. In a nutshell, we measure our meal. Total carbohydrates, protein, fat. Consider the glycemic index and the glycemic load. And then we evaluate yourself. What's your current blood sugar, how much insulin is on board, and what kind of activity are you going to be involved in or not involved in? Do you have any stress hormones, illness, what's going on with you? Then A, we add the base units, your carbs divided by insulin to carb ratio. Just a simple bolus. L layer of correction. Right. Do you have to add or subtract insulin based on your current blood sugar? Build the bolus shape. Are we going to give it all up front 100% for a fast digesting meal or is there going to be like a combo or a square wave bolus? Does it have to be extended? I'll set the timing. This is about pre bolusing. Does it take a couple of minutes this meal or maybe 20 minutes? Are we going to have to again consider combo, square wave boluses and meals? Figure out the timing of that meal and then l look at the cgm? An hour later, was there a fast spike? Three hours later, was there a delayed rise? Five hours later, is there any lingering effect from fat and protein? Tweak, Tweak for next time T what did you eat? How much insulin, and when? What did your blood sugar curve look like? What would you do next time? This is what we're going to talk about in every episode of Bolus 4. Measure the meal, evaluate yourself, add the base units, layer a correction, build the bolus shape, offset the timing, look at the cgm, tweak for next time. But it's not going to be that confusing, and we're not going to ask you to remember all of that stuff. But that's the pathway that Jenny and I are going to use to speak about each bolus. Hey, thanks for listening all the way to the end. I really appreciate your loyalty and listenership. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the Juice Box Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording wrongwayrecording.com.