Pizza Night with Diabetes Strong: How Outer Aisle Affects Blood Sugars

Finding quick and delicious options for at-home meals that don’t cause a blood sugar spike can be a challenge. Whether you are preparing meals for yourself or your family and friends, having versatile, easy to make options in your back pocket can be a savior in a time crunch!

And while we like to think we’re a sneaky solution to enjoy your favorites without feeling guilty, don’t just take our word for it. Christel Oerum, a diabetes advocate, public speaker, author and co-founder of Diabetes Strong loves Outer Aisle, so we asked her to share her thoughts on our low carb, low glycemic options and how they affect her blood sugar levels as a type 1 diabetic.

Why Christel Loves Outer Aisle:

I really enjoy a slice of pizza or bread, but the carb counting and potential blood sugar headache mean that eating pizza is not always worth it for me.

This is why I love that there are now some absolutely terrific low carb pizza options that make pizza night a little easier to maneuver.

The cauliflower base means that the blood sugar impact is minimal, and the use of eggs and parmesan as binding agents means that the protein amount is higher than the fats.

That is something I appreciate a lot, as high-fat foods mean that the blood sugar impact is slowed down but that the blood sugar increase can “haunt” you for hours after you’ve finished your meal.

Making Outer Aisle Pizzas with Diabetes Strong:

A pizza crust has 120 calories and 4 grams of carbs (3 grams of net carbs), so basically nothing.

The pizza I pre-bake at 425º degrees for 8 minutes then add my toppings and bake until the cheese is bubbly. Then I let it sit for a little bit to let the crust firm up. If you have a pizza stone, you probably don’t need to pre-bake it at all.

How Outer Aisle Impacts Christel’s Blood Sugar:

Since these products have so few carbs, you might not need any insulin at all. However, I am fairly sensitive to anything I eat so I do need to inject insulin even for a small amount of carbohydrates. I also load my pizzas high, so I have to take insulin for the sauce and cheese as well. But these products are so gentle on my blood sugars! Let me share my blood sugar experiment from the last time I enjoyed one of the Outer Aisle Pizza crusts.

I was going to one of my girlfriend’s house, and asked her if she wanted me to bring sushi or cauliflower pizza crusts and toppings. She opted for the pizza…which tells you how good this stuff is.

Since I was at her house, and I guess slightly distracted with making the pizzas and catching up, I forgot to pre-bolus (dose 10-15 min before eating) and just took my insulin shot right before we sat down to eat. We ate at 8 PM and as you can see from the graph below, there was no blood sugar spike after I ate. And that was even without a pre-bolus!

I use MyFitnessPal to track my food and calculate my carb, protein, and fat intake. I bolus not just for the carbs but for protein as well. The pizza had 10 grams of carbs (3 from the pizza, and the rest from the pizza sauce and cheese) and 27 grams of protein, so I took 1 unit of rapid-acting insulin for the carbs and 0.5 units for the protein and that clearly worked out perfectly.

How much insulin you need of course depends on your individual insulin and carb sensitivities but I think it’s safe to say that this product won’t spike blood sugars and it’s low enough in total carbohydrates that it should work for most people living with diabetes, regardless of whether they manage with insulin or not.

Where to Find Outer Aisle Products:

Outer Aisle can be found in many stores across the US (Sprouts, Kroger Family Stores, Albertsons, Whole Foods, Meijer, Wegman’s etc.). They have a convenient store finder where you can look up stores near you that carry the products.

You can also order it online and get it sent directly to your doorstep.

Read the full review on the Diabetes Strong blog.

About Diabetes Strong:

Diabetes Strong was established in 2015 as a personal blog about Christel’s experiences as a fitness enthusiast living with type one diabetes.

Christel struggled to find easily accessible information about exercise and healthy nutrition with diabetes online, so she decided to create a website where she could share her own advice and invite experts from the diabetes community to contribute.

Diabetes Strong quickly grew into one of the largest websites about health and diabetes and was re-launched in 2017 as a diabetes portal with expert contributors from all over the world. In 2020, Christel also added the recipe blog Diabetic Foodie to the Diabetes Strong platform.

The goal of Diabetes Strong is to provide a platform where people living with (any type) of diabetes can find all the information they need to live healthy and active lives.

The information on Diabetes Strong always takes a positive approach to diabetes and follows Christel’s motto that “There is nothing you can’t do with diabetes.”