Mealtime insulin is designed to help control the blood sugars after a person eats. They try to mimic the body’s natural response to sugar surges and last anywhere from 40 to 120 minutes.

High postprandial sugars can make you feel unwell, and over time, if the blood sugars are high on a consistent basis, you can develop diabetes-related complications involving your eyes, heart and kidneys.

Diabetics need to coordinate the insulin rise with the food that’s entering the system. Usually, that’s done by giving rapid-acting insulin, which tries to reproduce this action of our normal insulin to control the glucose levels.

Postprandial glucose can influence A1C levels. A1C levels in the blood are affected by glucose levels throughout the day, so it includes the effects of fasting glucose, but also the glucose levels after eating (the postprandial glucose levels).

The newer insulins that are available tend to be faster acting, so they can be given closer to the meal, right at the beginning of the meal or even right after the meal to control postprandial glucose.