Molly volunteers with the American Diabetes Association and also plays the flute, soccer, and basketball. She enjoys surfing and writing for her school's newspaper. In the future, she'd like to become an ocean scientist. "I have been fascinated by sharks my whole life," says Molly. Her science hero is Anton Clemens, who made the first glucose meter because "without a meter, my life and the lives of many diabetics would be complicated, confusing, and more limited."
As a person with diabetes, Molly is acutely aware of her need to maintain stable levels of blood sugar. She noticed the market explosion of low-carb foods. Often the package front advertises only a few grams of "net carbs," but the Food and Drug Administration's Food Facts label lists much higher figures. Molly wanted to know the real story, so she tested the impact of so-called low-carb foods on blood sugar levels.
Molly hypothesized that if the foods truly contained only a few grams of carbohydrates, blood sugar levels in people with diabetes would not rise after eating. Molly fed five subjects—herself, two other people with diabetes, and two controls without diabetes—low-carb food bars and then tested blood sugar levels at 10-minute intervals. The three people with diabetes experienced significant spikes in blood sugar after about an hour. "For people with diabetes, it is clear that the concept of 'net carbs' is false," she said.
