Postprandial glycemic control is affected by food intake. It is mainly influenced by the amount of carbohydrate intake, along with insulin availability
[30]. For this reason, guidelines recommend early nutrition education of individuals with T1D, including carbohydrate counting (CC), a meal planning approach based on the importance of carbohydrate in affecting postprandial glycaemia, used as a tool to improve glycemic control and facilitate flexible food choices
[4][31][32]. Thus, insulin dosing at meals is generally decided upon the carbohydrate amount, often using insulin-to-carbohydrate ratio
[31]. The importance of carbohydrate in affecting glycaemia has been known for long, however the impact of other diet macronutrients should also be considered. According to recommendations, to optimize postprandial glucose levels, other variables should be considered, including glycemic index, fat, protein and fiber intake
[4]. It has been demonstrated that meals with high content of fat or protein lead to a delayed and prolonged increase in postprandial glycaemia, from 2 to 6 h after the meal, with small variations in ranges depending on the study considered
[33][34][35][36]. An additive effect was reported when consuming high fat and high protein meals together
[33]. Instead, early glycemic peak is reduced with high fat and high protein meals
[37][38]. Based on these findings, new methods to establish a more accurate need of insulin that would consider the complexity of the meal were required. Indeed, some studies showed a better glycemic control when using algorithms for calculating insulin dose that account also for protein and fat intake, besides carbohydrate
[39][40]. However, more frequent episodes of hypoglycemia were reported when using supplementary fat/protein counting than CC
[39]. To note, the Food Insulin Index (FII) is a new algorithm in which foods are sorted by the insulin response to an isoenergetic reference food in healthy people. Since food energy is used as the constant, all foods and their metabolic interactions could be included in the algorithm, allowing a broader assessment of insulin demand
[41]. Its use has been compared to CC in adult studies, showing a better control in postprandial glycaemia in subjects with T1D using FII
[42][43], also specifically for protein-containing food
[41]. However, no significant changes in HbA1c levels and relatively high rates of mild hypoglycemia with both methods were described
[41][43]. The efficacy of novel counting methods in children and adolescents with T1D need further studies to be established, since no clear benefit among one method to another was reported up to now
[44]. Considering the variation of glycaemia after high fat and/or high protein meals, insulin dose adjustments are recommended
[4]. Additional dose of insulin in dual wave bolus and/or the increase in percentage of insulin dose were studied
[36][45][46][47][48], even if determining what strategy is more efficient in glycemic control must be further assessed. Thus, it is recommended to adapt meal insulin dose to counterbalance the delayed hyperglycemia resulting from high protein and high fat meals. To the best of our knowledge, available hybrid closed-loop insulin pumps do not have algorithms for fat and/or protein dosing. Considering the wide inter-individual differences in insulin dose demand for fat and protein, it is therefore important to individualize the treatment
[4].