People with diabetes feel jipped in life because they can’t eat sweets, right? Wrong! If you have diabetes, that doesn’t mean you can’t eat sweets. People with diabetes can eat desserts, use sweeteners, and still keep their blood glucose (sugar) levels in their target range. They just need to be careful and avoid particular simple sugars. Also, they need to be careful with weight loss and gain due to the sweeteners they choose to use.
There are many options available for sweetening your foods:
Sugar that has full calories
Honey,
Brown sugar,
Molasses,
Fructose,
Cane sugar,
Confectioners sugar
Reduced-calorie sweeteners
erythritol,
hydrogenated starch hydrolysates,
isomalt,
lactitol,
maltitol,
mannitol,
sorbitol,
xylitol
Low-calorie sweeteners
ascelfume potassium,
aspartame,
saccharin
sucralose
In the past, people with diabetes were warned to completely avoid sugar. Experts thought that eating sugar would rapidly increase blood glucose, resulting in levels that were too high. Some people even thought that eating sugar caused diabetes, an idea that we now know isn’t true. Now, research has shown that the total amount of carbohydrate affects blood glucose levels the most. But, the type of carbohydrate (e.g. sugar vs. starch) can also affect blood glucose levels. So, some simple sugars to avoid are:
Candy
Granulated sugars
Confection sugars
Molasses
Etc.
Really what simple sugars you eat is not nearly as important as how you eat them, and what you eat them with. Now experts agree you can eat foods with sugar as long as you work them into your meal plan as you would any other carb-containing food. The same guidelines apply to other sweeteners with calories, including brown sugar, honey, and molasses.
How can I have sweets and still keep my blood glucose on target?
The key to keeping your blood glucose on target is to substitute small portions of sweets for other carb-containing foods in your meals and snacks.Carb-containing foods include bread, tortillas, rice, crackers, cereal, fruit, juice, milk, yogurt, potatoes, corn, and peas.For example, you’d like to have cookies with your lunch.Your lunch is a turkey sandwich with two slices of bread.Your first step is to identify the carb foods in your meal.Bread is a carb.You decide to swap two slices of bread for two slices of low-calorie bread and have the cookie, it’s an even trade.Your total amount of carbohydrate remains the same for the meal, and you do not have to worry as much about the simple sugars.