Diabetes: 5 Tips for Eating Sugar Wisely

Let’s say you’re diabetic but you like sweets. Are you doomed to a life of deprivation, watching others enjoy but never participating yourself? The surprising answer is no, at least for many type II diabetics.

The reality is that most diabetics eat sugar and then feel guilty about it. Although as a physician I encourage my patients to avoid sweets and refined carbohydrates, I am well aware that many do not. Complete abstinence is difficult, especially for premenopausal women, who often crave carbohydrates in a cyclical fashion.

Of course you hope to control your blood sugar, but everyone wants a piece of birthday cake once in a while. What is a person to do?

Here are 5 tips for eating sugar wisely.

1. Enjoy a little sugar instead of a different carbohydrate. Do you feel guilty for eating sugar but not mashed potatoes? Both raise blood sugar at the same rate and by the same amount. If you’re craving dessert, skip the rolls, rice, potatoes, lemonade, corn. After a healthy meal of lean meat and fiber-rich vegetables, treat yourself to a 300-calorie dessert. If you keep your total caloric intake within a reasonable limit (1,500 to 2,000 calories for most people), eating sugar will affect your blood sugar little differently than other carbohydrates.

2. Enjoy an alcohol sugar. Although foods sweetened with sugar alcohols are not low in calories, they raise blood sugar less rapidly than those sweetened with regular sugar or high fructose corn syrup. They also cause fewer cavities and less rebound cravings for more sugar. Most foods labeled “no added sugar” contain sugar alcohols. Many varieties of no-sugar-added and reduced-fat ice cream are available. However, be careful not to eat too much, as this can cause diarrhea and can raise your blood sugar from excess calories.

3. Enjoy a mixture of sugar and an artificial sweetener. Much of the sugar we consume is not even tasted. There is a threshold to appreciate sweetness: for many people, a little can go a long way. For example, some people who claim they can’t tolerate diet soda find that mixing just a little bit of regular soda with diet soda makes the taste acceptable. Similarly, if you enjoy your coffee sweetened, try 1 teaspoon of sugar instead of 3 and substitute 2 teaspoons of an artificial sweetener; you may not be able to tell the difference.

4. Enjoy some sugar with a meal instead of on its own. One problem with eating sweets is that people often consume them on their own, causing a spike in blood sugar levels. If eaten with a healthy meal of lean protein and low-calorie, high-fiber vegetables, the sugar will mix with the other foods, slowing absorption and preventing an immediate spike in blood glucose.

5. enjoy some sugar us rather in has dessert. A lot of sugar inside a dessert is wasted, that is, it is not even tasted. Unless you take small bites, savoring each one as it melts on your tongue, more than half of the sweetness is likely to slide down your throat without finding your taste buds. A piece of cake has a lot of calories, not just from sugar, but also from flour (which is converted to glucose in the body just as quickly as sugar) and from fat (mainly in the frosting). Instead of diving into a 400-calorie cake, treat yourself to a heaping bowl of berries topped with a few tablespoons of sugar. It is unlikely that you will use as much as a quarter cup of sugar, which contains less than 200 calories.

Copyright ©2010 Cynthia J. Koelker, MD