Desserts for Diabetics and Tips for Eating Sweets
“Diabetics can’t have dessert.”
It’s one of those myths that just won’t die.
The reality is that there are plenty of healthy dessert foods for diabetics, and eating sweets once or twice a week is perfectly acceptable — as long as you are maintaining a healthy weight and as long as it is part of a balanced diet.
Diabetes dessert food has the blessing of no less than the American Diabetes Association, which stipulates you can eat foods with sugar (such as desserts) as long as you work them into your meal plan as you would any other carb-containing food.
It boils down to this: Sugar is a carbohydrate. And all carbohydrates — whether it’s a serving of rice or a candy bar — can cause a surge in blood sugar. The key to safely enjoying a diabetes dessert food is to substitute small portions of sweets for other carb-containing foods in your meals and snacks (e.g., bread, rice, fruit, juice, milk, potatoes). To include sweets in your meal, simply cut back on other carb foods at the same meal.
Watch “sugar-free.” Diabetes dessert foods labeled as “sugar-free,” “no sugar added,” “reduced sugar” and “dietetic” still contain carbohydrates. Instead of focusing solely on the amount of sugars, it’s better to check “Total Carbohydrate” in the Nutrition Facts Label. The total carbohydrate includes starch, fiber, sugar and sugar alcohols. If you only look at the sugar content, you are not accounting for the starch in a food.
Watch serving sizes. That doesn’t mean you can eat all the sugar you want. Most sweets contain a large amount of carbohydrate in a very small serving. To work diabetes dessert food in to a healthy diet, you need to be sure to have a small serving.
Discover the “perfect” dessert. The perfect desserts for diabetics are made with fresh fruit, which add fiber, vitamins and minerals to your meal plan. Fruit desserts such as cobblers are perfect for slashing the added sugar (use a low-calorie sweetener). Fruit salads made with a variety of fresh fruit are another great choice. Or, try some fresh sliced fruit with a small amount of whipped topping. Look for “lite” whipped toppings and add some sugar-free Jell-O or pudding. When using canned fruits, choose those packed in natural juices with no sugar added.
Switch it out. Under the diabetic exchange list method of meal planning, you can trade, or exchange, foods from one list for any other food on the same list because they each have similar amounts of carbohydrates, fat, protein and calories.
If lunch is a ham sandwich with two slices of bread, for example, and you’d like to have cookies with your lunch, you can make a simple exchange. Start by identifying the carbohydrates in your meal. Next, swap two slices of bread for two slices of low-calorie bread. With the carb savings, you can now have the cookies, and your total amount of carbohydrate remains the same for the meal.
Enjoy “free foods.” Low-calorie sweeteners such as NutraSweet, Equal, Splenda and Sweet-N-Low are “free foods.” They make food taste sweet, and have no calories and do not raise blood glucose levels. They do not count as a carbohydrate, a fat or any other exchange. Other free foods includes things like diet soft drinks, sugar-free gelatin and spices. You don’t have to count these foods if you don’t have more than three servings a day.
So the next time your sweet tooth beckons, remember that desserts for diabetics are not out of the question. People with diabetes can eat desserts, use sweeteners, and still keep their blood sugar levels under control. All it takes is a little planning.
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