Last Wednesday evening, I tried some of the new Free’ist range of sugar free chocolate and biscuits. Of these, I had some of the dark chocolate (yum!) and some of the cookies (also yum!).
I didn’t have a good experience with them and feel compelled to let people know as it means I will need to say no to trying any similar sugar free foods in future.
The part I want to flag up is that they led to me having a very low sugar level just after having gone to bad last night. I’d had a reading of 8.3 mmol/l at 10pm and went to bed at 11pm. I started to get an uncomfortable ‘stomach’ shortly after going to bed and then experienced symptoms of a hypo at 11.30pm. When I tested my sugar levels, I got 2.8 mmol/l which means I was very close to having a severe hypo.
As I’m type 1, the insulin I took yesterday can always have played a part but a drop of 5.5 mmol/l within 90 minutes is unusual for me and I’m convinced the sugar alcohols in the cookie and chocolate played a part in this.
I’ve previously had problems with sugar alcohols in the past and maybe I’m just extra sensitive. However, this experience may highlight one of the reasons why Diabetes UK is quite strongly against ‘diabetic’ foods.
In addition to the upset stomach and wild fluctuations in blood sugar levels, the ingredients are also very processed featuring a number of less then great additives, including a number of E numbers in the cookies.
All in all, my wife and I had a bit of a laugh when I worked out what had led to the hypo so all is good otherwise. A slightly unsettled stomach this morning but I’m sure that’ll settle over the next few hours.
