Diabetic Labelled Foods: What do you think?

[QR93]

Hey guys,

Hope you're all well and thank-you for taking the time to click on this thread.
I am a final year medical student and I am looking to explore what the reasons are for diabetics eating/buying diabetic labelled foods, that is foods labelled as being specifically for diabetics.

I would appreciate it if you could let me know on here, or even via a private message your reasons for eating diabetic labelled foods:

I have 5 main questions which I would appreciate it if you could answer:

1) What do you think are the advantages of eating diabetic labelled foods?
2) What do you think are the disadvantages of eating diabetic labelled foods? S
3) Do other people influence how much you eat/ate diabetic labelled foods?
Who?
How do they have an influence?
4) How easy or difficult is it for you to eat diabetic labelled foods? Why?
5)What are the circumstances or factors that stop you eating more diabetic labelled foods?




If you DO NOT eat diabetic labelled foods, I would be interested in hearing what your reasoning is behind this. If you don't eat them because you can't for any reason (price, availability, etc) but would like to, then I'd be interested to hear what is preventing you.

Have you ever/do you feel that you should be buying and eating diabetic labelled foods over their equivalents if available?


The above are just some things I would be interested to hear about but you don't need to answer all of them. Please add your general thoughts/feelings also or any important questions which you feel are important that I've missed out.

If you've read this far, thank-you so much! I look forward to hearing from you. I know I've asked a lot of questions, but feel free just to answer whichever ones you want to or to give your thoughts even if its not relevant to any of the questions above.

 

[Lamont D]

Anything that is labelled 'diabetic' in food. Will definitely not help in his treatment of his food requirements. Far too much sugar and too many carbs. It is the manufacturers gimmick.
It is mostly processed, with the sugar taken out and replaced with different sugars.
Sugar is the curse of diabetics, carbohydrates feed the curse!

Even doctors and nurses in the health industry always tell new diabetics to not eat them!

 

[Bluetit1802]

In the UK we are all advised, by the NHS staff, not to eat diabetic food, so most of us avoid it like the plague. It is expensive for one thing, and although the sugar may be taken out, this is replaced by artificial processed sweeteners some of which may harm our health in the long term. They are also likely to be full of carbohydrate, which is as bad as sugar for diabetics.

 

[teacher123]

It was almost the first thing my diabetic nurse told me, "Make sure you don't buy diabetic foods and they might give you the runs..."

 

[Pipp]

In addition to the previous comments, I would add that I would not eat foods labelled as 'diabetic food'. They are generally processed foods. Freshly prepared is best for me, using fresh ingredients, few carbs.
I have had 'diabetic' chocolates bought for me as a gift from a well meaning acquaintance who believed they would help by lowering blood glucose. What these chocolates do is cause diarrhoea because they contain sorbitol. I didn't eat them.

 

[mrspuddleduck]

As above. Advised by the NHS not to use diabetic foods but would never have bought them anyway. Apart from the overuse of sweeteners that may/may not affect short and long term health, they are exploitatively expensive and generally taste like c***!!!! Sue x

 

[Celeriac]

Never been advised either way by HCPs but being a foodie I wouldn't touch the stuff.

I have eaten only organic or wild food for 3.5 years now, don't eat anything with additives other than sausages or bacon. I don't eat sugar or artificial sweeteners, rarely eat even two squares of Lindt Excellence 90% cocoa dark chocolate - it's too sweet now !

Price doesn't come into it for me, fortunately.

 

[Robbity]

When I was first diagnosed, I was also advised by the nurse not to buy anything labelled as diabetic food. Diet-wise, this was the only good and accurate advice I had from her. As far as I'm concerned I lump such food in with all the other expensive "special diet" cons. If, as a diabetic, you're aware of what foods might affect you and why, then there's absolutely no need to buy anything other than good healthy normal food. I'd much sooner make my own informed choices.

If the medical profession can't get their dietary advice to diabetics correct, then there's even less reason to even consider that the food industry can either. And I really resent them trying to take advantage of my diabetes by trying to fob me off with this sort of expensive rubbish.

Robbity

 

[Natalie1974]

When I was first diagnosed, I was also advised by the nurse not to buy anything labelled as diabetic food. Diet-wise, this was the only good and accurate advice I had from her. As far as I'm concerned I lump such food in with all the other expensive "special diet" cons. If, as a diabetic, you're aware of what foods might affect you and why, then there's absolutely no need to buy anything other than good healthy normal food. I'd much sooner make my own informed choices.

If the medical profession can't get their dietary advice to diabetics correct, then there's even less reason to even consider that the food industry can either. And I really resent them trying to take advantage of my diabetes by trying to fob me off with this sort of expensive rubbish.

Robbity

Couldn't have said it better myself.
So called Diabetic foods not only taste bad but usually cause some form of tummy upset...I leave them well alone.

 

[dancer]

As a chocoholic, I bought diabetic chocolate when first diagnosed. As my diagnosis was only weeks before Christmas, my mother bought diabetic jelly for me to have while the rest of the family had our traditional trifle. She also bought sorbitol so that she could make me a diabetic Christmas cake (we found the recipe in Balance, Diabetes UK's magazine - or paper, as it was in those days).

I knew that I had to limit how much sorbitol I should have or I'd get the runs, but it was Christmas. I had some jelly, a small slice of cake and a couple of diabetic chocolates I'd received in a present. That evening I had a touch of the runs (but not bad). The worst thing was the awful pains in my stomach and the very antisocial wind!

I did without jelly until decades later they started making the present sugar free ones (no sorbitol, manitol, etc) and told my mother I was fine without Christmas cake.

For years now, if anyone gives me a gift of Thornton's diabetic chocolates, I take them to the nearest Thornton's and exchange them for normal chocolates - then everyone can share them.

I avoid sorbitol as much as possible now. I even stopped taking calcium and vitamin D tablets prescribed by my GP because even the one per day dose upset my stomach. When I looked at the ingredients I saw sorbitol. I asked the pharmacist if there were any equivalents that didn't contain sorbitol but there weren't.

 

[photognut]

I actually had a conversation with Waitrose store manager the other week - My main question, when are you going to stop exchanging one form of **** for another on the free from section? He couldn't come up with an answer, but a member of his staff burst out laughing.......
Why do you want to eat chemicals? there are far more tasty things to be made from real wholesome food.

 

[sally and james]

We would never even consider eating "diabetic food", we eat real, natural, fresh food, all home made. We don't even have sugar or flour replacements e.g. stevia or almond flour, having preferred to give up cakes/biscuits/sweet things in all their forms.
Sally

 

[tim2000s]

I don't know anyone who buys diabetic foods. As others have said, they leave you feeling uncomfortable, are full of crud, and you're better of eating real stuff in moderation.

 

[Celeriac]

There's an old-fashioned sweet shop in the quaint cobbled town of Rye, in East Sussex, which also sells sugar-free versions of sweets. The label didn't say anything about a laxative effect, so I munched the pear drops my mother had bought me and you can guess the rest.

IMO the reason manufacturers are so keen to make free from products is because they believe that it opens up new markets for them. If diabetes was called carbohydrate intolerance, people with diabetes would get sympathy. But because people have the idea that we all have diabetes because of gluttony and sloth, they fat shame.

I am no longer fat, but even if diabetic products were all low carb and organic, as long as they are labelled diabetic I would never buy them. Why out myself to other customers and staff ? Why give supermarkets information about my health which they don't need ?

Diabetic products are like diabetic cookbooks. Too much emphasis on the sweet stuff which some people with diabetes like and want to eat instead of eating more healthily.

 

[Pipp]

I feel I need to ask @QR93 , do these responses make you think of changing the focus of your research question?

 

[tim2000s]

As an adjunct, I believe that boots have been phasing out their diabetic foods.

 

[Mrs Vimes]

My partner in a slightly tipsy state ordered me a diabetic meal on a long haul flight. It was carb after carb. Breakfast was a bread roll, low fat margerine, orange juice, hash brown, baked beans can't remember what protein. I asked to swop for the bacon, egg and mushrooms that everyone else got.
Diabetic foods? No chance.
Unprocessed food is what everyone should be eating.

 

[philchap1]

About 10 years ago my wife bought me a diabetic Christmas cake from a well known high street chemists, I had a small piece and a couple of hours later developed terrible wind and stomach pains which lasted all night, we returned the cake and they said they would investigate, so time later I received a letter explaining that too much artificial sweetener had been used, it was a very uncomfortable few hours.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

If such a thing as diabetic food exists perhaps I could ask the OP whose diet it follows. Is it the Eatwell Plate, LCHF, just LC or ...what. Or is it some food prepared by a nanny with diabetic written on it.

I ask because I once saw a news report in which an egg salesman was suffering from reduced sales until he wrote "free range" on the boxes. This helped the sales.

Does diabetic food just have Diabetic written on the box?

 

[Squire Fulwood]

I think OP has gone away.