Is there a list of safe ingredients?

[Fudgeheaven]

I make sweets for a living and am repeatedly asked for a diabetic friendly version.
I've created a version that I think is safe but I need definitive answers before I unleash it on the world.
Can anyone help please?

 

[cugila]

Hi fudgeheaven.
Welcome to the forum.

Perhaps if we knew what ingredients you were using that might be more of a help ? Without giving away any trade secrets of course. Has any body tested the effects of your product on a Diabetic ?

Many so called Diabetic friendly treats are nothing of the sort. Either having a nasty effect on Bg levels or sending them to the loo if more than a few are eaten ?

 

[Fudgeheaven]

Hi Cugila.
Thanks for the welcome.
No diabetics have tried it yet.
As I don't suffer, my knowledge is extremely limited.
I was hoping that someone had created a "safe" list online that I could use.
What is BG?

 

[phoenix]

You might be interested in this statement by Diabetes UK
http://new.diabetes.org.uk/About_us...om-the-Food-Standards-Agency-and-Diabetes-UK/

The problem I would have thought with fudge is that it normally contains a lot of sugar which would send blood glucose (bg) levels sky high, coupled with milk and butter, ie high levels of fat, usually not recommended to people with diabetes . You could probably get round the fat problem in several ways ( skimmed milk and gelatin?) but many artificial sweetners are extremely laxative in any quantity. Sucralose (splenda) seems to be much better in this respect.
Hotel chocolat does have a very good sales pitch by pointing out the DUK position to its customers and proposing the very darkest (high cocoa content) chocolates containing the least amounts of sugar...but I'm not sure how feasible that is with fudge!

 

[cugila]

Hi FH.

Bg is blood glucose levels. I am afraid we are fencing here.... There is no such thing as a safe list, that's why we need to know the ingredients you are using. Everything is obviously approved for food use, so we have to take it as read as being safe. However, it is the effect that would concern most of us ?

Does your product contain anything that ends in ..ose or ...ole as theses are sugars/sugar alcohols, or polyols etc ? Not suitable for Diabetics.

 

[Fudgeheaven]

Hi Phoenix.
The texture of the sweet that I've made is a bit like cake.
I replaced the sugar in my original recipe with Candarel.
This is about 5% of the overall ingredients.Would this have a laxative effect?
I think that the only questionable ingredient in my recipe is butter (20%).

 

[Fudgeheaven]

Hi again.
Obviously I don't want to list all the ingredients here as I'd hate to have hit upon the perfect recipe and give it all away on a public forum.
Does anyone know of any food scientists that I can contact that specialize in diabetic diets?

 

[cugila]

Hi.

I understand your reticence. Understandable.

However, can you tell us what the nutrtitional information of the product is ? Cal/carbs/fat/protein/fibre/sodium etc.

 

[Fudgeheaven]

...can you tell us what the nutrtitional information of the product is ? Cal/carbs/fat/protein/fibre/sodium etc.

Nope, no idea! :lol:
I wasn't a chef by trade - I just happen to be good at this sort of thing, but have no formal training.
The only thing ending in -ol is the alcohol that the vanilla extract is suspended in.
I can get round that one easy enough though.
I've left a message with the food science dept at Birmingham Uni so hopefully someone there will get back to me.
Please carry on with your comments though as they all help me to learn more.

 

[dipsticky]

Hi again.
Does anyone know of any food scientists that I can contact that specialize in diabetic diets?

Fudgie. Nearly all the diabetic friendly foods I have seen are all massively high in carbs, which turns into to glucose when they are eaten and are nothing like diabetic friendly. I was given a slice or two of this sort of cake recently by a well meaning friend, pushed my blood level up to 12 within the hour, nearly 14 at 2 hrs. Rest of cake went in the bin. :shock:

D.

 

[pavlosn]

Dear Fudgeheaven

I sometimes use and online site (http://www.fitday.com) to record the foods I eat during the day and this will then analyse it into carbs, protein, fats etc and also give me a total for calories taken.

Although the site is aimed at people wishing to lose weight, you could use it to enter the raw ingredients you plan use and get a rough and ready idea of the nutritional content of your receipe.

You will need to create an account, which is free. Your account will also be password protected, so you have some measure of privacy.

Regards

Pavlos

 

[Fudgeheaven]

Soooo, carbs are bad?!?!
Bang goes this recipe then.
It was actually a diabetic guy that suggested that I try making my stuff using the "secret" ingredient too.
Best enlighten the poor ****** before he does himself some harm then!

 

[Fudgeheaven]

Thanks Pavlos.

 

[jopar]

There really isn't a 'diabetic' special foods... There are foods that are best avoid most of the time, which in the main is high sugar content but each diabetic will find that they have to tailor there diet to meet there persona; needs...

I'm assuming that you are replacing sugar with an artifical type sweetner, or something like fractose the main problems as such would be if the artifical sugar deteriated in any way when it is heated to high tempretures!! You can ask the manufacuter if the is a problem when using there product when cooking...

Fractose is classed as a nutral sweetner, that doesn't hit the bloood glucose as normal sugar...

But you will need work out the carb content per piece of fudge or at least 100g of your fudge, so that if an diabetic choose it as a treat item, they would know what they tackling, as I would need to know the carb count, so that I could adjust my dose of insulin for it

 

[Fudgeheaven]

I'm not making a fudge, I should have made that clear at the beginning.
Don't really know what it is I'm making to be honest.
It tastes lovely and the texture is like a heavy & moist chocolate cake.
I needed to bulk out the sweet to give it volume.
I substituted the sugar with Candarel and dried potato flakes.
As someone said earlier though, taters = carbs.

OK, here's the ingredients (in no particular order):

Potato flakes
Cocoa powder
Butter
Candarel
Water
vanilla extract

So, which of the ingredients are no good for a diabetic?
Do you know of any substitutes?

 

[cugila]

Potato Flakes.........24g carbs in a dry serving of 30g weight.
Cocoa Powder.........58g carbs in 100g of powder.

It all depends on the quantity of the ingredients you are proposing to use. some may be able to tolerate the amount of carbs, I'm not sure I could ?

I'm willing to give it a go... all in the name of research. :lol:

 

[dipsticky]

Hey Man. I can be a tester too. that's cool !

D.