Type 1: Sugar free sweets

[Hannah325]

Hi all what are the best sweets to have if you have type 1 diabetes please help me

 

[himtoo]

Hi @Hannah325
welcome to the forum

do you mean sweets to treat a hypo -- or do you mean sweets to have that do not raise BG's ??

 

[catapillar]

What sort of sweets do you like? How often would you eat the pre diagnosis - like a daily treat or a weekly one? Or, are you looking for sweets to treat hypos?

What is your insulin regime?

 

[CapnGrumpy]

The post title is 'sugar free sweets', so OP is not looking for hypo treatments.

Personally, I found out the hard way that most of them use sorbitol or other things ending -itol, and that the tiny warnings printed on the package that "excessive consumption may cause laxative effects" was a gross understatement. I would avoid them, if I were you.

What I did find was that after a while of not having sugar in tea, and not eating/drinking sweet things in general is that my taste changed and if I fancy something to nibble on, I'm more likely to eat cheese or 85% cocoa chocolate.

 

[catapillar]

The post title is 'sugar free sweets', so OP is not looking for hypo treatments.

Diabetic sense definitely agrees with you. But I have seen quite a few stories of people eating sweets as hypo treatments and being told by a helpful non diabetic applying the common sense assumption "diabetics aren't allowed to eat sweets" that they shouldn't be eating that. OP is newly diagnosed and her only other post complained of not being given any info by the medics, so I just thought it was worth checking the purpose of the sweets.

Your post made me think of the Amazon reviews for sugar free sweets that are worth a read ...

 

[CapnGrumpy]

OP is newly diagnosed

Fair point, and well made (as usual). Perhaps I should have put 'hopefully' not looking for hypo treatments.

It did happen to me once, a long time ago when I was first diagnosed, that I hypoed at work and my employer didn't want to give me anything sweet because diabetics shouldn't eat sweet things and I was dumb enough at the time not to carry anything with me.

 

[mist]

I heard that those sugar free sweets are worse for you than regular old sweets. I just inject some insulin, pop and M&M in my mouth and lay back and think of England..

 

[Sean01]

You may possibly find that substitutes won't help as they will make you miss the real thing. Back in the 80's there was a alcohol free lager (Barbican). It didn't work. There was also Eisberg - alcohol free white wine - waste of time. Sugar free sweets will just make you want normal sweets. I'm Type 2 - I eat 90% dark chocolate. Turns out the cocoa isn't the problem but the milk in milk chocolate is the problem. 90% chocolate is very bitter - it's an acquired taste but the 75% stuff is nice and you can work your way up (Lindt0. Not cheap, but you are not using it as a meal replacement substitute, just as a treat. Hope this helps.

 

[azure]

Hi all what are the best sweets to have if you have type 1 diabetes please help me

You can still eat normal sweets in small amounts, depending on your blood sugar and what you're doing eg if you're on a hike you can eat normal sweets to keep your blood sugar up.

The only sugar-free sweets I bother with are sugar free Polos or sugar free chewing gum as the rest just taste like something's missing and I'm not keen on too many artificial sweeteners.

 

[Robinredbreast]

You can still eat normal sweets in small amounts, depending on your blood sugar and what you're doing eg if you're on a hike you can eat normal sweets to keep your blood sugar up.

The only sugar-free sweets I bother with are sugar free Polos or sugar free chewing gum as the rest just taste like something's missing and I'm not keen on too many artificial sweeteners.

I like to have some sugar free mints, freshens the breath, but very rarely eat any sweets. I have seen sugar free sweets in smaller pharmacies, so maybe the OP could look there ?

 

[paulliljeros]

Hi @Hannah325 whilst everyone has valid points about what you shouldn't do, from experience, sometimes I just feel like eating things "as a treat". Many people are far better at abstinence than I ever will be, but after learning from all my previous mistakes, I have chosen to take the path of everything/anything in moderation.
I have purchased sugar free sweets from https://www.aquarterof.co.uk/sugar-free-boiled-sweets.html and have found most are quite nice, and some that are not so, but, so long as you are sensible, I don't see a major problem with them. Hope this helps, Paul

 

[noblehead]

Hi all what are the best sweets to have if you have type 1 diabetes please help me

I would exercise some caution when looking for and consuming any sugar-free type sweets as the sugar substitutes can have a laxative effect.

I'm not a big sweet eater, but as a type 1 if I fancied one I'd just have a normal sweet and either bolus for it as a snack or include the sweet in the meal-time bolus calculation.

 

[Phil.rip]

Dark high coco content chocolate (the higher the coco % the lower the sugar)

 

[Shar67]

Aldi do a nice dark chocolate, I melt it in microwave and stir in nuts or pieces of fruit, spoon into small muffin cases, so each hold about £2 coin size of chocolate, set in fridge, a chocolate coin a day keeps sweet tooth away. Asda have a new brand of sugar free chocolate, milk or dark but it has sucrose substitute in it, it's ok

 

[nickm]

+1 for 90%

 

[debbiedoodles]

I use the Aldi chocolate and double cream to make truffles. Recipes on www.diabeticgoodbaking

 

[ManUtdGal!]

I love the sugar free range in Marks and Spencer. Taste gorgeous!

 

[Duncan57]

Dark high coco content chocolate (the higher the coco % the lower the sugar)

Montezuma's dark chocolate absolute black 100% cocoa solids. No sugar at all not even artificial sweetener. 100 g bar has 8g carbs.
Sainsbury do it for £2.50 a bar.www.montezumas.co.uk.

 

[mojo_101]

I got used to not bothering, but i do keep something i like handy for treating lows, which works for me

 

[rockape37]

I steer clear of sugar free or so called diabetic sweets. Rather eat real chocolate and bolus for it.

Regards

Martin