AMOUNT OF SUGAR ALLOWED

[diabeticdawn]

I was diagnosed as diabetic type 2 at the end of April and I have not been to see a diabetic nurse, my thoughts would be that she would tell me what i can and can't eat - I think the government have been doing that for years :lol: . What i would like to know is if the general guidelines for sugar intake is 90g for an average person (according to walkers cheese and onion crisp packets) what is the general guidelines for diabetics - I have been taking it as half of the average persons allowance i.e 45g. Is this correct - does anyone know - or is just cutting down and exercising the right way to go?

 

[sugarless sue]

Hi Dawn,welcome to the forum.Simply put sugars come in two forms.simple sugars which put your blood sugar levels up quickly are the ones called sugars on labels.Complex sugars,in other words carbohydrates,put your blood sugar levels up more slowly but they still put them up!!It is best to avoid simple sugar altogether if possible.That means sweets ,biscuits ,anything with loads of sugar! Also anything end in 'ose' ie fructose,glucose,lactose,sucrose,these are all converted into sugar by the body. It is also wise to cut down the amount of carbohydrate you take to lower your blood sugar level.If you browse this forum you will find a lot of info about diet.Some of it confusing but most of it informative.You will find diabetics are obsessed with food!!Cutting down the carbohydrates and exercising are a good way to start bringing down your weight(if you need too)and your blood sugar levels.Keep asking questions,that's what we're here for.

 

[DiabeticGeek]

It is hard to say absolutely how much sugar (or anything else for that matter) you can safely eat, because everyone is different. The important thing is for you to learn how various foods effect you. I suggest that, if you haven't already done so, you get a blood glucose monitor and start experimenting to see what you can eat and what causes you problems.

If you look around the postings on this site, or read up on diabetes, you will rapidly see that there are different schools of thought when it comes to diet. However, one thing that they all agree on is that you really should eat as little overt sugar (i.e. sweets, cakes, biscuits etc.) as possible. As for the rest of your diet, the standard advice that most NHS doctors and nurses seem to give is to follow a low fat and low sugar diet (similar to the GI diet), eating complex carbohydrate with each meal (i.e. lots of cereals, brown rice and pasta). This helps some people, but many find that a low carbohydrate diet gives them better BG control. This sort of diet typically entails lots of meat, fish and green salads, and on this sort of diet you don't need to worry too much about fat but you should avoid starch and other complex carbohydrates as well as sugar.

This is all a bit confusing, but I come back to where I started, everyone is different. You need to measure your BG levels and work out which approach works best for you.