• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Hidden Sugars / Sugar Free Products

F

flash477948

Member
Messages
17
In my reading up on Diabetes and sources of sugar I was quite shocked to find out that in order for a product to be classed as sugar free there just had to be no normal sugar in it, but it can contain a whole raft of other sugars that can be just as bad for a diabetic.

This is a list of all of the sugars that I use as reference. Hopefully they will prove useful to others.

Carob
Corn syrup
Dextrin
Dextrose
Dulcitol
Fructose
Glucose
Honey
Lactose
Levulose
Maltodextrin
Maltose
Mannitol
Mannose
Molasses
Saccharose
Sorbitol
Sorghum
Treacle
Turbinado
Xylitol
Xylose


Apologies if this has been posted before, but after a search I couldn't find anything matching this exactly.
 
Yeah, it's the carbohydrate in the foods which are labelled sugar free which cause the blood sugar levels to rise and some people mistakenly believe that if a food is sugar free that it won't necessarily raise their blood sugar levels, which is not the case. I can remember way back in 1982, my dad would buy me diabetic chocolate ( I was aged 9 ) and giving it to me when I was still in the hospital (after my diagnosis) my blood sugars would burn a hole in the ceiling! Now we have insulin to carbohydrate ratios so, providing the ratio is correct it should not matter if a food has sugar in it or not as we can bolus or inject the right amount of insulin for the food we wish to eat and still have great control.
 
Was looking in the diabetic section in boots the other day, lots of food labelled sugar free, very misleading for people who don't understand. They has cabs in them! Should not be allowed to advertise as sugar free as we all know carbs =sugar.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
another downside of 'diabetic' foods is the laxative effect!!
 
As being new to being diagnosed, I'm still finding my feet....

I've been low carbing but last night I was just starving so I had what I thought was safe, was a bowl of Shredded Wheat Bite Size with skimmed mile and Canderel.

An hour or so later I tested and my levels had shot up from 6.8 to 13mmol!!

No more Shredded Wheat for me!
 

Missng from the list would be food labelling terms for amylose and amylopectin. Which as glucose polysaccharides are probably the worst forms of sugar from the diabetic POV.
These would include "starch", "modified starch", "flour", "cornflour", "corn starch", "maize starch", "modified maize starch", etc.
 
brett said:
Was looking in the diabetic section in boots the other day, lots of food labelled sugar free, very misleading for people who don't understand. They has cabs in them! Should not be allowed to advertise as sugar free as we all know carbs =sugar.
Click to expand...

One thing I have noticed recently are granulated stevia sweetners which use maltodextrins (glucose oligosaccharides).
 
manc603 said:
As being new to being diagnosed, I'm still finding my feet....

I've been low carbing but last night I was just starving so I had what I thought was safe, was a bowl of Shredded Wheat Bite Size with skimmed mile and Canderel.
Click to expand...

Unsweetened breakfast cereals tend to be some of the worst things for "hidden sugars". Total carbohydrates, which is what you need to be looking at on food labels, tend to be very high. Also the carbohydrates tend to be mostly amylose and amylopectin, which equate to 111.1% glucose.
In addition skimmed milk contains virtually no fat to lower GI and considerably more lactose (52.5% glucose) compared with whole milk. Another potential problem is that some granulated sweetners use glucose based "bulking agents".

An hour or so later I tested and my levels had shot up from 6.8 to 13mmol!!

No more Shredded Wheat for me!
Click to expand...

A reading of 6.8 is still quite high, so you probably shouldn't have been "starving". Did you previously eat a high-carb diet, especially a high glucose one, like the NHS recommends?
 

@flash477948

Thanks for the posting. I am refreshing this as it is important!

I've discovered the hidden sugars in "Sugar Free" Winter Myntz with Sorbitol ! No wonder my blood sugars are out of control I've been eating these constantly.. Watch out..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbitol

JM
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Lots of weasel words to watch out for!

"No added sugar" is something else to to catch the unwary as this doesn't necessarily mean it doesn' t have a naturally high sugar level.

And totally confusing are the foods that have indigestible sugar type gubbinses (high tech descrition!) in them, so e.g. 100g sugars/carbs per 100 grams weight, but which pass through to your guts without apparently affecting your glucose levels.

Nothing's as simple as it initally seems...

Robbity
 
Now if i can remember this, I can beat my husband over the head next time he decides to argue that a little cornflour is fine for me and because I refuse to touch it, that I don't know what I'm doing low carb wise...

Robbity
 

That doesn't work with me, I can't eat anything I like and high glucose/sugar products, affect me badly, my BS goes bonkers. Tried it yesterday with a Cadburys cream egg straight after dinner, 6.4 then, and my BS was 13.2 at night so I took my Levemir and 2 units of NovoRapid to bring it down and this morning it was 12.9, it is just horrendous and hits me big time
 

@Robinredbreast

Went to dinner last night and had PN during dinner. Wife let me walk home in the sunset. I did 4-5 sprint Tabatas too, ( it was a 45 minute walk). So I got home and had worked off the worst of the sugars..
 
Living-by-the-beach said:
@Robinredbreast

Went to dinner last night and had PN during dinner. Wife let me walk home in the sunset. I did 4-5 sprint Tabatas too, ( it was a 45 minute walk). So I got home and had worked off the worst of the sugars..
Click to expand...

Hi, I've seen other members write the same, It's mainly type 2's are you the same. Alas, my body doesn't cope well with very 'sweet' things even though I carb count, oh well, I do love my 9 bars though, so I will stick with them. Your evening sounded very nice, glad you enjoyed it.

Best wishes RRB
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…