sweetners

[rkeane]

Hi,
Just wondering if sweetners are as bad as people say they are? Like everybody else, sometimes I crave a can of Coke/Orange or a sweet coffee. Due to my diabetes I have to avoid these treats as much as possible. Lucky a can of coke zero/7 up free does the job and prevents me from drinking the actual can of coke. However a friend of mine has warned me that sweetners ar worse than the actual sugar themselves. This cannot be possible for diabetics, surely??? Does anyone have an answer?? Thanks

 

[Beav]

I do tend to drink alot of pepsi max which also has sweeteners. Where chocolate is concerned my nurse told me I may aswell have a small portion of real chocolate rather than have the diabetic chocolate I guess its not so bad being type 1 as you can just inject alittle more but as im into weight training I try to avoid this kind of food

 

[Mother Bear]

Splenda (sucralose) – granulated or liquid form, Saccharin, ********************** and Ace K are known to not effect the blood sugars.
Aspartame – Some people have Insulin Reactions (also there was a trial test done years ago where subjects ate bucket fulls of Aspartame and had very bad reactions but that was only one test done many years ago where a lot of people think that if they have a can of diet coke with a tiny bit of it they will be taking a chance with their health, but as far as my dietitian is concerned there is nothing to worry about as there are only very small amounts in diet products.)

Splenda Baking Mixes- mixed 50-50 with sugar (so if you are counting carbs just know that there is actual sugar added to the sweetner)

Polyols (Sugar Alcohol) like maltitol and sorbitol ( that you get in diabetic chocolate) are able to be converted in varying degrees to glucose – from better to worse. The reason that sugar alcohols provide fewer calories than sugar is because they are not completed absorbed in our body. For this reason, high intakes of foods containing some sugar alcohols can lead to abdominal gas and diarrhea. Any foods that contain sorbitol or mannitol must include a warning on their label that “excess consumption may have a laxative effect.”
Though in my experience for example if you were to only have a few sweets out of the packet and not down the whole lot you should be fine. I think that some of the sweets are good if you just want something sweet to suck on to kill any cravings.

 

[badmedisin]

Hi!
You don't have to abstain from having a sweet coffee, just as long as you inject for it. That's kind of the point of the basal/ bolus system. Since doing dafne and finding out all the stuff nobody had explained to me in the 22 years I've had type 1, I can now have evil stuff from Costa without everything going pear shaped (except for my figure if I don't watch out!)
personally I never have sweeteners. I hate the taste. I once had a sugar free hazelnut latte in starbucks and was astounded at how anything could be so revoltingly sweet and simultaneously so bitter it made my face go mental!
I think a lot of people prefer sugar as it is more natural- who knows what sweeteners are made of? But there are always rumours about sweeteners giving you cancer but ignore those. I mean, did anyone see the list of things the daily mail thinks cause cancer? The only thing not on that list is 'reading the daily mail' (and I'm not convinced!). But sweeteners can cause digestive problems and some of them affect your blood sugar. Also there's a theory that the taste of diet drinks causes your body to expect calories, then when it doesn't get them it holds on to more from whatever you eat next.
I think it's just a question of trying things to find out what works for you. The only thing I'm sure about is that diabetic chocolate is a scam! It still affects blood sugar and weight control, it'll probably upset your stomach, it's massively expensive, and above all it tastes repulsive. Never buy it, they don't deserve your money. Just have normal chocolate, match your insulin to it and don't have it every day