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Tesco staff advice on biscuits?!?

J

JKPilsworth

Member
Messages
6
Overheard two Tesco employees advising a couple of ladies who were trying to put together a hamper for a friend with diabetes. The ladies were trying to decide whether to include a packet of low fat Digestive Biscuits or ordinary Digestive Biscuits.

"Oh no!" came the reply. "Diabetics must only eat sugar free biscuits, nothing else. It must be sugar free. They can eat those without a problem."

On the plus side, the Duty Manager, who has parents with diabetes, was suitably horrified that his staff were giving advice without being qualified to do so. He said that he would ensure that a note was put in the weekly training bulletin to remind staff that they do not have the training to give this sort of advice.

Sometimes it can be difficult enough to navigate the dietary minefield, particularly at this time of year when a well meaning friend is buying a gift.
 
Hi
Well done to the manager, a lot of the diet biscuits have hidden sugars, so he is right they have no medical training unless they have diabetes themselves. A couple of digestives are ok, i use them if i have a hypo sometimes.
Take care
Tracey
 
1. These women are simply expressing the same level of ignorance as almost anyone else that pushes "diabetic products". Diabetic usually means "reduced sugar" rather than "reduced carbs". This is a point that even the NHS don't seem to understand.

2. Anyone who takes dietry advice from a supermarket assistant probably deserves whatever they get. These people are paid to put boxes on shelves, or at the most scan barcodes. I'm sure that many of them are very skillful people, but I doubt any are experts in nutrition.

I love the idea of an xmas diabetic hamper though. It's almost worth a new thread. WhitbyJet wouldn't be allowed to play though...
 

WOT?! I thought these staff were as knowledgeable as the ones in B&Q!
 
I don't think it's fair to belittle people who work in Tesco's or any other business for that matter, they do a good job and earn an honest crust whatever their position or responsibilities are.

Back to the OP.......yes it was good that the Manager stepped-in and corrected his staff on advising suitable products for these ladies and hopefully lessons will be learnt here-on!
 
WJ,

I just meant that there would be no room for anyone elses choices in the hamper, cos you'd have packed it full of all your delicious low-carb cooking treats. (I'm a huge fan of your recipes - one day I'll actually get around to cooking one of them!).

My contribution would be tw sugar free jellies and a protein shake. Yuck.

Stephen
 
My other half is a manager at Tesco's and was recently given praise for giving advice to a woman whose friend was having a hypo.

So not all Tesco's staff are rubbish
 
Start off a hamper with decent bottle of Scotch and a good bottle of wine. Then add the rest
 
josie38 said:
Add more wine and scotch :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Forget the scotch the wine will do nicely! :thumbup:
 
Diabetic hamper. All you really need to do, as far as I am concerned, is just put a booklet in that gives the exact Carb content of everything in the hamper in the portions it is in so that I don't have to go and weigh it all and do the maths myself.
 
While all of this about Tesco staff is very interesting, the point I cannot believe is how hard it is to find Sugar Free Products in the Supermarkets. In Spain even the smallest local mini-mart seems to have one or two packs and the Larger Supermarkets have a whole shelf or area given over to these products.
In England it seems there is a very small, high priced selection at Boots and Thorntons and that is about it.
I contacted United Biscuits a while back and asked them about availability of Sugar Free products, to be told they currently do not make any and have no plans to do this. Considering the almost epedemic proportions of growth of Diabetes they would seem to be missing out on a very lucrative market.
Perhaps if we all e-mailed them they might see this.
 
Diabetes Bear, I agree. If you want Gluten-free, there's loads on the shelves, but hardly anything for diabetics on low-carbs. I think maybe because they don't know what we want.
 
There are two problems with 'sugar free' products for people with diabetes..
1) what the sugar is replaced with, some of the sugar alcohols used can have a laxative effect, others can have an effect on your glucose levels, some do both.
2) Biscuits etc are largely made with flour, this is a carbohydrate and will have an effect on your glucose levels. Some sugar free products are higher in carbohydrates than normal versions.

Here's the ingredient and nutrition label for the first sugar-free biscuits I found online:
Ela Diabetic biscuits sold by Amazon. These ones have fructose as their sweetener, this may not have a direct effect on your glucose as it is processed by the liver. There are many who feel this is not a good thing. The major ingredient though is flour.

Ingredients: wheat flour, margarine (vegetable oil, vegetable fat, water, salt, flavour - butter), fructose 12%, whole and skimmed milk powder, maize starch, egg yolk powder 2%, soya flour, raising agents (sodium and ammonium hydrogen carbonate), modified starch (E1422), flavour (citron, ethylvanilline).
Nutrition values per 100g:
energy 2075kJ/495 kcal , 6 g protein,
66 g carbohydrates (of which sugars 14 g - lactose 2 g, fructose 12 g),
23 g fat ( of which saturated fatty acids 13 g) ,
fiber 3 g,
Here is the nutritional breakdown for bourbon biscuits, (not the same biscuit but the first I found and I haven't time to search for an ingredients list)
Calories 482
Protein 5
Carbohydrate 66
Fat 22
Fibre 3.4
Most biscuits have between 65 and 70 carbs per 100g.
 
I know that's right Phoenix, but what we need is a range of new sugar free or low carb stuff. Biscuits made from almond flour or something, the sort of thing Whitby jet would make but we're not all very good at! I have made biscuits using a mix of carbalose flour, soya flour and using canderel golden powder for sweetener. Zero affect on BG or the bowels, so it can be done.
 
AndyS said:
Diabetic hamper. All you really need to do, as far as I am concerned, is just put a booklet in that gives the exact Carb content of everything in the hamper in the portions it is in so that I don't have to go and weigh it all and do the maths myself.
Click to expand...



That would indeed be helpful but who on earth would want to buy a diabetic hamper? :?

You could never make one suitable to everyone's tastes or preference, just going from the eating habits on this forum we have a diverse range of like's and dislikes so making one attractive and profitable would almost be an impossible task!

My mother use to pay weekly towards a hamper for Christmas when we were kids, guaranteed the same items were left over each year and ended up in the dustbin :lol:
 
Grazer,
Personally , (and I realise other people think differently) I hate the idea of things like carbolose flour , it's one of those things I consider to be made in a laboratory rather than a natural ingredient. Ingredients: enzyme enriched wheat, vital wheat gluten, wheat fiber, high-protein patent wheat flour, vegetable fiber, canola oil, salt, dextrose, emulsifiers, enzymes, ascorbic acid, sucralose, calcium propionate), palm and palm-kernel oil, buttermilk powder, baking powder, egg white powder, lecithin, salt, natural flavors.

Using ground almonds or hazelnuts is an entirely different proposition, they are natural products.
I'm ambivalent about artificial sweetners, I do use them occasionally, I don't like them though.
Like you, I eat about 150 -180g carbs a day. I would rather eat a little of a real thing (and not every day) than a lot of what I think of as ersartz foods. Tonight, after my dinner I will have 1 French style chocolate macaron* with a few berries and a spoonful of half fat creme fraiche (hard to get 'normal' cream here) The macaron has 4.9gcarbs, the berries maybe another 1g.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaron
 
and for goodness sake dont do what I did on finding some sugar free sweets

I ate about 6 or seven some months ago, and not only did bg readings go high i was on the loo all night with a runny tummy from the sorbitol sweetner... :shock:
 
WhitbyJet said:
Start off a hamper with decent bottle of Scotch and a good bottle of wine. Then add the rest
Click to expand...
A big big ok on the whiskey just love it :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :clap: :clap:
Kev xx
 
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