Very Confused About Sweeteners!

Mamamoose

Member
Messages
19
Hi there! I have been a type 2 diabetic for almost 6 years and in denial. However, since my recent retina screening showed minor changes I have to get a grip! I tried low carbing last year for about 6 weeks and it really worked in bringing down my BG, but I slipped back into eating poorly.

I was looking at dessert/cake/cookie recipes and noticed that they all use some form of granulated sweetener. I like Sukrin and have been liberally sprinkling this over my strawberries (yes I know I shouldnt eat the fruit but I have a very limited palette of things I like to eat, and its miserable enough doing low carb without giving up ALL fruit). Anyhow, I just realised that there are 100g of carbs in 100g of Sukrin, which is the same as in sugar and is used in a 1:1 ratio, so what is the advantage in giving up sugar, or in using sweetener instead?

Turns out my 'sugar free, fat free, flour free' cookies have about 20 carbs each if I count the 150g in the recipe. I wasnt looking to regularly cook cakes etc but just now and again as a treat. Thanks for any advice.
Caryn
 

DJC3

Master
Messages
10,347
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi @Mamamoose I also fell into this trap, and now have a big bag of xylitol I’ll never use!
Erythritol is a good substitute - calorie and carb free and can be used in baking too. (I get it frim Amazon as Ive never seen it in my local supermarkets).
It can have a ‘cold’ sort of taste, like you get from sugar free gum. But if you use it in baking you can use weight for weight instead of sugar and add a few drops of stevia to bring up the sweetness.
I also use it in chocolate chia pudding and iced tea ( lovely in our current heatwave!)
 
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DJC3

Master
Messages
10,347
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I am newly diagnosed and am using sweeter instead of sugar in my cup if tea, is this the right wah to go?

Some sweeteners are better than others. I went ‘cold turkey’ with tea and stopped having sugar or sweetener completely. I hated it for the first few months but I eventually got used to it and couldn’t actually drink sweet tea now.
I think it helped me to try to retrain my tastebuds away from sweet things in general.
 
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bulkbiker

BANNED
Messages
19,576
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Much like @DJC3 above I decided that "sweet" was something I could do without so haven;t really used sweeteners at all. I always prefer savoury anyway so found it was quite easy to dump "sweet". I think having sweet things could well contribute to triggering all sorts of addiction thoughts so would try my best to avoid them in all situations including sweeteners. Why make life more difficult than it is already.
 
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