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It’s Halloween in three days. For many people, Halloween marks the beginning of chocolate season - where the nights are dark and everybody brings sweets and treats into work!
For that reason, blood glucose management is particularly important at this time of year! Take extra care, then, that your diabetes remains a priority, and don’t let any diabetes-related problems creep up on you this Halloween.
We’ve put together a guide to dealing with this ghoulishly sugary time of year.
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That said, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to enjoy yourself. Eaten in moderation, sweets don’t necessarily make it difficult to manage blood sugar levels. Like any other lifestyle change, trying to completely cut sweets out of your life isn’t likely to work.
The key word is moderation. There are a number of low sugar treats available, which often use sweetener. It’s worth checking which sweetener is used within the sweets as sugar alcohols (such as sorbitol, maltitol, erythritol and xylitol) can have laxative effects if taken in too high quantities.
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Around Halloween, many people are going to be concerned about their general level of blood glucose control.
HbA1c is a great way of gauging your overall control, because it judges your blood sugar levels over the last three months. It’s also known as the hemoglobin A1c test, or just the A1c test.
The test works by observing the extent to which your hemoglobins have become glycated.
If that last sentence has left you pondering, it’s a good excuse to check out our guide to HbA1c.
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If you prefer to avoid most sweets altogether because of their sugar content, there are a number of low-sugar alternatives. In fact, members of the Diabetes Forum have been debating that very question.
Diabetes Forum member Ruth B suggested that people make their own:
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