How Much Sweets Can People With Diabetes Eat

When it comes to sweets, the patience of a diabetic person is put to test. If you suffer from high glucose level and love feasting on sweets, then you might share a bittersweet relationship with sugar. It brings us to the main question that arises in the mind of every diabetic person; “Can I eat sugar while having diabetes?”. The answer is yes, but you need to monitor your sugar source, type and quantity, as they need to be consumed in moderation. Once in a while having sweets won’t do any harm but if consumed in access, they can cause a sharp spike in your sugar level.

A Few Words From The Expert

In order to understand the matter better from a professional point of view, HZ spoke to Deepti Sherawat, a Noida-based Nutritionist and Lifestyle Expert.

According to her, “It’s not that the diabetics cannot have any sweets at all. Key lies in being able to differentiate between the good and the bad “sweet”. In Type 2 diabetes, the cells in your body are unable to receive the glucose present in the blood. This mainly happens due to our sedentary lifestyle where energy expenditure by the body is so less that there is no demand of energy at the cellular level. As a result, the glucose which came into the blood from the food we digested, keeps roaming around in the blood itself since cells do not open their doors to receive it. In medical terms this is referred to as “high blood sugar level” or diabetes.”

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Further adding to her statement, Deepti said, “Foods with a high glycemic index, which basically means food that can spike the blood sugar levels very quickly, should most definitely be avoided by diabetics. High glycemic index foods include white sugar, brown sugar, honey and dates to name a few. However, there is a catch to this. When high glycemic index foods are had in moderation and that too mixed with sources of proteins and fibre, they ensure that the speed at which that source of carbohydrate releases glucose into the blood, comes down. This in turn keeps a check on the blood sugar level and prevents it from spiking immediately, post consumption.”

The Best Way To Have Sugar

According to Deepti, it is better to eat sugar mixed with some other base to prevent a sudden spike in glucose levels. The below example will help in better illustration.

If a diabetic has a teaspoon of jaggery, honey or chocolate by itself, that may cause a spike in the blood sugar levels. However, if ½ tsp. jaggery/honey is mixed with besan, ghee, chopped nuts and cinnamon powder, basically given a shape of besan laddoo, this will not spike the blood sugar levels. It will in turn ensure slow release of glucose into the bloodstream since the besan laddoo includes fibre, protein and good fats as well with moderate amounts of carbohydrate (jaggery).

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Different Forms Of Sugar

Some fruits too contain relatively high glucose content, such as mango, chikoo, grapes and banana. If had by itself they may spike the patient’s blood glucose levels. Deepti recommends eating such fruits by combining them with some nuts and seeds. Such a combination will immediately bring down the speed at which the glucose from the fruit will be released into the bloodstream.

Conventional Indian sweets such as gulab jamun, rasgulla and ras malai also contain a lot of concentrated sugar in refined form. The nutritionist recommends diabetics to have 1-2 small bites of such delicacies, if they wish to consume such sweets. Having them right after a meal will prevent your blood sugar from suddenly spiking.

A diabetic person should also avoid western desserts like cakes and pastries as they are made of refined flour (maida). The glycemic index of maida is quite high, which when paired with sugar can be damaging for your diabetes.

According to Deepti, “One must go for homemade besan, sattu or coconut laddoos, whole wheat or millet cakes and add an unrefined natural sweetener such as date syrup, jaggery powder, palm sugar, dried fig, raisins or raw honey to it in moderation. Addition of cinnamon powder and fenugreek powder to such sweets also helps control spike in blood sugar levels.”

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