Diabetes Everyday

Living your best life with diabetes. Toby Smithson provides professional guidance with personal experience.

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Diabetes and Nutrition

Can I Get Diabetes From Too Much Sugar?

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Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

That sounds like a simple enough question, right? First, eating sugar does not cause diabetes. That can be confusing because diabetes is too much sugar in our blood. But all carbohydrates break down into sugars, even nonsweet foods like potatoes and beans – during digestion, and the amount of that sugar that is glucose is absorbed directly into our blood. So, we have to manage the carbohydrates in our diet in order to manage blood sugar levels.

One risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes, however, is excess body weight. And if we consider the most common foods in what has come to be called the “Western Diet” it’s a safe bet to say that sugar plays a significant role for many people in accumulating that excess body weight. There is suspicion that a different sugar – fructose- plays an outsized role in “metabolic syndrome” and type 2 diabetes as well.

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Diabetes and Carbohydrates – What You Need To Know About Sweets

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Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Ever notice how everyone without diabetes is anxious for you to give up sweets? No more sharing birthday cake, drop that cookie, donut holes are evil! So, if you’re not willing to swear off sweets forever, you’d better watch as I tell you exactly what you need to know about sweets.

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Diabetes and Carbohydrates – What You Need To Know About Dairy

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Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

The group of carbohydrate foods from dairy products was called the “milk and yogurt” group in the diabetes exchange lists because other carbohydrate-containing dairy products were listed elsewhere or not at all. This is an interesting group for several reasons, not least of which is that maybe 70% of the world’s adult population cannot efficiently digest “milk sugar” (lactose). Join me as we discuss what you need to know about dairy, carbohydrates and how they can affect diabetes.

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Is Coconut Sugar Helpful for Diabetes?

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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

It seems coconut everything is popular these days, including this sweetener made from the sap of the coconut palm’s flower bud stem. It’s hyped as containing nutrients and fiber absent in table sugar. So, what’s the real story?

Anything and everything coconut continue to flood the grocery store shelves so I thought this would be a great topic to cover in today’s video….Is coconut sugar helpful for diabetes?

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Overnight Oats Recipe That Won’t Spike Your Blood Sugar

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Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Oats are a great way to start the day – healthy food that keeps you feeling full (remember the “sticks to your ribs” ad?). But the carbs in this healthy food can send blood sugar levels higher, and that can make for a disappointing morning. This overnight oats recipe has proven in my experiments (on myself) to keep blood glucose steady, and if that’s not enough – it’s chocolate.

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Table of contents

Finally… A Diabetes-Friendly Overnight Oats Recipe

I bet you have experienced looking for a recipe at one time or another but not really finding a certain recipe that is diabetes-friendly. Well, that happened to me when I was searching for a diabetes-friendly overnight oats recipe. I even checked diabetes-specific websites like the American Diabetes Association, but I still didn’t find a recipe that fit my preferences.

Just a note here to some of you who reached out for plant-based and/or foods that you can prepare ahead of time…This overnight oats recipe fits both of those “asks.”

Oh, and for those of you who are chocolate fans, like me, I developed this recipe so it would have a chocolatey taste AND most important for all of us who manage our diabetes. I’ve checked this recipe out against my Dexcom continuous glucose monitor and this recipe keeps my blood sugar steady. Yes, I’m eating oats, but not spiking my blood sugar.

Be Sure To Check Out – Diabetes Question- Can I Eat Oatmeal? and 3 Tricky Foods That Spike Blood Sugar

The Recipe

The Ingredients (which are easy to keep as staples in your kitchen) are:

  • 1 cup steel-cut oats (as an extra tip here, check the nutrition facts panel for the number of carbs and fiber per serving, as they vary. I found a 4-5 gram difference when I put some labels side by side at the grocery store)
  • 2 teaspoon cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons stevia naturals
  • 1 packet vanilla protein powder (I chose a protein powder that had 25 grams of protein with only 2 grams of carb per packet)
  • 1 ½ cup vanilla plant-based milk (I used Ripple non-dairy milk because it contains 8 grams of protein and less than 1 gram of carb per 1 cup serving)

The Instructions

1 – Place all of the dry ingredients into a large enough bowl to hold 4 servings. And stir.

2 – Pour the plant-based milk over the dry ingredients and stir again.

3 – Cover the bowl and place it in your refrigerator overnight. 

The overnight oats will be ready to place in your cereal bowl the next morning.

Our Servings Breakdown

This recipe makes 4 servings, and each serving is:

29 grams of carbohydrate; 4 grams of fiber; 14 grams of protein; 4 grams fat; 211 calories.

I love this recipe because it has a chocolate flavor and has a cold and chewy mouthfeel that is different than my cooked oatmeal.

Let me know your favorite breakfasts in the comments below.

Until next time, cheers to your health.

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