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.
Table of contents
Our Surprise Dessert
We have made a grievous error in my series of videos on the different groups of carbohydrate foods, and it’s really a sort of funny one. In our video on Beans, Peas, and Lentils I said “stay tuned next for THE LAST VIDEO of this series…. Fruit.” Then in the fruit video, I said “this is my last video on the different groups of carbohydrate foods.” Those statements were incorrect… I left out the group of carbohydrate foods that we’re talking about today, and it’s one you’ll love… Sweets. The funny thing, though, is that I didn’t leave it out…. It was my husband, Tony, who often scripts our videos, and who sold me on making this series. For him to leave out sweets is like Romeo leaving out Juliet. This is a guy who has this special pie recipe he makes now and then and eats right out of the pie pan. He even leaves a fork in there so he can get right to it without the distraction of taking a clean fork out of the drawer. But I have insisted that he put away his pie and help me finish this series on groups of carbohydrate foods properly….in a way, this is sort of like a surprise dessert.
I hope you know by now that sweets…..sugar…..isn’t the only thing we need to be concerned about. With diabetes, we need to manage all carbohydrates, right. When talking about all the other groups of carbohydrate foods……milk and yogurt, grains, starchy vegetables, beans-peas and lentils, and fruit….you heard me say these foods are too nutritious to just eliminate from our diet. Remember? Well, I can’t say that about sweets. Sugar itself has no redeeming nutritional value….only extra calories, a blood sugar boost from the glucose, and high triglycerides from fructose. And that includes all of those sugars that claim nutritional value…. coconut sugar, date sugar, turbinado, syrups, nectars, etc., etc.….. whatever trace nutrients they have you can get more of from a healthier source.
So, you might expect me to say “eliminate all sugar from your diet.” Surprise! If I’m not going to eliminate dark chocolate from my diet after 50 plus years with diabetes….and I most definitely am not… why would I do that to you. If we’re eating a healthy diet most of the time and managing our carbohydrate consumption (and our blood sugar levels) most of the time, then sweets can be a reasonable emotional treat. We simply count the carbohydrates like we would with bean soup or parsnips.
Here are Some Basic Tips
- Manage portion sizes…desserts often give us carbohydrates from flour and fruits in addition to the sugar….make desserts a treat
- Use low calorie sweeteners. They are all FDA approved so don’t believe things you may hear on the internet. Check my video on peanut butter cookies (see link below) to see how satisfying desserts don’t have to wreck our carbohydrates budgeting.
- Check my channel for other fantastic desserts on video….I’ve personally approved the portion size and nutrition for a smoothie recipe, pumpkin pie cheesecake squares, chocolate lava cake, chocolate chia pudding, blueberry and peach crisp, 90 calorie chocolate cupcakes and others.
- Get your sugar from desserts….not from drinks or sugar added to foods that aren’t sweet like tomato sauce or soups…. You can now find “added sugar” right on the nutrition facts label.
Be Sure To Check Out – Diabetes-Friendly Peanut Butter Cookies and Crispy Cinnamon Wraps
This really does complete our series on the groups of carbohydrate foods, and it seems just right that we can end with a group many of you think is off-limits. Maybe I just made somebody’s day. It is all that you need to know.
Don’t forget to take a look at our most frequently asked questions.
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