Is it just me or are "sugar-free" foods over-rated?

[JessArt85]

Back when I first got diabetes (about 10 years ago) limiting your sugars was taught. Then with humalog it was ok to eat pretty much whatever, whenever I wanted as long as I did some humalog to accompany it. Now that carb-counting has come into play, there is no real need to look for "low-sugar" or "no-sugar added" items. So my rant starts here: the thing that gets the most when I go to the store and I see products that are marketed towards diabetes is that they usually advertise being "low-sugar" or "no sugar added". And then when you look at the carb content, these products are nothing special, but a bunch of overrated crap thats being sold for about two times more than it should be. I sometimes look at the carb to total gram ratio of a product, and my findings are usually the same: for example with a bag of oreo cookies and a bag of "no-sugar added" imitation oreo cookies the comparison of the carbohydrates to the total grams per serving more often than not comes out to be equal! :mad: It is just is so aggravating to see the products that are merchandised like this. Especially when they are really irrelavant to healthy dieting. By taking out the "sugar" of an item, they just compensate by putting back a different form of carbohydrate. They aren't really helping anyone out but themselves by manipulating the nutrition labels. Sugar is a form of carbohydrate, so why don't they just cut to the chase and start making real products that will benefit diabetics that are low-carb (like really low carb in comparison to the real thing) and no-carb? lol* probably not possible for things like sweets, and such, but hey a girl can dream right!;)

Oh and I do know some things like crystal lite, diet pop, etc. drinks like that are carb-free, but I want to see some real low carb-sweet treats! (Got any good ones that I haven't seen?)

[AmyMcCracken]

I'm allergic to corn syrup so I have to stick to sugar free store bought foods. One of my favorites is the Dreyers Carb Benefit Chocolate Ice Cream. I'm not much for Ice Cream but this is GOOD! I also like the Murray Sugar Free chocolate covered graham crackers and the Minute Maid Light drinks.:p

[Furry6feline]

I was looking in the store the other day and I found that in Edy's ice cream and Lite Edy's Ice Cream the carb count is like 2 grams away. It's overpriced and when you have that kind of stuff it tastes different...NOT WORTH IT!:rolleyes:

[cydnimom]

The two best products that I have found to actually make a difference in carbs in E.D. Smith low carb pancake syrups - 7 carbs/3 tbsp - and it tastes just as good and no sugar added Jello. Important stuff when you have a child. I even enjoy eating Jello.

[faithe113001]

Sugar free syrups are definitely worth it. There is so much sugar in that stuff, sure is dosen't taste as good (at least the kind I get), but I have such a hard time covering stuff like that, syrup/soda/honey, anything like that, so for me, I'd rather go for the sugar free than face a high sugar later!

[Connie(BC)Type 1]

Sugar free syrups are definitely worth it. There is so much sugar in that stuff, sure is dosen't taste as good (at least the kind I get), but I have such a hard time covering stuff like that, syrup/soda/honey, anything like that, so for me, I'd rather go for the sugar free than face a high sugar later!


How do they make pure maple sugar into sugar free??? Sorry I'll take the real thing anyday I also use a lot of unsweetened products( I cross the border lots for shopping), in the USA you do have that option, in Canada we don't, we have real or diet, so I use real, the only unsweetened I can find is juice, and that should be unsweetened. I don't like aspartame or splenda or equal or any of that junk, there's nothing wrong with sugar in moderation, and it's better for you, IMHO. One thing I have found locally(in WA state not Canada) is flavored UNSWEETENED carbonated water, the Canada Dry Raspberry and Peach flavors are great! In Canada Presidents Choice makes a flavored unsweetened carbonated water, different flavors, and so does Western Family, no sugar, no sweeteners. GREAT tastes IMHO.

[rickst29]

"Glycemic Index" is a REAL phenomonon, and some "sugar-free" foods have a relatively low index (low carb, and/or the nutritive carbs which are present are digested very slowly.)

But when there's a product with high carbs, high Glycemic Index/GGlycemic Load, and they make it "sugar free" it really accomplishes very little: Sugar free cake made from regular white flour, and etc.

Frankly, I think that all diabetics (T2 and T1) should really take a good look at low-carb: For a lot of people, it seems to be a lot more successful in weight loss (a recent Duke study found a huge advantage in low-carb versus "traditional ADA" diet for overweight type-2s).

And a lot of people report that it's easier for them when they avoid carbs, rather than live on a "knife edge" of balancing high carbs and insulin amounts through out the day. I'm NOT one of those people, but it's really worth trying out!

[rickst29]

How do they make pure maple sugar into sugar free??? Sorry I'll take the real thing.
Me too- and for me personally, tasty Maple syrup (grade 'B', the dark stuff which REALLY tastes like tree sap) actually comes on fairly slow-- much slower than table sugar or corn syrup used to.

When I eat something which takes syrup, the carb counting is usually dominated by the carbs in the "bready" pancakes. (Obviously, I don't DROWN them.) I use buckwheat and oat flour only, with a much higher proportion of buckwheat than you'll find in any "normal" recipe. This slows it down some. But mainly, I eat only TINY quantities of this stuff, a single pancake less than 4 inches in size, and I don't do it very often.

'Grade-B' tastes great when I do have some. I don't understand why people even buy 'Grade A'--- if you don't want the big flavor, why are you spending all the $$$$ ? :confused:

[Connie(BC)Type 1]

I use buckwheat and oat flour only, with a much higher proportion of buckwheat than you'll find in any "normal" recipe. :confused:


I'd love some Oat flour recipes, I bought some organic, and have never used it, so I keep it in the freezer with the whole wheat flour!

If you have any recipes please email me! conniemc@cwdmail.com

[Connie(BC)Type 1]

The pure Maple syrup isn't that expensive, and I seldom use it, a bottle will last a few years, and I use it for cooking mostly!(hubby uses it on ice cream once in awhile):rolleyes:

[Momof4gr8kids]

I use things like the no sugar added Jam, and the light syrup because the with sugar stuff tends to raise her fast, and then it leaves quickly too, and she goes low.
However for the rest I just buy regular stuff. I even make my cookies with sugar.

[rickst29]

HFCS seems to be a lot "faster" than table sugar or Maple syrup for me. I'll either spike or need to "back-fill" a low afterwards. So I don't avoid sugar, but I look for products which use normal "sugar" and don't list HFCS in the ingredients list, because it DOES make a difference for me.

As for sugar-free: A lot of 'em are stuffed with sugar alcohols (usually "Sorbitol" and/or "Manitol"). These upset my guts, making me fart a lot. They've also got quite a few calories, they're like eating fat. Since my guts don't like 'em and they're high calorie "junk calorie" additives, I stay away. Splenda seems better.

Another interesting thing: a lot of the sugar-free foods taste like #$%#@. There's no good reason why this has to be true, but it seems that the mfgrs of Sorbitol/Manitol based products seem to use very low quality ingredients for the rest of the Product. I've tasted quite a few "sugar free" chocolate things which are WORSE THAN CARDBOARD.

Much better to eat some real sugar and bolus for it. As for HFCS: I feel that humans have been evolving for millions of years, and this "frankenfood" never existed before. Our bodies are tuned to sugar, not large quantities of newly invented chemical frankenfood. (Splenda is present in such small quantities that it doesn't have much effect; HFCS constitutes a LARGE proportion of those foods which use it.)

It's cheap and easy for large greedy capitalist corporations to improve the profit margin on their "products" by using it as a replacement for REAL sugar, but I'd rather stay with the natural stuff.

You can imagine what I think about chemically hydrogenated fats. (They're banned from food in several countries, and those other countries are RIGHT.)

[rickst29]

You really ought to see if they like genuine Maple (I think).

It's pretty slow, and also you simply don't need so much, because it tastes much stronger. Buy the Grade-B rather than the Grade-A, even though it's cheaper it tastes BETTER.

[Momof4gr8kids]

Julia had pancakes with real syrup tonight as we did the pancake day thing, but had it for dinner. Usually she goes low from the syrup carbs, but I know she will have a huge high if I don't cover them somehow. I think I got pretty close tonight. She had 51g carbs in pancake, and a close guess of 45 in the syrup. I went for half of the syrup carbs, and all from the pan cakes. She did well at her 2 hour check. She was 132 before dinner (great for her, target of 130 on pump) and was 157 2 hrs later (her endo said she should be within 40 pts of where she started at the 2 hr mark) However, it was not to last. At hour 4 she was 223. We should have done a combo bolus, and maybe covered a bit more of the syrup carbs. We don't do this often, but will have to keep trying. She really misses berry flavored syrups, and compote.

[gsmom]

We tried a lot of lower carb syrups before we found Cary's. Garrett's sisters like it better than the "regular" syrup also. I can't remember the name of the company (sorry, they were a HUGE supporter at our last JDRF walk) that uses a sugar substitute in their juice & we loved it. Normally I can only find one brand of lower carb grape jelly/jam at our local stores (only 2 to pick from!) as Garrett would LIVE on PB & J!!!

Jodi
Mom to Garrett (dx 07/03) 11, Genna 9 & Gillian 6

[JenC]

Don't know about you - but it can be hard find recipes that are healthy and have low sugar and fat content.

I agree that the low G.I. recipes books that have been published for those on a diet can have some really good recipe ideas - so it's worth picking them up and sifting through.

We're gradually building up our own repertoire of tasty recipes for diabetics (http://www.diabetia.com/Diabetic_Recipes.html)which are shared at my blog.