Diabetic Recipes
AmethystD
A coworker asked me if I knew of a cake mix that was sugar free. She was asked to bake a cake for a friend who has diabetes.
That began the carbohydrate lesson.
"The thing is, although something may say 'Sugar Free' or 'Reduced Sugar' it may still have carbs in it which is what effects blood sugar. Sugar is included in that number." I did my best to not get too technical.
"Well I bought this one to try but I thought I would check with you to see if you knew of a better one," she said.
We decided to look online at the one she purchased to see if they had the nutrition facts listed which they did. The carb count per serving was 35 grams.
"So after I check my blood sugar, I would put in 35 into my insulin pump and it would give me the amount of insulin I would need to cover that slice of cake."
I could hear the gears turning in her head. It was making sense. She understood that sugar is not the focus for us, it's carbohydrates.
For fun we looked up the Nutrition facts on the regular "sugar filled" version of the same flavor cake from the same company.
The carb count per same size serving was 35 grams.
We were both shocked.
She said, "Well I found a recipe on that site I always see you on that I might try too."
"Which site?" I asked.
I am so busted.
Yes! My mother-in-law gave me a box of that "reduced sugar" cake mix, and I saw that it has EXACTLY the same number of carbs per serving as the regular cake mix. And I bet the regular cake mix tastes better. =) Not to mention those "sugar free" candies which are anything but!
Exactly. It is awful that they can get away with that. I hate it.
I find similar issues with "reduced fat" and "reduced sodium" items as well... sometimes it means they reduced the "added sugar" (fructose, usually refined from sugar cane) and replaced it with sugar alcohols, acesulfame potassium, or other nutritive sweeteners that show up as carbohydrate (or even, just to throw us for a loop, high-fructose corn syrup). Check the "sugars" breakdown under "carbohydrates" under the nutrition label, and check to see if the box asks that you add any sugar in the baking process.
OTOH, almost all of those boxed cakes have more trans-fats in them than we can shake a stick at...
The funny thing was that the sugars were less but the sugar alcohol was high. And yes, the trans fats were out of control.
LOL G-Money! You are BUSTED!!! Haha!!
I always get busted. This is why I try not to do things I shouldn't.
Or - even better - they replace the sugar with artificial sweeteners that tend to have a laxative effect. So, you get weird dietetic garbage dessert, the same amount of carb, and you spend the rest of the night making sure you're near a washroom.
I've made that mistake once... ONCE!
LOL - busted! :)
For me, anything marked sugar-free always seems to come with a host of other variables, namely sugar alcohols (which affect my numbers, despite their claims not to), fat, and chemical goodies. Frustrating!!