5. How to include sweets in a diabetic menu?

Sweets were considered off limits for diabetes patients for long. But it is not true. What is important is not the type of carbohydrates, but the timing and amount of carbohydrates.
The trick is substituting small portions of sweets for other carbohydrates — such as bread, chapattis, rice, cereal, fruit, juice, milk, yogurt or potatoes — in your meals. To allow room for sweets as part of a meal, you have two options:

  • Replace some of the carbohydrates in your meal with a sweet.
  • Swap a high carb-containing food in your meal for something with fewer carbohydrates and eat the remaining carbohydrates as a sweet.
Let's say your dinner is 3 chapattis and chicken curry, If you'd like a small cupcake after your meal, look for ways to keep the total carbohydrate count in the meal the same. Trade one of your chapattis for the cupcake. To suppress the hunger, you can use a vegetable salad in addition to the 2 remaining chappattis. Adding the cupcake after this meal keeps the total carbohydrate count the same.

You can also use artificial sweeteners for preparing sweets, but keep in mind the total carbohydrates and the empty calories — calories without the essential nutrients found in healthier foods.
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This newsletter is published for free distribution through the Internet for doctors, patients and public for promoting healthy lifestyles. For enquiries, please contact Sunitha Jothydev, CAO, Jothydev’s Diabetes Centre, Trivandrum.
Please visit: http://www.jothydev.net
The first comprehensive outpatient diabetes care center in Kerala