Sugar Wise and Sweet Smart
B-Fit!
To determine the amount of sugars and sweets to eat, answer these questions:
- Is your blood glucose in good control and your hemoglobin A1c at a desirable level?
- Are your blood fats in good control -- total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides?
- How much do you enjoy sugars and sweets, and how often do you want a small serving to help you stay on track with your eating plan?
Sugar by Any Name
Get sugar-wise and sweet-smart by keeping the following healthy eating guidelines in mind:
Prioritize your personal diabetes goals. Which comes first -- blood glucose control, weight loss, or lower blood fats. Your priorities dictate how you strike the balance with sugars and sweets.
Choose a few favorite desserts and decide how often to eat these in light of your personal diabetes goals -- maybe twice a week, just when dining out, or only at a special celebration.
Note the calories , total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol of the desserts you prefer. Make your choices with these numbers and your diabetes goals in mind.
Quench your sweet tooth with a small portion of your favorite sweet.
Split a dessert in a restaurant (ask your server for one serving and four spoons).
Take advantage of smaller portions when options present themselves, such as at an ice cream or frozen yogurt shop.
Substitute a sugar-free sweetened food for the regular -- hot cocoa or a popsicle.
Use the Nutrition Facts panel on food labels to determine the number of grams of carbohydrate per serving size. This will let you know how to swap a sugary or sweet food in your meal plan for a starch, fruit, or milk.
Test blood glucose and observe the affect of different sugars and sweets. Let this information help you decide what sweets to eat.
Keep a watch on hemoglobin A1c and blood fats to see if eating more sweets leads these number on an unhealthy up swing.
