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Diabetes nutrition: Including sweets in your meal plan

Diabetes nutrition focuses on healthy foods, but sweets aren't necessarily off-limits. Here's how to include sweets in your meal plan.

By Mayo Clinic staff

Diabetes nutrition focuses on healthy foods. But you can eat sweets once in a while without feeling guilty or interfering with your blood sugar control. The key to diabetes nutrition is moderation.

The scoop on sugar

For years, people with diabetes were warned to avoid sweets. But what researchers understand about diabetes nutrition has changed.

  • Total carbohydrate is what counts. It was once assumed that honey, candy and other sweets would raise your blood sugar level faster and higher than would fruits, vegetables or "starchy" foods such as potatoes, pasta or whole-grain bread. But this isn't true, as long as the sweets are eaten with a meal and balanced with other foods in your meal plan. Although different types of carbohydrates can affect your blood sugar level differently, it's the total amount of carbohydrate that counts the most.
  • But don't overdo empty calories. Of course, it's still best to consider sweets as only a small part of your overall plan for diabetes nutrition. Candy, cookies and other sweets have few vitamins and minerals and are often high in fat and calories. You'll get empty calories — calories without the essential nutrients found in healthier foods.

Have your cake and eat it, too

Sweets count as carbohydrates in your meal plan. The trick is substituting small portions of sweets for other carbohydrates — such as bread, tortillas, rice, crackers, 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 typical dinner is a grilled chicken breast, a medium potato, a slice of whole-grain bread, a vegetable salad and fresh fruit. If you'd like a frosted cupcake after your meal, look for ways to keep the total carbohydrate count in the meal the same. Trade your slice of bread and the fresh fruit for the cupcake. Or replace the potato with a low-carbohydrate vegetable such as broccoli. Adding the cupcake after this meal keeps the total carbohydrate count the same.

To make sure you're making even trades, read food labels carefully. Look for the total carbohydrate in each food, which tells you how much carbohydrate is in one serving of the food.

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References
  1. Sweeteners & desserts. American Diabetes Association. http://www.diabetes.org/nutrition-and-recipes/nutrition/sweeteners.jsp. Accessed Aug. 8, 2008.
  2. Masharani U, et al. Pancreatic hormones & diabetes mellitus. In: Gardner DG, et al. Greenspan's Basic & Clinical Endocrinology. 8th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw Hill Companies; 2007. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aid=2633151. Accessed Aug. 8, 2008.
  3. American Diabetes Association. Nutrition recommendations and interventions for diabetes: A position statement of the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes Care. 2008;31(1)(suppl):S61-S78.
  4. Willett CL (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Aug. 18, 2008.
  5. American Diabetes Association. Evidence-based nutrition principles and recommendations for the treatment and prevention of diabetes and related complications. Diabetes Care. 2003;26(1)(suppl):S51-S61.
  6. Wheeler ML, et al. Carbohydrate issues: Type and amount. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2008;108 (suppl):S34-S39.
  7. Sugar & sugar substitutes. American Diabetes Association. http://www.diabetes.org/for-parents-and-kids/diabetes-care/sugar.jsp. Accessed Sept. 8, 2008.

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Oct. 16, 2008

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