Although sweets can affect your blood sugar, and consuming a diet high in added sugar can increase your risk for developing diabetes, there are many more factors that influence diabetes development including genetics and lifestyle.
When you have elevated blood sugar levels or have prediabetes or diabetes, you must carefully monitor your carbohydrate intake. This is because carbohydrates are responsible for raising your blood sugar levels.
While you can enjoy sugary foods when you have diabetes, it is important to do so in moderation and with some understanding of how it could impact your blood sugar.
Types of sugar in food
When you have diabetes, your body is either not able to use insulin correctly or not able to make any or enough insulin. Some people with diabetes experience both of these issues.
Problems with insulin can cause sugar to build up in your blood since insulin is responsible for helping sugar move from the blood and into the body’s cells.
Foods that contain carbohydrates raise blood sugar. Carbohydrates need to be regulated when you have elevated blood sugar levels or diabetes to help you manage your blood sugar.
On nutrition labels, the term “carbohydrates” includes sugars, complex carbohydrates, and fiber. In desserts and many other products like salad dressings, breakfast cereals, and yogurts, a number of ingredients can be added to enhance sweetness.
While some foods, such as fruits and vegetables, naturally contain sugars, many processed foods and desserts have some type of sugar added to them. Many food labels will not list “sugar” as a key ingredient. Instead, they will list the ingredient as one or more of the following:
dextrose
fructose
high-fructose corn syrup
lactose
malt syrup
sucrose
white granulated sugar
honey
agave nectar
glucose
maltodextrin
These sugar sources are carbohydrates and will raise your blood sugar. They can be found in many food products including cookies, sweetened cereals, marinara sauce, flavored oat meals, cakes, chips, pies, puddings, yogurt, sports drinks, premade smoothies, candy, ice cream, and other desserts and sweets.
At Comfort Nutrition Services, we are committed to counseling and assisting our clients, fans and followers to reach their healthy nutritional goals.
