A person who is diabetic cannot eat too much sugar as the lack of insulin in the body makes it difficult for the person to digest the amount of blood sugar they have. This results in high levels of blood sugar in the patient which can lead to considerable damage to the internal organs and result in all kinds of complications. However it does not mean that a diabetic person can forget about all kinds of sweets.
Many artificial chemicals have been developed that can help ease the need for sweet in diabetics without giving them the high levels of blood glucose that natural sweeteners like sugar and honey provide.
What are these substitutes for sugar?
Saccharin, Acesulfame Potassium, Aspartame, Sucralose and D-Tagatose are sugar substitutes that are used as sweeteners for diabetics. These are available in many different products.
There are pills that you can add to your hot beverages, there are powders with which you can make puddings and cakes, there are evensugar free drinks that are readily available in the market.
The industry dealing with sweeteners for diabetics has grown monumentally in recent years. These have also been given a boost due to the weight loss industry touting the benefits of sweeteners that give you no calories. However these chemicals are not always the best answer to the sweet tooth problem as they can lead to complications of their own thanks to long term use.
Are these sweeteners for diabetics safe?
Artificially manufactured sweeteners for diabetics have been approved by health associations across the globe. However they are not really the great solution that they are touted to be. These sweeteners for diabetics can pose an additional health risk as patients of diabetes are often on medication which can interfere with these chemicals.
A wide range of side effects have been catalogued by people who have been using these artificial sweeteners. The sugar substitute chemicals may not give you the natural spike in blood sugar that sugar does but they do trick your body. In a person who is healthy and is just using them for weight loss the side effects may not be quite as bad as those faced by a person who is diabetic and must keep a strong control on his sugar intake.
What alternatives does a diabetic have?
One must remember that sugars are essentially nothing more than carbohydrates. The more you refine them the less nourishment they give you and the faster they get absorbed into the blood stream. On the other hand the closer to natural these carbohydrates are the more nutritious they will be and will give you a steady release of blood sugar into the blood stream over a long period of time.
So choose complex carbohydrates that get absorbed into the body at a much slower pace. Naturally malted whole grain sweeteners like rice, barley or brown rice malt syrup are the right choice rather than using chemicals such as Saccharin, Acesulfame Potassium, Aspartame, Sucralose and D-Tagatose. This holds equally true for diabetics and those looking for weight loss.
