Sugar Substitutes

[jolietaylor]

Hi all, I am new to this forum.
I have a work colleague who I am concerned about. She has type 2 diabetes but when she went for her last check up her blood sugar level was 19.
Yesterday she told me that she tested her blood in the morning and it was 14, she took her medication she waited 2 hours and it had risen to 24.
She had porridge for breakfast but she uses Sweet freedom fruit syrup (photos attached) in her porridge and her several cups of coffee a day.
Can anyone give me any information on this stuff and should she really be using it?

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Can anyone give me any information on this stuff and should she really be using it?

By the looks of it it's syrup, intended to be free of common allergens but not free of sugar. The "should" part is a different question entirely.

 

[rebrascora]

It appears to contain 73g of carbs per 100g which is not much better than using normal sugar and definitely not good for a diabetic. On top of that her porridge will almost certainly also be spiking her Blood Glucose. I'm afraid she needs a complete rethink on her diet and sooner rather than later. Getting regular readings of 24 is putting her at very serious risk.
Does she know that it is not just sugar (in all it's forms... even fruit sugar) but also starchy carbs like bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and grains/grain products including breakfast cereals and yes that wholesome porridge which cause the BG to rise. Many people have so little idea of what affects their diabetes and NHS advice is very poor in this respect.

It really helps to break your sweet tooth completely rather than use substitutes. It took a few weeks for me and I was a very heavy sugar addict but now that I have kicked it, everything tastes so much better and I don't want to go back to needing it. Having cream in coffee instead of sugar/sweetener definitely helps but I took a few weeks off from drinking coffee because I didn't want to drink it without it being sweet. When I had overcome my sweet addiction, I went back to drinking coffee and found that with cream in it and found I now enjoy it. Currently drinking it with a little milk and butter (I believe this is known as a "diabetic coffee") because I am out of cream until I get to the shop!

 

[Docb]

Spot on, rebrascora.

 

[Kaylz]

Every word @rebrascora has spoken is echoed by me, for a Type 2 porridge certainly doesn't seem to be the best way to start the day with numbers like 14 to begin with, not everyone finds they need to totally eliminate things from their diet but often just cutting down the portion sizes but if your friend starts testing before and 2 hours after every meal then that will show them what foods they may need to avoid, I use unsweetened almond milk these days rather than cows milk as I use 150ml every morning so I'd need insulin if I were using the same amount of cows milk but I'm Type 1 hence why I'd need insulin, levels like your friends really will lead to trouble, mines haven't been that high but I've already required treatments for eye related problems so the sooner she can she needs to take control the better xx

 

[Drummer]

This reads like another person not given the basic, simple information about their situation.
Diabetics cannot cope with carbohydrate, which comprises starches and sugars. Removing them, for lucky type twos, can not only stop diabetes getting worse, it can restore normal numbers.