need facts!!!???

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Proudspirit

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Hi guys,
this is a bit long but i need to write a letter and i want to triple check i have my facts straight!

Ok, last weekend i joined a gym, after doing a class my friend and I went going to have a sit in the bar for 1/2 hour.

Went into the bar, asked if they sold diet coke..... no they don't. Ok what sugar free drinks do you sell ? I asked.

"urmmm i think this is sugar free cos it doesn't say sugar on the bottle", he handed me the bottle and it have 5g sugar! I asked him to mention to the manager that they had no sugar free drinks, he asked me to fill in a complaint card! . I did and put my phone number on the form thinking that he would call.
We had cause to complain about another matter so i asked to see the manager, he wasnt available to i asked that he was told to read comments card and call me... he didnt !.
Next day i was back at gym and asked to see manager.. he came and i explained re drinks, he said that it was their policy to stock the drinks and not sugar free. I said that i was excluded from the bar as i couldn't have a drink in there. he said that he would look into it and see if they could get something sorted... i don't think he will but this is my my reason for taking it to the general manager and head office.

He told me that if someone has good control of their BG it was fine to have a full sugar drink... I was speechless and though maybe he knew something i didn't. I just said that I wouldnt drink a full sugar drink..
I was going to see a nurse and i told her, she was gobsmacked and said that people like that are dangerous, someone not as clued up as me might believe him!

So... am i right to go further? has his statement got ANY truth in it? basically after exercise can a diabetic have a full sugar drink?

Its not only diabetics, people on diets wouldnt want sugar drinks either..

any comments help in wording letter very grateful

Julie x
 
We're all free to have full sugar drinks if we choose, but not if we want to avoid the consequences. You're quite right to contact their HQ and complain, let us know what reaction you get.
 
Ever since I was diagnosed, a full sugar drink is a hypo treatment, what he said is nonsense and there is no justification for not offering sugar free drinks. Sounds like someone refusing to accept that the 'policy' is wrong and won't admit they are wrong - by all means take it further as this can only help others! 🙂
 
You need a full sugar drink when you are having a hypo.

There is a huge difference between need and want. If you choose to have a full sugar drink and your not hypo - you have to take insulin for it or run the risk of being extremely high - and no diabetic I know what do that!

If they are refusing to stock diet drinks then I think this is discrimination. I would also question a gym that only has full sugar products? Most people who go to the gym prefer either diet options or nothing at all.

They dont sound very accomodating at all and I would have asked the 'Manager' what medical school he went to as he obviously didnt know what he was talking about - what a plonker! Perhaps you could threaten to withdraw your membership as a direct result of them not stocking diet drinks and that you will tell all your friends to do the same.🙂Bev
 
Oh my goodness!

So is the manager of your gym suggesting people might like to put on all the calories with their calorific drinks after a workout that they had just worked off??

I agree with your every word about drinks being available for us as diabetics, but it is about choice. I am sure many people on diets who who just choose to be healthy want a diet drink too and they should provide it!
 
sounds like someone for didka ......
 
bev said:
If they are refusing to stock diet drinks then I think this is discrimination. I would also question a gym that only has full sugar products? Most people who go to the gym prefer either diet options or nothing at all.

Bev
Click to expand...

Whilst I find this Gym bar very strange in it's stock policy, I think discrimination is a bit strong. Do they not sell bottled water, tea, coffee?
Some people going to the gym will want high sugar drinks to give them energy prior to exercise, so diet drink options are only an alternative for some people. I run a guest house and we do not normally stock decaffeinated coffee or tea is that discrimination?

Complain to whoever owns the Gym about the lack of diet drinks and the manager's draconian and inaccurate attitude.
 
sorry i thought you had a joined a gym that wasnt offering sugar free drinks ....opps sorry its proud spirit 😱
 
As usual someone is missing the point - this is NOT discrimination.
I do not see why you should force any establishment to serve diet soft drinks. The other aims of DIDKA are fine and laudable. How about insisting that cafes/restaurants provide sweeteners as well as sugar? for peoples tea/coffee.
 
didka is not trying to force establishments to serve diet drinks ...it suggested that they are aware of why Diet drinks are served ... and diet means diet of sugar free ...Not just no added sugar
 
Vicsetter said:
Whilst I find this Gym bar very strange in it's stock policy, I think discrimination is a bit strong. Do they not sell bottled water, tea, coffee?
Some people going to the gym will want high sugar drinks to give them energy prior to exercise, so diet drink options are only an alternative for some people. I run a guest house and we do not normally stock decaffeinated coffee or tea is that discrimination?

Complain to whoever owns the Gym about the lack of diet drinks and the manager's draconian and inaccurate attitude.
Click to expand...

The point is not about whether they stock tea and coffee and water. The point is that they dont sell a soft drink that suits a diabetic who wants choice. Non-diabetics like to drink flavoured drinks such as orange juice and coke etc just like anybody else - so if there is an alternative on the market for a diabetic - then why cant this be stocked also? If your saying that diabetics should only be limited to a choice 3 drinks - but non-diabetics have a wider choice - then yes this is discrimination.
I only drink decaff tea - so if I came to your establishment then I wouldnt want a drink of tea. BUT - my health doesnt suffer if I drink tea full of caffiene - its just personal choice. However, if a diabetic were to drink a full sugar drink - then his/her health would suffer as they either go high or have the need to take more insulin. So choice is being taken away from a diabetic - therefore this has to be discrimination.🙂Bev
 
I find it a little bizzare that somewhere as health concious as a gym wouldn't stock at least some non-sugary drinks. Sure mine sells glucose and protien suppliments and drinky stuff, along with the self tan and swimming costumes...but in addition to selling lucozade it also sells water. There's a poster in my gym giving various reasons not to drink regular coke.
I don't think it's about forcing anybody to stock sugar free drinks or artificial sweetners, it's more about how the business is missing out on a valuble market. Perhaps you should explain that if the gym had a lovely selection of diet drinks then maybe diabetics from miles around might want to come and use the facility. after you've pointed out to the guy that he's a gym manager, not a doctor...(or clearly, much of an entrepreneur).

Your orginal question was about weather well controlled blood sugar levels mean you can eat or drink anything, right?
Well, from a certain point of view he may be sort of right...ish. I suppose that if you were insulin controlled you might, theoreticalloy be able to inject enough insulin to compensate for the sugar in the coke (or whatever). On the other hand, it could well be flippin dangerous, as Northy says, type ones usually only take sugary drinks to compensate for severly low blood sugar, and artifically induing a hypo would be a very dangerous thing to do. I miss Cherry Coke, but that's not something i'd want to do. Type 2s are a different matter. Personally my (dubious) control on my blood sugar levels come from not drinking sugary drinks. I think that the only people with perfect enough blood sugar control to drink sugary drinks as a matter of course are people with a fully functional pancreas and no insulin reisitance...and they're not generally diabetic. (this is where somebody with a very rare form of diabetes pops up and posts and proves me wrong..haha)
By the way, i've gotten away with it a couple of times, but mostly because i was on holiday and forgot my testing kit so i was blissfully unaware that my sugar levels were probably somewhere around 17... On the other hand i got the wrong drink once at home and got into a right old state when i discovered that my levels were still above 10, 18 hours later.
 
Hey Rachel, how are you?

Just read your post and I know this is slightly off topic but you know you can get diet cherry coke hon? My newsagent next door stocks it and I love a can as a cheeky treat. Im sure its bad for my insides but what the hell once a while!

x
 
Sugarbum said:
Hey Rachel, how are you?

Just read your post and I know this is slightly off topic but you know you can get diet cherry coke hon? My newsagent next door stocks it and I love a can as a cheeky treat. Im sure its bad for my insides but what the hell once a while!

x
Click to expand...

even more off topic i could/cant cherry coke diet here so HelenP brought me some in a nice sparkly bag at the meet last month:D.I never knew it exsisted lol
 
Steff2010 said:
even more off topic i could/cant cherry coke diet here so HelenP brought me some in a nice sparkly bag at the meet last month:D.I never knew it exsisted lol
Click to expand...

Yes, FABULOUS isnt it Steff? 🙂

A nice treat, there is something very addictive to it!

Sorry for hijacking the thread.....normal service will now resumme 😉
 
Thanks Sugar...

I know you can get diet coke with cherry but it's not the same...
 
As an anti-whinging-at-other-people person, I agree that not even a gym is obliged to stock sugar-free drinks. Maybe we should thank the people who do, rather than whinging at the ones who don't. It's quite hard for establishments to please all the people all the time (presumably the policy of not selling sugar-free drinks had been put in place to make someone else happy in the first place).

Quote (Bev): but non-diabetics have a wider choice - then yes this is discrimination.
The point is, we're diabetic. Life isn't fair. non-diabetics will ALWAYS have more choice, the only way to make the amount of choice equal is to stop non-diabetics being allowed sugar too!!

HOWEVER, the idiot of a manager who tried to tell you it was ok to drink full-sugar cans wants shooting - how is he qualified to give you medical advice about your own (very individual) condition? - therefore, he deserves EVERYTHING he gets.
 
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I really dont think that man should be dishing out the medical advice either!
 
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