"diabetic" ice cream

[battybird]

Just a little grievance to air...has anyone else come across a diabetic ice cream now available in the supermarkets and marketed at an inflated price? My mother in law who is only just coming to grips with reading food labels (dont ask!!) showed me a tub of this that she had purchased..when I checked it the sugar content was really high! It was a fairly high proprtion of "fructose" rather than "sugar" but still far more than the other basic vanilla ice creams for a third of the price! How do they get away with it? I suppose as, like my MIL, many just assume that if it says diabetic, it is good! :angryfire

[Big Al]

I empathise with you as I love making proper ice cream with loads of sugar and full cream etc but I'm having towatch my sugar and the best bit of advice I was given was don't buy anything with more than 5% of sugar or in other words check the 100g section of the food label and if it says more than 5g put it back.

I lost 8 stone that way over 3 years and my sugar returned to normal. So did I and now i need to read the labels again, lol.

What annoyed me was that big companies got to the likes of the heart foundation et al and pay for an approval sticker for want of better words. Thus when you see a cerial with a healthy heart logo on it or "good for your heart" etc people believe that it is good for you without knowing the fact that "donations" , "research grants", approval testing" etc have all be paid for.

[Green Aura]

Someone did a report a few years ago - can't remember who - and found these so-called diabetic products pretty much all a con.

It's many many years since I studied this but my understanding is that glucose puts a sudden high burden on the pancreas to produce insulin so you get peaks and troughs in insulin which "strains" the pancreatic system - for want of a better description. Other sugars, like fructose, make a lower but longer demand on insulin production so although you don't get the huge swings in insulin production the pancreas still get knackered

The answer - cut out all refined carbs except as a treat on the rarest of occasions. And certainly don't buy any of the diabetic products.

[Ellendra]

Make your own ice cream with real fruit mixed in.

[battybird]

Hi all, I have made ice cream for her but she is pretty "old school" and its hard to change habits when you are 80yrs old, and explaining carbs, sugar and fructose to her is an uphill struggle!!
As Al points out the logo on packs is often an added burden on the cost of a product. This ice cream had no endorsements but just was labelled in BIG letters "DIABETIC" so that made it ok!! " She still trusts that manufacturers will not con her and even asked the diabetic nurse if I was right to say that this product was bad! Diabetic nurse keeps telling her to read everything, eat a balanced, varied diet with as little sugar/glucose/fructose added as possible and NOT buy diabetic products!
Mind you, in Central Portugal, my neighbour is diabetic and the advice there is amazing, she will not eat carrots , melon, figs, kiwis or any fruit /veg she perceives as "sweet" and really does not understand the labelling system (she cannot read much!) & sugarfree products are fairly scarce. And she has a massive constant supply of fresh fruit and veg that they grow (real self sufficientish!!) but she wont eat lots of it!! There seems to be no education and consequently her understanding of diabetes is minimal. At least in UK there is information around!!

[spider8]

Yep it's a minefield out there but Diabetes UK say that you shouldn't buy diabetic foods/products as they are just an expensive con. Some may use sweeteners that, if taken in too high a quantity, will give you tummy trouble and they can contain more fat than non-diabetic stuff. Have a little sweet treat once in a while but eat a balanced diet. I know what you mean about it being hard to educate an older person as my In-Laws still cling to the info they heard 50-odd years ago and won't be budged!

[pumpy]

My Jackie is type one (insulin dependent), and has been for 50yrs. She has learn't to ignore the sugar/sweetener info, and just be sensible about her intake of "diabetic" food-stuffs. I find that most "diabetic" stuff tastes sweeter than the ordinary stuff (and a bloody sight more expensive!!). A while ago we bought some sugar-free Rob***ons Barley Water....... it tasted so sweet... ugh!! No comparison to the ordinary product.
The main thing is to count your carbo-hydrates. 10 carbs= 1 unit of fast-acting insulin.

[phil55494]

That's a good starting ratio. Me I find I need 1.5units to 10g carbs.
I think learning to read the labels to find out how much of what is in the food is better than looking for special diabetic friendly stickers.