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Originally Posted by CarlyesHope |
To say a diabetic "can't" have sugar is not necessarily true. We CAN, but its effects may not be welcome.
My only real issue with "sugar", ie, table sugar, sucrose, is that there is ZERO nutritional value in it. If you subscribe to the school of thought that too much insulin in your lifetime is bad for you, and the less insulin you take in on a daily basis is better for you, than adding "sugar" to your diet may literally be worthless at best and deadly at worst. If on a normal day you only need 40 units of insulin to cover meals and your metabolic needs, but you add plain old sugar to your consumption that day and that requires another 10 units of insulin...If you run the numbers over a month, that's 300 units of insulin, or a week's worth of insulin to cover table sugar. Over a year, that's 3,650 units of insulin, or about 3.5 vials of insulin--that's a lot. For a substance that added ZERO nutritional value to your body, only calories.
You are right, you can bolus for sugar, and that's fine. But the empty calories and the increase in insulin needs can become worrisome. Use it responsibly, otherwise it can add pounds to you, make you feel bad if you miscalculate, etc. I don't avoid it like the plague, but I can't think of the last time I added sugar to anything, not with such workable alternatives as Splenda available.
