[CarlyesHope]

Hey Everybody this is Carlye
ok i dont fully understand the consept of sugar
why cant diabetics have sugar
if we count for it and our blood sugar stays in the good range
why should we worry about it
does it do something to our pancreas

[corwin]

The only problem with sugar is that it's hard to bolus for it. Suger raise your bg levels in 10 minutes and the insulin stays in your system up to 5 hours. If you calculate correctly and keep your bg in normal range it's fine. Soon many will add that it's impossible to keep in normal range so I'll emphasize that it's a big IF and it's very hard to eat pure sugar and keep good numbers. It doesn't do anything to our pancreas.

[camjen1]

Finally someone who thinks the same as me. I always tell my parents that I can eat anything I want because as long as I take my insulin for it and stay within normal range I'm just like any other person. I just stress that non-diabetics have something that automatically gives them insulin while we diabetics just have to go one more step and do it by hand.

[duck]

Originally Posted by CarlyesHope

Hey Everybody this is Carlye
ok i dont fully understand the consept of sugar
why cant diabetics have sugar
if we count for it and our blood sugar stays in the good range
why should we worry about it
does it do something to our pancreas

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.

[duck]

Originally Posted by camjen1

Finally someone who thinks the same as me. I always tell my parents that I can eat anything I want because as long as I take my insulin for it and stay within normal range I'm just like any other person. I just stress that non-diabetics have something that automatically gives them insulin while we diabetics just have to go one more step and do it by hand.

Whereas that is true, non-diabetics have as much "trouble" caused by sugar as diabetics, but they don't realize it. Insulin in excess has deliterious effects on their bodies as well as ours, and certainly many people can attest to how extra fat is not healthy hanging off our bodies.

[CarlyesHope]

Originally Posted by duck

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.

well ya see my doctor says that i cant have sugar things such as cookies on a daily basis. i didnt understand why just so long as the sugar is less then half and i could count for it
and duck i didnt really follow that could ya break it down in to smaller words

[duck]

Originally Posted by CarlyesHope

well ya see my doctor says that i cant have sugar things such as cookies on a daily basis. i didnt understand why just so long as the sugar is less then half and i could count for it
and duck i didnt really follow that could ya break it down in to smaller words

It's bad for you in excess.

"In Excess" means different things to different people, ultimately it's your decision. If allowing yourself to occasionally have some cookies keeps you sane, have at it. If you count correctly and your sugars are good two hours afterward, no biggie. BUT, if you pig-out, eat cookies every day and mess your sugars up, you need to be honest with yourself and do the right thing.

[camjen1]

In other words the more sugar you eat the more insulin you will inject and the more weight and fat you gain.

[HollyB]

Hi,

I have a related question about sugar. My 14-year-old, being very lean, growing, active and in peak junk food years, eats -- well it's definitely less sugar than his friends but a lot more than I would have previously imagined a diabetic eating! So far with most sweet foods (if they aren't too fatty) he can get his blood sugar down promptly, within the guidelines we've been given -- even something like waffles and syrup (I know this might not last much longer).

I know, though, that there must be a high initial BG spike. My question is how harmful is that spike, if it comes down again promptly? I'm not stressing too much about this because if he follows in his older brothers' footsteps, his desire for sweets is due to drop dramatically in the next year or two. I think by the time weight becomes an issue, a lowish-sugar diet will feel like much less of a hardship.

Carlye -- our team never had any problems with him eating "moderately sweet" things like a couple of plain cookies, muffins etc. on a daily basis.

[Nejeda]

Whenever my friends ask me what I can and cannot have I tell them I can eat whatever they can. And it's true. Diabetics can eat anything "normal" people can, we just have to eat it in moderation. And that's what I do, and of course, I bolus for whatever I eat.

[xMenace]

Get it in your mind that all types of sugar is bad for your body. Take an electron microspic image of sugar and a comparable sized piece of glass and you'll see remarkable and scary similarities, or so I've been told. I'm a computer programmer; what do I know?

Yes we can eat anything, but if we lose control, even for a short term, we have all these little monsters damaging our bodies. And taking more insulin makes our sugars go down, that and lack of substance makes us hungry, we eat more, we take more, we eat more, we ... get fat. Trust me, cheating will catch up to you.

[Lex4153]

This is a shot in the dark but . . . don't those dips from high to low to high again wear out your blood vessels or something? That we need to keep our blood sugars are level as possible to prevent that? I could have sworn I remember learning that somewhere. Someone help me out.

[notme]

Never heard that Lex. Personally, I eat a fairly healthy diet and keep (white) table sugar to a minimum. Mostly I do that because it is lousy for your body. I have an insulin pump so I can pretty much eat everything I want so long as I know how to bolus for it. That being said......if I eat an unhealthy diet and more calories than I burn, I will get fat like any other person...maybe easier.

So.....I don't do anything to an excess except maybe coffee.

[bandy]

Originally Posted by duck

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.

Duck pretty much said it all - Excellent post!

About blood sugar spikes: Of course it's best to avoid them if possible, but I personally think (and I believe there's science to back it up) that it's a lot better to have a few highs a day, but a lower A1c, than a more even blood sugar, but a higher A1c. That is, minimizing sugar spikes is a good thing, but A1c remains the best indicator of good control.

[DeusXM]

It also depends on the extent of the spike. Contrary to popular belief, people without diabetes get high blood sugar shortly after eating meals. The entire endocrine system is reactive, rather than proactive - ie. your brain only tells your pancreas to release insulin when it detects an increase in blood sugar. I've seen non-diabetics with post-prandials of anything between 6 to 14mmol/l and they are not diabetic or pre-diabetic or have anything wrong with their endocrine system.

Therefore an initial spike is not a problem - it depends on the duration of the spike.