Foods to Avoid on a Diabetic Diet

Diabetes can take on two different forms, Type 1 and Type 2, but both present a difficulty or inability to naturally process sugar. Diabetics can, in theory, eat anything, but there are foods that are worth avoiding to easily maintain a good diabetic diet.

Sugar

Refined sugar, found in candies, syrups and sweeteners, is definitely a food to avoid. This spikes the blood sugar for diabetics and is difficult to process because it dumps sugar quickly into the blood supply.

Artificial Sweeteners

According to Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP, while aspartame, Splenda and other artificial sweeteners have no effect on blood sugar, studies show that ingesting fake sugar increases a craving for real sugar, something to avoid for diabetics (see Resources).

Non-Diet Sodas

Regular sodas are filled with sugar and sugary syrups that a diabetic person has difficulty processing.

Simple Starches

Foods like white bread, potatoes, pasta and other simple starches break down very quickly into sugar, having the same effect as regular sugar.

The "-ose"s

Beware of high concentration of anything ending in "-ose," because they are all various types of sugars. Milk has a lot of milk sugar, or lactose; fruits like raisins and dried cranberries have fructose and glucose, found in many high starch (or glycemic) foods, is the chemical known as sugar.

Resources

• Sugar Substitutes and Potential Dangers