Diabetic food is
actually an obsolete term. But that is not stopping the emotional attachment
diabetic patients have to them nor the feel good factor that the companies are
able to generate and the patients happily get trapped into.
There are an nth
number of manufacturers selling diabetic food products and building a mulit-dollar
business. Diabetic foods are
more expensive than standard products, with "sugar-free" term often misleading.
Mostly, ‘diabetic’ food labeling is applied to sweet food such as biscuits and
chocolate. Because of the confusion that is created by this erroneous labeling,
there is an urgent need to increase the awareness about the recent shift in
dietary policies, which recommends that any food is suitable for people with
diabetes in sensible moderation.
According to recent
guidelines - people can eat sugary food but in low amounts and in a balanced way.
Effectively,
healthy eating advice provided by the authorities is the same for people with
diabetes as it is for those without.
Endocrinologists
and nutrition experts advice a healthy, balanced diet with no need to seek out
specially labeled food. Because a manufacturer labels a food as ‘suitable for
diabetics’ doesn’t mean that other food is necessarily unsuitable for
diabetics.
Because there are
no official regulations over usage of the term, foods bearing the label
‘diabetic’ may not have any advantages over alternative options. Sweet
products, such as marmalades, sweets and chocolate, listed as diabetic options,
may use sugar alcohols instead of sweeteners. Sugar alcohol sweeteners usually
end in ‘ol’ and include sorbitol, maltitol and xylitol. Sugar alcohols are
lower in carbohydrate
than table sugar but may cause an upset stomach or have a laxative effect if
taken in larger quantities.
Further more, items
labeled, as ‘diabetic’ tend to be less healthy options, which could undermine
efforts to promote healthy eating.
No comments:
Post a Comment