Originally Posted by Rubyrednails2
Just wondering about the staying away from sugar free foods. I thought that was good to use if you were diabetic.
These are good to use, but they are high in carbs, so you have to watch your carb intake. These are not necessarily low-calorie foods. Ask me how I know. I, too, am diabetic and was diagnosed 18 years ago. A teaspoon of table sugar (sucrose) at a meal in a serving of food is allowed. I can use Sweet & Low or other sacchrin brands and I am all right. Equal is okay in cold, but looses it sweetness in heated (cooked) foods or drinks. Splenda gives me gas and makes my stomach feel like it is turning over and over. I have tried a little of Truvia and its sweetness is almost the same as sacchrin, but expensive. You can go to the health food store and buy fructose (a sugar from fruit) and mix it with the sugar substitutes to bake with. I would mix it 1/2 to 1/2 ratio and that depends on the diabetics response to using fructose. High fructose corn syrup in any product is worse than consuming table sugar. A heart healthy diet and a diabetic diet is almost the same--just adjust the sugar consumption allowed for heart patients to what is allowed on a diabetic diet. Most all the above info was good. If you can get in a support group for diabetics (or heart patients), you won't feel so overwhelmed. That's what I did at first and it helped a lot.