Diet taboos for patients with blood sugar

There are no foods that patients with blood sugar must not touch. What they really need to be wary of are three types of eating behaviors that can cause blood sugar to spike rapidly, fluctuate greatly, and even interfere with the effectiveness of anti-diabetic drugs. The core of all taboos is to "control blood sugar load" rather than completely abstaining from a certain type of food.

Last week, I went to the endocrinology department for a follow-up consultation with an elder in my family who has been suffering from diabetes for 10 years. I happened to meet an aunt in her 60s who came to the doctor with half a bag of sugar-free mooncakes and asked the doctor why her blood sugar had soared to 13.8 after a meal. The doctor looked at her food diary and laughed angrily: This so-called sugar-free mooncake does not contain sucrose, but the first three ingredients on the list are wheat flour, maltodextrin, and vegetable oil. The carbohydrate content is higher than that of ordinary mooncakes. Eating one is equivalent to eating two bowls of white rice. Can your blood sugar not be high?

To be honest, I have helped many people with diabetes around me organize their food records. 80% of the blood sugar levels that exceed the standard are not due to secretly eating a few bites of cake, but to stepping on the "sugar-free food" trap. Let me be objective here. The current national definition of "sugar-free" is that the sugar content of food is ≤0.5g per 100g. It does not say that it cannot contain carbohydrates or starch. Many businesses take advantage of this loophole and use refined flour as the base, add maltodextrin and fructose syrup to enhance the flavor, and add some xylitol to claim it is "special for sugar control." Different organizations have different attitudes towards this type of food. Traditional nutrition guidance recommends avoiding all prepackaged sugar-free cakes. The latest version of the "China Type 2 Diabetes Prevention and Treatment Guidelines" also mentions that if you are really greedy, under the premise of controlling the total calories, choose products that do not have refined grains and dextrin in the first three ingredients on the list. It is not impossible to eat 1/4 piece at a time. The premise is that you have to test your blood sugar after eating, so don't lie to yourself.

Compared with visible sugar, the "invisible blood sugar killers" hidden in daily diet are the key to many people's failure to control sugar. Don't believe it, an old sugar lover told me a while ago that he didn't eat anything sweet for lunch, so he drank two bowls of glutinous millet porridge. After eating, he felt dizzy and his blood sugar level was 12.7. In fact, when the soft cereal enters the stomach, the starch has been fully gelatinized. It is like pouring sugar directly into the blood vessels, and the blood sugar rises like a roller coaster. The rate of rising sugar is not much slower than drinking sugar water. Endocrinologists often say "eat dry and not thin" is not a rigid rule. Some doctors will also suggest that if you really want to drink thin, mix half of the whole grains such as red beans and oats in advance, and boil it for no more than 20 minutes. Eat two bites of green vegetables and lean meat before drinking. The blood sugar level can be reduced by about 40%. There is no need to drink hot porridge to control sugar.

There’s another pitfall that many people don’t know: don’t touch freshly squeezed juices and commercially available “sugar-free drinks.” There used to be a sugar patient in his 40s. He was afraid of the heat in summer and did not dare to eat popsicles. He drank two glasses of orange juice every day. He felt that it was healthy without adding sugar. As a result, his blood sugar was above 10 for a week in a row. In fact, after the cell wall of the fruit is broken, all the dietary fiber is filtered out, and the fructose is directly absorbed by the intestines, raising blood sugar 2-3 times faster than eating oranges directly. As for those sugar-free Cokes and sugar-free sparkling water with added sugar substitutes, there is currently a lot of controversy in the academic community: some studies believe that long-term drinking of sugar substitutes will disturb the intestinal flora and reduce insulin sensitivity. Other clinicians believe that if you are really craving for something sweet, drinking an occasional can is much better than drinking full-sugar drinks, and you don’t have to kill them all.

When it comes to the most controversial dietary taboos, alcohol certainly ranks high on the list. Some doctors will require people with diabetes to avoid alcohol altogether. After all, alcohol will interfere with the metabolism of anti-diabetic drugs and easily induce hypoglycemia. Especially for people with diabetes who have fatty liver and pancreatic problems, drinking once is equivalent to adding a burden to the organs. However, some doctors will leave room for people with diabetes who have stable blood sugar and no complications: it is not impossible to occasionally drink low-alcohol white wine or dry red wine of less than 1 tael, provided that you do not drink it on an empty stomach, eat some staple food before drinking, and don’t be lazy and remember to measure your blood sugar after drinking. Sweet wine and beer are inherently high in carbohydrates, so don’t touch them if you can.

To be honest, there is really no need to make yourself miserable when it comes to controlling sugar. I have seen an old diabetic patient who has been diagnosed with diabetes for 22 years. In the summer, he would dig up half an iced watermelon and eat it. After eating, he would walk around the neighborhood for 40 minutes, and his blood sugar level after the meal was still stable below 7.8. After all, everyone’s metabolism and medication plan are different. Memorizing the contraindication list is useless. It is better to measure your blood sugar 2 hours after eating a food you have never tried before. Your own body’s reaction is the most accurate dietary standard.