Dr. Bill,
I hope you are planning to read Taubes' "Good Calories Bad Calories." He points to some interesting research suggesting that fructose (which makes up 1/2 of the sugar molecule content of sucrose) is more damaging to the body than glucose.
It's worth consideration. In addition, fructose flies under the radar because your meter doesn't measure it. But it circulates in your blood stream and your liver turns it into fat and if the research Taubes cites is accurate, fructose may cause more significant cross linking of proteins than does glucose.
He points out that fructose is much stickier than glucose, which you can see just by comparing a sugar candy to a glucose candy like smarties. It is that stickiness applied to proteins that kills us and raises A1c.
Dr. Bill,
This reminded me of my diabetes dietitian telling me I could even work in a pepsi and a snickers bar when I am carb counting.
Personally I rather have a homemade cookie over a sugar free cookie since all cookies have some form of sugar.
Now for candy I will do sugar free but I can not do mannitol. I am sure its the first ingredient in Exlax if this is still around.
I believe the whole key to sweets is the same for the rest. Its taking control of our diabetes with our eating and with all low and high carb foods in moderation.
Good plug for your website.
Bill, sugar is just like anything else we eat, it is all about serving size. Sugar causes higher carbs for the same product, so something with sugar in it means smaller portion sizes.
I like to eat the mini- candy bars. For example, Reeces minis are listed with 5 a serving size and 29 grams of carbs. I'll eat 2 or 3 at a time for a snack and one carb choice, or eat a couple at the end of a meal for dessert, planning on the rest of the meal to count so I can eat a sweet treat.
I've also gone to buying diet fruit juices, as I like to drink things with more flavor than water, tea, and coffee sometimes. Main thing is to look at the label for the carbs.
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I think whether or not to avoid sugar depends on (1) whether you're controlling with a low-carb diet or a high-starch diet that essentially includes a lot of glucose already, so a little sugar won't make much difference and (2) whether or not you're using insulin and can increase insulin amounts when you eat more carbs.
The other factor is that a lot of "sugarfree" products contain just as much flour and other starches as the regular products.
Furthermore, some people find that sugar alcohols, especially maltitol, which is half glucose and half sugar alcohol, raise BG just as much as sucrose.
We're all different. So for me the essential thing is, "Does this product raise my BG significantly when I eat it under condition X or condition Y?"