SUGARS

Sugar, especially refined or free sugar is NOT ideal for prediabetes. However, it is found in almost everything either as refined sugar, sweeteners or natural sugar in fruits. You cannot totally get rid of sugar, but you can eat the right sugars and minimise the not so good sugars.

Sugars are basically a type of simple carbohydrate and there are several types of sugar.

Glucose and fructose = sucrose and sucrose = sugar. This is sugar that is used in baking, put on cereals and in your tea and coffee.

Then you have naturally occurring sugars in things like fruit, vegetables and milk. These are better for prediabetes.

If you are prediabetic the aim should be to eat less of the refined or "free" sugars which are found in foods and drinks and often added by the food manufacturer. These can however, be added by us at home or a chef if out.

These are foods in which sugars are frequently found in ie biscuits, chocolate, cakes, supermarket honey, golden syrup, maple syrup, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.

Sugar which occurs naturally in foods such as fruit, vegetables and diary products is fine and are allowed. However, be aware that some fruits such as grapes and bananas may have a higher natural sugar content so may need to be eaten in smaller quantities.

Having said all the above, do bear in mind that your body does have to have some sugar to live, so you can never get rid of it totally.

REDUCING SUGAR IN YOUR FOOD

Instead of having high-sugar jams, marmalade, syrup, chocolate spread or honey on your toast, try sliced banana, avocado or full fat cream cheese instead.

Check the labels on foods to help you ascertain which foods have less added sugar, or go for the reduced or lower sugar versions.

Reduce sugar in home made recipes. We've tried this and it works. The only things you can't do this for is meringues and jam and homemade ice cream. Most recipes can withstand you putting half the amount of sugar in or leaving it out altogether.

Always go for tinned fruit in juice not in syrup.

Choose breakfast cereals that are unsweetened such as wholegrain breakfast cereals. Those coated with honey or chocolate are a definite no. Weetabix and bran flakes are good options, but be sure to check the ingredients on the packaging as for example Sainsburys 750 g own brand box of bran flakes contains 2.4 g sugar or 3%, and Kelloggs branded bran flakes, 750 g box, contain 4.2 g sugar or 5%. Whichever you choose for breakfast you can add fruit to as a sweetener for example berries are a good option.

Sugar Withdrawal

When reducing sugar in your food we should mention sugar withdrawal and how you may feel.

For some, not everyone, giving up sugar can come with some unpleasant effects which may make it hard to keep going with the diet change. These symptoms of withdrawal will pass, but in the meantime you need to be somewhat steadfast and try to forge ahead with the new diet as you will feel better when you come out the other side.

Some of the symptoms you may get are:

Depression
Anxiety
Brain fog
Cravings
Headaches
Fatigue
Dizziness

INGREDIENTS LISTS

Check the ingredients list on foods to see whether the food is high in free sugars.

Sugars added to foods and drinks must be included in the ingredients list. Ingredient lists always start with the ingredient which is the highest/most of in the product. Sugar may well be at or near the top of the list. If it is the food is very high in sugar.

Watch out for other products added to food and drinks. These are "hidden" ways of telling you there are sugars in the product. ie cane sugar, honey, brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate/purées, corn syrup, fructose, sucrose, glucose, crystalline sucrose, nectars (such as blossom), maple and agave syrups, dextrose, maltose, molasses and treacle.

LABELS ON THE FRONT OF PACKAGING

There are labels containing nutrition information on the front of some food packaging. These can often be found particularly on supermarket own brand foods in the form of a red, amber and green colour coding also known as Traffic Light Food Labelling (more info on the link). This means you can see at a glance whether a food is high in sugar or not.

Some labels show the amount of sugar in food as a percentage of the Reference Intake (RI). RI is a guide to the approximate daily amount of nutrients (fats, saturated fats, salt and sugar) and energy you need for a healthy diet.

LABELS ON THE BACK OF PACKAGING

Look at the back of packaging to see which sugars are on the nutrition labels. It usually sits under the carbohydrate information.

Products are considered to either be high or low in sugar if they fall above or below the following thresholds:

High: more than 22.5 g of total sugars per 100 g
Low: 5 g or less of total sugars per 100 g
Medium per 100 g sits between the high and low readings

The term "of which sugars" describes all sugars in the product from all sources so could be from milk and fruit as well as things like honey, syrup etc. Something like plain yoghurt may have on the label that it contains 10 g per serving of sugar, but these sugars will be friendly sugars in the form of milk.

Sugar in fruit and dairy products is natural sugar and is good for prediabetes provided it is not juiced or puréed. This is a healthier choice.

A note here that if the ingredients list says just "carbohydrate" be aware that this will include carbohydrates that aren't good for prediabetes, but also you won't be able to see how much sugar in the item. Another way of checking this would be to look at the ingredients list as sugar will be near the top if there is a lot of it in the product.

SUGAR FREE

Be aware when foods advocate they are sugar free it is not necessarily the case. They are likely to have "sweeteners" in them instead. There is nothing wrong with this, but will not help you to lose that sweet tooth. Better avoided if you can.

Artificial sweeteners are:

Acesulfame potassium
Advantame
Aspartame
Neotame
Saccharin
Sucralose
Luo han guo
Purified stevia leaf extracts

Coca Cola is a good example of added sweeteners. They do a zero sugar option, but when you look at the label there are artificial sweeteners in there. Having said that if you can't do without Coca Cola for example then do have the zero sugar option as it will be better for you than the full sugar version. The same goes for other foods.

Lots of foods too that advocate low fat may have sugars added to them so beware.

HONEY

A note here about honey.

Shop bought honey has had things added to it like syrups during the production process which makes it cheaper and go further in production, making it cheap to purchase. In our experience this will make your blood glucose spike a fair bit.

A check was done by the Honey Authenticity Network in November 2024. They carried out DNA tests which were conducted by Estonia’s Celvia laboratory found that more than 90% of honey jars from major UK retailers were contaminated with cheap fillers like sugar syrups. All five samples from local British beekeepers passed with flying colours.

Cheap honey is often processed sugar syrup fed to bees, who then store it in the hive. When extracted, it’s classified as honey, but it has no natural elements in it whatsoever. Honey should be pure nectar, directly from the plant source, without any interference.

Therefore, if you can't do without honey, or need a small fix of it, make sure you get honey from a local bee keeper. The difference is local raw honey is straight from the hive with nothing added to it in the process. It is unheated, unprocessed, and unfiltered which preserves 100% of its natural goodness. It tastes better, is good for hay fever sufferers if local, and spikes your blood sugar less, but will raise it. It will be more expensive to buy, but is less threatening to your body than honey bought from a supermarket.

Having said all that, honey should be treated with caution for a prediabetes and again this goes to planning ahead with your foods if you want to have some.

SUGARS

Contact us:

UK Prediabetes Support