One of the things I heard a lot about after my son was diagnosed was low sugar eating. Not only are celiacs much more likely to have diabetes mellitus, (aka Type 1 diabetes) but we are also prone to a host of inflammatory diseases made worse by sugar and fungal infections that feed off of sugar.
The problem is that most people define sugar incorrectly. So here are a few things I learned the hard way.
1) “No added sugar” is largely meaningless
2) Agave, maple syrup and honey may all be more environmentally correct and contain trace minerals but metabolically they are still forms of sugar
3) Refined fruit products (apple juice, date bars, raisins) can contain obscene amounts of sugar
4) Sugar hides in some pretty strange places
There are two facts that I memorized
1) Table sugar has about 15 calories per teaspoon.
2) A teaspoon of sugar has a mass of about 4 grams
This is important because I would read boxes in the grocery store full of foods with “no added sugar” thinking that this label meant something about sugar content.
It doesn’t.
For example juice was banned when I read that a single serving of juice had say 140 calories from sugar. This didn’t seem like a lot until I realized that it was the equivalent of NINE teaspoons of sugar. Coffee with that much sugar would be undrinkable. How could I give my child something like that on a daily basis when whole fruit with more nutrients, pectin and fiber was available?
I couldn’t.
I had a similar reaction to gluten free fruit and nut bars. They were made with dates. I love dates. Guess what has a top glycemic index rating? What food do you think really makes your blood sugar spike. You got it. The answer is…dates. Again one bar contained 28 grams of sugars (none added, just what was in the dried fruit) which at 4 grams per teaspoon meant that it was seven teaspoons of sugar per serving. The bar just isn’t large enough to justify that.
Although I may be making you depressed with my talk of sugary dried fruit or granola bars and the sugar in juice (that sugar content is why the doctor doesn’t want you to give it to your kids), you do need some sugar. The sugar in whole fresh and frozen fruit is not absorbed all that quickly and it comes with lots of vitamins and fiber. In addition, while grapes do have a lot of sugar, other sweet fruits like berries do not.
And there are also some foods you may be avoiding that have less sugar than you might think. A lot of my favorite dark chocolates have very little sugar. So do some of my favorite Via drinks from Starbucks.
So while others feel virtuous with their juice and their all natural granola or fruit and nut bars feel free to join me for the much healthier snack of dark chocolate (in my case some dark chocolate covered almonds) and a large pumpkin spice Via made with unsweetened flax milk.
Who knew that coffee and chocolate were better than dried fruit bars and juice?
I love health food.
