My husband has recently been diagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes. He has a very sweet tooth, but we have figured out most things. I have lots of fruit to preserve and normally I just throw in the sugar - my question is - if I substitute with Sucryl will the fruit still stay sterilised?

Any other suggestions would be very welcomed
Ruth

Ruth Bond wrote:

My husband has recently been diagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes. He has
a very sweet tooth, but we have figured out most things. I have lots of
fruit to preserve and normally I just throw in the sugar - my question
is - if I substitute with Sucryl will the fruit still stay sterilised?

Any other suggestions would be very welcomed
Ruth


Hi Ruth...

Fruit is difficult... because the fruit itself is very high carb.

If you want to try making jam without sugar, do a web search on Sugar
Free canning... that should give you the info you need.

In the meantime here's some info for newbies:

Sounds like you're planning a move to take control of your diabetes... good
for you.

There is so much to absorb... you don't have to rush into anything. Begin
by using your best weapon in this war, your meter. You won't keel over
today, you have time to experiment, test, learn, test and figure out just
how your body and this disease are getting along. The most important
thing you can do to learn about yourself and diabetes is test test test.

More than most anything, what you eat will affect your diabetes and
your blood glucose numbers.

And more than anything you eat, carbs will affect your diabetes and
your blood glucose numbers.

So, the most important information you can begin to compile about
yourself, is how your body handles carbs.

This sounds like you would need a low carb food plan right?

You don't... what you need to uncover is YOUR Personalized Carb Number.

Which actually works better for most everyone. Because low to one
person is wildly high to another, but waaaaay too low for someone
else.

Is low carb less than 30g a day? Is it anything less than the
Pyramid reccomendations?

Finding your Personalized Carb Number is easy.

Here's how you can figure out your own Personalized Carb Number.

The single biggest question a diabetic has to answer is:

What do I eat?

Unfortunately, the answer is pretty confusing.

What confounds us all is the fact that different diabetics can get great
results on wildly different food plans. Some of us here achieve
great blood glucose control eating a high complex carbohydrate diet.
Others find that anything over 75 - 100g of carbs a day is too
much. Still others are somewhere in between.

At the beginning all of us felt frustrated. We wanted to be handed
THE way to eat, to ensure our continued health. But we all
learned that there is no one way. Each of us had to find our own path,
using the experience of those that went before, but still having
to discover for ourselves how OUR bodies and this disease were coexisting.

Ask questions, but remember each of us discovered on our own what works best
for us. You can use our experiences as jumping off points, but eventually
you'll work up a successful plan that is yours alone.

What you are looking to discover is how different foods affect you. As I'm
sure you've read, carbohydrates (sugars, wheat, rice... the things our
Grandmas called "starches") raise blood sugars the most rapidly. Protein
and fat do raise them, but not as high and much more slowly... so if you're
a T2, generally the insulin your body still makes may take care of the rise.

You might want to try some experiments.

First: Eat whatever you've been
currently eating... but write it all down.
Test yourself at the following times:

Upon waking (fasting)
1 hour after each meal
2 hours after each meal
At bedtime

That means 8 x each day. What you will discover by this is how long
after a meal your highest reading comes... and how fast you return to
"normal". Also, you may see that a meal that included bread, fruit or
other carbs gives you a higher reading.

Then for the next few days, try to curb your carbs. Eliminate breads,
cereals, rices, beans, any wheat products, potato, corn, fruit... get all
your carbs from veggies. Test at the same schedule above.

If you try this for a few days, you may find some pretty damn good
readings. It's worth a few days to discover.

Eventually you can slowly add back carbs until you see them affecting your
meter.

The thing about this disease... though we share much in common and we
need to
follow certain guidelines... in the end, each of our bodies dictate our
treatment and our success.

The closer we get to non-diabetic numbers, the greater chance we have of
avoiding horrible complications. The key here is AIM... I know that
everyone is at a different point in their disease... and it is progressive.
But, if we aim for the best numbers and do our best, we give ourselves the
best shot at heath we've got.
That's all we can do.

Here's my opinion on what numbers to aim for, they are non-diabetic numbers.

FBG under 100
One hour after meals under 140
Two hours after meals under 120

or for those in the mmol parts of the world:

Fasting Under 6
One hour after meals Under 8
Two hours after meals Under 6.5

Recent studies have indicated that the most important numbers are your
"after meal" numbers. They may be the most indicative of future
complications, especially heart problems.

Listen to your doctor, but you are the leader of your diabetic
care team. While his /her advice is learned, it is not absolute. You
will end up knowing much more about your body and how it's handling
diabetes than your doctor will. Your meter is your best weapon.

Just remember, we're not in a race or a competition with anyone but
ourselves... Play around with your food plan... TEST TEST TEST. Learn what
foods cause spikes, what foods cause cravings... Use your body as a science
experiment.

You'll read about a lot of different ways people use to control their
diabetes... Many are diametrically opposed. After awhile you'll learn that
there is no one size fits all around here. Take some time to experiment
and you'll soon discover the plan that works for you.

Best of luck!

Jennifer

"Ruth Bond" wrote in message
...
My husband has recently been diagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes. He has a
very sweet tooth, but we have figured out most things. I have lots of fruit
to preserve and normally I just throw in the sugar - my question is - if I
substitute with Sucryl will the fruit still stay sterilised?

Any other suggestions would be very welcomed

I don't know what kind of fruit you have or what you are going to do with
it. But I canned pears and applesauce this past fall using a minimal amount
of sugar. I made extra light syrup, but used about 1/2 the amount of sugar
called for. In canning, the sugar can help the food to keep from
discoloring and can also help to prevent it from breaking down too much in
the jar. Adding this small amount of sugar is not enough to up the carb
count significantly. I gave away my canned fruit to diabetics and
non-diabetics alike. All loved them and nobody thought the fruit needed
extra sweetener.

Others have already told you that fruit is high in carbs. And carbs are
what raises our BG (blood glucose). Sugar is really no worse for us than
other forms of carbs except that it's empty calories and can cause tooth
decay.

There is a newsgroup for preserving or canning fruit. They might be of more
help to you there. I can't remember the address offhand.

--
See my webpage:
http://mysite.verizon.net/juliebove/index.htm

I think it's Smuckers or one of those name brands that has a sugar free jam,
as well as Pollners. They have sugar free. They really don't taste bad at
all, and if you just pass your knife over your bread and not load on the
jam, a little bit should be fine. It's all about portion control.


"Julie Bove" wrote in message
news:Em%Ld.3177$uc.578@trnddc03...



"Ruth Bond" wrote in message
...
My husband has recently been diagnosed as having Type 2 diabetes. He has a
very sweet tooth, but we have figured out most things. I have lots of
fruit
to preserve and normally I just throw in the sugar - my question is - if
I
substitute with Sucryl will the fruit still stay sterilised?

Any other suggestions would be very welcomed

I don't know what kind of fruit you have or what you are going to do with
it. But I canned pears and applesauce this past fall using a minimal
amount
of sugar. I made extra light syrup, but used about 1/2 the amount of
sugar
called for. In canning, the sugar can help the food to keep from
discoloring and can also help to prevent it from breaking down too much in
the jar. Adding this small amount of sugar is not enough to up the carb
count significantly. I gave away my canned fruit to diabetics and
non-diabetics alike. All loved them and nobody thought the fruit needed
extra sweetener.

Others have already told you that fruit is high in carbs. And carbs are
what raises our BG (blood glucose). Sugar is really no worse for us than
other forms of carbs except that it's empty calories and can cause tooth
decay.

There is a newsgroup for preserving or canning fruit. They might be of
more
help to you there. I can't remember the address offhand.

--
See my webpage:
http://mysite.verizon.net/juliebove/index.htm