Diabetic Chocolate

Relax… YOU CAN eat chocolate

Our grab a snack, convenience food lifestyles of recent times have resulted in a massive increase in diabetes – so much so that many experts have labelled it an epidemic.

But being diagnosed with diabetes does not mean that you have to give up your favourite treats for good – it just means that from now on you are going to have to be a little bit more careful.

The traditional view of how to deal with diabetes was to remove sugar from the body completely – very bad for chocolate lovers – and fortunately thanks to research and advances in our understanding a view that not many experts prescribe to any more.

In recent years studies have been uncovering the multitude of health benefits of dark chocolate – it does after all have many of the same benefits that can be found in dark vegetables. There are antioxidents, free radicals and flavoids, all of which can be good for us.

Chocolate is actually one of the richest sources of antioxidants on the planet and the Flavanols in chocolate have been shown to help improve insulin use in the body. It is no wonder that many are now seeing chocolate as a valid way to help treat diabetes – quite a turnaround wouldn’t you say!

• Improved insulin use from Flavanols reduces the strain on an insulin deprived system
• Increased antioxidents help with diabetic health problems such as heart disease and weight gain
• Chocolate assists the body in releasing nitric oxide. This is a natural compound that helps blood vessels relax, improves circulation, and lowers blood pressure

So, the good news is that the old school way of dealing with chocolate if you have diabetes (don’t eat any) – is out.

The bad news is that you are going to have to be very picky and careful to ensure that you…

a) Eat chocolate properly

b) Find a chocolate that you actually like I (and doesn’t give you diarrhoea)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

As you are probably aware diabetic and sugar free chocolate has been around for a long time. What you are also probably aware of (and have no doubt experienced) is that diabetic chocolate can often taste bad. It quite often has a waxy feel and taste and this is because some of the important ingredients have been replaced with oils. Just as with Vegans the key to a good diabetic chocolate is choosing one low in additives and high in cocoa and natural ingredients.

As a Diabetic you therefore need to opt for Dark Chocolate . Dark chocolate is high in cocoa and this is where all of the antioxidents are. Milk and white chocolate are low in cocoa and therefore low in antioxidents. Also, when you lower the cocoa content the result is almost always an increase in sugar.

You do need a sweetener however, and although there are a number of sugar alternatives out there most makers use Malitol which is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol. This sugar replacement cannot be absorbed into the blood stream and therefore does not require any insulin to break it down. Many diabetic branded chocolates are labelled as such because they use Malitol.

One thing to watch out for – eating too much diabetic chocolate can act as a laxative.
Or, it can if one of the main ingredients in your diabetic chocolate is polyols. You are only allowed 20 grams a day of this sugar replacement and some manufacturers have over 6 per individual chocolate in a box – a sure way to ruin your Christmas.

There are now a small numbers of makers looking to avoid sugar alcohol altogether because of the potential disruption to your digestive system – one such substance that I have heard of being used is sugar fructose. It seems as though 100% natural chocolate is out there – you’ve just got look hard for it.

And don’t think that sugar free will mean greatly reduced calories – it won’t. You will be a bit better off but not by much and sugar free unfortunately does not mean saturated fat free.

How about this for a nutty idea. This is a great tip – Diabetics need low glycemic index foods and whereas dark chocolate comes in at about 50 on the index, when you add some nuts it drops to 33 – very handy!

So what does this all mean…

Right now there is a huge range of diabetic and sugar-free chocolate on the market. Not all of it is good but some of it is absolutely marvellous. Some of it will taste like the ‘real thing’ and others will make you ill.

Your Options

• Eat the chocolate that you want – but strictly control your intake of it. See it as a treat and not a part of your everyday snacking
• Make the move to Dark chocolate. You will still have to eat in moderation (alas, don’t we all) but you will not have to be quite so careful. A top tip is to eat your dark chocolate with hazlenuts. Diabetics need to eat low Glycemic Index foods and the addition of nuts to chocolate greatly reduces the GI score
• Find a diabetic or sugar free chocolate brand/range that you like. This may take a bit of experimentation but the chances are good that you will eventually find a chocolate that you personally may not be able to distinguish from the real thing.
• Get to know your ingredients and what works for you (and what doesn’t like too much polyols)