Food Safety | Will eating too much sweets cause diabetes? Listen to what the doctor says

Diabetes is related to the patient's unreasonable daily living habits. Will a love of sweets lead to diabetes? Today, based on clinical experience, I will share with you whether eating sweets will increase blood sugar. What kind of food will increase blood sugar?

Is diabetes mainly caused by eating sweets?

There is not much necessary connection between being ill and eating sweets. Diabetes is a systemic metabolic disease characterized by hyperglycemia caused by insufficient insulin secretion or pancreatic islet dysfunction. The main factors are genetics, obesity or long-term calorie diet, which is not necessarily related to long-term eating sweets.

Can I eat fruit if I have diabetes?

Dietary control is indeed something that diabetic patients need to pay attention to, but some people are afraid to eat fruit, and some patients think that fruit has sugar and cannot be eaten. These are not only not conducive to the control of diabetes, but also cause symptoms of nutritional imbalance. If you eat fruit for a long time, you are prone to nutritional deficiencies, and if you don’t eat meat, the protein supplement is insufficient. Therefore, diabetic patients should reasonably consume staple food, vegetables, fruits, protein, and fat every day to ensure the normal nutritional needs of the human body. We can choose low GI foods among similar foods. Reduce the glycemic index of each meal. If some patients have already developed nutritional imbalance, we can appropriately supplement zero sucrose added oral complete nutritional supplements or low GI formula milk rich in dietary fiber under the guidance of the hospital nutritionist.

Can I eat xylitol foods casually?

Diabetic patients can eat xylitol foods. Compared with sucrose, xylitol has the advantage of low calories, so patients who like to eat sweets can eat some xylitol foods appropriately, but avoid eating too much. Less than 20% of xylitol is absorbed in the intestines, which can easily cause diarrhea. In addition, excessive intake can easily cause an increase in triglycerides in the blood. Xylitol also contains calories, so it should not be eaten too much.

Will eating too much starchy food cause diabetes?

Starchy foods may cause diabetes. Although starch is not sugar in terms of composition and structure, starchy foods will eventually turn into glucose after entering the body and being digested and absorbed through the intestines. These glucose will then be absorbed by the small intestinal cells and transferred to the blood, which will increase the blood sugar index in the body. Therefore, if you consume a large amount of foods containing high amounts of starch for a long time, it will cause blood sugar to rise. For example, staple foods such as rice, flour, and glutinous rice that have been finely processed are thought to be quickly absorbed by the human body, which will directly lead to a surge in the blood sugar index after a meal. The increased index can be comparable to that of sugars with high sugar content such as glucose and sucrose. People's production and life are definitely inseparable from starchy foods. Although the human body consumes starchy foods every day, there will be no adverse effects as long as the intake dose is controlled.

Expert interviewed: Chen Bo, chief physician of the Nephrology and Endocrinology Department, Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine