Sugar Free.
That was my nephew Alec’s nickname on his high school baseball team. One of the coaches called him “Sugar Free” because he played with type 1 diabetes. It was fun … and a reminder that he played with type 1. We loved it
When it comes to food, sugar free implies that it’s for someone with diabetes. Sure enough, when ‘Sugar Free’ is entered into an artificial intelligence (AI) title search, the results include:
- Diabetic ice cream
- Diabetic candy
- Diabetic cake recipes
- Sugar free ice cream for diabetics
- Low-Calorie chocolate chips
Now check out this sugar free chocolate candy that I passed in the grocery store:
One serving is 1/8 of a cup. That’s a tease serving … who eats 1/8 cup of chocolate candy? Let’s go with 1/4 cup … that’s consuming 36 grams of carbohydrates, 240 calories, and 30 grams of sugar alcohols (*).
By comparison, with 36 grams of carbohydrates, we could also eat:
- Over 6 cups of Skinny Pop popcorn
- 2 Fit Crunch bars (my go-to snack)
- 28 jelly beans (my go-to solution when low)
According to the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration), food is sugar-free if it contains less than 0.5 grams of sugar per serving. While this product meets that definition, I find the sugar free label on this product misleading for people living with diabetes.
Sugar-free should mean something helpful for people living with diabetes … just like a fun, informative, and well-intended nickname.
(*) A side effect of sugar alcohols is … bad exhaust 🙁