Diabetics now represent a relatively large and growing segment of the Indian populace and with India wearing the crown of 'The Diabetes Capital of the World' it is not surprising that businesses are attempting to address the specific needs of diabetics.
One such thriving business is that of traditional Indian sweets labelled 'sugar-free'. They are sweet but supposedly do not contain any sugar and therefore safe for diabetics. Are they really sugar-free and safe? When I see something marked sugar-free I always ask the guy at the counter what has been used as the sweetner instead of sugar. The reply that I get most often is - dates. And then I am told that dates are fine as they are 'naturally' sweet and so OK for diabetics. The other choice of sweetners are the common fig/anjeer(Ficus carica) or apricot/jardalu. Dates, figs and apricots all have sugars and Glycemic Indices (GI) in the medium range i.e. between 56-69. Therefore it is wrong to claim that the sweets are sugar-free.
However, all of them are rich in terms of nutrition. Therefore I would be inclined to think that a small quantity of these 'sugar-free' sweets should not be a problem if otherwise the prescribed regimen for medication, exercise and diet plan is being followed with some compensation in diet for the small amount of sweets consumed.
The above sweeteners (in fact all sweeteners) cost much more than equivalent amount of sugar needed to achieve the same sweetness. But how can I be sure that plain sugar was not used? The makers of the sweets could have lowered the quantity of natural sweeteners and added sugar to achieve the same sweetness. It may be difficult to conclude for or against the idea even after testing for blood sugar levels because the natural sweetners have a medium level glycemic index and therefore would certainly be raising the blood sugar levels to an extent where it would become impossible to distinguish between their effect and that of plain sugar.
Maybe sprinkling a bit of powdered cinnamon on the sweets before having them may make them safer?
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