Does Diet 7 Up Affect Blood Sugar in Diabetics?

Diabetics must be careful about their consumption of sugar-loaded foods. Even diet drinks may still contain some sugar. Beverages like Diet 7Up, however, are completely sugar-free and an acceptable part of the diabetic diet.

What is Diabetes?

According to diabetes.org, diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin; 7.8 percent of the population has diabetes. Diabetics must follow a regimen of diet and exercise that maintains control over their blood sugars, or the amount of glucose in their bloodstream. Prolonged, elevated blood sugars can cause circulation problems, which leads to damage of major organs.

How Do Sugar-Free Foods Help?

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Sugar-free foods contain little to no sugar. They can help diabetics by allowing them to eat or drink certain foods without worrying about how the food will affect their blood sugars. Sugar-free foods are usually low- or no-carbohydrate versions of carb-heavy foods, such as sodas, breads, cakes and pies.

Sugar-Free Issues

Unfortunately, not all sugar-free foods are made the same. Remakes of carbohydrate-based foods, such as cakes or pies, may not use sugar as an ingredient. However, they may still include flour and milk, which can raise blood sugar. Sugar-free foods may also use sugar alcohols, such as maltitol and sorbitol. According to ifc.org, these have a much slower digestion rate, and therefore require very little to no insulin to process. Some of the sugar alcohol is indigestible, which can lead to uncomfortable side effects, including gas, bloating and cramps. In addition, some people have an allergic reaction to the chemical phenylalanine, which is in the sugar-free sweetener aspartame. This is one of the ingredients in Diet 7 Up.

Diet 7 Up and Diabetes

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Diet 7 Up is safe for diabetics to drink. The only caveat is if the diabetic has phenylketonuria, a metabolic disorder that cannot handle phenylalanine, because he will have a reaction to the aspartame. There are no carbohydrate-bearing ingredients in Diet 7 Up.

Warnings

Even though Diet 7 Up is safe to drink for diabetics, portion control is still important. Too much of any substance is unhealthy. In addition, Diet 7 Up contains sodium—only 45 grams, but still worthy of note for diabetics. Many with Type II diabetes suffer from high blood pressure, which is affected by sodium intake.