By Parvathy R Krishnan
To eat or not to eat the tempting chocolate cake with the melting frost topping or the cool inviting mountain of ice cream? This is the dilemma of the young diabetic having being told to avoid all sweets forever in life.

Rest assured that if you follow certain basic healthy rules and menu planning strategies you can treat your sweet urges once in a while.

The juvenile diabetic needs the same calories as any non diabetic child of his age so that his growth process continues undisturbed. The healthy rules that apply to any child in the community should be the basis for his/her diabetic meal planning.

Eating healthier for the diabetic means eating enough fibre in all the meals, avoiding high fat foods, opting for low calorie snacks, trying to eat consistently at specified times and maintaining regular physical activity.

The young child with diabetes mellitus should not feel he is an outcast because of his chronic condition. When necessary he/she should know that it is alright to eat sweets as part of the calculated diet plan.

Dos and Dont`s in including sugar/sweets in one`s diet

• The American Dietetic Association advises that from the diet plan given by the dietician, you can replace some of the carbohydrate in a meal for an equal amount of carbohydrate from a sweet. For example, if your lunch consists of one and a half cups of rice, half cup dal, half cup curds, half cup vegetables and an apple, you can reduce rice to 1 cup, skip the apple and include one small jilebi or one small piece of mysore pak which would be equivalent to the grams of carbohydrate you have reduced from the meal.
• Do not over do. It is recommended that one should not exceed 10% of the total calories from simple sugars. This means if your daily calorie prescribed is 2000 kcal, then you have a limit of 200 kcal of simple sugars for the day. If you are opting to have 2 scoops of ice cream then no other form of sugar should be eaten that day. Simple sugars include sweets, chocolates, sugar added to beverages, sugared soft drinks, juices, jam, jelly, jaggery, honey, candies, biscuits, refined flour.
• Sweets should not replace meals or be taken alone as snacks between meals. They should be taken as a component of an otherwise healthy meal. When there is sufficient protein and fibre in the meal, there is less incidence of hyperglycemia.
• Do not make eating sweets a daily habit. Because replacing a healthy option of starch with sugars that are low in minerals and vitamins is not good in the long run. Most sweets are also high in fats and calories. Keep sweets for those special occasions or once a week.
• If you have never had a sweet tooth or urge to eat sugars do not start now. But if you are one of those who love sweets, a little now and then in controlled quantities is better than total abstinence and then binging later when a situation arrives.
• Once you have eaten your bit of prescribed sweet, do not take a second helping. Clean your mouth and move on.

Some sweets that equal 1/2 cup of cooked rice:
1/2 piece Mysore pak 1/2 cup ice cream 2-inch square cake without frost 1/2 jilebi 1/2 besan ka ladoo 1/2 cup jelly 1 tablespoon sweet pongal 1oz sesame ladoo 1/4 cup kheer 1/2 cup fruit juice 5 vanilla wafers 1 oz cup cake

Parvathy R Krishnan, a Nutrition & Dietetics expert, is a member of Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India.