A healthy diabetes diet should focus on nutrient-rich foods such as whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, lean protein and reduced-fat dairy products. However, you can generally still incorporate some sweets into your diabetes diet. Keep portions small and save eating sweets, such as cranberry orange cheesecake, for holiday get-togethers or other special occasions.
Artificial Sweetener
When the title of a menu item is preceded by the word "diabetic," it usually means the menu item was prepared using artificial sweetener instead of sugar. Artificial sweeteners, unlike sugar, do not contain carbohydrates and, therefore, consuming them does not cause your blood glucose levels to rise. Five artificial sweeteners meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards for approval: acesulfame potassium, aspartame, saccharin, sucralose and neotame. You can also use stevia in your desserts, as a replacement for sugar. Stevia is not technically an artificial sweetener, but rather is a derivative of highly sweet stevia plants. Stevia enjoys GRAS status with the FDA. This means that stevia is generally recognized as safe by the FDA.
Fitting In Desserts
Even if you prepare your cheesecake without sugar, practice portion control. Cheesecake still contains a lot of calories and carbohydrates in the crust and filling ingredients. If you want a small serving of a dessert, such as cranberry orange cheesecake, substitute it for another carbohydrate. For example, if you plan to eat a small slice of cheesecake after dinner, skip the roll served during the main course.
Recipe
Try preparing a diabetic cranberry orange cheesecake filling using low-fat cream cheese, low-fat sour cream, aspartame, eggs, vanilla extract, corn starch, fresh chopped cranberries and fresh orange zest. For the crust, use a light buttery spread instead of real butter and unsweetened graham crackers or gingersnaps. For a sweeter crust, add artificial sweetener. For healthy dietary fiber, try adding whole rolled oats to your cheesecake crust. Choose granular forms of artificial sweeteners marked as suitable for baking.
Considerations
Just because you have diabetes does not necessarily mean you can only eat "diabetic" versions of your favorite desserts. According to the American Diabetes Association, most people can safely include small amounts of sugar in their diabetes diet. So if you do not like the slightly altered taste and texture of cheesecake made with artificial sweetener, you can prepare a more traditional cheesecake that calls for sugar. Keep in mind that sugar does contain carbohydrates and that none of your meals should include more than 60 g of carbohydrates. In many recipes -- cheesecake included -- you can cut in half the amount of sugar called for in a recipe.
References
- American Dietetic Association, Eat Right: Diabetes and Diet
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness -- Create Your Plate
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness -- Sugar and Desserts
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness -- Artificial Sweeteners
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness -- Fitting In Sweets
