Contrary to popular belief, people with type 2 diabetes can eat a little sugar. (For more details on this disease, you can consult our type 2 diabetes sheet.)

The Canadian, American and European diabetes associations show remarkable unanimity on this point: up to 10% of daily calories can come from added sugar.^1,2.

“As the treatments are more effective than before, diabetics can better manage their consumption of foods with a high glycemic index and therefore allow themselves a little sugar,” explains Simone Lemieux, researcher at the Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods.³ (INAF).

But, 10% of calories, how much sugar is it? For a person who consumes 2 calories per day, this equates to 000 calories, or 200 g of sugar. Note that this is not a goal to be achieved, but a limit not to be exceeded.

NO

From a scientific point of view, the direct link between sugar consumption and the prevalence of diabetes has not been established. Several researchers have looked into the question, including a panel of experts appointed by the French Food Safety Agency (Afssa) which then became the National Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety Agency. (Handles).

These experts, whose report⁴ Carbohydrates and health was published in October 2004, analyzed both epidemiological studies and clinical trials. Their finding: all of these data do not make it possible to establish a clear link between the consumption of simple carbohydrates and the incidence of type 2 diabetes.

They do, however, express an important reservation about the clinical studies which compared the effect of sugar or fructose to that of foods high in carbohydrates. In fact, in most of these trials, foods with a high glycemic index were used. Since they have a big effect on blood sugar levels, this could have skewed the results.

According to the ANSES report, trials in which we compare the effect of sugar to that of foods with a low glycemic index by sugar would allow a clearer conclusion to be reached. To learn more about theglycemic index, consult our file: glycemic index and glycemic load.

Perhaps

Nutritionist Hélène Baribeau points out that type 2 diabetes is a disease that forms over several years. “It occurs when the pancreas is no longer able to secrete enough insulin to handle sugar. Studies do not make it possible to make a link between sugar consumption and diabetes, but from a physiological point of view, there could be one: if, throughout our life, we have a diet with a glycemic index high, by consuming soft drinks for example, our pancreas often has to secrete large amounts of insulin. It can be assumed that in the long term there may be fatigue or pancreatic exhaustion She says.

YES, but indirectly

Because sugar contributes to the obesity epidemic, it is also responsible for the diabetes epidemic⁵, according to Jim Mann, professor in the Department of Human Nutrition at the University of Otago, New Zealand. THE’abdominal obesity is indeed recognized as a risk factor for diabetes. Jim Mann is one of the experts on the panel formed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to assess the effect of diet on chronic diseases⁶.

The effect of sugar as such is therefore very difficult to isolate in the case of diabetes. What we do know, however, is that the sugar added to food increases the calories ingested, without enriching its nutritional value. In addition, scientific data increasingly points to carbonated and sugary drinks as a possible cause of diabetes.