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I just wish the reason would be a tax on sugar which is then used to subsidise more healthy options. But I don’t believe that to be the case here. :(
UK introduced a tax on high sugar drinks a few years ago. Most drinks changed their recipe to be under the threshold and taste weird now. Coca Cola was the only one that didn’t. I just looked and a 24 pack of cans is £15.25 for original where diet and zero are on sale at £8.50. The tax is only about £2 on that though so no idea why it’s so much more.
I pretty much entirely stopped drinking all of them though because I can’t stand the taste now so I guess the tax worked. They are lowering the sugar threshold again in a couple years so I imagine more recipe changes are coming.
That’s not a bad idea. It is addictive. Tax it like alcohol and tobacco. I’ve watched a subset of diabetics scream that they need sugar no matter what healthcare tries to say about it. Tears. More often, anger and spiteful overconsumption in reaction to being told no. (A subset, not all.)
If a diabetic has low blood sugar, then they literally DO need sugar, and fast!
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You message is is medically wrong, It misunderstands both diabetes and hypoglycemia, and it gives unsafe advice.
A diabetic with low blood sugar absolutely does need fast‑acting sugar.
That’s not optional, not “only if they messed up,” and not something complex carbs can fix quickly enough.
Hypoglycemia is an acute medical emergency, especially for insulin‑dependent diabetics.
Complex carbs (starches) take 20–60 minutes to digest.
A hypoglycemic diabetic can lose consciousness in under 5 minutes.
This is false.
Hypoglycemia is extremely common in diabetics, especially those using insulin or sulfonylureas. It is not a separate condition. It is a direct consequence of diabetes treatment.
Insulin overdose
Delayed meals
Exercise
Alcohol
Illness
Normal day‑to‑day variation in insulin sensitivity
All can cause hypoglycemia in diabetics.
So saying “that’s hypoglycemia, not diabetes” shows a misunderstanding of how diabetes works.
You should consider educating yourself about diabetic hypoglycemia or insulin_overdose. before you start handing out medical advice.
I wasn’t handing out medical advice. Notice nothing I said was directed towards hypoglycemics? If someone has the medical condition then chances are they talk about it with their doctors already and know what they need to
The one thing I stand corrected on is that diabetics can have hypoglycemia as a complication of their medication. That makes sense. I wasn’t thinking about that because I assumed it’s usually a more carefully administered dose. But it’s reasonable that sometimes shit happens. But diabetes is still hyperglycemia, and as you stated, diabetic hypoglycemia is a response to medication.
That being said, you’re acting like you’re contradicting me by saying fast-acting sugars are necessary in an emergency. But the thing is, I clearly stated that emergencies are the moments when simple sugars are needed rather than complex carbs.
People who suffer from standalone hypoglycemia can prevent acute crises by eating enough complex carbs throughout the day. As long as they do that, they don’t require simple fast-acting sugars. Those are only needed when blood sugar drops dangerously low, as I already stated.
I don’t know enough about diabetes to say whether insulin-induced hypoglycemia functions the same way. I imagine it could drop off more precipitously. I don’t know how easy or difficult it is to administer the right dose of insulin at the right time, or to manage blood sugar levels by consuming complex carbs through the day rather than relying on simple sugars during emergencies. I don’t have a horse in that race.
The point is though, simple sugars are only necessary during emergencies. And for standalone hypoglycemia at least, consuming complex carbs throughout the day is much healthier and safer than waiting till there’s an emergency and then hitting the soda like it’s an epi-pen.
Don’t go on rants about medical shit you know nothing about before you spread disinformation and get someone hurt.
I wasn’t going on a rant, I was responding to your comment which was just as long. If typing in multiple paragraphs is a rant, you were ranting too.
And what I said wasn’t disinformation. Non-diabetic hypoglycemics exist, and you pretending that they don’t is harmful. Do you really want to tell a person with anorexia that they don’t need to consume complex carbs throughout the day because they can just take fast-acting sugars when they get dangerously low blood sugar?
We can keep talking past each other all we want, but it seems we’re talking about two different things. I already said I stand corrected about diabetics not having hypoglycemia. But I was correct in that it’s a complication from their medication, an overcorrection, and not the diabetes itself.
There’s a very clear medical distinction between symptoms of an illness and side effects of a medication. But if all you’re interested in is self-righteous accusations then I’m not going to be party to this conversation any longer. You can rant to yourself in the corner if you’d like.
I’ve reported the disinformation and now i’m blocking you
My wife has diabetes and I can tell that you think you know what you’re talking about, but you’re very wrong.
They’re making some shitty assumptions that someone will read and pass off as fact. Some asshole manager somewhere will read that bullshit and tell a diabetic they can wait to eat because it’s no big deal because wanderingwanderer needs to feel like they said their peace about shit they don’t live with.
I was one of those people who knew my lifestyle was unhealthy, and turning it around was always just one week away. The diagnosis of type II felt like a loss of agency. Like it was no longer my choice to cut back on, or to cut out sugar.
Once the initial shock of diagnosis and grief over all the foods I’d lost settled down, the truth was clear. I had made the choice. The choice to open every single one of those sodas, the choice to go with convenience over health. The choice to kick the can down the road, and I still had the choice to diet, or die slowly.
Not gonna lie and say my diet is perfect now but, according to my NP, my labs paint the picture of someone successfully managing diabetes. I know I still have some work to do though.
Not easy, you’ve done well.
That’s what we are doing in Finland. Sugar free drinks are taxed at 20c/l but other drinks can go up to 59c/l depending on the sugar amount
Just checked prices from one grocery store and coke zero 24-pack is 15.50€ while the regular one is 19.50€
Does that include artificial sweeteners? I have some sort of prejudice against them that I couldn’t substantiate with research, but one thing is certain: none of them felt good to me.
I am much happier with drinking less sweet beverages overall, but made with regular sugar. Actually tend to spend less that way, even if I pay more for less - I just happen to be buying that much less frequently that way.
Overall, Coke is most affordable compared with minimum wage in England, especially when Coke Zero is on offer, then Helsinki; in the US it takes the most minimum-wage work to buy a litre, and because regular and sugar-free cost exactly the same, there’s no price incentive at all to choose the sugar-free one.
In England for a 24 pack (330ml?), sugar is £15 (€17.5, $20 USD), sugar free is £12 with a deal for £8.50 (€10, $11.5 USD), no deals for the sugar one! £12.71 is minimum wage here (€14.86, $17.21 USD). In US Walmart I see 24 pack of sugar and non sugar for $15.37 USD (12 OZx24) and US minimum wage is $7.25 USD (£5.40, €6.30).
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Random story: I saw a diabetic refuse to have his gangrenous “pinky toe” removed to save his life. Not even a foot, just the one smallest toe. I think about him sometimes.
I think it’s been proven sugar is literally an addictive substance; it’s hard to say no when it’s not your rational mind in control. I have "pre"diabetes even though I never ate sugar; but I ate lots of other carbs and got unlucky. Rice and pasta and (non-American) bread every day sort of thing.
I come from an ethnicity of starvation and poverty, and there’s growing research showing that diabetes actually used to be a protective adaptation. The idea is that, if you didn’t have many carbs per day, just stretch out that 1 carrot for the whole day. It makes sense in that lens.
Then, overnight, society changed, and we’re eating 30 carrots worth of carbs every day. Body didn’t get the memo and makes those carbs last as long as possible, as it used to, but now it’s a bad thing and causes high blood sugar.
A coworker at my previous work laughed when I said I’m addicted to sugar in the similar way he’s addicted to cigarettes. Most people seem to be ignorant about it.
In a similar vein this is why island nations have the highest rate of obesity. Their metabolism adapted to scarcity. But some people want to convince everyone that it’s as simple as calories-in-calories-out, as if every body works the same…