Diabetes In Control. A free weekly diabetes newsletter for Medical Professionals. News and information for Medical Professionals.
In part 5, the conclusion of this Exclusive Interview, Judith Wylie-Rosett talks with Diabetes in Control Publisher Steve Freed about her recommendations regarding talking about the use of sweeteners with patients who have diabetes. She also shares the highlights of her ADA presentation.
Judith Wylie-Rosett, EdD, RD is a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY.
Transcript of this video segment:
Freed: So, what should we tell patients that have diabetes? To start using them if they’re not using them or just not even mention it?
Wylie-Rosett: Actually there was a survey done in — or interviews with 75 dietitians in the EU. And about half of them prohibited their patients from using them and about a quarter recommended them. And some were in between. And the way I like to look at is looking at, if somebody is consuming sugar sweetened beverages, what are the options? How do they feel about water? How do they feel about using a diet beverage? And really work it out on an individual basis. And interestingly, if you look at people who were — 100 people were surveyed who were going for bariatric surgery and the people who use a lot of the low calorie sweeteners in that population tend to be more unhealthy. So, looking at the total person and what their goals are, because I’m not in the driver’s seat for the people with diabetes, they are.
Freed: So, you had a presentation. How was the turnout for your presentation?
Wylie-Rosett: Standing-room only.
Freed: I would think so because it’s a very common topic. So, maybe you can just go through some of the high points, what you would like medical professionals to take away from your presentation.
Wylie-Rosett: Okay. First, I’d like to have health professionals evaluate their patients for how much they may be consuming sugar sweetened beverages and then to look at what the alternatives are. And to really have a dialogue with the patients in terms of if they want to use a diet beverage, how they’re going to go about using it. If they sort of refuse using a diet beverage, would they consider it if — actually I probably would first mention that water is a wonderful beverage. Traditionally water was the beverage we drank for thirst. We now feel that we have to have something that’s special for our thirst. And so, I would really work it out on an individual basis. And I think there’s concern that people with type 1 diabetes, if they are consuming sugar sweetened beverages the glucose excursion afterwards, and what I hope in the future with the proliferation of continuous glucose monitoring research, we’ll know a lot more about what the effects of sugar sweetened beverages, non-caloric beverages are on the postprandial glucose because the A1C is a little bit more removed from that.
Freed: So, for my last question, we hear a lot about obesity and how it’s increasing especially with children. Children probably drink more sugary drinks than adults do. What are your thoughts as far as how important it is for children to basically stay away from sugary drinks and even some of the fruit drinks, you must have an opinion from your –?
Wylie-Rosett: In fact, actually implicit in that question is what about switching to diet. Based on New York City, it prohibits the use of non-caloric sweeteners in any product serving our city schools, which is more conservative than a lot of other school districts. Kids with diabetes who consume non-diet beverages — a higher quantity of non-diet beverages tend to have more unhealthy habits, which may not be true with adults. So, I think what we really need to do is to look at the total dietary pattern of kids and trying to get them to eat fruits, vegetables, and eating a healthy pattern. And sugar sweetened beverages may have a very small role, but the amount of recommended — the limits that we should put on our sugar intake from the calorie perspective is very — a sugar sweetened beverage would take care of that, unless somebody were extremely athletic.