It's All About Balance
Don’t worry, we’re not talking about yogurt with fruit.
When you have gestational diabetes, you get really tired of thinking about food: whether or not you can have your usual latte in the mornings, what you should pair with dinner to keep your sugars stable overnight, and how many carbs you need to eat without accidentally eating too many. If you’re someone who enjoys sweets — you know, a normal human person — it can feel like you’re not allowed to have anything you love (and when someone suggests yogurt with fruit as a dessert alternative, you want to roll your eyes). But there are store-bought sweets you can safely eat, as in just rip open the package and eat them — no overthinking, no making them yourself, and maybe, actually, satisfying your craving.
Of course, being diagnosed with gestational diabetes does mean you need to be mindful of your blood sugar to minimize the risks to you and your baby. Many expectant parents will be able to manage their sugars with diet alone, while some may need medication (which is not a sign of personal failure, for the record). Either way, there’s a lot of confusion for people who go from not thinking about carbs all that much to needing to monitor them in every meal.
How many grams of carbohydrates (which includes sugar) you can eat each day is unique to each person, but you should eat a minimum of 175 grams per day, says Wendy Lopez, MS, RDN, CDCES, registered dietitian/nutritionist and a certified diabetes educator, co-founder of Diabetes Digital, and co-host of the Diabetes Digital podcast.
“It’s not excessive, but it’s not restrictive. There is a minimum because oftentimes with gestational diabetes, a lot of people [err] on the side of restriction with carbohydrates because they want to help lower their blood sugars, and that is not recommended, that extreme restriction with carbohydrates,” she says.
You should work with your OB-GYN and dietitian to figure out what your carbohydrate intake should be each day — it will depend on the severity of your gestational diabetes, how your blood sugar fluctuates throughout the day, any pre-existing health conditions you have, and your physical activity and eating patterns. (They can also help you safely work in small amounts of the sweets you’re craving, if possible.)
If you’re on the hunt for sweet snacks you can munch on without putting so much thought into it for a change, these are some dietitian-approved ideas you can add to your grocery list. Even if these specific products aren’t in your local store, they’ll give you an idea of what to shop for. They balance sugar and carbs with protein and fat, which makes them less likely to destabilize your blood sugar, says Lopez.
Products like these can be costly and are harder to find in areas where food is less accessible, Lopez points out. So, whether you specifically want a Reese’s cup or paying for the sugar-free version is not plausible, know that you can have a piece of regular candy.
“If you want to have some candy, you can have some candy. It’s going to cause a spike, but you can make informed decisions maybe knowing that, OK, your next meal is not going to have as many carbohydrates so that you can have a sweet in between as a snack and you're not fluctuating as much. So kind of planning around whatever the sweet is that you’re really craving or you really want to have,” she says.
Gestational diabetes can feel like it’s all about restriction — and yeah, some days it just is. But with a little time you can figure out when and how to work in a sweet treat, and on the other days, there are so many yummy dupes of your faves worth trying.
Expert:
Wendy Lopez, MS, RDN, CDCES, registered dietitian/nutritionist and a certified diabetes educator, co-founder of Diabetes Digital, and co-host of the Diabetes Digital podcast