If you are recently diagnosed with diabetes, the first thought that may come in your mind is to leave all the desserts and sweet treats you once enjoyed when you were fit and fine. You can indulge well on any occasion by picking the right desserts as well as planning your carbohydrate intake well all day long.

Ice cream is high in carbohydrates, and can, somehow raise your blood sugar levels.

Amount of Carbohydrate

The amount of carbohydrate varies from ice cream to ice cream. A ½-cup chocolate soft serving or same no-sugar, fat-free ice cream in any other flavor has up to 19g of carbohydrates. On the other side, a vanilla ice cream usually has up to 24g of carbs and it may go even higher.

A diabetic shouldn’t exceed 15g on carbohydrate intake and they can eat up to 3 to 5 servings on each meal or just 1 to 2 servings with each snack and can still retain stable blood sugar levels. This way, ½ cup serving can have more carbohydrates than allowed and take at least half of carbs serving of a meal.

GI Index

By considering the GI index, one can predict the amount of food that can increase blood sugar levels after consuming it. Foods which have low GI index with up to 55 or less which won’t increase blood sugar levels that much. On the other side, foods with up to 76 or higher GI can cause spike in blood sugar levels. When regular part-chocolate, part-vanilla ice cream has 57 of GI, the low-fat raspberry ripple has up to 79 of GI. But some of the low-fat ice creams have only 24 or lower GI and you can find GI of 37 in premium-range chocolate ice cream.

How to Overcome GI Load?

The Glycemic Index doesn’t include the usual size of serving. GI load can better estimate the potential effect of food due to blood sugar levels. If GI score is below 10, it is low. Even with high GI score, most varieties of ice creams like raspberry ripple still come under low category, ranging from 1 to 9 of scores. As long as you limit yourself to 50g of serving size of ice cream, it shouldn’t affect your blood sugar adversely. It would be a bit lower than 1/3 cup soft serve ice cream, premium ice cream of around ¼ cup or fat-free ice cream of 1/3 cup.

Lowering Effects

Ice creams with sorbitol, aspartame, or mannitol are safer as they may not affect blood sugar levels as compared to the ones sweetened using other varieties of sweeteners. You can pick ice cream which are without add-ins like cookies, candy bits etc. Choose low-carb ice creams.

Also consume small serving with food low on GI or which have only a few amounts of carbohydrates to control the overall effect of snack or meal on blood sugar levels. You may pack low-GI fruit like sliced peaches or strawberries on your bowl and top with just one spoon of vanilla ice cream.

Here are some of the common examples of low-fat and low carb ice creams –

Regular Ice-cream – It contains 133 calories, 7g fat, 16g carbohydrates, and 7g saturated fat

Fat-free ice cream – It is completely fat free and lowest in calories. It contains only 20g carbs and 90 calories, along with 0g saturated fat and 0g fat.

Light ice cream – It contains 100 calories, 4g fat, 14g carbs, and 3g saturated fat

No-sugar ice cream – It is lowest in carbs and it contains 100 calories, 4g fat, 13g carbs, and 3g saturated fat.

Sorbet – It is lowest in fat with 0 gram of saturated fat. It contains only 23g carbs and 92 calories.

Sherbet – It contains 132 calories, 4g fat, 29g carbs and 3g saturated fat.

It is always recommended that keep regular checking your blood sugar level if you include any food in your regular diet.