How diabetes labels are changing

Over 10% of the world’s population has diabetes. That’s a 300% increase since the ’80s, and as a consequence, the NHS spends close to £10 billion each year treating avoidable complications of the condition. Needless to say: something needs to shift somewhere – but thankfully, the Food Standards Agency have taken a step in the right direction.

Together with Diabetes UK, they’ve called for an end to ‘diabetic food’. Many thousands of people suffering with diabetes believed that these alternative options, often labelled with a stripe or icon indicating they were diabetes-friendly, were beneficial alternatives to regular food.

The fact of the matter is that these foods are usually more expensive to buy, and offer no additional health benefits. Everything should be eaten as part of a healthy, balanced diet. Typically, regardless of whether it claims to be diabetes-friendly or not, these kinds of sweet foods should be consumed in moderation – and the now-defunct labelling was a misleading way to confuse the matter and offer false assurances.

Sometimes it’s hard to know which information to rely on when it comes to food – even with things like the traffic light system for food labelling. If you’re ever unsure, London Medical’s dieticians are always happy to answer any and all of your questions, and to make your dietary life easier and healthier. You can contact them using our quick-to-use form below.