No Bake Cookies is one of my favorite sweets however I am a borderline diabetic and I need to watch my sugar consumption very closely. I'm sharing the recipe that I have now and I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good substitute for sugar in this recipe.

No Bake Cookies

2 cups white sugar
1 stick butter or margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter (I use the crunchy)
2 Tbsps. cocoa
1/2 cup carnation evaporated milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups quick cooking oats, uncooked

Mix sugar, milk, and butter in saucepan. Bring to boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Fold in cocoa and rolled oats. Drop from tablespoon onto waxed paper and let cool. No baking necessary.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

I have found over the years that butter works a lot better than margarine and instant oat meal doesn't work very well at all. You can also use creamy peanut butter and add nuts like pecans or walnuts.

I think you will find there are several ingredients which a diabetic should avoid there. Sugar of course, but the fat, peanut butter, Evaporated milk are all unacceptable for you.

I will strongly suggest you get some proper advice on this. If you have an actual problem, treating it in such a casual manner could end up with you losing a leg or even dying.

Diabetus management requires the intervention of a specialist. Even type 2, which is sometimes treated as an extream diet, is actually quite serious if managed incorrectly.

So no, I am sorry, but the only substitutes to make that recipe suitable for a diabetic is to eliminate it altogether.

I'm not diabetic and have never been, but I try to follow a diabetic diet to keep my blood sugar low. I use coconut blossom sugar and stevia as a substitute for sugar.

Regarding peanut butter being bad for a diabetic. That's the first I've ever heard of this and I did the research a while back. It's one of the many things a diabetic is allowed. Just purchase the no added sugar version.

Good fat and protein in ingredients is also used to offset the GI of carbohydrates, whereas carbohydrates on their own would make one's blood sugar rocket. In that sense fat is beneficial to a diabetic. It's a careful balance.

I won't get into an argument over this. The idea of keeping your blood sugar low is just silly. Not to mention impossible.

I also have no intention of arguing on the subject of diabetes. I know quite a lot about Diabetes. I don't know where you get your information from but I am certain you are not suitable qualified, which you must be to advise on this issue, or you wouldn't have written the things you did.

But    Christinac has asked for advice on managing diabetus. Using the terms 'borderline disbetic', whatever that's supposed to mean.

Diabetus is a serious medical condition which will eventually lead to early death. Now if Christinac has an ounce of sense they will go to a Dr for some proper advice and not seek it on an internet forum from people they knows nothing about.

I mean prevent my blood sugar levels from spiking, not low.

I agree, Christinac should get some professional advice if they haven't already.

my 2 cents: sugar substitute (splenda?), no sugar added/natural PB, and steel cut oats, partly cooked (quick oats increases blood sugar value faster). As usual disclaimer, I am not a dietitian.

Thank you all for your replies and my apology because I didn't mean to create a cat fight. Thank you Flan for the Splenda suggestion. I already use low sugar peanut better. Old fashioned peanut butter works the best, but it is very hard to find now a days.

Not to worry, not a cat fight really.

It's quite surprising how many seem to think diabetes is somehow related to slimming.

In reality, slimming is a self indulgent form of body mutilation, promoted by a billions industry, backed by questionable science and peer pressure.

Diabetes is a disorder which causes an excess production of urine. Hence the thrust.

It seems many assume they can lose weight by eating food intended for diabetics rather than simply putting down the TV remote and doing something useful. A number of years ago, there was a beer marketed for disbetics, (garbage which was eventually outlawed). It was mostly drunk by drunken slobs.

Diabetes, on the other hand, is a serious, permanent, disabling disease where the victim will almost certainly die if they fail to seek and stringently follow the expert advice of properly trained professionals.

This is a support site for transgender. Not a quack advice line for serious medical conditions.

The distinction. I'm sure you will appreciate, is quite important.

Mine was actually brought on largely by a real bad drinking problem I used to have and improper diet because until recently I was always under weight for my age and body build. Before I quit drinking and started eating right my fasting sugar would be in the low to medium 130's sometimes even in the 140's, but now I average between 101 and 105 sometimes lower, but rarely any higher. I haven't totally cut out the sugars, but I try to keep it to a min. if possible. Never did particularly like sodas, but I was a fast food junky for a long time. Now I cook most every meal from scratch because I have to watch sodium also and I eat a lot of salads and vegetables with my meals. 

Many will feel for you. It's a big change to deal with, but as you know, you won't have a choice.

But as much as anyone wants to, we simply don't have the expertise here to advise on diabetic dieting.

But we do, collective, have loads of expertise on transgender.

Well several of our members (myself included) are diabetic.  I was diagnosed in my early 20's (now 68).  Stupidly I took myself off medication and testing for many years and am paying for it now in my health.

Sugar substitutes can help but they come with their own problems.  I admit, I would not look here for a lot of diabetic cooking help, dlife.com (diabetic life) would be a better place.

Quote from: Christinac on January 01, 2013, 02:17:43 AM
No Bake Cookies is one of my favorite sweets however I am a borderline diabetic and I need to watch my sugar consumption very closely. I'm sharing the recipe that I have now and I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good substitute for sugar in this recipe.

No Bake Cookies

2 cups white sugar
1 stick butter or margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter (I use the crunchy)
2 Tbsps. cocoa
1/2 cup carnation evaporated milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups quick cooking oats, uncooked

Mix sugar, milk, and butter in saucepan. Bring to boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Fold in cocoa and rolled oats. Drop from tablespoon onto waxed paper and let cool. No baking necessary.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

I have found over the years that butter works a lot better than margarine and instant oat meal doesn't work very well at all. You can also use creamy peanut butter and add nuts like pecans or walnuts.

Your best bet, if you have been told that you are in the early stages of diabetes (and because you said borderline, I will presume Type II) is to talk with your endocrinologist and a registered dietician who specializes in diabetes.

I am diabetic, but have reasonably good control, with my most recent A1c reading at 6.2

I have seen dieticians for the past couple of years and have made appropriate dietary changes that were not hard to do.  In my personal opinion, it is best to try to cut out "sweet" from your diet.  As my dietician said, "If sugar is like heroin to the diabetic, artificial sweeteners are just methadone."

Thank you to all of you for your in put. I'm trying to as my doctor put it prolong the inevitable. All my numbers are back with in tolerance since I quit drinking and stared eating sensibly, but as the doctor also warned DNA is against me and he warned that I am a very very rare case because it is very rare for someone to fall back below the line once they crossed it and it will get crossed again one day, but with proper diet and exercise I should be able to prolong the inevitable for a good long while. 

Best of luck Christinac. I know all of us feel for you and your worry.

I recommend the book, Reversing Diabetes, by Julian Whittaker, MD