I would suggest you consider changing doctors. A diagnosis of diabetes requires careful regulation of your blood glucose and A1C (glycosated hemoglobin) to prevent long term complications. Find a doctor that has a greater interest in your diabetes.

One of two possibilities come to mind. Either you have an allergic reaction to a new product / drug you are using or you have an infection. Doesn't sound like a vitamin deficiency though. Would suggest you go see a doctor as this is not normal nor should you have to put up with the itching.

With regards to a skin allergic reaction. Have you started using new products on the area? Even consider a new shampoo or creme rinse for your hair.

Or you have an infection on your skin, possibly because of your elevated blood glucose. Or are you stressed out about something?. Would suggest you go see a dermatologist who can look at your skin symptoms. When diabetics blood glucose is out of normal range, they are much more succeptible to infections so deal with this pronto. If you are itching, you may break the skin and get an infection from normal bacteria on the surface of your skin.

You are at a healthy weight for your height. I would not recommend you lose any additional weight, but do continue your exercise program.

Considering you are a diabetic, I would recommend you eat much more than 900 calories per day. A food intake this low is deficient in vitamins and minerals which over the long run is unhealthy for you. You may want to read my chromium topic as this mineral is essential to insulin. Depending on your overall activity level in addition to exercising, you may need almost double the 900 calories you are currently eating.

I would suggest you contact your doctor. You do have some symptoms of diabetes with excessive thirst and urination. If you do have diabetes, it can be controlled with diet, exercise and perhaps medication.

There is no explanation for why you are craving sugar . High carbohydrate foods induce sleep as well as elevate your mood. Do you eat several high carbohydrate foods at lunch i.e. starches or sweets? Do you feel happy after eating sweets like sugar?

Also, an amino acid tryptophan, found in turkey, also induces sleep. Do you eat turkey at lunch?

Your mood swings though should be evaluated by psychologist. But first, I would suggest you see your medical doctor who can evaluate your physical symptoms.

I would suggest you contact the American Dietetic Association's Catalogue of Products and Services at 312-899-0040 about a publication called Navajo Food Practices, Customs and Holidays (26 pages $10). That is about as close to Native American eating practices as I have seen in print.

Native Americans in Minnesota diet consisted of wild game, wild rice and berries. Unfortunately, we Americanized their healthy diet by introducing fats and fried foods. There is a high incidence of diabetes, especially among some South West Native American tribes.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink also applies to people's health care. Have you shared your concerns with your husband's doctor?

When you husband gets his blood work done, the doctor will not only check his blood glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides, he can also check his A1C (glyco hemoglobin). When red blood cells are forming, glucose molecules attach to them. Since a red blood cell lives 120 days, a doctor can tell what the patient's blood glucose control has been over the last 4 months.

Drinking is not advised for diabetics whose blood glucose is out of control. Your husband needs to lose weight and exercise, which will improve his blood glucose along with following a diabetic diet. Your husband may listen to a Registered Dietitian, but he first needs to deal with his dependence on alcohol.

Smoking is not good for anyone's health and increases hardening of the arteries which is also accelerated in diabetics even if they don't smoke.

I would suggest you talk to your doctor and specifically tell him/her about your dad's family history if your doctor is unaware of your family history. Depending on when your blood sugar is taken at the doctor's office (i.e. either fasting or 2 hours after a meal) will affect the test results. Your blood sugar should be 70 - 90 mg/ dl fasting and it is normal for it to double within 2 hours after a meal. However, it should be below 120 two hours after eating. Anything higher should be tested further. Ask your doctor. You should have your blood sugar tested at least once a year as a screening for diabetes considering your family history.

You can't prevent diabetes and research points to causes other than diet. Until more is learned, lose weight and exercise to manage your blood sugar. Control carbohydrates and alcohol to lower your triglycerides. You may want to learn more about the glycemic index which compares the effect various carbohydrates have on your blood sugar.

With a triglyceride level over 700, I would suggest you continue to eliminate all high sugar foods and switch to diet colas. You did not say if you drink alcohol. If yes, quit all alcohol and sweets which increase triglycerides.

Would also suggest you continue to lose weight and exercise. Try out the Healthy Body Calculator to determine how many calories and grams of fat to eat to lose 1 or 2 pounds per day. Your choice of 15 grams of fat per day (8% of 1700 calories) seems a bit low. Do you have a problem with feeling satisfied after meals? If yes, you should consider increasing the fat in your diet to a minimum of 25% of your calories to improve satiety or feeling full after meals..

Keep exercising, but increase to 5 times 30 minutes per week. Make sure you include aerobic exercise to reduce body fat.

I suspect undiagnosed or latent diabetes. Do you have a family history of diabetes?

No nor would it be wise. Your pancreas produces insulin to facilitate glucose into cells where it is metabolized into energy, which fuels the body. When your blood glucose returns to a normal range 70 - 100 mg %, your pancreas produces a hormone called glucagon that stimulates the release of glycogen (stored glucose) from liver and muscles if you are exercising. Glycogen is broken down and replenishes the glucose in your blood. This keeps your blood glucose within normal ranges between meals while you go about your activities and exercise.

Diabetics who take insulin have higher than normal levels of insulin in their blood. In diabetics, the insulin receptor sites on cells seem to be less responsive to insulin and higher levels are needed to facilitate glucose into the cell. Also, because the body cannot turn off the injected insulin, it continues to be available to move glucose into cells. Once glucose is inside cells, the energy is released for use by the body or converted to fat for storage.

In regard to your dad, frozen packaged food may be OK depending on what frozen food he is eating. Perhaps his doctor was trying to steer your dad away from dessert type frozen foods. It doesn't matter if a food is fresh, frozen or canned as long as it follows his diabetic meal plan. I think he should talk to a Registered Dietitian or if he has access to the net suggest he read this Diabetes topic. Or you could print it out for him and mail / fax it to him as it has lots of basic information. Abnormal blood glucose occurs in 90% of persons over the age of 70 so it is not surprising that your father has diabetes.

The nutritional therapy for non-insulin dependent diabetes (Type II) is low fat diet and exercise. Weight loss may be recommended as body fat increases a person's resistance to insulin. He may or may not be taking pills that stimulate his pancreas to produce more insulin or taking insulin shots daily.

As to diet, he needs to eat 3 average sized meals per day and if he is taking pills or injecting insulin, will need a snack at night. A Kosher diet is very good as food is usually cooked from scratch, but he needs to lower the fat content in the foods he eats to around 30% of calories from fat. One simple method is to choose low fat foods, nothing fried, then add 1 tsp. of butter, margarine, mayonnaise or 1 Tbsp. salad dressing to one food at each meal. He can choose what that one food is.

Exercise improves a person's blood glucose response, increases the rate at which the body burns calories and helps to reduce appetite. Any activity that he can do for 30 minutes daily would be beneficial.

An Israeli Registered Dietitian could find out what he eats on a usual basis and give him a meal plan that would take his likes and dislikes into consideration.

Diabetics don't count grams of sugar, but may count grams of carbohydrate. Sugar is a carbohydrate and 1 level teaspoon has 4 grams of carbohydrate, 0 fat and 0 protein.

However, starches, fruit, milk and vegetables also contain carbohydrates. Fruit, milk and vegetables are less likely to cause the blood sugar to rise as much as starch or sugar. Starch, fruit and milk diabetic exchanges have approximately the same number of grams of carbohydrate (15 grams) and are counted as 1 carbohydrate. So a person on a carbohydrate counting diet counts the number of starch, fruit and milk exchanges eaten per day using a plan that keeps their blood sugar within normal ranges which is 70 to 90 mg/dl.

First, I would suggest your mom make an appointment to see a Registered Dietitian to help plan her meals and the number of carbohydrate choices per day. Next, I would suggest she purchase 3 booklets on carbohydrate counting from the American Dietetic Association's Catalogue of Products and Services in Chicago, IL or the International Diabetes Center in Minneapolis, MN. The booklets explain in detail how carbohydrate counting works.

An internist or endocrinologist would be appropriate doctors, but it sounds like your father needs to see a Registered Dietitian who would be the most appropriate to provide medical nutrition therapy. Dietitians have the education and experience to prescribe diets. It would probably be very helpful to have a meal plan to follow with recommended foods. Your father needs a diabetic, low (saturated) fat and carbohydrate controlled, no alcohol diet.

I have no idea what vanadyl sulfate is, it is not listed in current drug references and I have not read of any benefit to diabetics. Beware of persons without degrees or license in nutrition who offer nutritional advice. This can be illegal in some states that license persons that can give nutritional advice or call themselves a dietitian or a nutritionist.

Common symptoms of diabetes are excessive thirst and urination, weight loss (in spite of eating enough food) and blurred vision. To further define these symptoms consider the following examples. The excessive thirst is usually described by patients as feeling like having dry cotton balls in their mouth. Unless a person is pregnant, on diuretics (pills to reduce water retention) or has prostate enlargement, it is unusual for a person to wake up during the night to urinate. Blurred vision that continues even after a change in eyeglass prescription is highly suggestive of diabetes. If you think you have one or all of these, I would highly recommend you see your doctor who can test your blood glucose, examine you and determine if you have diabetes.

A craving for sweets is not a symptom of diabetes. The fact that you crave sweets at breakfast may not be that unusual. Breakfast means you are breaking a fast from your last meal, which was probably the evening before. If you are within your healthy body weight range and do not have diabetes or hypoglycemia then go ahead and eat something sweet for breakfast, but also include some starches (complex carbohydrates) and protein to keep you satisfied until you eat the next meal. Glucose from sweets can get into your blood within 15 minutes , but doesn't have the lasting power of protein and fat to keep you satisfied. Remember to brush your teeth after the meal.

Food cravings, even those pregnant women experience, are not easily substantiated and often cannot be linked with a chemical imbalance in your body. In fact, there are neuro chemicals like serotonin, epinephrine and norepinephrine that strongly influence our appetite.

The back page of the diabetic exchange booklet is where the dietitian writes the individual meal plan, including snacks. There is space for meal times and menu ideas, but no check off list. Why not make up a personalized check off list in a word processing document or just photocopy the exchange booklet back page?

You are right, self-monitoring works. It helps you keep track of what you have eaten rather than relying on memory.

Weight Watchers diet has varying levels of calorie intake and uses an exchange or carbohydrate counting system similar to the diabetic exchanges, but does not include cholesterol or salt restriction. I think you need to see a Registered Dietitian to plan a meal pattern that incorporates all three health issues, diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. When you hit a plateau where weight loss is difficult, a dietitian could re-arrange your meal pattern and exercise program to promote continued weight loss.

The pill you take is not insulin, but stimulates your body to produce more insulin. When you feel weak and shaky, like you are going to faint, your blood sugar may be too low. Another symptom is sweating. When you feel like that, you should drink an 8-ounce glass of orange juice or milk or eat 6 lifesavers. If you don't feel better in 15 minutes, drink another glass of juice or milk or 6 more lifesavers. If you still don't feel good, your blood sugar probably isn't low.

Weight loss , combined with exercise, lower fat and salt intake can lower your blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure.

Congratulations on good control.

An A1C blood test will tell what your blood sugars have been like over the last 4 months. As red blood cells (rbc) are forming, glucose from the blood attaches to the cell wall. If your blood sugar is high when the rbc is forming, more glucose will attach. Red blood cells live 4 months and so glycated hemoglobin will reflect blood sugars over a longer period than a single fasting blood sugar that measures what is in the blood at that specific moment.

What is your blood sugar 2 hours after meals? This may provide you an answer to feeling sleepy after breakfast, but not after dinner. Sleepiness is not usually a symptom of low or high blood sugar (a fainting feeling is). Have you discussed this with your doctor? If not bring it up your next visit.

Generally, a meal high in carbohydrates tends to make one sleepy and a meal high in protein tends to keep one awake. Do you include meat or a meat substitute like an egg at breakfast? Does your dinner meal include more meat (3 ounces) than your breakfast (1 ounce)?

There is an amino acid called tryptophan that can have a sleep inducing effect. Turkey and chicken are higher in tryptophan than beef, pork or egg. If you are eating meat at breakfast, is it a turkey or chicken based food?

Overeating will also make one sleepy. After a meal, blood pools in the gastrointestinal area (stomach and intestines) to pick up nutrients from the food. This decrease in blood flow to the brain and extremities (legs and arms) can make you feel less alert mentally.

You did not mention whether or not you drink a caffeine = containing beverage at breakfast. Currently, 2 cups of coffee (6 ounce coffee = 99 milligrams of caffeine and 6 ounces tea (not herbal) = 34 milligrams of caffeine) or less than 200 milligrams per day is considered safe. If you choose, drink a caffeine-containing beverage with your breakfast. Caffeine usually works within 20 minutes and the effects last 6 hours with the greatest effect within the first 3 hours.

Exercise is another option that will increase your level of alertness after a meal.

Overweight persons are more resistant to their own insulin and actually need to produce more insulin to effectively metabolize glucose in body cells. If your friend were to lose weight, her tolerance of glucose would improve. Even if a person limits their sugar intake though, excess calories can contribute to an above normal blood glucose levels.

Usually a low fat diet is recommended as part of a diabetic diet plan. Currently, most diabetic diet plans contains 50 - 55% carbohydrate, 30% fat or less and 10 - 20% protein.

Excess weight and a high dietary fat intake are risk factors for heart disease and many types of cancer. It is up to your friend to choose to lose weight and control her fat intake. You can be supportive of her positive efforts as nagging her about her diet will produce negative results.

Each person is different. You should write down how you feel when your blood sugar is low if you are coherent enough. What messages does your body send when your blood glucose is low? If you are not sure, use a blood glucose monitor to quickly determine what your blood sugar is with a finger stick drop of blood. Otherwise, how would you know whether you need to eat some carbohydrate (8 ounces of orange juice or milk, 6 ounces of non-diet soda or 6 lifesaver candies) or take more insulin? Use these blood glucose readings to reinforce the physical symptoms that you are feeling. Have you discussed this with your doctor or a dietitian ?

Most persons will experience an insulin reaction or low blood sugar when it gets down to 48 - 50 milligrams per deciliter. I know some Type I diabetics though that finds it difficult to tell if their blood sugar is high or low without testing with a blood glucose monitor. Do you also know about Glucagon shots or glucose tablets that you can take when your blood sugar is low? Ask your doctor about these.

Typical symptoms are weakness, shaky, sweating (usually across the brow) and faintness. Your brain and internal organs use your blood glucose for fuel. If there is insufficient fuel (glucose), your organs cannot function normally. That is why some persons who have an insulin reaction pass out because there is not enough energy for the brain to function. It uses more glucose than any other organ in the body.

After an insulin reaction, you may feel sluggish for a while or no different. It just depends on the individual.

Look in your yellow or white pages of the phone book under dietitian. Your state or city dietetic association should be listed. Call them. Or you can call the clinic or hospital where your physician practices and ask to talk to a Registered Dietitian (RD). Dietitians are trained in medical nutrition therapy.

Dietitians who specialize in diabetes education will have a CDE (Certified Diabetes Educator) after their name. These certified dietitians should be very capable at working with either Type I (insulin dependent) or Type II (non-insulin dependent) diabetics. Diabetes educators take continuing education credits to stay certified.

A great source of diabetes educational materials is the International Diabetes Center, Park Nicollet Medical Center, 5000 West 39th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55416. Marion Franz RD MS CDE has authored many books for diabetics, which are available from the bookstore at the IDC.

Congratulation on lowering your blood cholesterol. Your goal should be less than 200 milligrams per deciliter. The best approach is to keep the fat in your diet to 30% of total calories, 10% of total calories from saturated fat and lose weight if recommended.

One piece of hard candy will not in itself raise a normal fasting blood sugar (70 - 90 milligrams per deciliter) to 170. What did your doctor recommend?

I would recommend the following dietary changes to lower your blood glucose. Eat 3 meals per day. Loose weight, which should decrease any insulin resistance you have because of overweight. You should see a Registered Dietitian to work out an individual meal plan that will address your elevated blood cholesterol and glucose.

LDL cholesterol is the fat that sticks to the arterial walls and blood levels are increased by saturated fat in the diet. Simple sugars like fructose, consumed as fruits and vegetables probably won't increase your LDL either unless eaten to excess.

VLDL is mostly triglycerides, which are increased by alcohol and concentrated sugars (cakes, pies, cookies and frozen desserts like ice cream and sherbet) in the diet. Fructose is a simple sugar, usually found in fruits. But high fructose corn syrup is found in sweetened carbonated beverages (soda, pop or drink mixes). However fructose is also sold as a powdered sweetener that could be added to beverages and foods. Initially, it was suggested that fructose could be used by diabetics because it did not raise blood glucose. The use of added fructose by diabetics has decreased. As with other simple sugars, excessive use can increase blood triglycerides and VLDL levels.

Artificial sweeteners periodically come under attack by various researchers questioning their safety. Saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame K, sorbitol, manitol and xylitol are currently considered safe to use. Carbonated beverages and sugar free gum usually contains aspartame (NutraSweet) or sorbitol and manitol. Saccharin is found in many artificial sweeteners.

Unless you nutrient analyze everything you eat during an entire day or range of days, you won't know the impact. The only concern I would have, does your nut snacking habit boost the fat content of your diet above the recommended 30%? At least, nuts contain monounsaturated fats other than macadamia nuts, which contain saturated fat.

You are at your healthy body weight of 159 to 173 pounds. Your cholesterol is actually a little low. You did not mention your age, but some research has shown a low blood cholesterol is a concern in 60+-year-old men.

Lab tests that would be helpful in addition to blood cholesterol would be HDL, LDL and VLDL levels of cholesterol. HDL cholesterol is the good kind and LDL and VLDL are the bad blood fats. Ask your doctor about this.

NutraSweet has been found safe for use in foods. In regards to your diet soda consumption, do you drink caffeine containing diet soda or non-caffeine? Usually 12 ounces of a caffeine soda contains half the caffeine of six ounces of coffee. So two cans would be equal to one cup of coffee. If you are drinking six cans per day, then you are drinking the equivalent of three cups of coffee, which is the maximum recommended per day. Why don't you try water . It's great!

In making diabetic lunches, remember that variety helps ensure that especially the insulin dependent diabetic eats enough of the right foods. Plan to include contrasts in flavor, texture, temperature, shape and color. When the weather is cold, you could send a cup of soup in a thermos. Many businesses now provide a microwave for employee use. Casseroles and leftovers can be re-heated in a microwave.

A meal is more appetizing when it contains something moist to offset dry food, tart to offset the sweet and crisp to offset the soft. To add moisture, add mayonnaise, mustard or catsup on sandwiches, lemon juice on fruit or vinegar on raw vegetables. Try including six-ounce cans of either tart tomato or vegetable juice or unsweetened fruit juices in boxes. The juice boxes can be frozen in the summer and they will help keep the whole lunch cold as the juice thaws. Coffee or tea can be carried hot or iced in summer.

Raw vegetables and pickles add crispness. Include carrots and celery, radishes, green pepper strips, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, sliced onion, crisp lettuce or cherry tomatoes. To save time, clean a pound of carrots or a whole head of cauliflower at one time. Store the rinsed vegetables wrapped in a paper towel, in a plastic bag, in the refrigerator.

Fresh fruits are easy to pack. To change from apples and oranges, try fresh fruit in season. Chilled canned fruits, sugar-free gelatin or pudding or a baked apple travel well in wide mouth thermos containers. Remember to pack a spoon.

A brown bag lunch does not need to be a slice of bologna between two slices of dry bread.

What your doctor is telling you is that you have diabetes and need to control your food intake to keep your blood sugar within normal ranges. Calling yourself a "borderline diabetic" would be like a woman calling herself "borderline pregnant". Either your body can handle eating any food at anytime or you can't!

Your eating habits should be analyzed by a Registered Dietitian for specific recommendations. You should also be concerned with eating three meals per day and one light snack in the evening to spread out your calorie intake.

NutraSweet does not increase the flow of insulin as NutraSweet contains two amino acids (proteins) and not sugar. Your body secretes insulin to aid glucose (blood sugar) to enter your body cells and produce energy. Most blood glucose comes from carbohydrates in your diet, but your body can make glucose from dietary protein and fat as well. The small amount of protein in NutraSweet does not stimulate your body to secrete insulin. However, maybe you are eating more foods sweetened with NutraSweet and the calories in those foods can add to weight gain. Sugar-free does not mean calorie free .

A diabetic takes insulin to control his/her blood sugar within normal ranges. The amount of insulin injected varies among individuals (10 to 80 units per day). If a diabetic overeats, he/she may need more insulin to interact with the excess glucose to maintain a normal blood sugar. A diabetic may in fact have higher levels of insulin in his/her blood than a non-diabetic may. This additional insulin makes more glucose available for energy production. When energy is produced, but not needed, it is stored as body fat. Insulin actually favors the storage of fat.

First, choose an artificial sweetener that you prefer the taste of on your food. Currently, you can choose saccharin or aspartame in the United States. Cyclamate and aspartame are available in Canada.

Second, start a regular exercise program. Discuss this with your doctor as he/she would be the best person to suggest exercises that would not aggravate your arthritis or cause an insulin reaction. Swimming and water exercise classes are good because the water relieves the weight bearing on sore arthritic joints. Also, pools for water exercises can be heated to a warmer temperature.

Exercise burns some excess calories without needing insulin. A strenuous exercise program may even decrease a diabetic's need for insulin. Exercise also helps increase your number of calories burned even when you are not exercising. Exercise gives you a feeling of well being and would help you slowly lose weight. Do not make any changes in your diet or insulin dose without first discussing the dose with your dietitian and doctor. If you have had diabetes a few years, you may have slowly increased your food intake over the years. It would also be wise to make an appointment with a dietitian to review your meal plan and evaluate the number of calories you are eating. (The diabetic exchange list was revised in 1995.)

A diabetic can use fructose as a sweetener because it doesn't increase your blood sugar though it will add calories. Fructose contains two glucose units. By using fructose as a sweetener, your blood sugar may go up because of the added calories from the food you sweetened with fructose.

Glucose is the sugar that is found in your blood and the sugar that your body uses for energy to do work. Your body uses insulin along with glucose to get inside your cells to release energy for the cells. Insulin is necessary for that energy in food to be released. The more glucose in your blood, the more insulin is required to remove it.

The use of fructose by diabetics was the subject of research a few years ago and is currently being studied at Stanford University Hospital. It was suggested that diabetics use of fructose would not significantly increase the demand on insulin. While fructose does not cause your blood sugar to go up as high as sucrose, the indiscriminate sprinkling of fructose in coffee and on cereal could cause a diabetic's blood sugar to go up because of eating more food sweetened with fructose.

Also, there are some misinformed people who support the use of honey instead of white sugar because it is "natural". Chemically, honey contains fructose and sucrose which in the end, breaks down into glucose. (Unpasteurized honey should never be given to an infant or young child as it contains bacteria, which could cause a serious infection or death. Honey is usually not pasteurized or heated to kill the bacteria.) Besides, sugar is a "natural" food since it comes from sugar cane or sugar beets.

Your body is a biochemical factory. Food enters your mouth, is chemically broken down by the acid in your stomach, is further reduced by digestive enzymes and hormones in your intestines and absorbed. The only things your body recognizes are chemicals. Your body does not know what the source of the sugar was. All sugars, including starch, milk, vegetable, fruit, white sugar, brown sugar, honey, molasses and fructose are chemically reduced by your body to glucose. Some foods like starches and sugar cause a greater increase in blood sugar than fruits, milk and vegetables.

For diabetic cookie recipes, I would suggest buying the "Family Cookbook" published by the American Diabetes Association and the American Dietetic Association. I have seen all volumes in various bookstores. They are also available from either association. The cookbooks contain some cookie recipes and other dessert recipes. I have tried some of the recipes and the book is a reliable source for diabetics. In addition, it provides the nutritional analysis and diabetic exchanges per serving of each recipe.

Some guidelines would be helpful in selecting diabetic dessert recipes. First, desserts can be added to a diabetic diet, but they must be exchanged for use in your diet plan. Allowances for including some desserts in diet plans of 1500 calories or more is fine and gives additional flexibility to the diabetic diet.

Second, sugar-free, does not mean calorie free. Diabetic cookies and candy may contain more calories than the sugar containing ones.

Third, dietetic does not necessarily mean sugar free. Dietetic means that one or more of the usually occurring ingredients has been changed. The product may be salt-free and not sugar-free. In the case of cookies, the sugar may have been removed and sugar substitute added. In canned vegetables or soups, the salt has been removed and nothing else is usually added to replace salt.

Lastly, diabetic researchers are experimenting with reduced sugar amounts in cookies and their effect on a diabetic's blood sugar.

No, I would not recommend you rinse the syrup off regular canned fruit. When fruit is canned in syrup, the fruit absorbs sugar because the sugar concentration in the syrup is usually greater than the sugar concentration in the fruit. Rinsing the fruit will not remove any sugar that has been absorbed into the fruit.

Instead, I would recommend that you buy the fruit canned in fruit juice. Usually, a combination of pineapple, apple, pear or white grape juice is used. The cost of juice pack fruit is usually the same as syrup pack fruit.

You don't have to buy dietetic canned fruit because now you can buy juice packed, canned fruit. Dietetic canned fruit usually is sugar-free, but you should read the ingredient label. Look for ingredients like sugar, corn syrup solids, fructose, sucrose, dextrose, lactose, dextrin, honey, molasses, sorghum or invert sugar. Ingredients are listed in order of decreasing proportion. So the ingredient listed first is the largest amount in that food.

No, diabetics should eat regular sugar containing hard candy when they feel an insulin reaction starting.

A diabetic takes insulin or pills prescribed by their doctor to control their blood sugar within a desirable range of approximately 70 - 110 milligrams per deciliter. These medications combined with diet and exercise keep the diabetic's blood sugar within that desirable range. However, when a diabetic either skips a meal, eats too little, gets too much exercise or takes more than the prescribed does of medication, an insulin reaction (hypoglycemia) is more likely to happen. Their blood sugar drops below the person's fasting range, usually below 70 milligrams per deciliter. Your body uses your blood sugar as its main fuel. When your blood sugar drops, your body will start sending you warnings in the form of symptoms.

The symptoms are: shaky; sweaty; hungry; headache; dizzy; mood change; blurred vision; pale. If ever in doubt of whether a diabetic is having an insulin reaction, test their blood sugar using a home glucose monitor. If you are not able to test their blood sugar, have them eat one of the following foods rather than do nothing or wait: five lifesavers; one-half cup fruit juice; one-half cup milk; one-half can regular pop; six jellybeans; one-half popsicle. Within 15 minutes, the diabetic should feel better. If they are not better, repeat the same amount of food. If the diabetic still doesn't feel good, his/her blood sugar probably wasn't too low. He/she should then see a doctor. Never force food down a person who is groggy or unconscious. You may be pouring the food into their lungs rather than into their stomach. Get a diabetic who is groggy or unconscious to the nearest hospital immediately.

You can feel a diabetic's skin if you suspect a reaction. Their skin will feel wet, cool and possible clammy. Feel your own skin now. Your hand should slip smoothly over your skin. It should feel warm and dry unless you have been out in hot weather or exercising heavily.

If a diabetic has frequent or regular occurring reactions, he/she should see their doctor to change the dose of insulin or pills. An insulin reaction on a regular basis does not happen to most diabetics. A diabetic and their family should know the symptoms and treatment for insulin reactions.

Start making plans for a traditional birthday party with cake for your son. A diabetic, young or old, can have a piece of regular birthday cake on his or her birthday.

Try angel food, yellow or chocolate cake frosted with non-dairy whipped topping. You can sprinkle the topping with a sugar-free beverage powder or sugar-free gelatin to add color to the top.

Your son can choose the rest of the meal. Favorites like hamburgers, pizza, tacos or hot dogs are fine for his birthday party. Sugar-free pop or unsweetened fruit juice to drink would be good.

The party celebration should start with the food because of the excitement and extra physical activity if games are planned. Active and sitting games after the meal would be great to help use up some of the extra carbohydrates in the birthday cake.

Remind your son ahead of time to watch for signs of an insulin reaction. Hope he has fun!