World Diabetes Day: Diabetic friendly desserts you can indulge in

While India commemorates this day in honour of the birth of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and his constant endeavours to provide children with fulfilled education, the world celebrates this day a bit differently. The World Diabetes Day is an annual campaign whose agenda is to spread awareness about diabetes, a leading cause of severe conditions like blindness, stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure. The goal of this day is to educate people about the causes, impacts, and types of diabetes, while also identifying risk factors and necessary medications.

Diabetes mellitus or simply diabetes is a condition that causes high blood sugar. The most common types are type 1 diabetes and type 2. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks the pancreas, destroying cells and interfering with the production of insulin. Insulin is a hormone which controls blood sugar levels. Type 2 diabetes is the other common variant, wherein the body becomes resistant to insulin and sugar starts building in the blood, causing high blood sugar.

A common misconception is that sugar causes diabetes, and while it is true that sugar affects your blood sugar level, it does not cause diabetes. The real culprit that raises blood sugar and causes diabetes is carbohydrates. People who suffer from diabetes are told to avoid sweet foods, and it is because sugar is made of carbs. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t treat yourself to a dessert if you’re a diabetes patient. This World Diabetes Day, knock yourself out with these low-carb diabetes-friendly desserts.

Lauki or bottle gourd doubles as a nutritious vegetable and as a nutritious dessert. Lauki halwa is a delicious Indian dessert that is low in calories and carbohydrates, packs a chunk of nutrients, and acts as a natural sweetener. (Image: Instagram/moooodybaker)

One of the country’s favourite desserts, kheer can be made in a way that is diabetes-friendly, and that is by using jaggery instead of sugar. A natural sweetener, jaggery has a significantly lower carbohydrate content than sugar, and can be used to make an equally tasty dessert.

Greek yogurt is creamy and extremely nutritious, and low in carbs. Greek yogurt that is flavoured wih fruits like mango and strawberry have slightly more carbohydrates, although the content is still lower than most other desserts.

A good thing about caramel custard is that even if you reduce the amount of sugar, it still maintains the creamy texture and delectable taste. Use low-fat milk to further minimize the carbohydrate content.

This dessert is rich in fibre and low in carbohydrates and fat, and provides you with the goodness of apples and richness of pancake. The best part is that apple pancake is made with whole wheat flour instead of refined flour.