I'd just like to hear other people's experiences.
My mother has had type 2 diabetes for about twenty years. She has never paid much attention to her diet and she has a very sweet tooth.
Now that she is in the early stages of dementia, health care professionals, including the diabetic nurse, have told me that, given her dementia and her age (nearly 90), it isn't worth depriving her of sugary foods that give her pleasure.
I can see their argument, but my perception is that when i take steps to reduce the amount of sugar in her diet, she feels physically better, looks less ill, and is less confused.
This came up as an issue when I was staying with her recently. During the first couple of weeks I was there, I deprived her of sugar. This was quite easy to do, since I was doing all the shopping and I simply refused to buy chocolate or biscuits. We had a couple of rows about it, but she did seem to improve. Or maybe it was just the attention she was getting? Anyway, after we'd seen the diabetic nurse, who told me not to stop mum eating sugar, I gave up, and within a few days it seemed to me that mum went downhill. It wasn't just me -- her cleaner complained to me that mum had been much better when I'd stopped her eating sugar, and wanted to know why had I given up?
My mother has had type 2 diabetes for about twenty years. She has never paid much attention to her diet and she has a very sweet tooth.
Now that she is in the early stages of dementia, health care professionals, including the diabetic nurse, have told me that, given her dementia and her age (nearly 90), it isn't worth depriving her of sugary foods that give her pleasure.
I can see their argument, but my perception is that when i take steps to reduce the amount of sugar in her diet, she feels physically better, looks less ill, and is less confused.
This came up as an issue when I was staying with her recently. During the first couple of weeks I was there, I deprived her of sugar. This was quite easy to do, since I was doing all the shopping and I simply refused to buy chocolate or biscuits. We had a couple of rows about it, but she did seem to improve. Or maybe it was just the attention she was getting? Anyway, after we'd seen the diabetic nurse, who told me not to stop mum eating sugar, I gave up, and within a few days it seemed to me that mum went downhill. It wasn't just me -- her cleaner complained to me that mum had been much better when I'd stopped her eating sugar, and wanted to know why had I given up?