Recently Peeled Snacks has formed a partnership with the American Diabetes Association to help get the word out about healthy lifestyles and diets.  One of the key missions of Peeled Snacks is to give people a healthy snack option, and that's a mission that the ADA can certainly get behind.  It's certainly worth asking, though, are Peeled Snacks fit for diabetics?

Hmm... tricky question, that.  And unfortunately, the answer can't be a simple "yes", as much as we'd like it to be that way.   Peeled Snacks' fruit is loaded with carbohydrates, and though they may be loaded with vitamins, minerals, and fiber, all those carbs inevitably convert to sugars.  That should make any person diagnosed with diabetes at least a little bit leary.

This dried fruit stuff has plenty of health benefits, but being low in sugar isn't one of them.  Yet compared to most of the snack food out there, dried fruit is an excellent snack for diabetics.  Thanks to our national addiction to corn-sweeteners, a snack without any added sugar is suddenly a healthy alternative, even if it's mostly made of sugar.  Addicted to oil?  Get over it.  Corn Syrup is the new Crystal Meth... or, rather, the OLD one.

Still, in a sampling of 5 websites that discuss diets for diabetics, Dried Fruit got at best a cautious endorsement (and in one case, a flat out "avoid").  The clearest message for diabetics regarding dried fruit seems to be "it depends upon your body's reaction."  Dried Fruit could be just what the body ordered.  Or, they could be a problem.  But you never know till you try, so try in moderation....

So much focus diabetes in recent years has been on dealing with it via diet and habit.  Folks with type 1 diabetes have to moderate whatever they eat with insulun, but type 2 can be moderated by, well, moderation.  Easier said than done, with every little diagnosis having it's own, distinct dos and do-nots.  But at least for some, for many, Peeled Snacks are a great alternative to, as we call it around the office, "all the rest of the crap out there".