NEW YORK, Mar 08 (Reuters Health) - It used to be that people with diabetes were advised to avoid sugary foods at all costs. But recent study findings show that refined sugar from candy and sweets can be safely included in a healthy diabetic diet.

The study found that moderate amounts of sugar did not cause blood sugar to soar or compromise nutrition. And patients who consumed sugar ate fewer carbohydrate-rich foods overall.

"We conclude that giving type 2 diabetic individuals the freedom to include added sugars and sweets into their daily meal plan had no negative impact on their dietary habits and metabolic control," Julie Nadeau from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and colleagues write in the February issue of Diabetes Care.

The researchers suggest that healthcare providers teach their patients how to incorporate moderate amounts of sugar into their diets.

The study included 48 patients with type 2 diabetes who were instructed to follow a diet in which up to 10% of calories in each meal could come from added sugar, or follow a sugar-free diet.

After 8 months, those who were allowed sugar consumed fewer calories and carbohydrates overall than other patients. What's more, the "no sugar" group was consuming only slightly less sugar than a group of people without diabetes, findings show.

"Weight remained stable, and there was no evidence that consuming more sugar worsened metabolic profile or improved their perceived quality of life," the authors report.

In healthy people, the hormone insulin is secreted after a meal to take sugar from the blood to cells throughout the body. But patients with type 2 diabetes do not respond to insulin. As a result, blood sugar can rise dangerously high which, over time, can increase a person's risk of heart disease, kidney failure, limb amputations and blindness.

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