Last Updated on February 8, 2024 by Dr Sharon Baisil MD
Living with diabetes takes a fair amount of change that needs to be included in life so that you can keep a check on your blood sugars every time.
Diabetes is nowadays a common metabolism-related chronic ailment that slowly causes internal damages and can be restrictive to an everyday, carefree, and healthy life.
Maintaining blood sugar levels and always keeping within limits is a task to be considered. Hyperglycemia is unusually high glucose levels, and hypoglycemia is glucose levels below 60mg/dL.
The improper secretion of the insulin hormone necessary to control glucose release in the body results in abnormal ups and downs. Insulin is the primary functioning hormone to regulate diabetes and keep it under control.
Many diets, including some and excluding some other varieties of foods, become one of the essential things to keep in mind as a person with diabetes.
Apart from changing diet routines, it is also essential to include other healthy habits such as – yoga, regular exercising, walking, watching your rest and sleep schedules, testing your blood sugars from time to time and maintaining a record of it, etc.
Diabetes and Food Habits
Many foods are available in the markets that are specially developed for people with diabetes to have a less extreme effect on their blood sugar levels. Generally, food with a lower Glycemic index is preferred and recommended to patients with diabetes.
When it comes to a diabetes-specific diet, you have to be extra concerned about the number of carbohydrates you consume. They are one of the elements to stay away from if you are trying to watch your sugars.
Watching the number of processed foods in your diet, the serving sizes, meal timings, before and after snacks, desserts, being cautious about alcohol and drinks, etc. are some of the complications you need to adapt to for better maintenance of your diabetes.
It is an excellent idea to keep a check on the glycemic index on everyday food items, as it can tell a lot about how the food will harm or benefit your sugar levels.
The Glycemic index determines the reaction a particular food item will have in your body’s sugar levels, after its consumption, based on the carbohydrates and other nutrients found in that food item.
GI is divided into three categories:
– Low: referring to foods that are between a 0 – 55 level.
– Medium/Intermediate: referring to GI ranging from 56 – 69.
– High: foods that have over 70 value.
As a person with diabetes, it is best to stick to foods with a lower GI, as they do not have adverse effects on your body’s sugar levels.
Intermediate GI ranked foods can be suited into the diet as per required. And coming to foods with a high GI, they are best avoided or consumed once in a while, as their reactions are far more extreme on the blood sugars.
Biscuits are a very basic and common item found in all households. It is an easy-to-go-for snack, does not require any preparation effort as they are readymade, and is also satisfying.
But if you have diabetes, something as necessary as the biscuit can also be an item to be tested and then passed into your diet routine.
We have brought here for you 5 such healthy biscuit options that you can go for, without worrying about its effects on your blood sugar levels.
5 Best Biscuits with low Glycemic Index, safe for Diabetics:
Biscuits are not the most recommended products for diabetic patients’ consumption as they have flour and sugars, which are high in starch and carbohydrates.
Sugars, sweeteners, and artificial flavorings must be essentially restricted and occasionally taken by diabetes. Doctors and dieticians suggest the same.
Although some biscuits are specially made for diabetes people, keeping in mind the effects on blood sugar levels and carbohydrate content in the biscuits.
Usually, biscuits and cookies made with sugar-free options and substituted with oatmeal, millet, nut, and other low carbohydrate flours are the ones to opt for if you are searching for safe biscuits for your diabetic diet.
Biscuits are easy snacks and can suffice as well. Here are five biscuit options that are safe for you to include in your diabetic diet.
1. Diabliss Millet Cookies
It is hard to find the biscuit that achieves the tick marks on your diabetic diet list. Diabliss brings to you a range of healthy and safe biscuits, which will keep your sugar levels in limits.
As the name suggests, these cookies are millet cookies. Millet is a coarse grain known for its incredible health benefits.
Patients of diabetes or pre-diabetic individuals, and ones who are trying to cut off on high-carb foods and watching their weight, Diabliss brings the best options in a healthy, tasty, and affordable range.
The Diabliss millet cookies are low in trans-fat and have zero cholesterol.
The GI of these biscuits is low – 20.
The main healthy ingredient in these biscuits is the millets from barnyard and Kodo. Millets are a form of whole wheat grains.
Millet is a healthier option to choose for and is a healthy substitute for rice, wheat, and flours. They are less processed and nutritionally richer.
Millets help manage and maintain blood sugar levels. They reduce cholesterol, are great options for weight loss, encourage proper digestion, and help control and reduce diabetes.
The Kodo millets used to make these cookies are a rich source of fiber and are also gluten-free. They do contain numerous other vitamins and minerals that are great for the functioning of the body.
Barnyard sugar has the goodness of calcium and phosphorus. These nutrients are excellent for the development and strength of bones.
The sweetness in the cookies is added from natural and herbal sugars, which help maintain a low glycemic index. The herbal sugars are extracted from fenugreek, ginger, cinnamon, gooseberry, etc.
All this goodness combined gives a very diabetes-friendly result, packed in these cookies.
Diabliss pays extra attention to the GI of their cookies, as they understand the importance of lower GI to maintain a balance in the blood sugar levels.
These biscuits have also been tested and clinically proven to be safe and also maintain low blood glucose. It is a proven product that can be included in your low-GI, diabetic diet.
These biscuits are no compensation for the taste factor, either. The crunchy cookies are a great match with milk, tea, coffee, etc. Carrying these biscuits to your work, day-outs, picnics, etc. make a healthy and yummy snack option.
There are available in various quantities and packaging as well and have a very reasonable price. Their combo pack also contains chia seeds and moringa leaves, two very healthy combinations alongside the cookies.
The health benefits and taste elements make these cookies one of the best options for diabetics, pre-diabetics, and diet-controlling individuals.
Click to Buy Diabliss Millet Cookies from Amazon
2. Diabodelite Multi-grain Sugar-Free cookies
This is another excellent biscuit option if you are concerned about the healthier side of the products necessary to maintain a diabetic diet.
Multi-grain cookies in place of all-purpose flour cookies are a better option all in all. They have a variety of benefits and are easily handled in the body as well.
They have the goodness of ragi, oats, wheat flour, soya, and bajra combined.
Diabodelite believes in producing delightful products for their diabetic and pre-diabetic customers. They try to keep the ingredients as safe and beneficial to their target customers as they can.
These diabetic cookies are great as they have no cholesterol, zero trans-fat, have prebiotic properties, are very rich in fiber, and ultimately help keep the sugar levels balanced.
These cookies have the goodness of fenugreek. Fenugreek is a good source of protein and amino acids. It also has a more significant compositional benefit that has an advantage in the metabolism capacities of sugar, fat, and cholesterol.
The Diabodelite cookies with fenugreek are enriched with a low molecular fiber called Galactomannan found in fenugreek.
This fiber dissolves upon consumption and form into a gummy gel that traps the carbohydrates. It forms a coat over the digestive tract to assist in slowing down the absorption of carbohydrates.
These cookies are also tested and proven to have a low Glycemic index. It is also recommended to take four of these dietary cookies in a day to help manage blood sugar levels.
This can be a healthy and tasty biscuit option and change that you can include in your diabetic shopping list.
Click to Buy Multi-grain Sugar-Free cookies from Amazon
3. Sunfeast Farmlite Digestive Oats with Almond biscuits
Oats are a great dietary option and also hold a lot of health benefits. Oat biscuits are also a safer option for people with diabetes.
These digestive biscuits are a high source of fiber and protein. These biscuits are an excellent substitute for other biscuits found in stores with the health and taste benefits of almonds and oats.
This is a purely vegetarian formula. These Sunfeast biscuits are full of the fibrous goodness of oats and the high protein derived from the almonds.
There are no trans-fat found in these healthy oat varieties of digestive biscuits.
Almonds also add a greater flavor and crunch to the healthy oat biscuits.
They are a good option to carry out as small snacks as well. This nutritionally effective digestive biscuits are safe for diabetic individuals and can be consumed without worrying about any unnatural spikes in blood sugar.
Diabetic, pre-diabetics, and health-conscious individuals can add this as a regular biscuit and snack replacement to have a more healthy snacking option.
Click to Buy Sunfeast Farmlite Digestive Oats with Almond biscuits from Amazon
4. Britannia Nutrichoice essentials
Britannia brings to its customers a wide range of healthy biscuit options. Ranging from biscuits for people with diabetes to health-conscious individuals, the various safe, healthy, and tasty biscuit options are available to all in reasonably worthy ranges.
The Nutrichoice essential biscuits are found in ragi and oats varieties. These are also safe for diabetics and also assist in managing blood sugar levels.
They are nutritionally efficient, rich in dietary fibers, with no harmful added sugars. They also have 0% trans-fat. They are enriched with complex carbohydrates that are useful to the body.
These biscuits from Nutrichoice are a great diabetes safe option, as they have been clinically proven to have a low glycemic index. Having a low GI is essential, and one of the very first remarks a diabetic patient looks in for in food items.
Britannia Nutrichoice’s range of cookies and biscuits brings a safer way of consuming readymade snacks for those concerned with their blood sugars.
These healthy and tasty oats and ragi cookies are an easy option and take care of your dietary health.
Click to Buy Britannia Nutrichoice essentials from Amazon
5. Diabexy Diabetic Almond Cookies
Diabexy is a proven food product brand aimed at making goodies rich in the right nutrients and diabetic-friendly.
These cookies are clinically tested and proven to have a low Glycemic Index as well as a low Glycemic load. They are safe to consume without causing any extreme rise in the blood sugar levels.
A comparative report states that these biscuits have a 90% lesser impact on blood sugar health than regular white flour biscuits.
Diabexy aims to make easy snacks healthy for people with diabetes with healthy and delicious almond cookies.
They include no sugar, and instead, replace it with sweet fibers. The cookies also minimize the overall carbohydrate content, to make it safe for diet-specific individuals as well.
The flour used is also quality-specific and healthy. They also make their cookies trans-fat free and easy on the digestion.
They are one of the essential sweet snacks you can add in your diabetic diets to maintain a balance in your blood sugars.
Click to Buy Diabexy Diabetic Almond Cookies from Amazon
Glycemic Index of International Brands of Biscuits and Cookies
| Food Name | GI | Serve (g) | Carb per Serve (g) | GL |
| Arnott’s Kingston biscuits | 48 | 13 | 8 | 4 |
| Cereal biscuit (30 g), cocoa flavor wheat biscuits consumed with 125 mL skim milk | 46 | 155 | 27 | 12 |
| Cereal biscuit (30 g), fruit flavor wheat biscuits consumed with 125 mL skim milk | 56 | 155 | 27 | 15 |
| Cereal biscuit (30 g), honey flavor wheat biscuits consumed with 125 mL skim milk | 52 | 155 | 27 | 14 |
| Cereal biscuit (30 g), wheat-based biscuits consumed with 125 mL skim milk | 47 | 155 | 26 | 12 |
| Fruity-Bix™ bar, wheat biscuit cereal with dried fruit and nuts with yogurt coating | 56 | 30 | 19 | 11 |
| Fruity-Bix™ bar, wild berry, wheat biscuit cereal and covered with yogurt coating | 51 | 30 | 19 | 9 |
| Good Start™, muesli wheat biscuits with additional ingredients | 68 | 30 | 20 | 14 |
| Hi-Bran Weet-Bix™ wheat biscuits with extra wheat bran | 61 | 30 | 17 | 10 |
| Honey Goldies™ wheat biscuits with additional ingredients | 72 | 30 | 21 | 15 |
| Jatz™, plain salted cracker biscuits | 55 | 25 | 17 | 10 |
| Lite-Bix™, wheat biscuits with additional ingredients, plain, no added sugar | 70 | 30 | 20 | 14 |
| Oat biscuit cookies | 45 | 25 | 15 | 7 |
| Oat biscuit cookies | 55 | 25 | 16 | 9 |
| Oat biscuit cookies, Nairn’s™ Stem Ginger Oat Biscuit | 55 | 25 | 17 | 9 |
| Oat bran Weet-Bix™ wheat biscuits with additional ingredients | 57 | 30 | 20 | 11 |
| Sultana Goldies™ wheat biscuits with additional ingredients | 65 | 30 | 21 | 13 |
| Vita-Brits™ wheat biscuits (plain flaked wheat) | 61 | 30 | 20 | 12 |
| Vita-Brits™ wheat biscuits (plain flaked wheat) | 68 | 30 | 20 | 13 |
| Weetabix™ wheat biscuits (plain flaked wheat) | 75 | 30 | 22 | 16 |
| Weetabix™, plain flaked wheat biscuits (Weetabix of Canada Ltd., Thornhill, Canada) | 74 | 30 | 22 | 16 |
| Weet-Bix™ wheat biscuits (plain flaked wheat) | 69 | 30 | 17 | 12 |
| Weet-Bix™ wheat biscuits (plain flaked wheat) | 69 | 30 | 17 | 12 |
| Wheat-based cereal biscuit, wheat biscuits (plain flaked wheat) | 72 | 30 | 20 | 14 |
| Whole wheat Goldies™ wheat biscuits (plain flaked wheat) | 70 | 30 | 20 | 14 |
Apart from these options, you can also make your diabetic-friendly cookies and biscuits at home. There are plenty of recipes online about using various healthy flours and sugary alternatives that suit your blood sugar levels.
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