By Michelle Barrett, Staff Reporter HAVING DIABETES no longer means excluding your favourite foods. In recent years food manufacturers have been making tasty, sugar-free products that are easily found on supermarket shelves.
Food visited three supermarkets in the Corporate Area last week to investigate just what is available for people living with diabetes.
Our first stop was Hi-Lo Food Store in Cross Roads, where we saw an attractively laid out section with goods stacked specifically for diabetics and other weight conscious consumers. This section of the store was created six years ago because more persons were asking for such food items, explains Nicola Johnson, store supervisor.
"In this section we try to offer customers a wide variety of soya-based products which include food drinks, vegi-meat and vegi-chunks which seem to leave the shelves much quicker than other goods as we realise that more persons are consuming these items," says Johnson.
The store also stacks a variety of artificial sweeteners such as Splenda, Equal and the No-Name brands. These sweeteners come in either 50, 100 or 200 packet-boxes costing between $128 to $457 per packet.
POPULAR FOOD DRINKS
There were also canned items called food drinks with labels that describe them as totally balanced liquid meals. Johnson notes that Enterex Food Drink, made specifically for diabetics, is the most popular among the lot. It goes for $151.40 for each 8 oz. tin.
Other food drinks include Ensure, fortified with fibre and calcium and comes in chocolate, vanilla and banana flavours, is sold for $156.10 each; and Glucerna, another popular brand with diabetics is sold for $165.10. All of these items attract the General Consumption Tax of 15 per cent.
The store also offers a wide variety of locally produced reconstituted vegi-meat for vegetarians. Prices range between $83.50 and $106.55 per package.
Conveniently situated across from the 'diabetic' shelf are the fruit and vegetable sections with fresh and colourful produce both local and imported. Here, diabetics are given a little tax break as all vegetables and fruits are zero rated except for imported carrots, apples and other imported fruits. Cabbage weighing one pound cost about $24.
STICKING TO FRUITS, VEGETABLES
Duncan Johnson, a 60-year-old diabetic and office attendant, was shopping for pumpkin to use in her chicken soup that she intended to prepare for dinner. Unable to afford the more expensive food drinks and artificial sweeteners, she says that she tries to stick to a diet of mainly vegetables and fruits.
"The food they make for diabetics is just too expensive and I can't afford it. Furthermore, they don't last a long time. So what I do, I buy my fruits and make my fruit juice, which serves me a little longer. Normally, I buy pumpkin, tomato, chocho and other vegetables to include in my meals. While the vegetables may cost a little more, I have to try and cope with this expense, as I can't eat anything," explains Ms. Johnson.
Jeserine James, another diabetic who is also a returning resident, also notes that the cost of food is high which makes it very difficult for senior citizens suffering with the disease, she adds.
A PUBLIC DISPLAY FOR DIABETICS
Public Supermarket in Manor Park, St. Andrew, has gone all out to cater for diabetics and health conscious consumers. In addition to diabetic and diet food drinks, it stocks a large supply of drinks, soda and fruit juices made with a reduced amount of sugar or no sugar at all.
The majority of the supermarket's customers are elderly persons who are often afflicted with medical conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, explains assistant supervisor Darvis Tobias.
"Knowing that most of our customers live with such conditions we try to cater to their needs as much as possible and stock products that are of the sugar-free, fat-free and reduced fat varieties. Additionally, we have also introduced a 'Discount Wednesdays' for senior citizens enabling them to purchase their favourite food items at a reduced cost on that day," adds Tobias.
For those interested in having their favourite drinks there are a variety of diet soft drinks, Viva flavoured water sweetened by Splenda, as well as fruit juices with no sugar added. They come in a variety of sizes and prices. There is also the Tru-Juice brand with no added sugar in flavours such as apple, orange, cherry and cranberry, costing between $270 and $306 per gallon.
Tobias points to products such as Supligen Lite, low fat Carnation Evaporated Milk and low salt Grace Corned Beef as among the items that go quickly from the shelves.
"What we have also realised of late is that increasingly, more of our shoppers who are not necessarily diabetics are opting for 'healthier' food items such as the low-fat, low-cholesterol and low fat brands," comments Tobias.
LESS SUGAR, HIGHER COST
At Lenn Happ Supermarket, Twin Gates Plaza on Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew, store manager Tina Newman says that although the supermarket tries to stock as much food items as possible for diabetics they are unable to carry more because prices from distributors are a bit higher than for regular brands.
"We would like to buy more of these food items but because of the high cost attached to them, we are unable to so, as we will be forced to pass on these prices to our consumers who we know can barely afford them," she adds.
"In recent times we have an increased number of diabetic shoppers and have established a shelf for health food items that includes food drinks and artificial sweeteners endorsed by the American Diabetes Association," says Newman.
"It seems that we pay the manufacturers more money to take the sugar out of these goods which seems so unfair," says one diabetic shopper at Lenn Happ who was visiting from abroad.
"Just looking at these prices, they seem more expensive than those abroad as a lot of them are imported. It must be really hard on the pockets of diabetics living here," adds the visitor.
