On medication for Diabetes (apart from Metformin)?

You should check with your doctor or nurse before making a significant change to your diet.

On medication for high blood pressure?

A low carb diet can reduce your blood pressure and you will need to keep an eye on this.

• If reducing total calorie intake, some people often choose to miss out on the dessert but if you have a 'sweet tooth', the idea of having no sugar may seem daunting.  There are low carb and low calorie sweeteners that are better for you than sugar so you can still have a sweet treat if you need to. 
• Stevia and erythritol are good substitutes that are zero carb!  Erythritol's flavour is closest to white sugar.  
• Unrefined natural sugar alternatives, such as maple syrup, raw honey or coconut sugar, may also have some other health benefits, as opposed to table sugar.  They are still reasonably high in carbohydrate though but are released slower (higher GI) so the insulin spike may not be quite as drastic!
• Brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses in it.  
• Modify your recipes and add sugar relative to your sweet tooth - you may not need as much as a recipe suggests.  
• Go for fruit which grows in our climate as this is likely to contain less sugar - click here to see the amounts of sugar in different types of fruit which helps show why bananas should be avoided.  Adding full fat yoghurt can make a tasty option. 
• Beware of 'low fat' options in the supermarket - they are likely to contain more sugar!
  
• If you like baking cakes and desserts, there are some great substitutes.   Be careful when making direct flour switches though: you can't make a 1: 1 switch for wheat flour most of the time.  For example, coconut flour absorbs more liquid that wheat flour and needs more eggs!
• Other alternatives include almond flour or ground almonds (slightly coarser, but also cheaper)

Dessert ideas: