# What is better custard or cream?



## Haze (Dec 20, 2020)

I help out in a residential restaurant for the elderly, and the cook substitutes the desert for the diabetics with tinned fruit salad and cream.
is this correct or is sugarless custard as good as the cream? 
She said that her husband had diabetes and you can eat what you want and take your insulin afterwards. I was a bit taken back with this


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## Inka (Dec 20, 2020)

The cream will have less carbs (the milk in the custard will add carbs despite the lack of sugar).

Tinned fruit needs watching as some are rather sickly sweet and have a few carbs too.


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## Fagor (Dec 20, 2020)

Tinned fruit in fruit juice is better than fruit in syrup.
As a type 1 I was advised to avoid cream due to the fat content, don't know if T2s' are advised same.


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## Drummer (Dec 20, 2020)

As long as it is real custard, made from eggs and cream - flavoured as required and sweetened a little with artificial sweetener which can stand the heat (not all can). 
I'd recommend frozen or fresh berries, as available, rather than tinned fruit, which can be a lot higher in carbs.
As long as the cream is the real stuff and not that Elmlea no it isn't cream stuff it should be OK - though of course some people whip it up with sugar which is not a good idea.


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## rebrascora (Dec 20, 2020)

If it is custard made with custard powder as I am guessing it most likely is, then cream would be better. 

I too was going to suggest berries as a better option than fruit salad but with old people in a care home the seeds will likely get stuck in their teeth or under their falsies and could cause an irritation/infection. We need to remember that these people do not likely have access to what we would consider a low carb diet and may not be knowledgeable enough to make low carb choices even if they do, therefore eating more fat could potentially do more harm than good as they will not be getting much exercise either. I think you have to consider how to make the best of a difficult situation and you certainly can't expect the kitchen staff to be making stuff like custard from scratch for just a few of the residents.

So yes, probably some fruit salad with a bit of sweetened custard or maybe a small chocolate eclaire might be a better choice at just 10g carbs.


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## Ralph-YK (Dec 20, 2020)

Fagor said:


> As a type 1 I was advised to avoid cream due to the fat content, don't know if T2s' are advised same.


That's generic advice, that's for everyone inc "Normals" & all diabetics. As in the whole population, generally


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## Ralph-YK (Dec 20, 2020)

Cream doesn't have the sugar that custard could very well have. I was advised by another diabetic some years ago to have cream instead of custard. This advice for what to have at Christmas.


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## rebrascora (Dec 21, 2020)

@Fagor The low fat advice is based on research carried out 70 years ago which is now believed to have been flawed at best and possibly even cherry picked to produce the result they wanted to show. 
Unfortunately after a lifetime of promoting this advice that fat is bad and causes cardiovascular disease it is well and truly ingrained into the NHS and because diabetics are at increased risk of CVD they make a point of advising us about eating low fat, when sadly the opposite may well be far more healthy for us. Having done some research, I now ignore that advice and eat quite a lot of fat together with a low carb diet and I have never felt fitter, slimmer or more energetic than I do right now (at 56years of age) and I eat a fraction of what I used to eat but because of the fat, I don't feel hungry even with just 2 small meals a day. And my cholesterol is reducing slightly despite a significant increase in fat consumption and no statins required.


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## Docb (Dec 21, 2020)

Hi @Haze and welcome to the forum.  As you can see from the responses, there is no simple and straightforward answer to your question.  As with all questions of this type, it depends......

One way into resolving the issue is to estimate the carbohydrate content of the two options as prepared by the kitchen and then give the lower carbohydrate option to those with diabetes.  Estimate the carbs in a batch and divide it by the number of portions.  If you do not know how to do this but would like to investigate further, then ask, and we will help you along.


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## grovesy (Dec 21, 2020)

To me tin fruit and cream, brings back memories from 50 or more years back when the cream would not be fresh cream but tinned carnation milk.


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## ColinUK (Dec 21, 2020)

grovesy said:


> To me tin fruit and cream, brings back memories from 50 or more years back when the cream would not be fresh cream but tinned carnation milk.


And the fruit would be the glamorous sounding Fruit Cocktail. 

We used to fight over the solitary cherry that the tin would yield.


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## Inka (Dec 21, 2020)

I eat cream and a reasonable amount of fats (ie I’m not very low fat) but I’m wary about the effect of a high fat diet on the body, specifically the heart and the endothelium. Animal fat seems particularly dodgy.

I’d guess the answer is more complicated than high fat or very low fat. If someone cuts fat and replaces it with a load of rubbishy processed carbs, then their health might be worse than someone who eat more (healthy) fats and unprocessed foods.

Short version - diet is complicated and multi-factorial!


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## Vee (Dec 21, 2020)

ColinUK said:


> And the fruit would be the glamorous sounding Fruit Cocktail.
> 
> We used to fight over the solitary cherry that the tin would yield.


I remember the same.. why only 1 cherry..


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## ColinUK (Dec 21, 2020)

Vee said:


> I remember the same.. why only 1 cherry..


Guessing it was a cost thing


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