Diabetes mellitus (honey-sweet flow, honey dysentery), commonly known as "diabetes", is one of the most common chronic diseases in middle and old age and increasingly also in younger people (disease of civilisation). The main characteristic is an elevated blood sugar level (hyperglycaemia), which is associated with a risk of serious concomitant and secondary diseases. Type 2 diabetes (colloquially known as adult-onset diabetes, but the term is outdated as the disease does not only affect older people) is the most common form. It is caused by a lack of insulin action in the body's cells. As a result, not enough sugar can get from the blood into the tissues, the sugar concentration in the blood is increased and yet an energy deficiency can occur in the cells.
Fructose increases blood sugar levels less
Type 1 diabetes" is the rarer form in which the pancreas no longer produces enough insulin or none at all. Without insulin, glucose (dextrose) cannot be absorbed into the cell and metabolised into energy. No insulin is required in the first phases of fructose metabolism. In contrast, fructose (fruit sugar) is up to three times sweeter than glucose, but considerably less blood sugar-raising. This is why fructose has long been used as a useful substitute for sucrose and glucose in the dietary treatment of diabetics.
Labelling on the bottle
These medical reasons led to the definition of "diabetic wine" with corresponding labelling in Germany in the 1990s. This was defined in §48 of the Wine Ordinance: still wine is considered suitable for consumption by diabetics if the following...
