Yu! Are Going to Love These New Fruit Chews

When I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 14 years ago, one of the biggest changes that I needed to get used to was the change in my diet. Then, when I found out a year ago that I needed to follow a gluten free diet because of coeliac disease too, I thought that would mean an even more restricted diet again. But actually, what it meant was that it became more important to find great tasting things to eat that were enjoyable and ticked the gluten-free and diabetes boxes too.

I'm lucky enough to have a really good friend with type 1 diabetes, and we're always sharing tips and stories that we've both learnt along the way along our diabetes journeys. Her partner introduced her to these healthy new snacks that she'd seen in the supermarket, which she happened to have with her when I saw her, and which she let me try, called Yu! Fruit Chews. The ones I tried first were the blueberry flavour chews and they were so tasty, and nothing like anything I'd tried before that I had to get some of my own. I've blogged before about how much I enjoy sharing hints, tips and stories with other people with diabetes. It's one of the reasons why I started this blog in fact. So to find out more about Yu! Fruit Chews I found the company that makes them amongst the Twittersphere and asked if I could write about some of their products, to which they kindly agreed.

The fruit chews are made from 100% real fruit, they count as 1 of your 5 a day, and are really low in natural sugar and also gluten free. For example in an 18g packet of chews, there are only 11.8g of carbs! I'm a carb counter and because of my sport especially, I like to keep on top of my blood sugar readings and the Yu! Fruit Chews are made in such a way that I've personally never seen a blood sugar spike after eating them. When they're made, a lot of the fibre from the fruit is retained which is great in terms of essential nutrients. The fruit chews come in miniature size too and flavours including raspberry, strawberry and mango. There are also fruit chews, which come in funky different shapes like hearts and stars and taste great, just like the other chews in the range. They're also gluten free and suitable for vegans and vegetarians. And for those who like to mix it up a little bit, there are chews covered in yoghurt too. I tried the apple and the strawberry flavour of these, the apple were my favourite as they had a pleasant tang to them. Although the yoghurt coating does contain sugar, they actually have even less sugar in them again, only 11.1g which for me is only 1.1 units of insulin to bolus for.

One of the things that I've found out about the Yu! Fruit Chews is that they're really versatile in terms of where you can take them and great for a snack both on the go and to enjoy at home. The're brilliant to have in the car on my way to a race for athletics for a light pre-race snack. I took some fruit chews to the cinema the other evening, which were a great alternative to having sweets or an unhealthy snack. Quite often if I'm going out anywhere I slip a pack of fruit chews in my handbag, because as I've mentioned before, having a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack helps maintain even blood glucose levels throughout the day and before training. If you'd like to give the Yu! fruit chews a try for yourself they're available online and in supermarkets such as Tesco.

With many thanks to Yu! to letting me blog about my new favourite snacks!