Premium

Her blood sugar spiked even after she cut out rice and roti: Why that evening slice of cake was a trap

The cake itself wasn’t the problem as to how and when she was eating it

Written by: Ruchita Batra

4 min readUpdated: Dec 22, 2025 12:37 PM IST

The woman ate a slice of cake during office celebrations.

A 47-year-old woman with Type 2 diabetes came to me frustrated. She said despite eating mindfully, her post-meal sugar spikes were too high although her fasting sugar was under control. “I avoid rice and roti in my meals and still this happens. I barely overeat,” she told me. So, what exactly was she doing wrong?

She ate a slice of cake during office celebrations. And had a portion of Indian brittle sweet of seeds and nuts bound with caramelised jaggery or sugar, what we call a piece of gajak and chikki, every evening with her tea or coffee. “My sugar cravings go up in the evening,” she told me. In other words, she had to restrategise her eating pattern and not subject herself to gross denial.

Why suddenly deleting rice and roti from main meals can elevate your blood sugar?

Roti and rice are primary carb sources. When removed abruptly, your body anticipates energy, releasing stored glucose or glycogen for a quick boost, causing a spike. If you replace them with other high-glycemic foods (like white bread, sugary snacks), they digest quickly, causing rapid sugar release. Proteins, carbs and fats are macronutrients which need to be had in a balanced manner to ensure satiety and balance out blood sugar. Now if she had only had complex carbohydrates or whole grains instead of deleting them completely from her main meals, albeit portion controlled, then they would have slowed down digestion, lent a sense of fullness and delayed sugar release in the bloodstream.

Also read | Why ‘normal’ blood tests may not give you the complete picture

By imbalancing the main meals of the day, my patient built sugar cravings. So, by tea time, she found it difficult to stay away from tea cakes, which are made from refined flour and sugar. These are simple carbohydrates that are rapidly digested which means glucose enters the bloodstream quickly.

Traditional winter sweets, such as gajak, til patti, and chikki contain sesame seeds or peanuts, which are nutritious. But they are bound together using jaggery or sugar syrup, both of which cause a rapid increase in blood sugar. Especially when these are eaten on an empty stomach.

The art of strategic eating

We didn’t remove cake or her favourite chikki completely from the diet but restructured it instead. The biggest mistake people make with cake is by eating it on an empty stomach. This is like pouring petrol on fire. Sugar enters the blood fast, insulin struggles to respond, and the spike lasts longer.

Also read | ‘My blood sugar was 91 mg/dL at bedtime but jumped to 182 mg/dL in the morning. Why did this happen?’

Eat cake after a meal or after a protein-based snack and fibre, not on its own. Have a small slice or make mini cupcakes to manage your portions. Factor its calories in the total daily allowance of carbohydrates and drop something else to make way for it. Take a short walk after eating the cake to regulate blood sugar. Even 15 minutes of walking immediately after having sweets will help your muscles absorb sugar; you don’t need a fancy workout for that. Choose to have a slice in the first half of the day. Avoid daily consumption.

Story continues below this ad

Changing the ingredients

People with diabetes can enjoy cakes without major sugar spikes by choosing those made with low-glycemic sweeteners (like stevia), using whole grain/almond flour, and adding the fibre-protein combination (nuts, Greek yogurt). Mindful substitutions can slow down sugar absorption to more stable levels.

By making these modifications, you can create or find cakes that are delicious and supportive of stable blood sugar levels, making indulgence guilt-free and safer. As for my patient, her spikes stabilised after a month of diet tweaks.

(Batra is a nutritionist)