I know I consume a fair amount of artificial sweeteners in my protein shakes, BCAA, and other supps I take. I have no aversion to any. I do buy into the belief that they trigger some sort of brain/insulin response, so I personally would strategically avoid them if you are a diabetic. I know my lifestyle and diet isn't the norm, but I think it just comes down to not consuming soda pop, most breads as well as most pastas. If you can avoid carbs out of an overly processed type, dealing with type II diabetes shouldn't be too difficult........
^^^ that said, if they had that type of dietary control, they likely wouldn't have diabetes in the first place
I don't know if it's so much dietary control as lack of a real education about food combinations...I think people get overwhelmed with all the info they get thrown at them, especially if their energy is wiped from their blood sugar issues. For example, I did the Fruitarian diet over the summer for a few months, which is basically pure sugar, and felt awesome. No negative results from my physical (and my teeth didn't rot out, which was a bonus!). Low fat plus high fiber makes the high sugar/calories/carbs work without any negative repercussions. If you ever want to read a really interesting book on sugar, check out "Potatoes not Prozac":
http://www.amazon.com/Potatoes-Not-P...dp/141655615X/
It says certain people get addicted to sugar, particularly in 4 foods:
1. Sugar (treats)
2. Pasta (converts to sugar quickly in the body)
3. Bread (same)
4. Alcohol (same, but with the added buzz of the alcoholic content)
So an alcoholic is the same as the overweight kid stuffing his face with sugar all the time (*raises hand* on the latter) in terms of sugar addiction, which is a pretty interesting concept. And that spiderwebs out into a whole mess of things: you don't want to change your diet because you love what you eat & your crave it, you don't have the energy to even think about trying new recipes, your blood sugar is all over the map, and so on. One interesting thing is that the Fruitarian diet works very well for people who are diabetic, which is counter-intuitive because it's pure sugar & carbs, due to the high fiber & low fat content of fruit.
Anyway, I work with several diabetics and they mostly just manage it through their diet, like eating protein before they eat a bagel, and being careful not to overload their body with too many carbs at once. The hard part is changing your habits & accepting that you can't just eat whatever you want without negative consequences. You don't have to be stuck eating crummy healthfood if you're willing to put in some research, but I think a lot of people have that barrier of "I love to eat X now and I'll have to eat yucky Y if I change my diet".