Food and medication
Sugary foods and medication
Some medicines raise or lower blood sugar; sugary foods and drinks make the swings bigger.
6 medicines on our checker are affected. Tap a medicine for every food and drink that matters with it.
Take care sugary foods with these medicines
- Amitriptyline
Amitriptyline may affect your blood sugar if you have diabetes; test more often at first.
Where this comes from
“Amitriptyline can make it more difficult to keep your blood sugar stable. If you have diabetes and you usually test your blood sugar levels, you may have to do this more often for the first few weeks of treatment with amitriptyline.”
Information from the NHS website - Corticosteroids · prednisolone, prednisone, dexamethasone
Steroids raise blood sugar. Go easy on sugary foods and drinks.
- Empagliflozin · Jardiance
Sugary foods increase your blood sugar levels, so your diabetes is not controlled as well as it could be.
Where this comes from
“This can increase your blood sugar levels, so your diabetes is not controlled as well as it could be.”
Information from the NHS website - GLP-1 agonists · semaglutide, ozempic, wegovy
Sugary foods crowd out the protein you need on a small appetite and can worsen nausea.
- Metformin · glucophage, sukkarto
Sugary foods and drinks push blood sugar up and work against the medicine.
- Nortriptyline
If you have diabetes, nortriptyline may affect blood sugar. You may need to test more often for the first few weeks.
Where this comes from
“if you have diabetes, nortriptyline may affect your blood sugar levels. If you usually test your blood sugar level, you may have to do this more often for the first few weeks of treatment.”
Information from the NHS website
Foods and drinks that count as sugary foods
- Sugary drinks
- Fruit juice
- Smoothies
- Sweets
- Milk chocolate
- Cakes
- Biscuits
- Puddings
- Honey
- Syrup
- Sugar
- White bread
- Energy drinks
- Ice cream
- Jam
- Cereal bars
Common questions
- Which medicines does sugary foods affect?
- 6 medicines on our checker: Amitriptyline (take care), Corticosteroids (take care), Empagliflozin (take care), GLP-1 agonists (take care), Metformin (take care), Nortriptyline (take care).
- Which foods count as sugary foods?
- Sugary drinks, Fruit juice, Smoothies, Sweets, Milk chocolate, Cakes, Biscuits, Puddings, Honey, Syrup, Sugar, White bread, Energy drinks, Ice cream, Jam, Cereal bars.
General information from NHS medicine pages and drug labels, not medical advice. Always follow your prescriber, pharmacist or the leaflet with your medicine. How we check.