Hello Kent and Friends,
I am a diabetic and a beekeeper.  I keep the bees mainly for apitherapy.  I
cannot eat the honey because it raises my blood sugar as fast or perhaps
faster than any other sweet product.  Cane sugar is mainly sucrose, I
believe.  It is more "complex" than the sugars found in honeys, for the most
part.  The "simple sugars" in honey are more readily absorbed into the
bloodstream.  Simple sugars will raise blood sugar (or perhaps more
appropriatly blood glucose levels) because they are more quickly broken down
into glucose, than the more complex table sugar, found in jams and jellys.
Diabetes is nothing to mess with.  It doesn't cause pain with it's symtoms.
It just interferes with with the proper functioning of the body's processes
and can cause the loss of a person's legs or blindness or a host of other
equally gruesome complications.  Newly diagnosed diabetics are many times in
denial of their disease.  Denial is the point where the damage starts. The
body's circulatory system damage is irreversable.  It is not worth the
consequenses, for a diabetic to mess around trying to find out how he can
get around his disease.  Your father could be in real danger if he doesn't
listen to his doctor.  I know, I don't like to hear it either, but
diabetics, even with medication, need to cut way down on sugars and other
carbohydrates, which can raise the blood sugar.  It is a disease which needs
some personal study, in order to understand it.  I hope this helps.

Bob Bassett -  Who used to be a much sweeter guy