Karen Flanagan has an article about the Sugar Thieves, people who steal your sugar and replace it with artificial sweeteners in the belief that they are helping diabetes. Sugar-free foods are not carb free. It took me a long time to learn that simple lesson. She says:

For example a regular chocolate chip cookie has approximately 26 grams of carbohydrate in it. A similar sugar-free cookie has about 20 grams. Real apple pie has about 40 grams of carbohydrate per serving, and the sugar-free variety has about 37. A slice of yellow cake with frosting has about 40 grams of carbohydrate while the sugar-free version still delivers about 28 grams. The sugar-free ones are not free foods.

For years I believed that sugar is what drove up my blood sugar. I checked sugars on food labels and ignored carbohydrates. But your body doesn't know the difference between a chocolate chip cookie and a baked potato.