Diabetes And Diabetic Diet

Eat Healthy, Stay Active With Diabetes Eating Guide

Diabetic Diet | Diabetes & Symptoms | Diabetes Meal Plan | Sugar | Carbohydrate Counting | Glycemic Index |Diabetic Food Exchanges List | Diabetes Diet Tips
 

Diabetic Diet

Diet for diabetic is not just a diet that is free from “sugars”. A diabetic diet is a balanced healthy diet with appropriate mixture of carbohydrates, proteins and fats that provide essential nutrients as well as to create an even release of glucose into the blood of a diabetes patient. The goals of achieving control of blood glucose levels are similar: to keep blood glucose as near as possible to that of a person without diabetes.

How Diabetic Diet Works

Diet play an important role in controlling diabetes. Hence understanding how diabetic diet works is essential to every diabetes patients. Most of the food we eat is broken down into glucose. By learning what to eat, how much to eat and when to eat we can keep our blood glucose levels within a target range. For a normal people, blood glucose levels are kept within 70 to 120mg/DL. The level will goes up after eating and return to normal after 1 or 2 hours. Following is a reference table for targeted blood glucose levels for people with diabetes.

While maintaining a tolerable blood glucose levels, our body also need nutrients to function normally. Carbohydrate, protein and fat are the three main nutrients that give us energy. They are the one that directly effect blood glucose levels in our body. Carbohydrates are more easily converted into glucose compare to protein or fat. There are generally two types of carbohydrates; simple carbohydrates (containing sugars like glucose and sucrose) and complex carbohydrates (containing fiber and starch). Simple carbohydrates raise blood glucose levels rapidly because their molecular structure breaks down faster in our stomach and small intestine. Complex carbohydrates, on the other hand take longer to be converted into glucose because their molecular structure is much more complicated.

Diabetic Diet Plan

Diabetic diet plan is simply a healthy balanced diet meal plan followed by diabetes patient. A good diet plan will not only help you improve your blood glucose levels but also help keep your weight on track. Diabetic diet plan differ from person to person due to our nutritional needs, daily activity and type of diabetes a patient suffers. Following are some important points suggested by the American Diabetic Association when planning your meal.

• Eat lots of vegetables and fruits.

• Choose whole grain foods over processed grain products.

• Include dried beans (like kidney or pinto beans) and lentils into your meals.

• Include fish in your meals 2-3 times a week.

• Choose lean meats like cuts of beef and pork that end in "loin" such as pork loin and sirloin.

• Choose non-fat dairy such as skim milk, non-fat yogurt and non-fat cheese.

• Choose water and calorie-free "diet" drinks instead of regular sugar-sweetened drinks.

• Choose liquid oils for cooking instead of solid fats that can be high in saturated and trans fats.

• Eating too much of even healthful foods can lead to weight gain. Watch your portion sizes.

• Cut back on high calorie foods like chips, cookies, cakes, and full-fat ice cream in your diabetic diet.