Diabetes is the most important chronic problem which is directly related to your dietary / eating habits and calorie consumption. Accordingly, you can take good care of yourself and your diabetes by learning:
- · What to eat
- · How much to eat
- · When to eat
Hence, the term “diabetes diet” is all about making wise food choices that can help you feel good every day, lose weight if you need and lower your risk for heart disease, stroke, and other problems caused by diabetes.
The recommended daily calorie intake of a diabetic diet
According to the most dieticians and nutritionists, you should ideally take 1,200 to 1,600 calories a day. Your daily diabetic diet plan should also be based on your receiving 50 to 60 percent of the daily calories from carbohydrates, 15 percent from proteins, and the remainder as fats.
Benefits of a diabetic diet
At the first place, healthy eating helps keep your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, in your target range. In diabetes, the real culprit is high blood glucose levels and hence, by following the recommended diabetic diet, you can help prevent various health problems and complications such as blindness, stroke, kidney failure, heart failure and gangrene.
Components Of Diabetic Diet
Starches: Starches are bread, grains, cereal, pasta, and starchy vegetables like corn and potatoes. They provide carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Whole grain starches are healthier because they have more vitamins, minerals, and fiber. You should eat some starches at each meal. Eating starches is healthy for everyone, including people with diabetes. However, you should buy whole grain breads and cereals. Also eat fewer fried and high-fat starches such as regular tortilla chips and potato chips, French fries, pastries, or biscuits. Try pretzels, fat-free popcorn, baked tortilla chips or potato chips, baked potatoes, or low-fat muffins. Use mustard instead of mayonnaise on a sandwich. Similarly, eat cereal with fat-free (skim) or low-fat (1%) milk.
Vegetables: This is, perhaps, one of the most important components of a typical diabetic diet as vegetables provide vitamins, minerals, and fiber and they are low in carbohydrate glucose. However, not all vegetables are that good for diabetics. You should go for green leafy vegetables that contain high amount of fiber, vitamins and minerals. Also, you should go for raw and cooked vegetables with little or no fat, sauces, or dressings. Try low-fat or fat-free salad dressing on raw vegetables or salads. Steam vegetables using water or low-fat broth can also be consumed. If you do use a small amount of fat, use canola oil, olive oil, or soft margarines (liquid or tub types) instead of fat from meat, butter, or shortening.
Fruits: Fruits are a rich source of energy, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Contrary to the popular beliefs, a diabetic diet does not stop you from eating sweet fruits. Instead, it just asks you to be more cautious in your selection.
In a diabetic diet, you can eat fruits raw or cooked, as juice with no sugar added, canned in their own juice, or dried. You should buy smaller pieces of fruit and choose pieces of fruit more often than fruit juice. Remember, whole fruit is more filling and has more fiber. You should also save high-sugar and high-fat fruit desserts such as peach cobbler or cherry pie for special occasions.
Meat & meat products: The meat and meat products include poultry, eggs, cheese, fish, and tofu. In diabetic diet, you should eat only a small amount of some of these foods each day.
Meat and meat substitutes provide protein, vitamins, and minerals but may also have high fat content. Therefore white meat (poultry / fish) is usually preferable. However, if you are taste-conscious, you can also choose modest amounts of leaner meat.
In addition, adapting the following measures for meat related foods can help you greatly.
· Buy cuts of beef, pork, ham, and lamb that have only a little fat on them. Trim off the extra fat.
· Eat chicken or turkey without the skin.
· Cook meat and meat substitutes in low-fat ways such as broil, grill, stir-fry, roast , steam, microwave
· Limit the amount of nuts, peanut butter, and fried foods you eat. They are high in fat.
Fats and Sweets: You should restrict the amount of fats and sweets you eat. Fats and sweets are not as nutritious as other foods. Fats also have a lot of calories. Sweets can be high in carbohydrate and fat. Some contain saturated fats, Trans-fats, and cholesterol that increase your risk of heart disease. Limiting these foods will help you lose weight and keep your blood glucose and blood fats under control.
As for sugar, non-nutritive sweeteners (like aspartame, acesulfame, saccharin) are preferable to both sucrose (table sugar) and fructose (fruit sugar) in drinks, cereals, puddings, and other foods. This is especially true for overweight diabetics.
Alcoholic Beverages: Alcoholic drinks have calories but no nutrients. If you have alcoholic drinks on an empty stomach, they can make your blood glucose level go too low. Alcoholic drinks also can raise your blood fats. It is, therefore, best to avoid alcohol altogether.
Salt (Sodium): Most people with diabetes eat more salt than they need. Salt can raise blood pressure, which increases the chances for heart disease or stroke. Remember, you need less than 1,000 milligrams of sodium per 1,000 calories, and should not consume more than 3,000 milligrams of sodium per day. Accordingly, a diabetic diet is a low-salt diet. Use less salt when cooking and at the table. One-half teaspoon is equal to about 1,000 milligrams of sodium. Limit foods that are high in sodium, such as processed meats, cheeses, condiments, chips, fast foods, convenience meals, crackers, and salted nuts. Read labels for sodium (NaCl) content
Last but not least, if you have diabetes and you are overweight, you should also start losing weight to lessen the risk of complications that becomes even greater when diabetes is associated with obesity. Remember, high blood sugar levels make you feel hungrier than normal. Proactol Plus is a potent herbal supplement that works naturally to suppress your appetite partially (not completely) so that you can still eat just the right amount of foods from your diabetic diet. Weight loss with the help of diabetic diet, Proactol Plus and healthy exercise reduces the risk of developing diabetes and returns many Type II diabetics to normal blood-sugar regulation. Studies have shown that losing even as little as 10 extra pounds can make a difference in your blood glucose, cholesterol, and fat levels in diabetes.
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