Diabetes is a serious metabolic disease that affects the way your body uses glucose. Type 2 diabetics have difficulty processing glucose in the blood, causing high blood sugar levels. If the body cannot properly use glucose, a number of secondary complications develop, including kidney failure, nerve damage, accelerated heart disease, blindness and even loss of limb.
Depending on the patient's unique needs, diabetes is treated typically through diet, exercise and medications. Diabetic food plans begin with the basics of a heart-healthy diet, paying special attention to carbohydrates and fiber.
Carbohydrate Counting
Carbohydrate counting is a simple way to control the amount of carbohydrates in the food you eat. Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose and circulate in the blood after the small intestine digests them. Some carbohydrates in the diet are good. Too many can cause high glucose levels in the blood, leading to diabetic complications. Carbohydrate counting involves learning how to estimate the amount of carbohydrates in the foods you enjoy and balancing them with fats and proteins. Carbohydrate counting requires simple ways to measure food, like using a food scale, measuring spoons and cups. With experience, you will be able to determine how many ounces of food are contained in one serving. With the help of packaging labels, reference guides, computer software and the Internet, you will learn how many grams of carbohydrate are contained in the foods you enjoy. For instance, 1 cup of chili contains 22g of carbohydrate. A good place to start is by limiting your carbohydrate intake to 40 to 60g of carbohydrate per meal. Check with your registered dietitian for information specific to your needs.
Fiber in the Diet
Another important part of the type 2 diabetic food plan is fiber. Fiber comes from a number of common plant sources. There is no fiber in meat products, poultry, seafood dairy products or eggs. Fiber is divided into soluble and non-soluble sources. Soluble fiber is partially soluble in water. Non-soluble is not. A balance of soluble and non-soluble fiber delays stomach emptying, slows the digestion of carbohydrates and minimizes spiking of blood glucose levels. Fiber is also beneficial in lowering cholesterol and certain types of colon cancer. Good sources of soluble fiber are fruits and vegetables. Oats and oat bran are good sources of soluble and non-soluble fiber.
Glycemic Index
The glycemic index (GI) is an easy way to build diabetic food plans around the foods you enjoy eating. All carbohydrates have a glycemic index rating and refer to how quickly digested carbohydrates cause your blood glucose to spike. GI foods are rated with numbers and fall into low (0 to 54), medium (55 to 69) or high (70+) GI foods. The lower the number, the better. Type 2 diabetics need to manage the quality and quantity of their carbohydrates by balancing high GI foods with low and combining fats and proteins to prevent their blood glucose levels from exceeding healthy limits. For instance, plain non-fat yogurt (14) can be eaten with cereals like bran flakes (74) for a healthy, balanced breakfast.
