Healthy Diet to Break Down Blood Sugar Levels

Overview

If you've recently been diagnosed with diabetes, you're not alone. According to the American Diabetes Association, more than 23 million Americans, or 8 percent of the population, has diabetes. Twenty-four percent of diabetics are undiagnosed and are at risk for serious complications. The good news is that there is a number of ways to successfully treat diabetes so that those afflicted can go on to live active, normal lives. The three ways diabetes is treated are exercise, medications and diet.

A Primer on Diabetes

Diabetes is a serious metabolic disease that affects the way that glucose is metabolized in the body. Glucose enters your body as carbohydrates in your diet. Common sources of carbohydrates are bread, pasta, rice, fruits, vegetables, beverages and snacks. Once the carbohydrates are digested in the small intestine, glucose is released into the bloodstream, where it is transported to the muscles, major organs and tissues of the body.

Type I diabetes is often called insulin dependent diabetes because the diabetic requires exogenous insulin to manage their disease--usually in the form of injectable insulin. Without insulin, the body cannot process blood glucose. As a result, the tissues starve in the presence of high concentrations of blood glucose. High concentrations of blood glucose can lead to kidney failure, nerve damage, heart disease and blindness. Type II diabetics produce enough insulin, but their tissues are resistant to it. The results are the same for both types of diabetics.

Measuring Blood Glucose

There are several ways to measure your blood glucose if your doctor suspects that you are pre-diabetic or have diabetes. These include fasting blood glucose tests, oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) and hemoglobin A1c tests. The first type of test your doctor will prescribe is a fasting blood glucose test. After a 12-hour fast, a nurse or laboratory technician will draw a small sample of your blood and have it analyzed for blood glucose. The normal blood glucose range is 70 to 110 mg/dl. If it is high, your doctor may ask you to repeat the test or take an oral glucose tolerance test. Prior to taking an OGTT, a technician will draw a small sample of blood. This will act as your baseline measurement. You'll then be asked to drink a highly concentrated glucose drink and a technician will draw blood samples every 30 minutes for up to two hours. At the end of two hours, your blood glucose level should be less than 140 mg/dl. Another diagnostic test is the hemoglobin A1c test. HbA1c tests measure the percentage of your hemoglobin that is saturated with glucose. The normal level is less than 7 percent. HbA1c tests are valuable in diagnosing new and existing cases of diabetes because the results represent your blood glucose concentrations over the life span of your red blood cells--about 120 days.

Managing Blood Sugar Levels

Both type I and type II diabetes can be successfully managed through diet, exercise and medications. Exercise and medications help the body use circulating blood glucose. However, diet remains the best approach because it lets you manage how much glucose you're taking in and how quickly it causes your blood glucose to spike. The goal is to eat foods that are nutritious and allow you to maintain normal glucose ranges without dramatic spikes or drops.

All foods can be divided into three groups: carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Carbohydrates are the body's preferred source of energy because they are easily broken down into glucose. They are also most likely to cause rapid spikes in blood glucose levels. To prevent blood glucose from spiking, diabetics learn how to limit the amounts and types of carbohydrates they eat and coordinate meals with exercise and medications.

The Glycemic Index

One of the easiest ways to prevent blood glucose spiking is by eating carbohydrates that are low on the glycemic index (GI). Carbohydrates can be rated according to how quickly they cause blood glucose levels to spike. Low GI foods are rated below 54 on the glycemic index. Medium GI foods are rated between 55 and 70. High GI foods are rate over 70. By learning how to combine high GI foods with low GI foods or foods that contain fat or protein, you can average the glycemic load of your favorite foods. For instance, corn flakes have a relatively high GI of 84. By choosing nonfat milk, you can lower the overall GI of your breakfast.

Carbohydrate Counting

Another easy way to manage how many carbohydrates you're eating is by counting carbohydrates. Most commercially prepared foods will display how many servings are in the package and how many grams of carbohydrates are contained in one serving. How many grams of carbohydrates you need is dependent on your unique medical history, gender and activity level. One easy way to estimate how many carbohydrates you need is by dividing the number of calories you consume in a day by 8. For instance, a woman consuming 1800 calories a day needs around 225 grams of carbohydrate. An active man consuming 2400 calories needs 300 grams. If you divide the total grams by 3 (for 3 meals a day), each meal for a woman would average 75 grams of carbohydrate,100 grams for men.

Create Your Plate

Create Your Plate is a simple way to manage your blood glucose levels. Developed by the American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org), the Create Your Plate menu planning tools can be used at home and when you're out with friends. Start by drawing an imaginary line down the center of a dinner plate. Divide one of the halves into two equal, smaller halves. Fill the larger area with non-starchy vegetables like spinach, carrots or broccoli. Fill one of the smaller areas with starchy foods like whole grain breads, rice, pasta or potatoes. Fill the remaining area with meats or meat substitutes like chicken, turkey, fish or eggs.