Applying pescatarian rules to your diabetic diet serves many benefits toward improvements of health. Every diabetic diet must be individualized to your needs, but eliminating high cholesterol red meat and replacing it with fish containing essential fatty acids will provide several health benefits.
Pescatarian Diets
A pescatarian diet is a type of vegetarian diet that includes fish and may include dairy and eggs, depending on the individual. People follow this diet for a number of reasons, the two most common being in support of animal rights or for health reasons. Research on the health benefits of pescatarians and other vegetarians is difficult because many vegetarians have made several other steps toward a healthy lifestyle. Pescatarian diets tend to be lower in cholesterol and saturated fat and higher in fiber than omnivore diets and this may be the reason pescatarians have lower rates of hypertension.
Diabetic Diets
Diabetic diets are designed to synchronize glucose levels and insulin action with food intake. For this reason, it is important to remain consistent in timing and amount of carbohydrates eaten. There are several different types of diabetic diets, including carbohydrate counting and exchange lists. Your diabetic diet plan should be based on your insulin regimen and caloric needs. A dietitian or doctor can help you plan the diet that's right for you.
Adjusting Diabetic Diet to Meet Pescatarian Needs
There are five food groups that are part of the diabetic meal plans: grains, fruits, vegetables, diary and meat and beans. A pescatarian diet eliminates meat and poultry from the diet. Since meat and poultry are complete sources of essential protein, these food groups must be replaced. Fish is also a complete protein, which may replace meat in the diet. Fish is also lower in cholesterol and higher in essential fatty acids than meat and poultry.
Protein Substitutions
One ounce of meat, one egg or one cup of milk equals one meat exchange on the diabetic exchange lists. If you maintain diary and eggs within your diet, there may be less of a need for protein substitutions. There are many potential substitutions, including tempeh and tofu. Tofu and tempeh are not complete proteins unless you consume them with a grain product. Check the label of any meat substitution to see if it states that the product is a complete protein. One ounce of each substitution should contain 8 grams of protein. One ounce of meat substitution counts as one low fat meat exchange on the diabetic meal plan exchange list.
Benefits
Overall, adults consuming a vegetarian diet will have lower risks of mortality and chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease and cancer. Plant based diets in general support good health, but may still be detrimental if overloaded with fat. To receive continued benefits, avoid overeating butter and high fat cheeses or deep frying your foods. Including exercise in your pescatarian diabetic diet improves metabolism as well as glucose control.
References
- "Understanding Nutrition" Tenth Edition; Ellie White & Sharon Rady Rolfes; 2005
- American Diabetes Association
- "Krause's Food and Nutrition Therapy"; L Kathleen Mahan & Sylvia Escott Stump; 2006
