If you have type 2 diabetes you are not alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 23.6 million Americans have diabetes. You can take charge of your disease by adopting a healthy eating plan. A registered dietitian can help you plan meals that are tasty and healthy while keeping your blood glucose level within a normal range.
Blood Glucose
In diabetes, the body doesn't produce insulin or insulin doesn't perform as it should. When insulin isn't regulating your blood sugars it causes high blood glucose, or sugar, levels in your blood. A nutritious diet, in combination with exercise and medicine, if needed, helps reduce your blood sugar and manage your diabetes.
Recommended Foods
Both the sugars in fruits and vegetables, the simple carbohydrates, and the starches in whole grains, beans and pasta, the complex carbohydrates, break down into blood glucose during digestion. Besides keeping blood sugar levels in a healthy range, these foods are also high in dietary fiber.
Fish are a good alternative to meat and poultry since they are high in omega-3 fatty acids and lower in fats and cholesterol. Fish are also good for your heart because they lower the presence of triglycerides, a type of blood fat. Eat fish at least twice a week but avoid fried fish and tilefish, swordfish and king mackerel since they can carry high levels of mercury.
Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats can help lower your cholesterol levels. These types of fats are found in canola, olive and peanut oils; almonds; pecans; walnuts; olives; and avocado. While beneficial in moderation, they are high in calories.
Foods to Avoid
Saturated fats in red and processed meats and in high-fat dairy products can contribute to clogged and hardened arteries that increase the risk of stroke and heart disease. Limit your calories from saturated fat to no more than 7 percent of your total daily calories.
MayoClinic.com recommends you avoid entirely foods containing trans fats such as baked goods, processed food snacks, stick margarine and shortening.
Diet Plan Strategies
There are many ways to approach your diet plan. You may want to track your carbohydrate intake since carbohydrates break down into glucose and have the greatest impact on your blood glucose level. If you're on insulin and basing your diet on carbohydrate intake it's important to eat about the same amount and about the same time each day to keep your blood glucose level steady.
Choosing which foods to eat based on their glycemic index is another way to plan your diet. Foods with a high glycemic index tend to raise your blood sugar level more than foods with a low glycemic index.
Some people follow an exchange system. This system groups foods into categories such as starchy foods, vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy and fat. Each serving in a group, called an exchange, has about the same amount of carbohydrates, protein, fat and calories as every other food in that group. Each serving can be exchanged for another without disrupting your blood glucose.
Considerations
Unlike younger people with type 2 diabetes who tend to be overweight, obesity is not a common problem among diabetes patients 65 years and older. In nursing homes, for example, there are just as many underweight diabetics as there are overweight.
If you are underweight with type 2 diabetes you should talk with a dietitian who can help design a nutritional plan that focuses on weight gain along with nutritional needs.
Benefits
Adopting a healthy diet helps most people with type 2 diabetes lose weight while controlling blood glucose. An organized, nutritious diet offers many other benefits, too, like increased energy levels and reduced risk for developing other complications associated with diabetes.
References
- MedlinePlus: Diabetic Diet
- National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse: What I Need to Know about Eating and Diabetes
- MayoClinic.com: Diabetes Diet: Create Your Healthy-Eating Plan
- Clinical Management of Diabetes in the Elderly
- American Dietetic Association: Diabetes and Diet
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National Diabetes Fact Sheet, 2007
