Your body's response to the foods you eat is at the heart of diabetes. Food is fuel for the body. The right foods can help stabilize diabetes; the wrong foods can be almost fatal for some diabetics.
Definition of Diabetes
Diabetes occurs when your body is unable to make or properly use insulin, a hormone that helps the body use glucose. This results in too-high levels of glucose in your bloodstream, a condition known as hyperglycemia. Diabetes that is unmanaged for long periods of time can result in damage to and failure of a number of organs in the body. A person experiencing high blood sugar will likely feel fatigued with a rapid heartbeat, be very thirsty more often and need to urinate more frequently. At its worse, hyperglycemia can result in coma.
Food's Role in Diabetes
Glucose, also called dextrose, is essentially sugar and, as Mayo Clinic puts it, virtually every food eaten is converted to glucose. Glucose is the main source of energy for the body's cells, so you've got to have it. The goal, according to the American Dietetic Association, is to keep a balance between too much and too little glucose. This balance can be achieved both with medication and the foods you eat.
What Diabetics Should Eat
The best diet for a diabetic is essentially the same that nutritionists recommend everyone eat. Keep it lean. Keep it fresh. Keep it whole. When it comes to meats, have fish two or three times weekly. All your other meats should be of the lean variety. The American Diabetes Association offers a shopping tip for meat -- if it ends in "loin," your beef or pork will have less fat. And go skinless on the poultry. Dairy products should be nonfat. Remove foods with added sugar from your menu, including beverages like sodas. Bulk up on fruits and vegetables, especially non-starch varieties like spinach and other greens, carrots, broccoli and dried beans of all varieties. "Superfoods" for diabetics, according to the American Diabetes Association, so named because they are low on the Glycemic Index and provide a lot of nutrition, include beans, dark green leafy veggies, citrus, sweet potatotes, tomatoes, fatty fish, whole grains, nuts and fat-free milk and yogurt. Food exchange lists -- like the American Dietetic Association's Choose Your Foods: Exchange Lists for Meal Planning -- provide a handy way to keep track of your food intake, and therefore, your potential glucose levels.
When and How to Eat
Since your goal is to stabilize your blood sugar, that is, to stay as close to a middle level as possible, as often as possible, timing is important. One way to make the most of your good foods is to eat at regular intervals each day. Also, keeping portion sizes moderate is important to achieving glucose stability.
Misconceptions
You'll hear a lot of "folk wisdom" about what diabetics can and cannot eat. At Mayo Clinic, Nancy Klobassa, R.N., and Peggy Moreland, R.N., cover the Top 10 myths about diabetes, which include the idea that carbohydrates should be avoided. They explain that carbs should be 50 percent of daily food intake, or else your body won't have enough energy. Also on MayoClinic.com, Jennifer Nelson, M.S., R.D., and Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., discuss recent studies that indicate diets that are low-carb but high in fat can actually worsen diabetes' impact on your health. The American Diabetes Association recommends that not more than 65 percent of daily calories be gleaned from carbohydrates, but keep fat intake under control. Perhaps the most common myth, which is now unproved, is that eating sugar causes diabetes.
What Diabetics Should Avoid
Sugar does not cause diabetes. What is now known, says the American Diabetes Association, is that the total amount of carbohydrates you eat is more important to controlling diabetes than the type of carbohydrate. So if you use a food exchange list, read the Nutrition Facts labels on foods, and watch your portion sizes, you can even safely eat sweets within reasonable limits.
The Glycemic Index
The Glycemic Index (GI) is another tool that can help you determine how high a particular food will raise your blood sugar level. The GI uses a scale from 0 to 100, and foods are ranked on the scale based on how quickly they are digested and absorbed. Low-GI foods promote a more sustained blood sugar level.
References
- American Dietetic Association EatRight.org: Diabetes
- American Diabetes Association: Making Healthy Food Choices
- American Dietetic Association EatRight.org: Food Nutrient Data for Choose Your Foods: Exchange Lists for Diabetes, 2007
- Mayo Clinic: Top 10 Diabetes Myths
- Mayo Clinic: For those with diabetes --- there's more to it than carbs
- American Diabetes Association: Sugar and Desserts
