Following a diet for your diabetes can help prevent your blood sugar levels from being too high after meals and throughout the day. This can reduce the risk of long-term complications like blindness, kidney failure and infections that lead to amputation. Remember to consult your doctor if you have diabetes to get the best medical treatment possible.
Significance
If you have diabetes mellitus, you have difficulty keeping your blood sugar levels in a normal range. Type 2 diabetes is the most common type, and occurs when your body no longer responds to the insulin that it produces, so blood sugar levels remain high after you eat. Following a proper diet is important for helping you regulate your blood sugar levels, and you should develop your individual eating plan with the help of your doctor.
Amount of Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are in foods such as fruit, starchy vegetables, grains, beans, dairy products and sweets. Since your blood sugar levels increase when you eat foods with carbohydrates, you need to control your intake if you have diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association, you should have 45 to 60 g carbohydrates at each meal along with protein and healthy fats. You can get about 15 g protein from a 4-oz. apple, 1 slice of bread, 3 oz. of baked potato or 1 tablespoon of jam or syrup. When you are counting your carbohydrate totals, you can add up the net carbs. The University of Illinois Extension states that net carbs are the effective carbohydrates because they contribute to increases in your blood sugar, and you can calculate the net carbs in a food by subtracting the grams of fiber from the total grams of carbohydrates.
Glycemic Index
The Mayo Clinic states that some people with diabetes use the glycemic index to guide carbohydrate choices. The glycemic index of a food indicates the food's effect on your blood sugar levels. Foods with a high glycemic index cause a rapid spike in your blood sugar, so emphasize low-glycemic foods such as whole grains, vegetables and beans. Limit or avoid sweets and potatoes, refined pasta and white bread because they have a high glycemic index.
General Guidelines
Along with controlling the amounts of carbohydrates that you eat, you should choose foods for an overall healthy diet to meet your nutrient needs and to reduce your risk for diseases such as heart disease, for which diabetes is a risk factor. The Mayo Clinic recommends choosing high-fiber and low-sugar carbohydrates, heart-healthy unsaturated fats such as olive oil and walnuts and fatty fish. Avoid trans and saturated fats, since they both increase levels of bad LDL cholesterol in your blood, and foods that are high in sodium.
Weight Control
If you are overweight or obese and you have type 2 diabetes, losing weight can be one of the most important steps you can take to stay healthy. Losing weight means eating fewer calories than you burn, or use, and a diabetes diet includes eating an appropriate number of calories. You can lose weight by reducing the calories you eat, or by increasing your physical activity, but get your doctor's approval before starting a diet or exercise program.
Exchange System
The exchange system can help you plan your diabetes diet. The Mayo Clinic explains that the exchange system has a variety of food exchange lists, with each one listing foods within a food group such as starchy carbohydrates, fruits, dairy, fats or meat. When you are planning your meal, you can interchange any of the foods from within a list because they have approximately the same amount of calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat. The lists tell you portion sizes so that you know the size of a normal serving. You can also use the glycemic index to help you choose your carbohydrates.
References
- American Diabetes Association: Carbohydrate Counting
- Mayo Clinic: Diabetes Diet: Create Your Healthy-Eating Plan
- Mayo Clinic: Glycemic Index Diet: A Helpful Tool for Diabetes?
- University of Illinois Extension: Diabetes LifeLines: February/March 2004
- Mayo Clinic: Glycemic Index Diet: Losing Weight With Blood Sugar Control
