If you have been diagnosed as a diabetic or hypoglycemic, it is essential to make some dietary changes. Hypoglycemia is a condition in which blood sugar levels drop too low. Unless you control your blood sugar levels, you may suffer light lightheadedness, weight gain or loss, vision loss, or even loss of one or more limbs. To control blood sugar through diet, you must choose wholesome foods with complex carbohydrates and avoid eating refined sugars and sweets. Health care providers use a worksheet found in the American Dietetic Association's "Choose Your Foods" publication to determine the amounts of carbohydrates, fats and proteins you should consume. If you don't have access to this worksheet, you can still plan your menu by performing a few simple calculations and using the diabetes exchange lists to choose food items.
Step 1
Consult a physician or dietitian to determine your target calorie intake. Your physician or dietitian assigns a target caloric intake for you based on your age, weight, height, body composition and health goals. For example, if you need to lose weight, you will need to consume fewer calories than what is needed for weight maintenance. Additionally, larger people need more calories than smaller people, so your health care provider will take all of these factors into consideration when assigning your intake goal. This number will probably be somewhere between 1800 and 2200 calories. Do not deviate from this number as it is the basis for computing your macronutrient proportions.
Step 2
Calculate target macronutrient intake. The American Dietetic Association recommends that 50 percent of your calories should be from carbohydrates, 30 percent from fats and 20 percent from protein. Simply multiply your total number of calories by 0.5, 0.3 and 0.2 to come up with the number of calories you should consume from carbohydrates, fats and proteins, respectively. This means that if your target calorie intake is 2000 calories, then 1000 calories should be from carbohydrates, 600 should be from fat, and 400 should be from protein.
Step 3
Choose your foods using the American Dietetic Association's exchange lists (see Resources). The exchange lists separate foods into different categories to help you spend your carbohydrate, fat, and protein calories using the healthy foods listed. If you have 1000 calories to spend on carbohydrates, you will find a list of carbohydrate foods and their caloric values. Any food on the list can be exchanged for any other food on the same list if the portion sizes are followed. For example, one slice of bread can be exchanged for one half an English muffin or two small taco shells because each of those foods have roughly 15 g of carbohydrate and 80 calories. Continue the process of choosing foods from different lists until you have spent your allowance for carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Be sure to spread out your carbs throughout the day to avoid any peaks or valleys in your blood sugar levels.
Tips and Warnings
- The exchange list allows for a fair amount of flexibility in planning a menu, but it is always ideal to choose foods that are rich in complex carbohydrates, unsaturated fatty acids and lean proteins. Whole grain breads and high fiber cereals are always better than refined white breads or processed sugary cereal. Fish, soy and flax seed have more healthy fats than red meats and poultry skins which are known for high saturated fat content. Chicken or turkey without the skin can be an excellent choice for lean protein foods.
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