Whether you do or do not take medication for your diabetes, you need to make healthy dietary choices to manage your condition well, and that can be a complicated and frustrating endeavor. The many food choices you face each time you're hungry can be overwhelming. But you can simplify matters by following some basic guidelines for meals you can enjoy while keeping your diabetes under control.
Portion Sizes
When you're creating a meal plan to manage diabetes, focus on your portion sizes first, before you move on to make healthy food choices. Using a standard dinner plate, you should imagine that it's divided into three sections -- one large section that comprises one-half the plate, and two small sections that each make up one-fourth of the plate -- to get used to filling your plate for any meal with the correct amount of food. You can fill the largest section with vegetables that don't contain much starch, such as broccoli, green beans, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and carrots, then fill one of the small sections with starchy foods, such as rice, cereal, breads, pasta and potatoes. Fill the last small section with meat or a meat substitute, like eggs, cheese or tofu.
Carbohydrates
Since foods that are high in carbohydrates raise your blood sugar levels, it's important to limit the number of carbohydrates you eat when planning meals to manage your diabetes. A simple guideline you can follow is planning to consume between 45 and 60 g carbohydrates at each meal. Choose whole grain foods, such as brown rice or whole wheat bread, when you eat carbohydrates, since whole grains offer more fiber, vitamins, and minerals than refined grains do.
Proteins
Each meal where you plan to manage your diabetes should include some form of protein, such as seafood, meat, eggs, tofu, peanut butter or cheese. If you are aiming to consume about 2,000 calories daily, you should plan to eat between 4 and 6 oz. of foods rich in protein each day. You can get that 1 oz. protein from either an egg or 2 tbsp. peanut butter, and you can get 3 oz. protein from a piece of meat that's approximately the size of a deck of cards.
Vegetables
Include lots of different kinds of vegetables in your meals to get the benefit of the many vitamins and minerals that they offer. When you choose vegetables that are low in carbohydrates, such as leafy greens like spinach, it will help you avoid raising your blood sugar too much. A serving of vegetables could be 1 cup salad, ½ cup cooked green beans or ½ cup cooked carrots.
