MNT -- or medical nutritional therapy -- is a diabetic eating plan designed to help you maintain a healthy weight and stabilize your glucose levels. It's important to choose nutrient-dense foods and avoid simple carbohydrates, such as sugar, pasta, bread and potatoes, that will quickly raise your blood sugar. The American Diabetes Association, working with the American Dietetics Association, designed an exchange list program specifically to help diabetics eat a healthy, balanced diet. Keeping your blood sugar under control may help prevent serious health risks associated with diabetes, such as blindness, heart disease, kidney failure and nerve damage.
Step 1
Calculate how many calories you need to eat to either lose weight or maintain your current healthy body weight. The University of Maryland Medical Center recommends that people with diabetes eat about 12 calories per pound of their ideal body weight. If you want to weigh 140 lbs, you should consume 1,680 calories daily. You can speed up weight loss by consuming fewer calories, but eat at least 1,200 calories every day.
Step 2
Determine how many servings from each food category you should eat daily. There are six food categories: starches, proteins, vegetables, fruits, fats and milk. There is also a "free" category for foods that have less than 20 calories per serving, such as mustard or salsa. A typical 1,500 calorie diet includes the following exchanges: eight starch, five protein, three vegetable, three fruit, three fat and two milk.
Step 3
Learn the guidelines for each exchange category. Each food group has a specific calorie and nutrient requirement. One starch exchange is 80 calories and no more than 15 g of carbohydrates. A vegetable exchange should contain 5 g of carbohydrates, 2 g of protein and 3 g of fiber. You'll need to know the calorie, carbohydrate, protein, fat and fiber content of foods to figure out how large an exchange is. Easy reference books and online guides are available; and there are several rules of thumb you can use, such as one ounce of meat or cheese is a protein exchange and one slice of bread or 1/2 cup of cooked pasta is a starch exchange.
Step 4
Choose foods low on the glycemic index. The glycemic index measures how quickly a food will raise your glucose level. Only carbohydrates are rated on the GI, because fat and protein by themselves don't affect your blood sugar. Because fiber slows the absorption of sugar, low GI foods tend to be high in fiber. It's important to make nutrient-dense choices -- although fat doesn't affect your blood sugar, added to a carbohydrate, fat will slow the absorption of sugar. Low GI foods are not necessarily low in calories.
Step 5
Monitor your glucose levels before and after eating. If your glucose levels remain above 180 mg/dL two hours after eating, you may have eaten too many carbohydrates, too much food or not taken enough diabetes medication.
Tips and Warnings
- Eat every four to five hours, spreading your exchanges equally throughout the day. Eating often will help stabilize your glucose levels.
- If you are overweight, losing just 5 to 7 percent of your body weight can reduce your insulin resistance for type 2 diabetics.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Your Diabetes Diet - Create Your Healthy Eating Plan
- "Diabetes Spectrum"; Choose Your Foods: Exchange Lists for Diabetes: The 2008 Revision of Exchange Lists for Meal Planning; by 1. Patti Bazel Geil, MS, RD, FADA, CDE
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Diabetes Diet: Diabetic Exchange List
- University of Maryland: Your Diabetes Diet - Weight Control for TYpe 2 Diabetes
