The food you eat has a big impact on your blood sugar levels and the management of your diabetes. Following a healthy diabetic meal plan, which provides you with a controlled amount of carbohydrates at each meal, can help you keep your blood sugar levels within the target range, which corresponds to 70 to 130 mg/dl before a meal and less than 180 mg/dl two hours after eating. However, it may be difficult to always stick to your meal plan and resist the temptations when eating out or at special occasions. Most people with diabetes will get off track with their diet at some time or another.
The Diabetes Diet
A healthy diabetes diet should include plenty of non-starchy vegetables, adequate amounts of protein from poultry, fish and lean meat as well as healthy fats from olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds. These foods should constitute the basis of your diabetes diet, and because of their low-carbohydrate content, they won't influence your blood sugar levels significantly. Your diabetes diet probably include a limited amount of carbohydrates at each meal, which usually corresponds to 45 to 60 g of carbohydrates per meal, according to American Diabetes Association recommendations. These carbohydrates can be provided by bread, rice, pasta, breakfast cereals, soft drinks, desserts, fruits and yogurt.
Blowing Your Diet
Eating out with friends or family or special occasions may tempt you into eating larger serving of foods than usual or some foods that are not usually part of your diabetes meal plan. Whether you have a soft drink, a dessert, french fries or a few too many slices of pizza, blowing your diet usually means eating more carbohydrates than your body can tolerate. Because carbohydrates, whether they are in the form of sugar or starch, are broken down into sugar, getting off track with your diet is likely to impair your diabetes control.
Short-term Impact
In the hours after your cheat meal, your blood sugar levels will probably rise higher than usual and may even go above the maximum limit of 180 mg/dl recommended by the American Diabetes Association two hours after the start of a meal. In the short term, high blood sugar levels can leave you feeling tired and sluggish. Your vision may be blurred, you may be more thirsty than usual and have to urinate more often than usual, although many diabetics do not experience any of these symptoms. These side effects associated with high blood sugar levels only last while your blood sugar levels are elevated, and things will go back to normal as soon as your blood sugar levels do.
Long-term Impact
Getting off track with your diabetes for only one meal will not affect your health in the long term. However, if it happens on a regular basis, high blood sugar levels can damage your arteries and nerves and induce some of the common complications associated with diabetes, including stroke, cardiovascular diseases, renal failure and blindness.
Minimizing the Impact
If you have eaten too much or have eaten foods that you shouldn't have eaten, there is not much that can be done other than learning about the triggers that lead you there. You may find it easier to resist temptations if you go to a different restaurant, keep certain foods out of your house or ask for a family member for support. If you have blown your diet and feel guilty, go for a walk. Walking will help you burn the extra sugar circulating in your blood and may help prevent some of the damage associated with the overconsumption of carbohydrates.
