A healthy diet for all adults, with or without diabetes, includes 45 to 65 percent of calories from carbohydrate, 20 to 35 percent from fat and 10 to 35 percent from protein. Monitoring your intake of each of these nutrients is important to maintain appropriate blood sugar control and reduce your risk of developing adverse health effects, such as heart disease. Talk to a registered dietitian or certified diabetes educator for individualized guidance on planning a diet appropriate for your needs.
Background
Uncontrolled blood sugar puts you at higher risk for developing a number of health problems, including heart disease. Limit the types and amount of fat in your diet to lower your risk of heart disease. Dietary carbohydrate intake needs to be monitored as well, since high intakes do lead to high blood sugar levels. Adjusting caloric intake to promote healthy weight maintenance is also integral to controlling your risk of chronic disease progression.
General Guidelines
Try to eat meals with identical carbohydrate content, every four to five hours. This regularity helps to keep blood sugar levels stable. Include a variety of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, beans and low-fat dairy products to be healthy, recommends the American Diabetes Association. Avoid eating sweets and high sugar-containing foods due to their propensity to cause hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar.
Fats
To keep your risk of heart disease low, the American Heart Association recommends you limit your saturated fat intake to 7 per cent of total daily calories. Foods high in saturated fat come mainly from animal products, including beef, chicken and turkey skin, sausage and other cured meats, butter, lard and whole-fat milk products. Also limit your intake of processed snack foods such as potato chips, dips, cookies, crackers, pies and cakes, as the trans fat used in the manufacture of these foods elevates blood cholesterol and thus heart disease risk, too.
Meal Plan
To follow an 1,800-calorie diabetic diet that provides 47 g fat with 10 g of saturated fat, for breakfast, have 1/2 cup cooked oatmeal, 1/2 cup low-fat milk, one medium sliced apple and a cup green tea. Eat 2 tbsp. walnuts for a mid-morning snack. For lunch, have 1 cup whole-wheat pasta with 1/2 cup marinara sauce, 1/2 cup mixed green salad with 1/2 tbsp. olive oil and 1/2 tbsp. red wine vinegar and 6 oz. low-fat yogurt. Mid-afternoon, try six whole-wheat crackers spread with half a raw, mashed avocado. Dinner can include 1 cup chicken stew made with tomato, green pepper, onion and potatoes. Serve with 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup green beans, 1 cup low-fat milk and 1 cup fresh blueberries. Drink water liberally throughout the day.
References
- National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse; What I Need to Know About Eating and Diabetes; October 2007
- "Clinical Diabetes"; Carbohydrate Counting: A Practical Meal-Planning Option for People with Diabetes; Karmeen D. Kulkarni; July 2005
- USDA Food and Nutrition Information Center: Dietary Guidance
- "Understanding Nutrition"; Ellie Whitney and Sharon R. Rolfes; 2008
- American Heart Association; Know Your Fats; March 2011
- "Diabetes Care"; Nutrition Principles and Recommendations in Diabetes; American Diabetes Association; January 2004
