If you are diabetic, you should include low-fat or non-fat milk in your daily diet plan. Milk contains nutrients essential to your health such as calcium and high-quality protein. However, you should avoid whole milk, which contains more saturated fat and calories than you need.
Recommendations
The American Diabetes Association, ADA, recommends drinking 8 oz. of low-fat or non-fat milk with all your lunches and dinners. Incorporate milk into a balanced diabetes diet plan that includes a variety of properly-portioned foods at every meal. The ADA states you should drink milk with lunch and dinner meals that include non-starchy vegetables, healthy starch, protein and fruit. Milk does contain some carbohydrates; thus, it can cause your blood sugar to rise. For this reason, you should drink milk with other foods. The balance of fruit, non-starchy vegetables, starchy foods, protein and dairy may help stabilize your blood sugar levels.
Nutritional Content
Milk contains calcium, a nutrient essential to bone health. An 8 oz. glass of 1 percent milk contains about 305 mg of calcium. Low-fat milk also provides a good source of protein --- 8 g in an 8 oz. glass. Diabetes makes you more susceptible to high cholesterol and heart disease so it proves prudent to control saturated fat and calories. One cup of whole milk contains 5 g of saturated fat --- almost a third as much as you should consume in a day --- but low-fat milk contains just 2 g and non-fat, 0 g.
Blood Glucose
The low glycemic index of low-fat milk makes it a diabetes-friendly food, according to the ADA. Foods with low glycemic indexes are unlikely to cause your blood glucose to rise to potentially unsafe levels. Keep in mind that whole-fat milk possesses a higher glycemic index than low-fat or fat-free milk. The higher the fat content in your milk, the higher the glycemic index. Milk with higher fat contains more carbohydrates than milk with lower fat content.
Considerations
If you do not enjoy the taste of plain milk, you can fulfill your daily recommendations other ways. For example, you can prepare a smoothie. This can fulfill both your milk and fruit requirements. Try making a smoothie with 8 oz. of low-fat milk, 1 c of berries such as blackberries, blueberries, raspberries or strawberries and ice. You can also replace the berries with a small banana to make a creamy banana smoothie. If you cannot drink milk due to allergies or other dietary or lifestyle restrictions, the ADA recommends replacing milk with another healthy carbohydrate such as a small piece of fruit or whole-grain bread.
References
- American Diabetes Association: Food & Fitness -- Create Your Plate
- United States Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database
- American Diabetes Association: Food & Fitness -- Dairy: Low-Fat Milk and Yogurt
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness -- Glycemic Index and Diabetes
- American Dietetic Association, It's About Eating Right -- Diabetes and Diet
- University of California San Francisco Medical Center; Cholesterol Content of Foods
