Diabetes patients are twice as likely to die from heart attacks and strokes as people without the disease, according to the American Diabetes Association. A healthy diabetes diet aims to control your blood sugar levels, as well as other conditions such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure that affect your heart health. This means your diet should include lots of fiber-rich carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains, and little saturated fat or trans fat.
ADA Diabetes Diets
Two organizations that go by the initials ADA -- the American Dietetic Association and the American Diabetes Association -- can help you manage diabetes with a high-carb meal plan. Both plans follow similar principles -- keep portions small, chose whole grains over refined grains and eat a variety of nutritious foods -- but the American Diabetes Association provides more specific guidelines about how to balance foods at each meal. A healthy diabetes diet includes about three servings of carbohydrates and one serving of protein for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
American Diabetes Association
The American Diabetes Association recommends you include this balance of foods at breakfast: 1/2 starchy foods, 1/4 fruit and 1/4 protein. Your lunch and dinner meals should include 1/2 nonstarchy vegetables, 1/4 starchy foods and 1/4 protein. Your noon and evening meals should also include 1 cup of nonfat milk and a small piece of fruit. Healthy starches include oatmeal, corn, whole wheat bread and brown rice. High-fiber fruits help slow your body's absorption of sugar. Citrus fruits and fruits with edible skins or seeds -- pears and bananas, for example -- make good choices. Lean protein choices include salmon, skinless chicken and black beans. Nonstarchy vegetables include broccoli, green beans and carrots.
American Dietetic Association
The American Dietetic Association also offers a high-carbohydrate diet with similar recommendations. The American Dietetic Association offers a food exchange list that tells you, for instance, how to substitute a baked sweet potato for whole wheat bread -- both starchy foods -- to help you learn about portion control. A food exchange list also helps you understand the glycemic index of foods. Pure sugar, for instance, scores 100 on the glycemic index because your bloodstream absorbs it immediately. Protein from meat, poultry and fish contains no carbohydrates, so rates a 0. Nonstarchy vegetables score lower than fruit, grains and legumes.
Sample Menu
A sample menu that adheres to high-carbohydrates guidelines proposed by the American Dietetic Association and American Diabetes Association includes: for breakfast, a bowl of high-fiber cereal with nonfat milk, berries and almonds; for lunch, a mixed green salad topped with tomatoes, carrots, sprouts, onions, mushrooms, green pepper and tuna, tossed with a mustard-yogurt dressing; and for dinner, salmon served with wild rice and a medley of nonstarchy vegetables such as cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, spinach and baby corn. Include a glass of nonfat milk and fruit with lunch and dinner. For variety, turn your milk and fruit into a smoothie.
References
- American Diabetes Association; Living With Diabetes: Heart Disease
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness -- Create Your Plate
- American Dietetic Association, Eat Right: Diabetes and Diet
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness -- Fruits
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness -- Glycemic Index and Diabetes
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness -- Non-Starchy Vegetables
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