A balanced, healthful approach to eating is a medically necessary goal for diabetics. Regardless of your previous diet, creating a realistic, nutritious meal plan requires expertise and guidance. Organizations such as Overeaters Anonymous believe that adopting a structured, nutritious food plan is essential to successfully managing your health and addiction to certain foods. Many of the Overeaters Anonymous principles regarding food and eating overlap with those for managing diabetes.
Maintain a Meal Schedule
A strict meal schedule is an effective way to manage your insulin levels and prevent overeating. Eat breakfast within one hour of waking, have lunch four hours after breakfast and eat dinner four hours after lunch. The Overeaters Anonymous food plan doesn't include snacks, but as a diabetic, consuming a healthy snack between each meal stabilizes your glucose. For example, eat an apple with peanut butter or one serving of high-protein Greek yogurt. Test your blood sugar at the same time throughout the day to maintain an accurate record.
Portion Your Meal Evenly
Consuming meals with three equal portions of vegetables, carbohydrates and protein will help reduce your cravings and nourish your body. For example, eat a 6-ounce skinless chicken breast, a small baked potato and 1 cup of steamed broccoli for dinner. Overeaters Anonymous allows an additional serving of steamed vegetables, but prohibits second helpings of anything else.
Eat Nutritious Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are a necessary sugar that provides energy and helps regulate your glucose levels. Effectively managing your diabetes requires eating a certain number of carbohydrates during scheduled intervals throughout the day. Choose carbohydrates wisely. For example, 50 grams of complex, unrefined carbohydrates, such as oatmeal and whole-wheat bread, is more nutritious and satiates hunger more effectively than 50 grams of carbohydrates from candy.
Avoid Trigger Foods
Preventing binge-eating by avoiding your trigger foods is part of the Overeaters Anonymous philosophy and a necessity for managing diabetes. A trigger food is any item that you cannot stop eating after starting, such as ice cream or pasta. Eating even a small amount of these foods triggers binge-eating, which spikes your insulin dangerously high and prevents you from maintaining a consistent eating schedule. Overeaters Anonymous recognizes the addictive element in overeating and therefore recommends removing trigger foods from your diet entirely.
References
- Lina Goldberg: Between the Sheets: The History of Overeaters Anonymous and its Food Plans
- Diabetes Forecast: The Balanced Diet -- What It Means and Why It's So Important
- Overeaters Anonymous: A Plan of Eating
- Michigan Comprehensive Diabetes Center: Type 1 Diabetes -- Meal Planning
- Michigan Comprehensive Diabetes Center: Type 2 Diabetes
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