Can You Beat Diabetes With Diabetic Diet Foods?
There are many ways and means to control blood glucose levels. There are some natural cures for diabetes, following which you can be proud of your diabetes self management in controlling blood sugar. On noticing the signs and symptoms of diabetes, your consultation with the doctor, clinical diagnosis by laboratory methods, and prescription of drugs and medicines are all preliminary steps to start your medication for diabetes mellitus.
Away from all these steps you take, the change of lifestyle and choosing the right foods are much more important for controlling blood sugar. It is highly needed that the diabetics should maintain a balanced diet suiting his body type. Your prime concern should be in choosing the best foods to eat and the bad foods to avoid as a diabetic. You can certainly control blood sugar range within normal limits.
Here are some tips on diabetic diet foods for beating diabetes.
1. You should choose foods that contain little saturated fats and cholesterol. These foods include fresh vegetables, leafy greens, onion and garlic in raw form. They should be preferably boiled rather than fried.
2. Cooking whole grains with insoluble fibre, and low carb diet are the best choice to control high blood sugar. If you are using oil in your cooking, let it be with less fat like olive and peanut oil.
3. Skimmed milk with less fat, skinless poultry, fish of any variety and egg without yoke may be helping to lower blood sugar.
4. The diabetic diet foods should be non-greasy and easily-digested. They should be rich in fibre and poor in fat contents.
5. Since fruits are the best source of fibre, those fruits high in vitamins and nutrients, but low in fats can give positive results to control and beat diabetes. The best fruits and salads that you can eat may be red grapes, jambul (rose apple) and guava, preferably unpeeled and with nuts. Fruits and vegetables you consume may be less in size and more in servings every day. Mind it to take whole fruits and they should contain low sweet. Citrus fruits like orange and lime are also good for fighting diabetes.
Controlling blood sugar is really an art. If you want to be an expert and safe, you should know the description of diabetic foods to avoid AND fruits to eat.
Foods For Diabetics
Diabetes is a disease that the sufferer needs to deal with for the rest of their lives. You have to remember that diabetes still has no available cure and the only way to treat it is by properly managing the blood glucose levels. Being diabetic can be very hard as you will need to make certain changes in your life in order to properly manage the disease. So, if you think that living with diabetes is simple, you may want to think again. With proper knowledge, you will be able to prevent complications caused by diabetes and be able to live a near normal life.
First of all, diabetes is a condition where the body doesn’t produce enough insulin in order to regulate the amount of glucose in the blood. In some cases, it is a condition where the body doesn’t properly use the insulin it provides. Because of this, diabetics suffer from a condition called hyperglycaemia or high blood glucose level.
This condition is very serious and can really be life threatening if you don’t properly manage it. This is basically what diabetes is all about Diabetes increases the risk of other diseases in affecting you. It can increase the risk of heart related diseases; kidney disorders, liver disorders, and it can even cause blindness. With proper management of diabetes, all of these complications can be prevented. So, how can you manage diabetes properly?
For starters, diet is the most important factor. There are certain rules that you need to follow when it comes to when and what to eat in order for you to properly manage the disease. Generally speaking, a diabetic diet consists of low salt, low sugar, low carbohydrates, low fat, and high in whole grains and vegetables.
The eating pattern is also important as you need to regulate your blood glucose level through the food you eat. To prevent your blood sugar level to go below the normal level, you need to eat snacks in between meals. This means that you need to eat snacks after breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Always keep in mind that what you eat is just as important as when to eat. This is basically the diabetes diet.
Exercise is also an important factor in properly managing diabetes. By exercising at least 30 minutes a day, you will be able to regulate your blood sugar level. You can try going for a jog, walk, or play sports, such as tennis, badminton, or basketball.
However, you also have to remember that diet and exercise alone are not enough to properly manage diabetes. You also need to constantly and regularly monitor your blood glucose level. You need to test your blood several times each day in order for you to carefully plan what you eat and also the activities you do for the day. You can do so with a device called glucose meter.
Also, some diabetics need insulin to regulate their blood glucose level. It is important that you should follow your schedule in taking medications or insulin, checking your blood glucose level, eating, and exercise strictly.
Living with diabetes is hard. That’s a fact that you need to live by. However, it can be easily managed and still live a near normal life. With the proper knowledge and self discipline, you can be sure that you will be able to conquer the disease and live a full and healthy life.
A Diabetic Food plan is Key to Taking care of Diabetes
A diabetic eating plan is a well balanced wholesome eating plan with appropriate combination of carbohydrates, proteins and fats at each meal so as to the two deliver necessary nutrients as properly as create an even launch of glucose into the blood from meal to meal on a day-to-day foundation.
An eating plan for diabetes, on the other hand, requires to be adjusted to go well with each diabetic’s necessity as there are inclined to be variations in everyone’s level of physical activities, injections of insulin (if using) and intake of oral diabetic medication, and the action and timing of the medicines taken.
The exchange lists, which are dietary pointers from the American Diabetes Affiliation, are the foundation of a meal scheduling procedure made by a committee of the American Diabetes Affiliation and the American Dietetic Affiliation. There are differing philosophies on what is the very best eating plan but beneath is a guideline with some general concepts.
Individuals with Kind 1 diabetes need to have an eating plan that has about 35 calories for each kg of overall body excess weight for each working day (or 16 calories for each pound of overall body excess weight for each working day). Individuals with Kind 2 diabetes commonly are set on a 1500-1800 calorie eating plan for each working day to boost excess weight decline and then the routine maintenance of excellent overall body excess weight.
Most persons with diabetes obtain that it is fairly helpful to sit down with a dietician or nutritionist for a check with about what is the very best eating plan for them and how numerous day-to-day calories they require. It is fairly crucial for diabetics to realize the concepts of carbohydrate counting and how to assistance command blood sugar concentrations via suitable eating plan.
To maintain blood sugar concentrations below command, a diabetic eating plan strikes a balance between the carbohydrates, fats, and protein you get in.
Carbs:
Carbs are the supply of electrical power that commences with glucose, the sugar in your bloodstream, and features substances made up of numerous sugar molecules referred to as complicated carbohydrates, starches, cellulose, and gums. Carbs comprise the optimum supply of blood sugar and are the most important gas for your overall body and mind. Carbs are any food that can be damaged down into sugar and the more of these you consume the bigger your blood sugar will rise.
Extra fat:
Fats need to incorporate no more than the 30% of the day-to-day foundation calorie depend. Fats are the most crucial issue for diabetics for the reason that the management of cholesterol is carried out according to the sum of unwanted fat taken into the overall body. The dietary essential to controlling cholesterol, then, lies in comprehending fats and oils.
Decreasing the usage of saturated fats and trans-fatty acids is the quantity one phase in controlling excess weight and cholesterol. To handle these fats it is crucial to realize the two saturated fats and trans fatty acids. Saturated fats are uncovered in animal items and dairy items. Trans-fatty acids are developed via a approach referred to as hydrogenation. These fats can be uncovered in adhere margarine and in fast food items, baked merchandise and white breads.
Protein:
Protein is one more element that is crucial to get account of in the diabetic eating plan. Protein food items do not elevate your blood sugar, so you can insert more fish, eggs, meat, and many others with your meals. Protein is restricted to 15-20% of the overall calorie necessity of the overall body. When you consume a meal or snack, it need to always include a compact sum of protein that has it’s possess normal unwanted fat. The protein food with its possess normal unwanted fat tends to maintain on to the food more time so that your blood sugar will not spike and then drop straight away.
A diabetic eating plan can be custom made to go well with each patient’s preferences, and nutritionist can assistance with this. This type of eating plans need to consider the clinical problem, lifestyle and feeding on behaviour of the diabetic affected person.
Best Foods for Diabetics
OLIVES:
Eat lots of olives; choose from green olives, black olives, black olive tapenade or green olive tapenade. Olives contain good fats that are useful in controlling blood sugar, lowering blood pressure and preventing cardiovascular disease. The rich anti-oxidant content of olives also makes them effective in fighting cancer by giving nutritional support to nearly every system in our body.
Olives come in two common varieties: green and black. Black and green olives have a nearly identical nutritional value. Green olives do, however, contain nearly twice the sodium of black olives, which, in turn, might make the black olive variety a better choice for many of us. Olives are also rich in vitamin E, and copper and iron which protect your nerves, thyroid gland and connective tissue throughout the body. One serving equals 10 large olives or 2 tablespoons of tapenade.
OILS:
Olive oil has the same benefits, depending upon how it is processed. Unfortunately, only the best brands seem to provide the same health benefits as eating the olive in its raw state. Extra virgin olive oil is the most nutritious variant. It contains antioxidants that short-circuit the growth of heart-threatening plaque on artery walls.
Other cooking oils rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (and vitamin E which may help prevent atherosclerosis and colon cancer) are canola oil, flax seed oil, safflower, sesame oil, walnut oil, peanut oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil and pesto sauce. These great little nutritional bundles will all help burn the unhealthy visceral body fat plaguing many diabetics. One tablespoon equals one serving.
AVOCADOS:
Avocados are full of folate, which helps lower heart attack risk, as well as lutein, zeaxanthin and beta carotene. These are all antioxidants that help promote eye health, and also battle oral and prostate cancer. Combine avocados into your salad to double the absorption of carotenoids from green and other vegetables, giving your body further protection from heart disease and macular degeneration (a leading cause of blindness). One serving equals 1/4 cup.
DARK CHOCOLATE:
Dark Chocolate; choose dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips, shavings or chunks with a cocoa content of 70 percent or higher has the best nutritional value. This nutritional superstar is packed with antioxidants that keep arteries flexible and help raise “good” cholesterol. It can also lower blood pressure, cutting the risk for heart attack and stroke. And make sure to add the chips or shavings to a healthy meal to burn more belly fat. One serving equals 1/4 cup.
Diabetics should incorporate lives, oils, nuts, seeds, avocados and dark chocolate to their everyday healthy meals; they are some of the best foods for diabetics.
These monounsaturated fatty acids help our body in many critical ways, not the least of which is that they will help reduce the visceral belly fat diabetics are fighting to eliminate with every meal. Just remember to incorporate the right size portions of these “best foods for diabetics” to a mix of healthy foods you eat at every meal.
Cure Type 2 Diabetes By Knowing Which Foods To Avoid
Once diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, patients always face the difficulty in knowing what diet is the best for them. The doctors do not tell them in detail about each and everything they can eat or they should avoid, and patients find themselves restricted to only a small number of diet options fearing that eating anything other than the doctor mentioned may be harmful for them. There are definitely some restrictions that a diabetic patient should be well aware of.
First in the list of restricted diets and foods to avoid are all kinds of sugars. It is very important for the patient to make sure that his diet intake does not include any kind of sugar item. Such items may include normal refined sugar, refined brown sugar, sweets, chocolates etc. One should also remain careful while choosing fruits for his diet. Though, fruits are strongly recommended but there are some fruits that contain dangerously high amounts of natural sugar. Still, such fruits can be eaten but within a limit and in accordance with the doctor’s guidelines.
Staying away from starchy foods is another very harsh restriction that diabetic patients have to bear. Starchy foods can cause extreme spikes in blood glucose levels which a patient should avoid at any cost in order to prevent complications with the type 2 diabetes.
Some foods that include a lot of starch are all kinds of pastas and noodles, all kinds of white breads made of white flour, very starchy vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, corns etc. Keeping your hands off these foods is excellent in reversing type 2 diabetes but still you can add a very little amount of such foods to your diet if you want to.
Intake of fluids in abundance is acutely important in keeping your blood sugar levels stable and reducing the adverse affects of diabetes on your body. Fluids allow the kidneys to process the blood easily in removing wastes and unwanted elements from it.
Care should be taken while drinking any beverage other than water. Beverages that contain artificial sweeteners and preservatives are totally out of question. Most sodas and alcoholic drinks also contain different artificial sweets in huge amounts, so they shall be keenly avoided. In fact, the best drink for a diabetic patient is pure, unadulterated drinking water as it contains no artificial additives or sweets; more over it is the best option for your kidneys too.
Overly processed and packaged foods are the main causes of type 2 diabetes. Without a doubt, a patient should try his best to avoid any kind of packaged food available in the market instead he should go for fresh vegetables, fruits and all kinds of natural foods available to him.
Most importantly, abstaining from oily and fried food can prove to be the difference between life and death for a type 2 diabetic as he is at a tremendous risk of cholesterol and heart disease. Patients should understand that staying away from all the mentioned foods is good for their own health, not only as a cure for their diabetes but their whole health system.
Diabetic Friendly Food
Remember the time when you were a child and could eat anything you wanted, without worrying about its consequences. With age, we all tend to stop the recklessness in our eating habits and start monitoring what we eat. However, when you have diabetes you need to be extra cautious of your diet. Diet becomes your partner and friend in keeping your disease under control. For all the diabetics who need a helping hand in finding out what’s good for them, this is where we come in as a guide to your diabetic friendly food.
Characteristics of Diabetic Friendly Food
Before going into the details, it is important to establish the characteristics and features that are present in diabetic friendly food.
- Low Glycemic Index
- Low Sugar and Net Carbohydrates
- High Soluble Fibre
- Good Fats
- Low Saturated Fat, Trans Fat
- Lean Protein
The basic aim of these characteristics and features in diabetic friendly food is to avoid spiking blood sugar, digest food easily, and improve blood sugar level. If these characteristics are present in your food, then you have nothing to worry about.
Types of Diabetic Friendly Food
The food items that are diabetic friendly are as follows:
Whole Grains:
The first in the list are whole grains. How can we forget about nutritious whole wheat? This can be an ideal substitute to white bread. The reason for whole grain being at the top of the list is that it is enriched with many vitamins, magnesium, iron and fibre. Therefore, it has characteristics of low glycemic index, sugar and net carbs along with high soluble fibre.
Seafood:
Next up is seafood. Seafood has low saturated fats and omega – 3 fatty acids, good fats, lean proteins that make it ideal for many diabetic patients. This can be a good substitute for meat. Hence, all the meat lovers should be prepared to shift to seafood.
Fruits:
If a person with diabetes is not eating fruit on a regular basis, he is committing a big mistake. Fruits carry all the characteristics that diabetic friendly food should have. It is the best and the most natural way to enrich your body with all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients, good fats, and fibres. Fruits are what your body truly needs.
Vegetables:
If we have talked about fruits, why should vegetables is ignored? Vegetables are like a blessing in disguise for diabetic people. The vegetables, particularly beans, legumes, tomatoes and potatoes are going to prove to be your best friends because they are rich in potassium which is important for you. Vegetables are rich in high soluble fibre, good fats, low saturated fat, trans fat and lean protein. In other words, it is just what the doctor ordered.
Water:
Water is the source of life and most of our bodies are made up of it. Therefore, water should be the substitute for all other drinks that you are most accustomed to.
Drink more water it can add many years onto your life.
Sodium:
Sodium for diabetic people is like slow poison. According to experts like Van Horn, an average person has to have an intake of 1500 mg however; the average person is taking in far more than recommended. This raises the blood pressure and can cause cardiovascular issues.
Fat:
Fat has a high risk of causing bad cholesterol, which diabetic people cannot afford to have in their food. If fat is present in your food, it will be change friendly food into unfriendly food.
Refined Grains:
Another big no – no are refined grains. They might be tempting, but they can be very harmful to your body. Therefore, your friendly food should not contain refined grains.
Added Sugar:
Added sugar makes matters worse for all diabetics. So it is always better to make your food diabetic friendly by fighting the urge for a candy bar and going for a nutritious and sweet fruit instead.
The Golden Rule: The diabetic friendly foods listed above will only help you if you shape your life around them. Make it a part of your life. The Golden Rule is to maintain a balanced diet with these common food items. You need to be your own dietician and continuously keep a check on yourself!
Foods To Be Avoided By Diabetics
If you are a diabetic, you probably know that now is the time to change your diet to a diabetic diet and plan to change at least a part of your lifestyle to keep the perils of high blood sugar levels away. One needs to be careful while choosing the diet for diabetics as it is important to intake a few of food products that will reduce your blood sugar levels avoids some of the other food products that will increase your sugar levels. The idea of a diabetic diet plan is to include foods that are rich in fibre and reduce those which contain carbohydrates and high glucose.
By preparing a healthy diabetes diet plan, you will be in control of this global epidemic and your blood sugar levels.
Once you are diagnosed with diabetes, it is important to work with your nutritionist to prepare a healthy and wholesome diet plan for you. Normal diets will include grains, vegetables that are high in carbohydrates for most part, but you should also consume a mix of fresh fruits and more vegetable servings as a diabetic.
Proteins are important in any diabetic plan, dairy products should be included in necessary measures and the foods like cheese and others need to be included only as necessary as they have high fat content too.
A nutritionist is your best friend in creating a perfect diabetes diet plan that will help keep blood sugar levels in check. All sugary foods including sugar in your beverages like tea and coffee should be controlled; also foods with high salt content should be avoided by diabetics.
Though it might sound harsh, fried foods, fast foods and processed foods are a strict no-no even if you are not a diabetic. These foods have high cholesterol which is dangerous to your heart.
Foods with high cream or full cream should be interchanged with those of low fat or skimmed fat foods. Once you know the foods that are to be avoided as a diabetic, you will have a better sense in choosing your diabetic plan for diabetes.
Gestational Diabetes and Food
There are many new things for women to cope with when they become pregnant. Suddenly, everything you do, eat, and drink takes on a new meaning. What holidays have you planned, are you able to fly, can you cope with the heat, what medicines you can use, how far should you walk, can you exercise, etc.
One of the lesser knows things are the possibility of gestational diabetes. Mums are so taken with what they can or can’t do that few consider diabetes as a possibility. It does mean you will have to pay close attention to what you eat and drink, but the good news is that gestational diabetes normally ends when baby arrives.
Watching The Carbs
If you find you have gestational diabetes, then you will soon discover that counting your daily intake of carbohydrates is a key factor in dealing with this problem.
Since carbohydrates convert to glucose (blood sugar), you will need to keep a close eye on them. Indeed the monitoring of the both (Carbohydrates and blood sugar), will help you to help your body at this time and although it seems quite daunting, you will soon get the hang of it.
First of all you need to take five or six small meals spread out through the day rather than two or three larger ones. This will automatically ensure that your intake of calories (and carbohydrates0 are spread out over the day. With a growing baby it is usual to need an extra 300 calories a day (not the double portions that used to be suggested) so the total would be around 2200 calories.
Next you need to look at what you are eating. It is best to avoid fatty meats, high fat snacks and lots of processed or fast food. The idea is to eat more natural food that is preferably home cooked. A good idea is to divide your plate into thirds. You make up your meal with a third of protein, a third of carbohydrates plus a third of fruit and vegetables.
Your Relationship with Food
Risks with gestational diabetes usually come for women who are overweight or are over the age of 25 years when they become pregnant. It is really important to consider what you are eating since it will lay down good practices for the feeding of your growing family and help to teach them healthy habits and food choices. If you are slightly overweight it will help not to put on too much extra weight and put extra strain on your joints and heart.
You will also need to monitor everything very carefully. It is essential that you attend all of your check-ups and discuss things with your doctor or midwife regularly. Pregnancy is not the time to diet to lose weight, neither is it the time to use fad diets, or any form of fasting or cleansing diets. It will put too much of strain on your body. The best you can do is to monitor your progress and try to eat as healthy and balanced a diet as possible to ensure a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby at the end of your gestation.