Diabetes Diet

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Diet plays a significant role in controlling the diabetes. The diabetes diet may be used alone or else in combination with insulin doses or with oral hypoglycemic drugs. Main objective of diabetes diet is to maintain ideal body weight, by providing adequate nutrition along with normal blood sugar levels in blood. The diet plan for a diabetic is based on height, weight, age, sex, physical activity and nature of diabetes. While planning diet, the dietician has to consider complications such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels.

The goal in controlling diabetes is to maintain blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible for diabetics: 80-140 mg/dl fasting or 100-180 mg/dl one or two hours after meals. The best way to do this is to eat the healthiest diet you can and lose weight.

With respect to the above factors, a dietician will assess calories to be given, like scheming the carbohydrates, proteins, fats, type of carbohydrate, amount of fiber and so on.

Exchange meal plan is a diet program which balances the amount of carbohydrate that we intake per day. Glucose is a sugar released from carbohydrate so if we want to control blood sugar we have to limit the consumption of simple carbohydrate. Carbohydrate foods are given as value per portion, known as the exchange. This plan helps us to decide on the type of food to be taken, the amount of food and also the time to eat. You can plan for more flexible meal as you get more knowledge about the diet of a diabetic, may be like the counting carbohydrate meal plan or constant carbohydrate. The guidelines for diabetes diet planning include the following:

ü      Fiber should be at least 40 gm / day

ü      Instead of 3 heavy meals, we should go for 4-5 small mid intervals

ü      Replace bakery products and fast foods by simple whole cooked cereals, and don't eat carbohydrates 2 hours before bedtime

ü      Consume fresh fruit and vegetables at least 5 exchange/ day

ü      Many experts, including the American Diabetes Association, recommend that 50 to 60 percent of daily calories come from carbohydrates, 12 to 20 percent from protein, and no more than 30 percent from fat.

ü      Spacing meals throughout the day, instead of eating heavy meals once or twice a day, can help a person avoid extremely high or low blood glucose levels.

ü      With few exceptions, the best way to lose weight is gradually: one or two pounds a week. Strict diets must never be undertaken without the supervision of a doctor.

ü      People with diabetes have twice the risk of developing heart disease as those without diabetes, and high blood cholesterol levels raise the risk of heart disease. Losing weight and reducing intake of saturated fats and cholesterol, in favor of unsaturated and monounsaturated fats, can help lower blood cholesterol.