Diabetic Nutrition & How to Choose the Right Food
As Hippocrates said, “Let your food be your medicine.” Along with proper medication and exercise, food plays a vital role in controlling diabetics. Adequate nutrition is the steppingstone of effective treatment. When your meals are healthy, they aid you in achieving a healthier weight and to maintain a steady level of blood sugar levels. A healthy diet reduces your risk of further health complications. Whatever be the diet or food plan you follow, make sure it meets your body needs.
Once diagnosed with diabetics, it doesn’t mean that you should abandon all your favorite foods. Similarly, you should never go for a strict diet and try to lose weight instantly. Rather than concentrating merely on what foods you shouldn’t eat and what you should, it is always better to look at the whole meal plan or the complete picture. Get a proper idea regarding what you need to do to be healthy rather than picking on minute details.
Always know what you are eating rather than what you are avoiding. Elimination or avoidance can’t alone make you healthy. Look at all the food ingredients that you can add to increase your immunity power and to nourish yourselves. That’s what diabetic food-management should be. A whole-diet technique that focuses on all types of nutrients rather than calories is the one you should follow. Every time you take a meal, take more than half an amount of non-starchy carbohydrates, a quarter amount of healthy protein, and fats. And you would be good to go.
How to Choose the Right Food
Foods & Beverages to Avoid
Though most of the food items are desirable concerning a diabetic diet, the ones to avoid are: Foods are high in saturated and trans-fat.
Sugary drinks including sugar-laden fruit juices Margarine & Shortening White Pasta & Rice Organ Meats Processed Snacks Salty & fried foods
Foods to Include
Before you create any considerable changes in your diet, it is always advisable to consult your doctor and dietician. They can give you a proper understanding of your health condition and how to improve it along with the changes you are adopting. Always go for a healthy eating plan which you can follow through rather than one which is restrictive and hard to follow. Include those foods which you like into your eating plan in such a way that you can have them at least occasionally. When you are deprived of it entirely, it can cause dissatisfaction about your diet and make it hard to follow through. To make a difference, individualize the plans to meet your food preferences, budget, and lifestyle.
Healthy ingredients to be consumed regularly are: Whole Fruits Non-starchy Vegetables Lean meat, poultry & fish Healthy Omega-3 fatty acids Monosaturated & polyunsaturated fats like those in seeds, nuts, avocado, and olive oil Legumes such as beans Fatty fishes like Tuna, sardines, and salmon Whole Grains such as Oats & Quinoa Nuts such as almonds, pecan, and walnuts Avocadoes
Food List and Portions
When dealing with carbs, we consider 15 grams to be a single carb serving. This works out well as it allows you a single slice of bread for a full carb serving. Knowing what the quantities are for different foods to obtain the same amount of carbs is essential to planning a nutritious and balanced meal. You can also use an app such as MyPlate to track and check the calorie content of each meal you prepare. Here’s a couple of basic food lists to get you started, and each single carb serving is equal to 15 grams of carbs for each of the food categories: ● Starch ➔ ½ cup each of cooked oatmeal, green peas, sweet potato, corn, cooked beans, cooked lentils, or plantain ➔ ⅓ cup each of brown rice or whole-wheat pasta (cooked), quinoa (cooked) ➔ 1 cup winter squash ➔ 1 slice of whole-wheat bread or ½ a whole-wheat English muffin ➔ ¾ cup of cold non-sugary cereal ➔ ½ potato (medium size) ➔ 1 corn cob or tortilla (flour based) ● Fruits ➔ ½ each of a grapefruit or a banana ➔ 1 small fruit each, like a pear, an apple, an orange, a peach, or a nectarine ➔ 2-3 small guavas or plums, or dried prunes ➔ 12 grapes ➔ ¾ cup of blueberries or fresh pineapple ➔ ⅔ cup of cherries (pitted) ● Dairy Products Such as Milk and Yoghurt ➔ 6 ounces each of plain yoghurt or plain Greek yoghurt (a higher protein source) ➔ 8 ounces of full-fat organic milk or unsweetened soy milk (as it’s denser, it will not raise your blood sugar too quickly) ● Non-Starchy Veggies As a quick rule, these are not as carbohydrate rich as other vegetables, so each serving size only contains 5 grams of carbs. This means you can have three times the guided amount to make up a single carb serving. A serving size (5 grams of carbs) is usually ½ cup cooked veggies or 1 cup raw veggies. You can consider these: green beans, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, salads, and cabbage.
- Snacks ➔ ¾ ounce each crackers or pretzels ➔ 3 cups popcorn (air-popped without oil or butter or low-fat microwave variety) ➔ 10-12 potato crisps It is probably best to check the labels of each of the snacks you consider eating for a more accurate guide with snacks.
Recommended Schedule of Meals
A more acceptable schedule is eating five small meals a day, with sufficient intervals between meals. Below is one recommended schedule of meals for a diabetic.
- Breakfast should not be more than twelve hours after supper.
Some dieticians may disagree with this. Blood sugar levels could drop to dangerous levels if the person fasts for more than 10 hours. However, some doctors and experts still recommend a twelve-hour interval between supper and Breakfast.
A diabetic is advised to drink a glass of milk before bedtime, to avoid hypoglycemia.
- Snacks should be between two to three hours after meals (Breakfast and Lunch).
Snacks should not be skipped, even if the diabetic does not feel hungry.
Diabetics often complain of hunger two to three hours after eating a meal, when in fact, they are not hungry. It is the body sending a misleading signal to the brain and other organs. If the diabetic ignores these signals, the body wants to defend itself and the organs try to protect themselves from hunger by conserving energy. Diabetic complications may arise as a result of this. So, doctors suggest eating a small amount of food, regularly. This helps produce enzymes that convince the body it is not hungry.
- Lunch should not be more than 6 hours after Breakfast.
Diabetics should, on no account, skip lunch, especially type 1 diabetic. Diabetics need a regular intake of carbohydrates to maintain their blood sugar level. Skipping lunch or any meals may trigger ketoacidosis.
- Dinner/Supper should be more than 6 hours, but not more than 10 hours from lunch.
Supper is just as important as Breakfast, for diabetics. The body needs a store of carbohydrates and fat, for the body to process while it is asleep. If there is nothing to process, it can trigger hypoglycemia and in some cases for type 1 diabetic, ketoacidosis.
How to Read a Label
Reading food labels is an important tool to help you figure out what you are eating. Food labels contain a lot of information, but here is what I consider the most important: Serving size: Pay close attention, as most of us eat more than one serving.
Calories: Helpful for weight control.
Total Carbohydrates: Very useful if you are counting grams of carbohydrates. Focus on Total Carbohydrates rather than Sugar. All carbohydrates turn into sugar in your blood. So even if a product claims to be sugar-free and has 0 grams of sugar, if it contains 40 grams of carbohydrate, eating this food will still raise your blood sugar.
Fiber
Helps slow the rise of blood sugar, helps lower cholesterol, and keeps you feeling full for longer.
Sugar
While it is recommended that you keep your sugar intake to a minimum, sugar on the label does not distinguish between sugar found naturally in nutrient-rich foods like fruit and milk, and added sugars found in soda, candy, and desserts.
Sodium, protein, and saturated fat are also important. So is the ingredients list. This is where you will find exactly what is in the food. Look for whole grains (which you want!), and try to limit added sugars such as agave and high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and saturated and trans fats.
Stay tuned for the new food labels that will roll out in 2017 and be mandatory by 2019. There will be many changes, but here are the most important ones:
Larger serving sizes that are more consistent with the way Americans eat.
Calories will be more prominently listed.
A new category of Added Sugars under Total Sugars, along with daily recommendations; this will help distinguish between the sugars found naturally in foods and the hidden added sugar in foods like soda, cereal, and granola bars.
Proper nutrition is one of the building blocks concerning the effective treatment of diabetics. Therefore, before you buy any manufactured food products, it is significant that you carefully read the ingredient list. Correctly reading food labels can make a difference.
Lookout for hearty ingredients & avoid unhealthy ones
When you are starting, look out first for heart-healthy ingredients that are suitable for the diabetic diet. Then see if you can notice harmful ingredients such as hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil in it, which should be avoided by diabetic people at all costs. The ingredient list is usually list based on their weight. The most used ingredients are at the top and the least one at the bottom.
Understand the total carbohydrate level
Rather than looking at the sugar amount listed on the ingredients list, measure the overall carbohydrate level that includes added sugar and fiber also. Focusing only on sugar level can make you miss out on nutritious food like milk and fruits, which are high in sugar. And instead, you might concentrate more on foods that contain artificial sugars.
Read sugar-free products carefully
A sugar-free label means that one serving should contain less than 0.5gm of sugar. So, when you compare sugar-free products and n0rmal products, make sure to read carefully. If the sugar-free products have fewer carbohydrates than the standard product, then it should be favoured. On the other hand, if it has more or less the same amount of carbohydrates, then you can decide the product based on taste and price.
Similarly, when you see a no-sugar-added label, it means that it doesn’t have any high-sugar ingredients in it, and there was no sugar added during the processing and packaging time. But then, read cautiously as they still can contain carbohydrates.
Different serving size
The serving size given on the packet and the amount we eat might be different. If you are eating twice the amount, then everything gets doubled.
Study your daily calorie goals and do the necessary
The Daily Value listed on food labels is a percentage-based tool based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet. The tools benefit you in gauging how much of an exact nutrient one serving of food comprises, paralleled with references for the whole day. 5% or less is low; 20% or more is high. Check and use food products with fats, cholesterol, and sodium percentages on the lower end of the Daily Value while keeping the fiber, vitamins, and minerals percentage on the higher end. If your physician endorses more or less than 2,000 calories a day, you may need to alter the rate as needed — or simply use the percentage as a general frame of reference.
Be wary of fat-free products
Just because the labels say fat-free doesn’t mean that it is a healthy product. They still can contain more carbohydrates and calories than the regular product. Compare the food labels and make a choice.
Food labeling can aid in avoiding unhealthy products as well as to understand to good ones. Free foods refer to those food products which have less than 20gm of carbohydrates per serving and as less than 5gm of carbohydrates.
