Are you living with diabetes? Know someone who is? This article will help you find the best diet for people living with diabetes. It’ll teach you how to eat healthily, what foods are good for diabetics, and what foods should be avoided.
What is diabetes
Diabetes is a medical condition in which the body cells are not able to use blood glucose for energy. This leads to abnormally high blood sugar levels in the body. The uncontrolled rise of sugar levels in the body leads to serious health problems like heart disease, blindness, nerve damage, and kidney failure.
Causes of Diabetes
The high blood glucose levels can be caused due to the lack of insulin which is produced by the pancreas. The other two major reasons for high blood sugar levels are:
- A) Genetics- If your ancestors had diabetes, then you might also get it
- B) Lifestyle- Unhealthy eating habits and lack of physical activities contribute to diabetes.
Diets for people with diabetes
The major role of the diabetic diet is to maintain the blood sugar levels within the normal range after eating carbohydrate-rich foods. Maintaining a healthy body weight, regular exercise, and medications also play an important role in diabetes treatment. The calories should be restricted but not excessively because it leads to hunger pangs and weight gain.
The diabetic diet is a low carbohydrate, low-fat diet aimed at maintaining blood sugar levels within a normal range.
1) Carbohydrates: Most of the carbohydrates should be complex carbohydrates which include fruits, whole grains, starchy vegetables like potatoes, corn, etc. Also, include cereals as they will give you calories.
2) Fats: Dietary fats should be kept to a minimum because they will increase blood sugar levels. The use of vegetable oil in cooking is helpful in keeping down fat intake. You can also use low-fat milk and yogurt instead of whole milk.
3) Protein: You should eat more proteins like legumes, fish, poultry instead of pork or red meat because it will help in controlling the blood sugar levels. Eggs are also allowed but keep intake low. You can also include diabetic protein powder like Horlicks’s cardia plus
in your diet.
What to avoid?
Excess intakes of carbohydrates can have a negative effect on your health so avoid refined carbohydrates food containing sugars and flours as much as possible. They include white bread, sugar, cakes, and pastries.
If you are a diabetic and want to lose weight, then go for low carbohydrate diets which restrict carbohydrates more than the normal diet. The weight loss is normally slow, but it will be of good quality, and since there is not much intake of carbohydrates, it will help in controlling blood glucose levels. You can lose up to 7 percent of your body weight.
Do not skip meals as it will cause the blood glucose levels to increase drastically. Always eat three main meals with proper time intervals in between them like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Also, include five to six small snacks at regular intervals throughout the day. This will help you in controlling your weight and blood sugar levels.
You may also like: High Blood Sugar Symptoms.
Avoid the consumption of juices, fruits drinks, and other beverages. They are rich in carbohydrates. It is advisable to add artificial sweeteners such as saccharine or NutraSweet in beverages or foods because it will help you in reducing your sugar intake.
