What is the diabetes-diet plan? Personalize your diet rich in nutrients that satisfy your taste buds at the same time supports your blood sugar control.
Personalized your diabetes diet plan
Keep in mind, what food works for someone else may not necessarily work for you—and vice versa.
There is no single diet, which is considering as perfectly suitable for every patient with diabetes. You would find the right food for you by trial and testing. Once you have mastered your diet, then managing your blood-glucose level becomes more comfortable.
What can diabetes eat? The answer to this controversial question is literally at your fingertip. Test Eat Test…And Finalize
What is the right diabetes diet?
A healthy diabetes diet is one, which provides all the necessary nutrients in the right quantities without disturbing the blood sugar control. There is no single food or food category provides you with all the nutrients your body needs. Therefore, it is essential to eat a wide variety of multi-colored healthy foods from nature.
Six useful diabetes diet tips are:
- Low carb diet - Before the discovery of insulin, carbohydrate reduction is the standard approach practiced with good result. Even now, this approach helps you normalize your blood sugar to a non-diabetic range.
- What to eat, what not? Don’t eat anything that raises your blood sugar such as sugar, refined carb, and factory-made packed foods (with hidden ingredients). Choose a variety of whole-grain foods, instead of refined grains.
- Prepare a list of food – Based on your interest that satisfies your taste buds, prepare a list of food that would not disturb your blood sugar level.
- Intermittent fasting - How many big meals per day? All Institutions & Organizations advised diabetes to eat smaller, but more frequent meals instead of three bigger meals. However, taking two big meals, preferably breakfast & lunch (by skipping dinner). Alternatively, you can grab lunch & dinner (by skipping breakfast). It can help your body to learn to burn fat for energy, thus better blood sugar control.
- How to eat? There are specific things you can do for maximum nutrients and least blood glucose spikes. Learn what you can do before (your mental state), during (proper chewing), and after food (short walk).
- Walking after food - You can attenuate your blood sugar spikes after a meal by going for a short walk (not brisk) immediately after eating. Simple, but you can have unexpected benefits!
What are you designed to eat? You are designed to eat directly from nature and not manmade such as sugar and white flour.
- First, eliminate all foods that contain simple sugars. Simple sugars do not mean just table sugar; they are fast-acting carbohydrates. Bread and other starchy foods, such as potatoes and grains, become glucose so rapidly that they can cause a severe postprandial increase in blood sugar.
- Second, reduce your total carbohydrate intake to an amount that will work with your injected insulin. In this way, you can avoid a postprandial blood sugar increase and overwork of any remaining insulin-producing beta cells in your pancreas. Research has demonstrated that beta-cell burnout can be slowed or halted by normalizing blood sugars.
- Third, stop eating when you no longer feel hungry.
- Finally, for best results, follow a predetermined meal plan.
Can T1D eat whole-grain foods
A mismatch between carbohydrate intake and insulin can result in immediate and long-term complications from hypo-and hyperglycemia. Ref: Diabetes Care. 2005 Jan; 28(1):186-212.
There is a never-ending debate going on regarding whole grains. As diabetes, your choice will be the one with most nutritious that will not raise your blood sugar. Whole grains are rich sources of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber. However, it includes germ and endosperm (starchy part) that raises your blood glucose with a delay due to its fiber content.
Also, there is a challenge for you to find whole-grain foods. Many foods in the market only contain a small number of whole grains; however, they claimed to have large quantities in their package. So be careful in selecting correct foods.
Still, the whole grain contains carbs that raise your blood sugar, so be in moderation for adequate blood glucose control.
Vegetables & Type 1 diabetes
Adding more vegetables to your meal is a great idea for everyone, but type 1 diabetes should choose it carefully.
Vegetables are good sources of vitamins and minerals; however, certain vegetables are starchy that can raise your blood glucose levels.
Some vegetables of your choice are spinach, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, eggplant, mushrooms, onions, peppers, and turnips.
Fruits & Type 1 diabetes
Fruits are healthy food; still, people with type 1 diabetes should be choosy.
No doubt, fruits are preload with micronutrients, and thus they are healthy. However, most fruits (sweet) contains an excess of carbohydrates so that you might end up with difficulty in blood glucose management.
Some of the fruits you can choose are Raspberries, Blackberries, Strawberries, Blueberries, Plum, Clementine, Kiwi, Cherries, Cantaloupe, and Peach.
Should diabetes avoid sweets and chocolates?
Type 1 diabetes occasionally enjoy sweets and chocolates in combination with exercise. The key is you should have it in a tiny portion.
Superfoods for Diabetes
Diabetes superfoods packed with nutrients that provide substantial health benefits for people with diabetes, such as help stabilize blood sugar, combat inflammation, and improve overall wellbeing.
The superfoods for diabetes (also for non-diabetes) are: dark chocolate (don’t exceed limit), dark-green leafy vegetables (such as Broccoli, Spinach & Kale), avocado, berries (such as blue & strawberry), citrus fruits (such as orange), sweet potato, tomato, fish (such as omega 3 rich salmon), olive oil, psyllium husk, nuts & seeds (such as walnut & chia seeds), beans (such as cannellini beans), and full fat yogurt.
Best wishes for an easy and convenient adaptation of this healthy lifestyle for better blood sugar control :)