You have found this website because you or someone you love is a diabetic and you want to know what can diabetics eat? The extent to which diabetes plays out is largely in your hands as the person deciding what a diabetic can eat. This can be scary but is also wonderfully empowering!
Right here find out in easy and simple terms:
- Why its so important to answer what can diabetics eat?
- Guidelines to follow.
- Meal ideas.
Why is it so important to decide carefully what can diabetics eat?
- To control blood glucose levels and keep them within normal limits so to help the body live longer and better with the disease and to prevent or delay the damage diabetes can do to your body.
- To feel as good as you can feel, with plenty of energy, restful nights sleep without too many bathroom stops, and a clear positive mind.
- To reduce and regulate body weight as being overweight increases the risks diabetics face.
- And as diabetics are at a higher risk of heart disease and other health concerns a healthy diet is essential for a long and enjoyable life.
The basic guidelines to follow when answering the question ‘what can diabetics eat?’ are:
- There is not a specific diet of foods to eat but diabetics need to follow some
basic rules to ensure the meals are balanced, full of nutrition and there
is portion and calorie control. - Always choose foods that are low in sugar, sodium/salt and fat.
- Make fiber a part of almost every meal.
- Fiber helps to slow the rate at which your body disgests and absorbs
carbohydrates in food thus helping to regulate blood sugars. - Good choices are fruits and vegetables, peas, beans, oats, barley, wholemeal grains, pulses, and psyllium seed products.
- Eat about the same amount of food around the same times everyday. Particularly important is to distribute your carbohydrate intake throughout the day and keep it consistent from day to day.
- Use monounsaturated fats e.g. canola and olive oil.
- Eat fruit and vegetables with every meal.
- If your overweight then be conscious of the volume of food. Use smaller plates, eat slower and savour more. Weight loss will result in an improvement of symptoms.
- A large source of sodium/salt in the diet is in processed foods so the fewer
the processed foods you eat the better. - Don’t give up everything you love – just learn to keep modifying and making
progress towards a better and better diet. - Finally, remember you are an individual and as such you need to learn as you go how your blood glucose levels responds to certain quantities and adjust for your
individual needs.
So what can diabetics eat? Here are links to some healthy and delicious meal ideas:
Want further ideas of what can diabetics eat? Having some good healthy
cookbooks on hand can help:
Because planning meals can be hard work, and there can be the worry of ‘am I getting it right?’. We also want our food to be flavourful, especially as we are giving up some of the foods we love, and finally, it’s a learning journey we are on and you can get sick of counting carbs, fat and fiber and want some of the hard work removed.
Here are some excellent cookbooks that provide delicious recipes that all answer – what can diabetics eat?
Also dealing with allergies, gluten or dairy free or a vegetarian? Click Here!
