The Diabetic Diet
By Valerie Mellema
If you have diabetes, then you suffer from your body not being able to properly use or make insulin. This often leads to high blood sugar levels. Eating a healthy diet can help you to keep your blood sugar under control. Your diabetic diet is a very important part in managing diabetes and doing this can prevent you from experiencing complications with diabetes.
The basic foundation of a diabetic diet plan is to make smart food choices. Diabetes experts can suggest meal plans that are flexible. They take your lifestyle and other health needs into account. Eating a healthy diabetic meal includes:
Reducing sweets
Eating frequently
Being careful about the carbohydrates that you eat
Eating a lot of whole grain foods, vegetables and fruits
Consuming less fat
Carbohydrates are an important part of your diet, as they provide you with vitamins, minerals and fiber. Healthier options for carbohydrates are whole grains because they have more of these nutrients. You should eat some starches with each meal. It is also wise to choose from fat-free and low-fat options.
Vegetables provide vitamins, fiber and minerals. Vegetables are low in carbohydrate. When choosing vegetables, you should eat raw and cooked vegetables with little or no fat. You should also consider steaming vegetables in water or low-fat broths, as you lose fewer vitamins when veggies are cooked in this manner.
The same is true for fruits. Eat raw or cooked fruits. Fruits canned in their own juices are good. It is wise, however, to avoid those that are canned in syrup. Choose pieces of fruit more often than fruit juice. It is also wise to save your high-sugar and high-fat fruit desserts for special occasions.
When it comes to dairy, you should consider skim or low fat 1% milk. When you eat yogurt, choose low-fat and fat-free options that are sweetened with a low-calorie sweetener.
Meat is an important part of your diet as well. When selecting cuts of meat, be certain to choose those that have little fat on them. Trim off the extra fat when cooking as well. When eating chicken and turkey, you should eat it without the skin. Cook meat in low-fat ways as well, such as broiled, grilled, roasted, steamed, microwave or stir-fried.
When it comes to desserts, choose sugar-free options. These are improving in taste every day as food companies come out with better tasting foods to satisfy your sweet tooth. When you eat out, share desserts or order small or child-sized servings of ice cream. For homemade desserts, continue wrapping them individually and freezing them.
Finally, when eating a diabetic diet, your serving sizes are very important. Use measuring cups, measuring spoons and a food scale to ensure that you are eating the appropriate amount of the food and avoid overeating.