Aug 11
11
Diabetes and Diet – A Look At The Latest Diabetic Meal Planning Trends
Optimum Diabetics
Diabetes and diet are interdependent. For diabetics, diet is about eating healthy so that your blood sugar levels are under proper control. However, if you are diabetic it does not mean that you need to follow any special diet plan. For most diabetics, diet plans simply means eating a wide variety of foods in specified portions and maintaining regular time for meals.
This actually means that diet for diabetics must include a wholesome combination of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Also, it is important to maintain consistency as the body tends to respond to fat and calories by creating a stupendous rise in the blood sugar levels. Rather than being restrictive, a diabetic diet plan is about eating nutritious foods and maintaining a low fat diet plan.
Meal Planning
A diabetic meal plan helps in establishing the routine for eating regular meals and also for choosing nutritious foods in correct amounts. You must maintain one diet plan that contains the required amounts of proteins, vitamins, fats, carbohydrates and other essentials, distributed according to your needs. Following such a meal plan would give you an idea about how much you need to eat at every meal.
What you are eating and how much you are eating has a great effect on your blood glucose level. Keep that in mind! Diabetes and diet are deeply related. So, you need a diet plan that would control your overeating habits, help you choose better foods and also contribute to weight loss. Your body weight could be a cause of diabetes and therefore a healthy weight loss diet is all that you need.
The Importance of Glycemic Index (GI)
Diabetics are usually recommended a low glycemic diet. Glycemic index is used for selecting foods for diabetics, particularly carbohydrates. High glycemic index foods tend to increase the blood sugar levels while the low glycemic index foods are much healthier.
Carbohydrates
It is important to count the amount of carbohydrates that you are eating if you are a diabetic. Although the same is recommended for any healthy individual, for diabetics it needs to be followed religiously. Diet for diabetes does include carbohydrates, but in moderate portions, you must maintain a particular time and amount of carbohydrate consumption regularly.
Healthy carbohydrates include vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes and low fat dairy products. A diabetic must eat 1500 calorie diet and not more than that. Their diet should comprise of all these essentials to keep them healthy and also maintain the blood glucose numbers.
High-fiber Diet
A high fiber diet is helpful for heart patients and for diabetics as well. Dietary fiber is basically the food group that cannot be digested by the body. Such foods include vegetables, whole fruits, legumes, wheat bran, whole-wheat flour and nuts.
Trans fats and Saturated fats
Diabetics are at a risk of developing heart diseases and as such they are always recommended a low fat diet, especially trans fat and saturated fat. This is a very important factor to be considered.
On an average, diabetes and diet go hand in hand. You should learn how to limit the different food groups. Here’s a suggestion.
Proteins: 15% to 20% daily
Carbohydrates: 45% to 65% daily
Fats: 20% to 35% daily
This should be your regular diet plan.
