Healthy Eating for Diabetics

Top Tips for Managing Diabetes

Healthy eating for diabetics is all about using food as natural medicine to control your blood sugar levels. Let your food be your medicine, and let your medicine be your food.

Healthy eating for diabetics will also help you in minimizing the amount of medication you would be consuming.

The helpful information here is for you if:

• you’ve already been diagnosed with diabetes, or

• you have an increased risk of developing diabetes, or

• you have a parent or family member who has diabetes, or

• you are simply trying to avoid getting diabetes.

Carefully watch what you’re eating. Eating well balanced meals, maintaining a healthy weight, and exercising are key to keeping your blood sugar levels normal. It’s about being in control with eating habits.

Diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases of the millennium. In the UK, 1 in 3 people are diagnosed with diabetes according to Diabetes UK, and every 3 minutes, there is a new person diagnosed with diabetes.

There are about half a million people in the UK alone who have diabetes but do not know yet.

There are two types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes mostly affects young children who were born with the disease. Children affected have to be treated insulin.

Type 2 diabetes is the much more common type of diabetes, and is usually a result of lifestyle choices and sometimes, genetics. But when there are genes involved, you will find that diabetes can still be highly controlled by diet changes.

People with diabetes are also at a higher risk of heart disease (cardiovascular disease). Therefore, reducing saturated fats in your diet is key.

If you can cut out meat and animal products completely or greatly reduce on them, good for you! Meat is one of the major sources of saturated fat in our diets. Plus, there are many vegetarian versions of foods nowadays.

Your meal should be very rich in plant foods since they don’t contain saturated fat the way animal products do.

Healthy foods for diabetics include beans, apples, oranges, brown rice. Eggs contain saturated fat as well, so you should reduce on them, especially egg yolks.

Top Tips for Managing Diabetes

There are some basic tips on healthy eating for diabetics that you need to know.

• Eat Low-fat Dairy products

Most dairy products are high in sugar and fat. Remember you need to keep your blood sugar levels low. So, always ask for low fat versions wherever possible. Soy versions are much better options.

• Eat more low GI foods

GI is an acronym for ‘glycemic index’. GI is a measure that tells you how fast or how slow the sugar in a particular type of food is released. It is the effect that carbohydrates have on your blood sugar levels.

Eat more low-GI foods; their sugars are slow-releasing. You don’t want you blood sugar shooting up and plummeting down without control.

• Reduce your dietary fat.

• Reduce salt in your diet.

• Maintain a healthy weight.

• If you are overweight, just losing some weight will help you keep your blood-sugar levels within range.

• Eat regularly so that you don’t get so hungry to start feeling ill.

• Eat plenty of foods with fibre. As always, plenty of fruits and vegetables are important.

• Reduce saturated fats from your diet. If you must eat animal foods, cut down on red meat and eat more fish instead.

In conclusion, healthy eating for diabetics will equate to a diet high in many of the healthy foods. Plenty of fruits and vegetables, salads and plant-foods are the main ones to focus on. Any foods containing saturated fat should be kept to an absolute minimum.

Avoid processed food, because you do not know what they’ve put in them or how they’ve made them. Remember, healthy eating for diabetics is all about taking control of your situation.

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