Managing Your Diabetes Controlling diabetes is all about keeping control of our blood glucose levels. The problems of diabetes are caused when your control slips.

Diabetes and Diet

Healthy eating diabetes diet plans

The dietary recommendations for people with diabetes is essentially the same for both types of diabetes which is to adhere to healthy eating which is in fact suitable for the entire population. It is often perceived that it is best to give simple dietary guidelines in the form of recommended foods rather than protein, carbohydrate and fat. This is because most people eat unsuitable foods because of ignorance and education about the principles of healthy diets is essential. The recommendation is that carbohydrates should make up more than 55% of our food intake as it is the main source of energy or fuel for the body. Protein should contribute about 10 - 15% of daily intake whilst saturated fat should be about <10 %. There should be the emphasis on low fat and high carbohydrate intake rather than avoidance of sugar.

Individualised diabetes diet plans

Everyone with diabetes should be seen by a dietician, a specialist in food and nutrition, who will assess individuals based on age, weight, treatment, preferences and other pre-existing illnesses in order to advise about a diabetes diet plan for managing diabetes. The connection between food intake and blood glucose management should be emphasised on diagnosis of diabetes. Dietary modification is central to blood glucose management. The glucose level in the blood rises after a meal for everyone but in diabetes, this rise will last longer, depending on the type of food and the diabetes drugs prescribed. Whilst the principles of healthy eating apply to everyone, the dietician will give more precise advice which will vary according to the individual lifestyle, eating habits, ethnicity and nutritional requirements. The diabetes diet plan often includes recipes to enable more meaningful engagement with the diet sheet. Checking labels can also help to identify the ingredients in foods bought at the supermarket so that healthy options can be bought. The ingredient list in shop-bought foods and recipes can inform patient about the nutritional values of foods.

Exchanges and portions are means of measuring the carbohydrate content of the diabetes diet and help to ensure a more even distribution of carbohydrate when planning meals for individual patients. This approach is mainly adopted by people with type 1 diabetes who need to adjust insulin doses finely to match carbohydrate intake. This method can also be incorporated into devising recipes as well as using them. The need to lose weight in people with type 1 diabetes is not common.

Diabetes diet and weight loss

The incidence of obesity is high among people with type 2 diabetes. In this case, diabetes diet plans also are aimed at advice to lose weight. Studies have shown that even a modest weight loss of 5% can have many cardiovascular benefits. Overweight or obese patient are also advised to lose weight so that insulin resistance, which is associated with central obesity, can be reduced. In this way blood glucose control can be improved and the patient may even need less medications.With knowledge about the components of a healthy diet, expectations of a healthy weight range, patients can better adhere to a diet plan.

Written by a Diabetes Specialist Nurse