Diabetes Nutrition
Nutrition is Paramount!
Rigorous management of your blood sugar (glucose) is essential to avoid further complications such as blindness, amputations and kidney disease. While diabetes often requires insulin or oral medication for proper control, it is important to remember that proper nutrition is also equally critical in diabetes care. You will not be able to achieve good control of your diabetes without making dietary changes.
Nutritional management, in the form of a meal plan designed especially for you, will help you to maintain blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible, and maintain or lose weight.
Like many people, you may not have had much success with dieting in the past and you may feel apprehensive about the need to be on a meal plan for essentially the rest of your life. You can improve your chances of succeeding by having a team of health care professionals design a plan that fits your lifestyle. Also, the meal plan may not seem so overwhelming once you realize that the general dietary recommendations for diabetics are very similar to what is recommended for most people.
The following chart illustrates this:
General Dietary Guidelines |
Summary of General Guidelines for Diabetics |
| Eat a variety of foods. | Eat a variety of foods |
| Balance the food you eat with physical activity-maintain or improve your weight. | Balance the foods you eat with your insulin, oral medication and your physical activity. Maintain or improve your weight. |
| Choose a diet with plenty of grain products, vegetables, and fruits. | For added fibre include whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. |
| Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. | The amount of calories from fat should be no higher than 30%, of which no higher than 10% should be from saturated fat. |
| Choose a diet moderate in sugars. | Avoid foods containing significant amounts of sugar. |
| Choose a diet moderate in salt and sodium. | A moderate sodium restriction is recommended. |
| If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation. | If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation and see a dietician about fitting it into your meal plan. |
Diabetic Meal Plan Systems
There are two main meal planning systems, exchange lists and carbohydrate counting. With your health care team, you will decide which system best meets your needs. You might be able to use a combination of systems for greater flexibility.
The exchange lists group foods into three categories:
- Carbohydrates (including lists of starches, fruits, vegetables, milk, and other carbohydrates such as dessert type foods).
- Meat and meat substitutes, and
- Fats
Within any one of the categories a food can be exchanged with another. The amount of energy provided by a specified serving size of the food is essentially the same. You choose from the different categories to design a plan for your meals and snacks.
With carbohydrate counting, the focus is on the amount of carbohydrates in the foods that you choose to eat. Your insulin or oral medication must be matched to the foods you eat. Your meal plan will tell you how many carbohydrate choices you can eat and when you can eat them. The carbohydrate can come from any type of food containing carbohydrates. In the beginning, this system will require that you to test your blood sugar several times a day, as well as weigh and measure your food.
