Diabetes and Food, Diet Plans & Food Choices

When you have diabetes, nutrition and physical activity also plays an important role in your healthy lifestyle. When a person follows a healthy diet plan it will automatically helps him/her to control blood glucose level, also called Blood sugar. To manage this, person should know what to eat or what to drink along with the medications him/her taking (if any). These things will help him/her to control the blood glucose level.

What to eat and when to eat will definitely help you to

1. Control the blood glucose level, cholesterol and blood pressure which automatically decreases hypertension
2. Helps to control your body weight
3. Helps in prevention of diabetes
4. Helps in gaining energy for your daily routine work

Suggested Read: Busting the myths about Diabetes

Now the question arises that what food to eat if you have diabetes??

If you are thinking that skipping a meal a day will help you to control your diabetes. No, that’s not a good option as it will weaken your inner strength as well as less energy is produced in your body. So, what can you do in this case? Just eat your daily meal in smaller portions or enjoy it less often.

Make a meal plan and follow it in your daily routine. Your meal plan can include

• Protein– eggs, fish, nuts, and peanuts, dried beans, chicken, meat substitutes such as tofu
• Vegetables- starchy vegetables include corn, potatoes, and green peas and Non-starchy vegetables include carrot, broccoli, peppers and tomatoes
• Grains- in a day person should at least take half of the whole grains which include rice, oats, corn meals, Wheat. For example- pasta, cereal, bread etc.
• Fruits– Apple, grapes, bananas, berries, orange, melon.
• Dairy– Milk, yogurt, cheese

Which Food you have to limit in your diet?

As you have diabetes, you should not go for following things

1. Salty food, which contains high amount of sodium as it will cause high blood pressure
2. Oily Food or fried food items
3. Sweets with high sugar content like ice cream, bakery items or candies
4. Sweet drinks or beverages with additional amount of sugar like cold drinks, juices etc.

Suggested Read: Diabetes: All you need to know about the disease

What you can plan to overcome the challenges??

1. Meal plan
2. Visits to dietician
3. Plate method- Divide your plate into 4 parts with healthy food
4. Portion sizes of food
5. Weight Loss planning
6. Carbohydrate counting
7. Take care of your feet to prevent Diabetes Foot
8. Do aerobic exercises daily
9. Do stretching exercises