If you have diabetes, having a healthy diet is a must and one of the best ways to ensure your condition does not worsen. Keeping track of your carbohydrate intake is imperative as too much of it can destabilize your blood sugar.
Taking advantage of the glycemic index to be better-informed on how what you are eating is going to have an effect on your blood sugar is also highly recommended. Here are four important tips when it comes to a diabetes diet:
- Foods you always need to consume: lots of vegetables, fruits, lean protein, nuts, and whole grains.
- Calorie intake: Maintaining a healthy weight means lower blood sugar, so it is important to know how many calories you can consume in a day and not to exceed that amount.
- More fiber: A diet high in fiber regulates blood sugar and also lowers cholesterol. Again, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains all have fiber, but you can also take fiber supplements such as psyllium if needed.
- Recommended serving: It is important that you do not consume any empty and unnecessary calories as this leads to weight gain. Following your dietitian’s plan and recommended serving sizes are critical.
Sugar
It is widely known that people with diabetes shouldn’t have any sugar. Even though this is the view of some medical professionals, there are others who believe that consuming sweets in moderation and small amounts is perfectly fine as long as the patient is on a healthy diet.
Sugar is a carbohydrate, so it affects your blood sugar as any other carbohydrate. Don’t deprive yourself of anything, but also don’t have pasta for dinner on a day you had a cookie as a snack. Substituting instead of overdoing is key because you need to think about how many grams of carbohydrates you are allowed to consume a day. It is also important to adjust your medications if you consume sugary foods and to check your blood sugar after consuming sugar.
You can also use artificial sweeteners like Splenda. Avoid aspartame, but there are sweeteners with no carbohydrates in them. However, some, like xylitol and sorbitol, do have carbs, be sure to read labels before buying artificial sweeteners. Stevia is currently the best option as it has no calories and natural.
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