Diabetic Diet To Lower Blood Sugar
Adhering to the proper diabetic diet is paramount for the control of blood sugar - the food that you eat directly affects the amount of sugar that is absorbed by your gut. This is one of the 2 major components that influences your blood glucose level (the other being how fast you burn up the sugar depending on your digestive enzyme activity). Imagine water running from a tap into the sink: the amount of water in the sink will depend on how fast water is flowing in and how fast it's flowing out. So if we equate the water flowing in as the amount of sugar entering your bloodstream as a result of what you eat, you'll see from the following how important the diabetic diet is.
Of course, while this article is mainly discussing the diabetic diet, the choice of food should not be too focused on treatment of diabetes alone, as what you eat also affect your health in other ways, such as by making you lose weight and lowering your risk of heart disease and stroke. An appropriate diabetic diet, alongside exercise and diabetic medication (if any), will go a long way towards lowering your blood sugar to within the target range so as to prevent long-term damages to your eyes and kidneys.
Equally as important as the type of food you eat is when and the amount you eat when it comes to lowering your blood glucose. You should eat regularly and in not too big a portion to train your body to release the digestive enzyme (which regulates the level of sugar) in a consistent and controlled manner. Eating in spurts of gluttony or going without food for hours will simply disrupt your routine and make fine-tuning your diabetic medication (if any) almost impossible.
While the guidelines for diabetic diet varies from country to country, and even from one treatment center to another, here are some rules of the thumb you can use when choosing food with control of blood sugar in mind:
Starches
This group of food is where most people – including diabetics – get their carbohydrate; some examples being yam, beans, rice, pasta, corn, potatoes, bread and grain. Especially when following a diabetic diet, you should eat whole-grain starches like bread and cereal, and replace starches that are fried and therefore high in fat content like french fries and potato chips with baked potatoes or popcorns free from fat. Pour low-fat or skimmed milk into your cereal, and spread mustard instead of fatty mayonnaise or butter on your bread.
Fruit and Vegetable
Vegetables should form a significant part of the diabetes diet because they are rich in fiber, minerals and useful vitamins while low in carbohydrate. Fruits also possess similar characteristics although some will provide more carbohydrate. The recommended way to eat them is raw without any additional fat or salad dressings. It’s better to eat pieces of fruit than drink fruit juice because the former will have more fiber. Remember that some fruit are high in carbohydrate and fat (peach cobbler) so do not eat these too often.
You should aim to eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day… even if you’re not a diabetic.
Meat
The bulk of your daily protein comes from this group of food, which includes eggs, poultry, fish, pork, beef, lamb and turkey. When possible, peel the skin off the chicken and turkey before you cook and eat them – the skin contains fat which should be avoided in a typical diabetes diet. Also look out for fat in lamb, pork and beef… cut away the fat from them before consumption.
Fat
Examples are oil, cheese, mayonnaise and butter. Unfortunately these are not beneficial for the diabetic so it’s best to reduce your intake of this group of food. Besides containing tons of calories, these food also contains saturated fats and cholesterol which may increase your risk of heart disease.
To conclude, although there have been revisions throughout the years as we get more advanced in our diabetic research, the general consensus is that the diabetic diet should consist of high amount of dietary fiber (stemming from fruit and vegetable; at least 5 portions a day) and low amounts of carbohydrate (especially those with a high glycemic index) and fat.