Diabetes is one of the most disruptive conditions one can have as far as diets go.
It’s only about what you eat, but when you eat as well. If you’re new to this way of life, you’re probably overwhelmed by the amount of information you’re asked to handle.
Planning a tasty diet that meets your diabetic needs doesn’t have to be difficult.
As it turns out, there are a few simple rules to follow that will put you on the right path.
Here are a few things to pay attention to when planning your diet.
Understand What You’re Going Up Against
The prerequisite to planing a healthy, tasty diet as a diabetic is to understand your condition inside and out. You need to internalize how your body is reacting to glucose and how it behaves in different scenarios. This is especially important for people with type 2 diabetes. Once you know what you’re going up against, you can start planning meals around all the niche requirements.
Why Making a Plan is Crucial
Diet is perhaps the wrong word to use in this context. When people think of a diet, they usually think of something that’s temporary.
Creating a meal plan for your new dietary needs isn’t temporary. Therefore, your diabetic diet isn’t a diet but rather a way of life.
Going forward, you’ll need to be fairly precise with your dietary needs. You’ll have specified times when you eat, how much you eat, and what foods you eat.
All of that usually makes winging a diet way too difficult. The best course of action is to make a plan and stick to it. This is even more true if you’re looking for diabetic vegetarian meal planning tips. Such diets rarely work without a proper planning phase.
Foods that Need to Go
Dealing with diabetes means that certain foods are now off the table, quite literally.
Anything that contains saturated fats and trans fats should be eliminated from your diet.
That means most snacks, processed meats, baked goods, shortenings, and similar foods.
Interestingly enough, these are foods that you shouldn’t eat too much of even if you’re healthy.
Eating too much processed meats and trans fats ridden snacks will eventually increase your risk of developing a heart condition or other cardiovascular problems.
That being said, the fact that these foods are bad for you doesn’t mean you can’t eat them at all.
But we just said you should eliminate them? True, but you can have them from time to time.
You can’t eat them with any frequency and that you need to pay attention to your servings.
Indulging in your favorite snack once a month won’t put you at too much risk. However, you need to plan around it.
Foods You Need More Of
Just like there are foods you should stay away from, there are also foods you need to eat more of. In fact, we’re about to list foods you should build your entire diet around.
- Sweets and Carbs – As far as sweets and carbs go, you’ll want to eat green vegetables, fruits, whole grain products, low-fat dairy, and legumes if you’re into that.
- Whole grain and whole wheat products such as whole-wheat pasta are a great alternative to processed pasta that have a high GI rating.
- Just like with whole fruits, you’re ingesting a lot of nutrients, vitamins, and other goodies that are processed out of your regular pasta.
- Meats – Meat is perfectly compatible with a diabetic diet, but you need to know which meats to eat.
- Chicken breasts are a great source of protein that won’t spike your levels of bad cholesterol. Naturally, you need to watch how you prepare your meats. Grilling, cooking, and preparing meat in the oven is a much healthier alternative to frying.
- Fish – Fish is the holy grail of any healthy diet, including the one for diabetics.
- What makes fish so good is the fact that it offers a low-fat source of protein that is saturated in Omega-3 oils.
- Omega-3 oils are known for improving your cardiovascular health among other things.
- Good Fats – Last but not least, we have good fats. You’ll get your best healthy fats from avocados, olive oil, and fats.
- There’s a reason why a piece of toast with an avocado spread is still the go-to breakfast for many health-oriented people.
Count Your Calories
Counting calories is a great way of keeping track of how much you eat and when. To count calories, you’ll need a kitchen scale.
Find the nutrient data for foods you plan on eating, measure the foods, and you should be able to extrapolate how many calories there are in any given quantity of that food. There’s another important benefit to calorie counting — keeping track of carbs. Carbohydrates are packed with glucose, which acts fast and boosts your blood sugar fairly quickly. By counting calories, you can keep a close eye on your intake of carbohydrates, thus limiting your exposure to its fast-acting glucose.
What If You Don’t Want to Count Calories?
Not everyone is comfortable counting calories. Some people are either too busy or just can’t be bothered.
Although counting calories offers the best way of tracking what you eat, it’s not the only way.
There’s also the so-called “plate method”.
The idea here is to use your plate in a form of a pie-chart. You’ll want to fill one half of the plate with salads, broccoli, and other greens.
Then, fill one-quarter of the remaining half with your protein such as meats, tofu, or whatever you feel like eating. Lastly, fill the remaining quarter with fiber-rich foods.
Three Meals Per Day
The timing of your meals is important as well. You need to time the meals so that your blood sugar level never drops to dangerous levels.
Three meals per day are the default setup that most people use, but it’s not the only one. Find what works best for your needs.
Consult a Dietician
The best thing you can do, and the quickest way to get a complete diet, is to check in with your dietician.
They will work with you to define your dietary needs and put together a diet that is optimized for your specific condition.
A dietician can also work with you long-term, adjusting your diet and making sure that you’re on the right track.
Once you have followed all of the steps above, you’ll see the difference they can make for your health.
In doing so, you’ll be better prepared against diabetes. You can eventually beat it in the end, thanks to these tips.