5 Ways to Manage your Diet for Diabetes

Since my diagnosis with diabetes at the age of eleven, my own diet has changed dramatically.  I maintain my current healthy weight with a great diet/eating plan. If you do plan on losing more than about a stone in weight then I would visit your doctor for more tips on how to do this without risk. 

I've had diabetes for seven years now, but to tell you that how I maintain weight is perfect would be totally wrong of me.  However, I can advise you to follow my steps because I know what works and what doesn't. Before I really begin I must also say that I have been brought up by great parents who taught me to eat everything, and so I do! If there is something that you don't like, there are loads of other diabetic recipes and ideas that you will eat and appreciate.

I am a university student and I like to buy fresh and organic produce from where I live. I believe that this is important because it can be the most good for your body and contain more nutrients and vitamins than most supermarket produce. I like to source food from my fortnightly farmers market in town, which sells amazing meat and dairy produce and fresh in season fruit and vegetables. This is another important thing to remember, that eating fruit and vegetables in their season means that they will taste better as well as doing you good. I have a lot of influence from Western European cuisine (mainly France and Italy) as you will tell, but I do not profess to be a chef and everything is easy to make and very convenient.

I have read countless diet books and diabetic recipe/diet books, and I came to a conclusion that I think really works. I fused all the good things from the diets (but not from every diet) and sort of put together my own one. I call this my Juvenile Diabetes Healthy Diet!

The "rules" that I would lay down are as follows:

1. Cut back on snacks and then change the type of snacks you eat.

Certainly my biggest downfall although it wasn't really apparent to me. When I first started at University, I had little or no routine which meant that filling my day was difficult and popping into the kitchen for a snack, no matter how healthy it felt, was a regular occurrence. This is one of the hardest things to do for some people, but establishing a great routine is essential to great diabetes care. The types of snacks to be eating are unsalted nuts, dried unsweetened fruit, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables (I love fresh red pepper and cucumber), dark chocolate (richer and nicer and you only want 2 squares usually).

2. Cut back on white flour and embrace wholemeal carbs.

This is the most essential part of your diet, and the thing that can show the biggest increase in loss of weight. Some diets in fact jsut focus on this point, and are very successful. Wholemeal (especially stoneground wholemeal) is so good for you and has so much more flavour in it that switching is much easier than you think. Most people are really surprised at the ranges you can get in you supermarket, again remember that the bread that is best for you is the one that is freshest with least preservatives or added ingredients. Also, brown or basmati rice is great with a lovely nutty texture. Wholemeal pasta is great and for your potatoes I would totally recommend the smaller new potatoes.

3. Stop drinking cocktails, start drinking wine.

Cocktails are full of sugar, colourants and preservatives. As a student I have had loads of practice at going out and not drinking cocktails, so my drink of choice is Malibu and Diet Coke if I feel I have to drink something and I make it last all night. I can then top up with Diet Coke (which has almost no sugar in it) and it looks as though I am drinking Malibu, who is to know. If you are out at a restaurant, red wine is much better than anything else you can order, (except water of course!) and it has been proven that the anti-oxidants in red wine are great for keeping a healthy heart. The recommended amount is one glass a day with your evening meal.

4. Start cooking more fruit and vegetables.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are a great way to get all the vitamins and minerals you need. And there are so many different ways in which to cook vegetables, but I find that raw is the best followed closely by steamed. Both of these ways preserve all their natural goodness as well. I will follow this post with another diabetes recipes post.

5. Drink more water.

I know you have heard people say this many times before, but the benefits of drinking more water are endless. A few tips on how to get more water into your day are firstly to put bottles of water at all the places you go in the house or work. So keep one in your desk, on your desk, a glass in the kitchen, the bedroom, the sitting room, etc. Try and drink all these glasses up and you will be well on your way to 8 glasses a day. The trick is to add a glass every few days or so, if you try to drink all that water in one go you won't be so inclined to drink 8 glasses again, trust me! Have a go, it's amazing how great you will feel.

 check here how I control my diabetes

      5 Habits Every Diabetic Must Give Up

1. Consuming sugar-free foods and substitutes

Some foods are still not diabetic-friendly despite the fact that they have no added sugar to it. This is because they contain other sugar substitutes that are carbohydrate-rich thus they are still capable of increasing blood sugar levels. This does not necessarily amount to ruling out sugar entirely from your diet, as a small amount of sugar is still required in your diet. You need to only get rid of the unnecessary and unhealthy sugar and retain little of the healthy ones that, will not harm your health.
Some sugar substitutes make it impossible for you to efficiently and effectively control and manage your blood sugars. Sugar-containing products such as drinks, beverages, snacks, etc should be consumed less and if possible avoided totally. If you must consume them, you need to opt for those that are sugar-free.

2. Consuming canned red (tomato) sauce

Tomato paste is a key ingredient for many cooking, it is, therefore, good for you to learn and always try to make your tomato paste at home as against buying canned or bottled store-bought tomato paste for your cooking. This is because many processed and factory-made tomato pastes contained added sugar to sweeten or thicken it.

3.  Consuming fruit products

Fruit leather, roll-ups, juice drinks, and other sweetened fruit products are not in any way healthy substitutes to eating fresh and raw fruits. These fruit products contain sugar in some quantity and are unfavorable to diabetes management. Always make it a habit of eating raw and fresh fruits than buying sweetened fruit products.

4. Consuming artificial sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners taste sweet but do not provide the body with calories. So they end up confusing the body and increasing the probability of an individual taking more of calorie-rich foods and drinks to meet up with the body’s cravings. It is advisable to consume water and other unsweetened beverages like plain ice tea when trying to satisfy your body’s craving for sugar or other sweetened products.

5. Consuming sweetened products

Sweets, chocolates, candy, and other sweetened products kept at home to entertain visitors are hazardous to your health as a diabetic when you consume them. You are therefore required to exercise self-control and keep away from such products as much as possible.

Conclusion

In other to live well with diabetes, you need to learn how to manage and reduce your sugar consumption. This is to prevent your blood sugar levels from spiking up giving rise to many more diabetes complications which can be debilitating to your health.

Image Courtesy by: webmd.com, drweil.com

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do you know, the RESEARCH SCIENTISTS are already reversing DIABETES TYPE 2