Diabetic treatment is based on three most important factors, your diet, physical activity and consistency of medication. If you ignore one of these factors it will directly affect your blood glucose level.
Diet is nothing but what, how and when you have to eat. Following diet regularly and taking medication as directed improves blood glucose level. This helps you to decrease diabetes related risks as well as diabetes-related complications such as artery disease, kidney disease, and nerve damage. In addition, you can easily control your weight with the help of a diet. So, plan your diet carefully and live a healthy life.
Your doctor or dietitian can help you in creating diet plan according to your physical status. A healthy diet is healthy eating and healthy eating includes variety of foods such as vegetables, whole grains, fruits, non-fat dairy products, beans, lean meats, poultry and fish. In diabetic diet healthy eating in certain predetermined amount is necessary; you can’t eat healthy foods in large quantity as that can prove very harmful for you. The diabetes diet is not confined to only restriction of sugars but it is a balanced and healthy food. Choosing a healthy diet with the correct mixture of low and high glycemic index foods and exercising regularly is the key to maintaining your blood glucose level in normal range. With the help of diet you can also control cholesterol and lipids, which reduce the risk of cardiovascular complications.
In your diet choose low fats and low carbohydrates. Diet plan is nothing but planning of your food content, food amount and food timing. While planning your diet keep certain things in mind; such as eating the same amount of food every day and at the same time. You also need to take care about the number of calories and the number of food servings you eat each day. Calorie intake is the single most important part of your diabetic diet plan.
Your physical status determines the amount of calories your body needs. If you regularly exercise and if you are small woman or you are a medium size woman but do not exercise much then choose 1200 – 1600 calorie diet. To maintain your calorie range between 1200 to 1600 choose this many servings from these food groups; 6 starches, 2 milk and yogurt, 3 vegetables, 2 meat or meat substitute, 2 fruit and up to 3 fats.
If you are a large woman and want to lose weight or you are a small healthy weight man or a medium man who does not exercise then choose 1600-2000 calorie diet. To maintain your calorie range between 1600 to 2000 choose this many servings from these food groups; 8 starches, 2 milk and yogurt, 4 vegetables, 2 meat or meat substitute, 3 fruit and up to 4 fats.
If you are a medium built man who does a lot of exercise or a large healthy weight man or a large woman who exercises a lot then choose 2000 – 2400 calorie diet. To maintain your calorie range between 2000 to 2400 calories choose this many servings from these food groups; 11 starches, 2 milk and yogurt, 4 vegetables, 2 meat or meat substitute, 3 fruit and up to 5 fats.
However, do not follow this diet plan blindly, first take the advice of your dietitian and then plan your diet.