THER E APY for the diabetics

The American Diabetes Association cites the following diet-related goals, therefore all meal planning must be tailored around these:

To achieve and maintain body weight goals

To attain individualized glycemic, blood pressure, and lipid goals

To delay or prevent complications of diabetes

In order to keep things simple in our guide, all guidelines and use of diabetes-related words will only refer to those with Type I diabetes or those taking insulin.

Before we take up detailed guidelines under different food groups, let us first look at some general strategies:

Timing Your Meals

It is imperative to balance the timing of both your meals and drinks intake with your insulin injections. Your well-being depends on physiological processes such as insulin to carbohydrate (CHO) ratio and maintaining your blood glucose levels.

If you are a busy professional, you are juggling several balls around adding your busy routines and constraints of your workplace and commuting arrangements to the food and physiology. It will be necessary to experiment with a routine that allows you to place meals, drinks, and insulin intakes at times that keeps your glucose levels in range at all times. Your planning should include having food portions available at work and during commute for both emergency situations and whenever a regular, proper meal is not possible in the day’s schedule.

Carbohydrate (CHO) Counting

This is an important tool in maintaining your blood glucose levels. It involves knowing food amounts with their CHO yield. Note we are talking about only the healthy sources of food here; sweets and processed foods are out of the question for you. Check the CHO page in this article for a refresher on which foods count as CHO for you.

• Each serving of CHO-rich food yields approx. 15 gms of CHO.

• An average woman needs 45-60 gms (3-4 choices of different foods) per meal.

• An average man needs 4-5 choices per meal (total 60-75 gms).

• Needs vary depending on your body mass, and other conditions such as pregnancy, nursing, and sickness.

Glycemic Index (GI) and Load (GL)

A problem with CHO counting done by itself is that there are around 600 different foods but they have different effects on blood sugar levels. That is some CHO foods raise blood sugar levels faster as they have a high GI, while others with low GI do it slower.

There are some low GI foods that are also high in fiber and these even help control the blood sugar level by slowing down the absorption of glucose into the blood. Refined grains and potatoes are in the high category, whole grains are moderate, while non-starchy fruits and vegetables are the controllers.

When you work out with your physician or dietary technician, they will guide you how to use Glycemic Load (GL) to plan your foods. GL combines the index information of each food (GI) with the portion of the food eaten at a meal to determine the effect on blood sugar level from that food in that meal. Use the printable Glycemic Load Guide on the next page to find out how much a regular meal portion of common CHO foods raises your blood sugar levels. Having gotten the basics out of the way, let’s move on to the macronutrients first and consider food-specific guidelines for diabetic people.

The ROR Health Guide would return with a diabetes focus on other food groups.