Food guide for people with diabetes

A healthful diet provides the nutrients your body needs and decreases the risk of developing a heart disease and other conditions.

Evidence shows that a 10%-reduction in body weight can lead to an average of 50% reduction in blood sugar levels. Most people use the food guide pyramid to plan a balanced diet.
 
The key points of such plans are:

• People with diabetes can use a modified version of the food guide pyramid to spread carbohydrate throughout the day. This helps prevent high blood sugar after meals.
• A food guide contains the same foods your family eats. You do not have to eat special foods.
• You can successfully follow this method by:
• Planning your family meals ahead of time so you can enjoy the same foods as other family members.
• Providing lots of variety in the foods you eat so it's easier to follow your plan.
• Testing your blood sugar after meals to see what effect different foods have on your blood sugar level.
• Women with diabetes who are pregnant or breast-feeding need the same nutrition as pregnant or breast-feeding women who do not have diabetes. This means that they need extra calcium, iron, protein, and folic acid. During the second and third trimester, you also need about 300 calories per day more than you did before pregnancy. Regular meals and snacks are important to prevent low blood sugar during pregnancy and breast-feeding.

Important!

Extreme diets of less than 1,100 calories carry health risks and are often followed by bingeing or overeating and a return to the obese state. You should know that, while intentional weight loss in people with diabetes is usually a good thing, unintentional weight loss is definitely not. If blood sugars are very high, patients with diabetes tend to urinate a lot, and this result in dehydration as a possible cause of weight loss. Also, muscle breakdown can occur if sugars are too high, causing an unhealthy weight loss.