4 posts tagged “diabetes diet”

The diabetic should not be afraid to each fresh fruits and vegetables which contain sugar and starch. Fresh fruits contain sugar fructose, which does not need insulin for its metabolism and is well tolerated by diabetics.  Fats and oils should be taken sparingly; for they are apt to lower the tolerance for proteins and starches, for they are apt to lower the tolerance for proteins stimulates and increase insulin production. For protein, home made cottage cheese, various forms of sourced milks and nuts are best. The patient should avoid overeating and take four or five small meals a day rather than three large ones.
   
The following diet should be serving as a guideline.

Upon rising: A glass of lukewarm water with freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Breakfast: Any fresh fruit with the exception of banana, soaked prunes a small quantity or whole meal bread with butter and fresh milk.

Lunch: Steamed or lightly cooked green, vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes, spinach, turnip, asparagus, and mushrooms, two or three whole wheat chapattis according to appetite and glass of butter milk or curd.

Milk after noon: A glass or fresh fruit or vegetable juice.

Dinner: A large bowl of salad made up of all the raw vegetables in season. The salad may be followed by a hot course, if desired, and fresh home-made cottage cheese.

Bedtime snack: A glass of fresh milk.
   
Flesh foods find no place in this regimen, for they increase the toxemic condition underlying the diabetic state and reduce the sugar tolerance. On the other hand, a non-stimulating vegetarian diet, especially one made up of raw foods, promotes and increases sugar tolerance.

Celery, cucumbers, string beans, onion and garlic are especially beneficial. String bean pot tea is an excellent natural substitute for insulin and highly beneficial in diabetes. The skins of pods of green beans are extremely rich in silica and certain hormone substance which are closely related to insulin. One cup of string bean tea is equal to one unit of insulin. Cucumbers contain a hormone needed by the cells of the pancreas for producing insulin. Onion and garlic have proved beneficial in reducing blood sugar in diabetes.

Dr John Anne is a herbal specialist with years of experience and extensive research on Herbs and Alternative health. For more helpful information read about Diabetes Complications at Diabetes Treatment Website

If some is suffering from diabetes, it means that his body cannot produce insulin in normal fashion. As a result, it increases the glucose level in the blood. Switching to healthy diabetic diet plan can be of help at this time. Planning for an appropriate diet is a crucial part of your treatment journey, because it can manage the level of glucose in your blood.

Sensible selections of food along with healthy and disciplined lifestyle are the two key success points of diabetic treatment. A healthy diabetic diet plan must include six essential factors such as restricting consumption for sweet products, frequent eating, attentive towards carbohydrate consumption, consume plenty amount of whole grain foods, fruits and vegetables, eating low-fat products, restriction in alcohol consumption.

Diabetic Diet

If you are having diabetes, it doesn’t mean that you should start eating special foods or depend on only strict diabetic diet plan. In most of the case, it is simply switching to a variety of foods in moderate amounts but following a fixed timing.

You should not follow a complicated diabetic diet plan, rather your diet should comprise with a wise selection of nutrients and low in calorie and fatty contents. There are two essential factors that you must not forget while preparing your diet plan. One is eating foods at regular time every day and the second point is the selection of healthy food in right amounts.

Carbohydrate counting is a crucial part for healthy diet plan, especially if you are on insulin medication. In fact, fat and protein counting is not as important as carbohydrate counting is. But that doesn’t mean you should not be careful enough about the fat or protein intake. High calorie and high fat always increase the risk of various health complications including cardiac problems, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Diabetic Diet and Sweets Consumption

The fact says if you are suffering from diabetes, all your near and dear ones continuously warn you not to have sweets in your diet. Contrary to popular belief, scientific studies confirmed that sweets may not produce any harm if it can be used in a balanced amount in the meal plan. Although, different sweets affect blood sugar level in a varied fashion, but the total carbohydrate count matters the most. If you consider a small amount of sweets in your overall diabetic diet plan, it will not harm your health.

Vegetarian Diet

Some people believe that switching to a vegetarian diet may cure their diabetes problem, but it is not totally correct. Well, it can be managed well with vegetarian diet compared to a non-vegetarian one. In that sense, vegetarian diet can be a wise inclusion to diabetic diet plan.

There is no hard-and-fast rule for preparing a vegetarian diet plan. Vegan diet is the austere form of vegetarian diet. Vegans typically do not feed themselves on any sort of animal products such as dairy and egg. However, other vegetarians can eat these products.

An austere vegan diet comprises of almost no-cholesterol content in it. It also contains low saturated fat. It is mostly prepared with a generous selection of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. These food products are essentially high in fiber. Typically, a vegetarian diet offers lesser calories than non-vegetarian one. So it is beneficial for diabetic patients.

Vegetarian diet is an effective choice in diabetic diet plan because of its weight loss ability which significantly benefits people with type-II diabetes. Some scientific studies confirmed that vegetarian diet can make the body more receptive to insulin.

Vegetarian diet can not cure diabetes, but of course it can alleviate various diabetes-related symptoms including cardiovascular disease and kidney problems. But, obviously this is profoundly dependent on the selection of food.

If you have diabetes and you are planning to change your diet to a vegetarian one, you should consult your dietician. The dietician can guide you for the best selection of diabetic diet plan suitable to your health system.

Dr John Anne is an ayurvedic doctor having years of experience in the field of Ayurveda and Alternative medicine. Read about Diabetes Diet at Diabetes Treatment website.

A person suffering from diabetes should abstain from eating foods that are rich in cholesterol and fats. The food should be light, non-greasy and easy to digest with lots of fibre content.

Most fruits fit correctly in this category, and are known for their various beneficial effects on a patient suffering from diabetes. They are low on fats and highly rich in nutrients and vitamins and have a positive effect on the unusual rise in the blood glucose levels.

However, one should avoid fruit juices and fruit concentrates, because they contain lot of sugar and many fruits are required to make one glass of juice. Moreover, fruit juices do not provide a person with the dietary fibre.

1.    Choose whole fruits more often than juices. They have more fibre.

2.    Choose fruits and fruit juices without added sweeteners or syrups.

3.    Eat lots of citrus fruit such as oranges, sweet lime, grapefruit, or olives.
 
You can choose from any of the fruits available in the market. Each one has some benefit or the other.

Although diabetics can have any fruit, but they should preferably avoid mango, custard apple, grapes, chikoo, bananas as they have a high sugar content. There are three fruits in particular that are especially beneficial for diabetic patients - apple, grapefruit and jambul (jamun).

Apple -

One the most popular fruit, apples have a high pectin content and are very beneficial to diabetic patients. Pectin is found in the rind and in the pulp, and acts as a detoxifier of the body by supplying an excessive amount of galacturonic acid. This helps remove harmful waste from the bloodstream and can lower a diabetic’s insulin requirements by up to or even more than 35%. Besides being rich in pectin, apples are also rich in Vitamin B1. Vitamin B1 prevents the damage of the brain cells that can occur due to diabetic acidosis.

Grapefruit –

Grapefruit – a citrus fruit with a typical, refreshing flavour has several medicinal properties that helps one fight diabetes – can bring down the blood glucose level within a time span of just three days. However, just a diet of grapefruit is not enough. One needs to take more of vegetables and fruits rather than a diet rich in fats.
Nutritionists recommend that anyone suffering from high blood sugar levels should be consuming at least three servings of grapefruit every day. Grapefruit can also be used as a preventative measure against high blood sugar levels, especially when used in conjunction with a low fat, low-sugar, low-starch diet. Diabetic patients should experience a change in less than three months.

Rose apple or jambul –

The elements present in jambul have a strong positive effect on pancreas. It prevents the conversion of starch into bad sugar, thus controlling the blood sugar levels. The seeds of this fruit can be dried, powdered and then taken with water. Apart from controlling diabetes, it also relieves thirst and prevents excessive urination.

In addition to the fruit, the bark of the jambul tree is also used to treat diabetes. The bark itself is dried out entirely, then burned into a white-colored ash which is then taken. In Ayurveda, a diabetic patient is given about two grams of this ash in the morning on an empty stomach and two grams each in the afternoon and in the evening - an hour after meals.
 
The question is not whether or not you should eat fruit but rather how much and what kinds of fruit you should be eating.

People with diabetes are encouraged to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day. Spreading the fruit you eat through the day will avoid a sudden rise in blood glucose levels. Although some fruits have a lower glycemic index, the important thing is to increase the variety of different fruits that one eats. Eating more fruit and vegetables also helps to improve the overall balance of the diet. Fruit is the perfect snack.

However, one needs to be careful about the fruits chosen to eat, how often you eat them and when you eat them. It is advisable to choose fruits that rank low on the glycemic index. Fruits high on the index are bananas, mango, chikoo, custard apple, dates, pineapple.

How fast a fruit will raise your blood sugar also depends on considerations as whether you eat the fruit after a high-calorie meal or drink it as a glass of fruit juice on an empty stomach.

It is also important to pay attention to the size of the fruit you eat - choose a small or medium-sized portion over a large one (or eat only half of the large one).

For more information visit Diabetes Natural treatment and Diabetes in Child

What one eats is very important from the point of view of his health.

The chief concern while monitoring and controlling diabetes is to see that the sugar level does not cross the normal range. This means that one needs to cut down on certain types of food and consume regularly those foods, which are good at regulating diabetes.

People with diabetes should try to maintain a healthy weight and eat a diet that is:

•     low in fat
•     low in sugar
•     low in salt
•     high in fruit and vegetables (at least five portions a day)
•     high in starchy carbohydrate foods, such as bread, chapatti, rice.

There is no such food that people with diabetes should never eat. In addition, there is no need to cut out all sugar. But, people with diabetes should try and eat only small amounts of foods that are high in sugar, fat. So, if you have diabetes you can treat yourself to  cakes and biscuits once a blue moon, as part of a balanced diet.

What foods to eat?

•    A diabetic patient must eat lots of fruits and vegetables in which fibre content is very high. Such type of food lowers the requirement for insulin, the reason being it releases energy into the body cells slowly. A high fibre diet means more chromium, which is very helpful in the treatment of diabetes.
•    As for vegetables, onion, garlic, ginger, radish, spinach, kale, cucumber, carrot, tomato, cabbage and cucumber are excellent in the treatment of diabetes. Moong, kidney beans which have been sprouted, and unripe banana which is cooked, are also recommended.
•     Fenugreek seeds which have been soaked in water are good for diabetic patients.
•     For fruits, take guava, Indian blackberry (jamun), fig, kiwi fruit, apples, citrus fruits and pomegranate juice. Let   these things be a part of your morning breakfast. Since, fruit juice is high in fructose (fruit sugar) and can cause blood sugar levels to rise quickly, it’s best for diabetics to drink fruit juice with a meal and avoid having more than one small glass a day.
•     Replace white sugar with palm sugar, dates and honey, if you want to have something sweet.
•     Unpolished rice, sprouted grain should be taken in moderate quantity.
•     Fats like olive oil and peanut oil are good in diabetes.
•     Drink plenty of water, at least 8 to 10 glasses per day.
•     Single helping of fish or seafood, as it provides omega 3 fatty acids.
•     Condiments such as pepper, chilli, mustard, herbs and spices
•     Raw vegetables need to be taken in large quantity, as cooked food raises the level of blood sugar fast.
•     Eat non-fat dairy such as skim milk, non-fat yogurt and non-fat cheese, plain yoghurt, avoid cottage cheese a sit is high in carbohydrates.
•     Some herbs and vegetables are specifically prescribed for diabetes, like Bitter Gourd and bitter melon juice.

What to avoid?  

• Processed foods, white sugar, white flour and junk food, must be totally given up. Avoid sweets, glucose, fruit sugar, cakes, ice cream, chocolates, soft drinks, cream and fried foods.
•  Anything that contains harmful preservatives and too much salt should be avoided.
•  Avoid smoking and alcohol.
•  Try and abstain from sweets, ice-creams and chocolates, including the so-called sugar-free types.
•  Foods made from white flour, rye, corn, polished rice, bread, pasta, pastry, cakes, biscuits, pies.
•  Starchy vegetables such as potatoes in particular; and go easy with beet, carrots, peas, beans.
•  Avoid concentrated dairy products, such as khoya, kheer, cheese, cottage cheese.
•  Fruits such as bananas, mango, grapes, strawberry, custard apple, date.
•  Cottage cheese (except in small amounts)
•  Avoid commercially packaged foods such as fast foods, chips, ready-to-eat foods, snack foods and "health foods."
•  Fruit juices, as these are much higher in carbohydrates than fresh fruit. Moreover, they also lack in dietary fibre.

A few helpful tips if eating out -

•    Avoid items called jumbo, combo, giant, deluxe, as they tend to have more calories.
•    Choose grilled, baked roasted or steamed food.
•    Choose water and calorie-free "diet" drinks instead of regular soda, fruit mock tails, sweet tea and other sugar-sweetened drinks
•    Avoid creamy toppings, like mayonnaise. Add flavour with pepper, tomato, and onion. 
•    Watch out for high-fat topping salads, dressings, cheeses, and croutons. 
•    Choose a thin-crust pizza with extra vegetable toppings. Limit yourself to one or two slices. Keep off the extra cheese, which add calories, fat, and sodium.
•    End your meal with sugar-free, fat-free frozen simple yogurt or a small cone of fat-free yogurt.  Better still, go for a platter of fresh fruit salad.
•    Check out on your portion size
. 
SO, EAT WELL AND BE WELL.

If you are looking for more helpful information then visit Diabetic Foods and Diabetic Diet