|
If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, following a diabetic diet is essential. Whichever type of diabetes you have, the key part of a diabetic diet is to control the flow of sugar into your blood, and thus the insulin that your body produces.
Doctors recommend a diabetic diet as the best way to control the symptoms and allow you to live a normal life. The key principals are of the diabetic diet are:
- Eat regularly:
Maintaining a steady flow of sugar is essential, so you need to choose foods that release their nutrients slowly, such as whole grain carbs - these are the types of foods that you will find recommended in GI eating plans.
- Cut down on high sugar foods:
High sugar foods leads to rapid rises and falls in blood sugar and insulin, and so should be avoided.
- Reduce the amount of fat you eat:
As excess weight is often associated with this disease, reducing fat intake - especially hard fats from meat - is an effective way to manage your cholesterol levels and thus lower your risk of heart disease.
- Eat five portions of fruit and veg a day:
These foods not only provide you with essential vitamins and minerals, they are also a vital source of fibre. In addition, the naturally occurring sugars in fruits and vegetables are released slowly.
- Reduce salt intake:
Cutting salt intake is easy - the first step is to stop adding it to your food. You should also look at reducing your consumption of salty foods such as processed meals and soups, crisps, salted nuts, bacon, cheese, pickles and smoked fish
- Keep alcohol to moderate levels:
Alcohol is essentially just liquid sugar, so should either be avoided, or taken in small quantities, with a meal.
|
