Diabetes Diet

The proper diet is critical to diabetes treatment. Eating right will help someone with diabetes to:

• Achieve and maintain desirable weight. Many people with diabetes can control their blood glucose by losing weight and keeping it off.
• Maintain normal blood glucose levels.
• Prevent heart and blood vessel diseases, conditions that tend to occur in people with diabetes.

A doctor will usually prescribe diet as part of diabetes treatment (we suggest consulting with a licensed Naturopathic physician who specializes in treating disease with nutrition). A dietitian or nutritionist can also recommend a diet that is healthy, while also interesting and easy to follow. No one has to be limited to a preprinted, standard diet. Someone with diabetes can get assistance in the following ways:

• A doctor can recommend a local nutritionist or dietitian. Though, as suggested above, we recommend visiting a Naturopathic physician who has a true understanding of how foods interact and affect your health and well-being.

If a Naturopathic Physician is not available in your area, you can contact the local American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, or American Dietetic Association for the names of qualified dietitians or nutritionists in your area.

Local diabetes centers at large medical clinics, hospitals, or medical universities usually have dietitians and nutritionists on staff.

The guidelines for diabetes diet planning include the following:

• Many experts, including the American Diabetes Association, recommend that 50 to 60 percent of daily calories come from carbohydrates, 12 to 20 percent from protein, and no more than 30 percent from fat. These guidelines may, or may not, be right for you.
  
  Note: Carbohydrates are sugars. And, blood sugar imabalances are the root cause of diabetes. We think this guideline of 50-60 percent of daily calories coming from carbs could be very unhealthy to you.
  
  
• Spacing meals throughout the day, instead of eating heavy meals once or twice a day, can help a person avoid extremely high or low blood glucose levels.

With few exceptions, the best way to lose weight is gradually: one or two pounds a week. Strict diets must never be undertaken without the supervision of a doctor.

People with diabetes have twice the risk of developing heart disease as those without diabetes, and high blood cholesterol levels raise the risk of heart disease. Losing weight and reducing intake of saturated fats and cholesterol, in favor of unsaturated and monounsaturated fats, can help lower blood cholesterol.

For example, meats and dairy products are major sources of saturated fats, which should be avoided; most vegetable oils are high in unsaturated fats, which are fine in limited amounts; and olive oil is a good source of monounsaturated fat, the healthiest type of fat. Liver and other organ meats and egg yolks are particularly high in cholesterol. A doctor or nutritionist can advise someone on this aspect of diet.

Note: It is becoming a fast growing topic of discussion in the medical community that cholesteral has been mis-interpreted by physicians. Like a fever, many physicians now believe that elevated cholesteral levels are an indication of another physical problem. Providing medication to lower cholesteral, in this case, would effectively be nullifying your body's ability to deal with the real problem.

We do not necessarily agree that foods high in cholesteral need to be avoided - just eaten in moderation.

Studies show that foods with fiber, such as fruits, vegetables, peas, beans, and whole-grain breads and cereals may help lower blood glucose. However, it seems that a person must eat much more fiber than the average American now consumes to get this benefit. A doctor or nutritionist can advise someone about adding fiber to a diet.

Points to Remember

A diabetes diet should do three things; achieve ideal weight, maintain normal blood glucose levels, and limit foods that contribute to heart disease.

A nutritionist or dietitian can help plan a diabetes diet - but again, we strongly encourage the advice of a licensed Naturopathic Physician.

Exchange lists are useful in planning a diabetes diet. They place foods with similar nutrients and calories into groups. With the help of a nutritionist, the person plans the number of servings from each exchange list that he or she should eat throughout the day. Diets that use exchange lists offer more choices than preprinted diets. More information on exchange lists is available from nutritionists and from the American Diabetes Association.

Continuing research may lead to new approaches to diabetes diets. Because one goal of a diabetes diet is to maintain normal blood glucose levels, it would be helpful to have reliable information on the effects of foods on blood glucose. For example, foods that are rich in carbohydrates, like breads, cereals, fruits, and vegetables break down into glucose during digestion, causing blood glucose to rise. However, scientists don't know how each of these carbohydrates affect blood glucose levels. Research is also under way to learn whether foods with sugar raise blood glucose higher than foods with starch. Experts do know that cooked foods raise blood glucose higher than raw, unpeeled foods. A person with diabetes can ask a doctor or nutritionist about using this kind of information in diet planning.