Diets for diabetics: diabetes diet sensation

The simple Diabetic diet sensations

The great thing about diets for diabetics is that the whole family can take part. It is not a miracle diet for diabetics only. Once you have an understanding of how the whole process works everything will run smoothly. Most foods we eat will be converted by the stomach into glucose.

The thing that a diabetic has to consider will be how fast the foods eaten will be converted into glucose. This information is useful for meal planning purposes for better diabetes control.

Diabetics meal planning has to be done by a specialist in the beginning. This is a great opportunity which will be used to ascertain the needs of the diabetic. All diabetic, even if they have the same blood sugar reading will have to be treated as an individual because each person body reacts differently to different things.

The diets for diabetes are used to try and control the blood glucose level to within target range. Each of the three main types of diabetes will have a little difference in the diets. The mains diets for diabetes are:

• Type 1 Diabetes Diet – the unique feature of type 1 diabetes is that insulin is always required as part of the diabetic treatment plan.
• Type 2 Diabetic Diet – people who suffer from type 2 diabetes tend to be overweight. The focus is therefore to focus the diet on controlling weight in order to improve the body’s ability to utilize insulin. The more weight that is lost is the better the body’s ability to use insulin.
• Gestational Diabetes Diet – this type of diet has a dual purpose – to ensure the blood glucose level remains within target range and to ensure the mother and baby has all the required nutrients from the foods eaten. This is important for health foetal development.

Remember with diabetes mellitus we have to maintain our target blood glucose level. The way to do this is by a combination of a balanced diet with exercise and medication (if needed). The goal of the diet is to ensure we eat well balanced, proportionate meal rich with minerals, nutrient and vitamin.

It is always better to spread out your meals throughout the day rather than having three big meals. This will allow our body to stay on an even keel throughout the day preventing drastic swings between very high blood sugar to very low blood or vice versa.

The recommended eating schedule is to eat every two to three hours – that is approximately five or six small meals per day. Each type of food we eat is broken down at different rates. Some foods are digested quickly and others more slowly. That is the main reason why the glycemic indexes of different foods are calculated.

By eating a well balance diet we will consume a mixture of different types of food which will be digested at a rate not too fast or slow but just right. The main benefit of this is to prevent sudden rises in blood glucose levels.  We could call this the glycemic load of foods.