Archive for January 2010

A Good Diabetic Diet Plan – Make it Your Prime Concern



A good diabetic diet plan basically implies a healthy eating program that helps control blood glucose in the blood stream. Choosing a diabetic meal plan including carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, and vitamins in balanced proportion can contribute to improve your health. Though it is embarrassing to have a restricted meal plan, it will be best serving to control blood sugar and manage diabetes. Once you are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, it doesn’t mean you should avoid many foods you crave for eating. Nor you will be insisted to choose the bitter side of normal food list. Your prime concern will be to adopt a balanced diet menu planning than a complicated one.

A diabetic diet food as suggested by dietitians is an ideal food or balanced food with all nutrients needed to the body. The plan is flexible to have diet choices to suit your body condition. You can really have choices to tasty foods without cheating your cravings for delicious foods.

If you can spend a little time to watch over the good athletes, you will be surprised at their healthy eating habits. As a matter of fact, they adopt a lifestyle with nutritious foods of balanced ingredients. A diabetic food plan ideally incorporates a natural way of healthy eating with food choices that may help to fight diabetes. Just healthy eating to the need may help lose overweight and rejuvenate the body.

High protein diet plan that includes green vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grains with lean proteins in right proportion is absolutely needed. If you have the right combination of various components such as carbohydrates and proteins, keeping off excess fats, you can have control of sugar intake in your body.

Glycemic index of diabetic foods:

It is emphasized by the dietitians that the servings should have low glycemic index. Every meal should be planned to include low carb foods high in fiber. High fiber foods are good sources of diabetic diet sample that may help to lower blood sugar levels in the circulation system. Good knowledge of glycemic index of food intake helps you what foods have right proportion of carbohydrates. However, you may have lean meat, poultry, fish varieties, and diabetic recipes.

If you take a look in the main manual of diet foods for diabetes, you will decide to make your meal with proteins and carbohydrates in equal volume. Simultaneously, you should make sure that you pick low glycemic carbohydrates and lean proteins. That way, you can step up your health with all varieties of healthy combinations of delicious meals.

3 Tips on diabetic diet plan:

1. You should have a healthy breakfast without fail. Make it sure that your diet is nutritiously rich that may be organic. If you are consistently taking breakfast for health values, you will scrupulously avoid unhealthy foods.

2. It will be good for your health, affected with diabetes, to eat many meals a day with portions cut small. Having 5-6 small meals in a day is best recommended instead of choosing just 3 meals with increased volume every time. All the meals need not be plateful. You may have two of them to be healthy snacks with good combination of carbohydrate and protein. If you snack salads, you will be highly benefitted.

3. A good diabetic meal plan should focus on healthy eating. The plan should include natural nutrients low in calories and fats.

By: Varadharajan R

Diabetic Diet – One of the Most Popular Types of Food Controlling Methods?



Diabetic diet is considered to be one of the most popular types of food controlling methods all over the world. Many people in U.S.A today have higher tendency to suffer from high sugar level in their blood, thus will need to control their level of sugar intake per day. This is where diabetic diets come in handy.

People who have been diagnosed with diabetes will have to be extra careful in their nutrition intake. A proper method of food intake will be provided by the doctor and will educate individuals in their limitations and attention.

Eating more starches will definitely help to reduce the level of sugar in you. Taking nonfat milk and consuming more black beans or corn beans will also help. More vegetables and fruits everyday will also provide you with a balanced nutrition intake for the day. A low or moderate intake of sugar will also have to be considered. If you are very much used to take lots of sweet per day, a gradual reduction of sugar intake will have to be adapted. A smaller amount of chocolates and other sweets will mean that you are doing yourself a favor.

A proper diabetic diet will also include a way of reducing your weight if you are over weighed. This kind of a diabetic diet can be developed by your nearest medical center or the family doctor. Specialized firms are there almost in every city today which will give more attention to diabetes itself, hence will give you a better service in preparing a diabetic diet to suit you. Make a simple online search and find thousands of such services centers nearby to you.

The use of wine will also have to be carefully selected. It is advisable that you go for the recommendation of your family doctor or any other professional expert in the relevant field in deciding the amount of alcohol required per day.

Make your life simpler and healthier with the use of a diabetic diet. Not to forget that diabetes can cause many other illnesses as well, such as heart problems. Hence an immediate prevention of a higher sugar level within you is a safer option. Make sure that you get a proper diabetic diet and that you stick to that plan consistently. A brighter future is ahead of you provided that you do this. Hurry and make your own diabetic diet today.

By: Patrick Sia

Diabetic Food List



Diabetic foods are really no different from the foods that non-diabetics consume. The primary difference between diabetics and non-diabetics is not in the foods they eat but in the quantities they eat them. Diabetics must become very aware of how foods affect their blood glucose levels and must plan their meals and snacks accordingly. With this in mind, diabetics must select their foods with care.

Perhaps the most comprehensive diabetic food list has been prepared by the American Diabetes Association in conjunction with the American Dietetic Association. This listing of foods is known as the diabetic exchange diet plan. The exchange diet plan provides diabetics with a listing of foods that have been assigned to one of six food categories. Diabetics then use these food lists to build recipes and meals that are best suited to their own preferences, lifestyle and caloric needs.

The exchange diet plan provides a diabetic food list that consists of six different categories:

1) Breads and Starches

2) Fruits

3) Vegetables

4) Dairy

5) Meat and Meat Substitutes

6) Fats

The categories assign foods in the following manner (each food is assigned a value of 1 exchange):

Breads and Starches – 1/2 of a 3-inch bagel, 1 slice bread (4-inch square), 1/2 cup cooked cereal, 1/2 cup corn or 1 medium corn on the cob, 6 saltine crackers or three 2-1/2-inch square graham crackers, 1 small (2-inch square) dinner roll, 1/2 cup cooked dried beans (such as kidney, pinto, lentils, chick peas, white, or navy), 1/2 of an English muffin, 1/2 cup cooked green peas, 1/2 of a hamburger or hot dog bun, 1/2 cup cooked lima beans, 1/2 cup cooked pasta, 1/2 of a 6-inch piece of pita bread, 1/2 cup mashed potatoes or a 3-inch baked potato, 1/3 cup cooked rice, 2 rice cakes.

Fruits – 1 medium (3-inch) apple, 1 small (5-inch) banana or 1/2 of a 9-inch banana, 17 small or 12 large grapes (any kind), 1 kiwi fruit, 1 cup cubed melon (cantaloupe, honeydew, etc.), 1 small (3-inch) orange, 1 medium (3-inch) peach, 1/2 of a large (4 1/2-inch) pear, 1/2 cup canned pineapple, 2 small plums, 2 Tbs. Raisins, 1-1/4 cup whole strawberries, 1-1/4 cup watermelon.

Vegetables – ? cup cooked or 1 cup uncooked Asparagus, Green or wax beans, Beets, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Collard greens, Cucumber, Eggplant, Green beans, Kale, Mixed vegetables, Mushrooms, Greens, Onions, Pea pods, Peppers, Radishes, Salad greens, Summer squash, Tomatoes (fresh or canned), Turnips, Zucchini squash.

Dairy – 1 cup skim, 1-percent, or 2-percent milk, 1 cup nonfat plain or sugar-free yogurt, 1/3 cup dry nonfat milk, 1 cup skim or low-fat buttermilk.

Meat and Meat Substitutes – 1/4 cup canned tuna or salmon, 1 ounce chicken without skin, 1 large egg or 1/4 cup egg substitute, 1 ounce fish, 1 ounce lean beef or pork, 1/4 cup low-fat cottage cheese, One 1-inch cube or 1 ounce low-fat solid cheese, 1/2 cup tofu, 1 ounce turkey without skin.

Fats – 1/8 of a medium avocado, 1 Tbs. regular cream cheese or 2 Tbs. low-fat cream cheese, 1 tsp. regular margarine or 2 tsp. low-fat margarine, 1 tsp. regular mayonnaise or 1 Tbs. low-fat mayonnaise, 6 almond or cashew nuts, 10 peanuts, or 4 pecan halves, 1 tsp. oil, such as safflower, canola, corn, or olive, 2 tsp. peanut butter, 1 Tbs. regular salad dressing or 2 Tbs. low-fat salad dressing.

Using the preceding diabetic food list as a guide, you can create a sample plan to discuss with you dietician or diabetes group. You will find that, once you have become used to the assigned values of foods, you and your family will enjoy a healthier lifestyle.

By: Rebecca Stigall

Balanced Diabetic Diet



Diabetic individuals suffer a condition where the body fails to effectively use or simply ceases to produce insulin to regulate the amount of sugar in the blood. A healthy body automatically regulates glucose level in the blood, adjusting to any type of food consumed. Diabetics, on the other hand, need to balance their food intake with insulin injections, exercise and other glucose altering activity to control blood glucose level while maintaining a desirable weight, and prevent a host of heart-related diseases. To keep blood glucose from rising too high or dipping too low, an event that may lead to diabetic shock, a healthy diet is vital for all diabetics. It is simply a balanced healthy diet, though a common misconception is that the diet consist only diabetic foods.

Research shows that regardless of the makeup of the diet, the most effective dietary strategy to prevent the onset of diabetic is by eating just enough calories to maintain an ideal weight. Recommendations of diabetic diet differ from one person to another, based on lifestyle, nutritional needs, and the timing and action of medications. In any case, adjusting the diet to suit a particular condition requires patients to learn the basics of food nutrition.

The diet for Type 1 diabetes patients focuses mostly on matching required insulin shots with food intake. As such, Type 1 patients need to know how fast their body metabolizes different type of foods and when the insulin peaks. A recommended diet for patients with Type 1 diabetes contains approximately 35 calories per kg of body weight per day, or 16 calories per pound of body weight per day.

Meanwhile, diet for Type 2 diabetes is targeted to improve the body’s ability to utilize produced insulin through weight loss. Patients with Type 2 diabetes generally are put on a 1500-1800 calorie diet per day. This, however, varies depending on a person’s age, sex, activity level, current weight and body style. It takes more calories to maintain a larger body, thus a 1600 calorie diet for more obese individuals may promote weight loss that is too fast to be healthy. In general, men require more calories than women owing to their higher muscle mass; more calories are burned by muscles than fat. Similarly, people with low activity level will have less daily caloric needs.

By: Brenda Williams

Can You Get a Free Diabetic Diet Plan For Diabetes Type 2?



The rate at which individuals in Western Nations are developing Type 2 diabetes is truly staggering. And the number of obese individuals who are showing pre-diabetic symptoms is skyrocketing to epidemic proportions. The problem is, through poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle, your blood sugar runs high, leading to excessive weight gain, and later, issues like Type 2 diabetes.

Science has shown that medications simply do not work to cure diabetes, which is a completely curable and preventable disease. The only way to reduce your symptoms, get rid of the disease, and lose that weight is by diet and lifestyle changes.

Highly trained professional nutritionists are now offer free diabetic diet meal plans that offer completely structured, nutritionally balanced plans designed specifically for the diabetic or pre-diabetic looking to lose weight and control their blood sugar. There are many ways to access a diet plan for diabetes Type 2 and determine what, for you is the best diet for diabetes Type 2.

They are all sound, solid plans, so which one you choose is your choice.

And with these options available freely on the internet, what are you waiting for? Why suffer unnecessarily, or watch a loved one suffer, when there are real ways to cure Type 2 diabetes available, online, for free. These free diabetic diet plans are comprehensive and when followed completely as dictated can result in dramatic weight loss, reduction or eradication of the Type 2 diabetes, and an increase in overall feelings of health and well being.

Do something today, before it is too late and you suffer from some of the many serious side effects diabetes can cause. Find solutions through a free diet plan for diabetes Type 2 and choose from the many options to find the best diet for diabetes Type 2 that works for you. The time for change is now!

By: Sylvia Carpenter

Diabetic Diet Facts



Initially diabetes management and control may involve dietary changes alone. Diet is a vital component in your overall diabetes control program and to keep blood sugar levels under control, a diabetic diet strikes a balance among the carbohydrates, fats, and protein you eat, when you control your body functions through exercise and by using a diabetic diet, your pain and agony seems to diminish.

A diabetic diet must be a well-balanced meal plan tailored to your individual needs, tastes, activity level and life style, and its goal is to provide all the calories and nutrients the diabetic needs while keeping blood sugars as close to normal as possible. Diabetes is not a life sentence to a rigid and restrictive menu plan.

The diabetic diet basically involves limiting your carbohydrate intake in order to control your glucose levels. The recommended carbohydrate content of diabetic diet is 60%, fat content 30-35%. Another important characteristic of a diabetic diet is to eat regularly, at the same times each day, and to eat a consistent amount of calories each day; the diabetic diet is not only for diabetics: it is an excellent, balanced alternative for anyone.

Since the diabetic diet is one which is low in saturated fat and cholesterol, look for cookbooks that emphasize low-fat cooking, the diabetic diet is a bit stricter and calls for avoiding grains and fruit but you have about 30g of carbs daily. The ideal diabetic diet is also good for cholesterol with its emphasis on low fat, high complex carbohydrate and high fiber.

The most important aspect of the diabetic diet is meal planning, your meal plan should be adjusted to take into account carbs sugars and fat in the diabetic food, the general principle is to control body fat means less sensitivity to Insulin, which keeps the blood sugar level in check.

Carbohydrate Counting offers suggestions and tips about how to eat carbohydrates while maintaining your insulin needs and diabetes control, by following a consistent diet control, a diabetic patient ought to be able to maintain good health in general, but you should remember that an effective control of diabetes requires an integrated approach which also includes exercise, weight control and a good diabetic diet.

When you have diabetes, your medications are your best friends, as they will help you keep your condition under control, remember that one of the main goals for a diabetic diet is to lower your weight and maintain it, to put it in simplified words, diabetic diet is a balanced healthy diet plan which is vital for Diabetes treatment.

The diabetic diet is aimed at helping to control blood sugar levels, the less fluctuation, especially rapid release of glucose into the blood, the better, an adherence to a diabetic diet is an important aspect of controlling elevated blood sugar in patients with diabetes mellitus.

By: Arturo Ronzon

Diabetic Diet Carb Counting – The Skill That Could Save Your Life!



With the diabetic diet, carb counting is an essential skill we all develop. Many fitness enthusiasts also count carbs for their own reasons as well. With us diabetics, though, it is a matter of great importance. If you do not know what carb counting is, or you just want to learn how to do it properly, I suggest you read the rest of this article!
The first thing you need to do for counting carbs is to learn how to read labels on food. Just look at the label where it says,”nutrition information” and has all the numbers. You will see there something that says “carbohydrates” with a number next to it. This is the amount of carbs per serving. The serving amount differs from product to product, so it helps especially for newbies to have a food scale.

You also need to pay attention to the amount of fiber on the label. This is important because the fiber count is subtracted from the carb count to arrive at the total carbs per serving. For example, the bread I like has 16 carbs per slice, but each slice contains six grams of fiber. So the total carbs for that slice of bread is only 10 net carbs. Another example is one of my favorite snacks. Wasabi and soy sauce almonds (yum.) Now these little guys have 8 grams of carbs per serving, and the serving size is a little bag. Also the fiber is four grams per serving which makes the net carbs only four grams. You see how this works?

It is easy to count carbs when your food has a label. Things get tricky when you go out to eat. This is where experience and education come into play. Some restaurants have the nutrition information on their websites and you can do some research before you go out. Others do not. If you read up on it, you will get a good idea on the different carb counts in the different foods in restaurants. I have learned some of my own rules of thumb when eating out.

I love eating Mexican food, but carbs are lurking everywhere in this food. My rule is this, Eat some chips and salsa, or eat a couple tacos, but not both. This is because tortillas have at least 15 or so carbs in them each, and chips can add up fast in the carb count. It is ok for one or the other, but for me, both is too much!
In Italian restaurants, eat some spaghetti as a side, but not the main course. Eat half of the garlic bread appetizer, but resist the temptation to eat it all (packed with carbs.)

Those are just a couple of my rules of thumb have kept me out of trouble and allowed me to go out to eat without feeling like I missed out on everything. Counting carbs in the diabetic diet is an acquired skill that every diabetic must master if they are to be successful in meeting their diabetic health goals. I hope this article at least gives you an idea of where to start your carb counting education.

By: Johnny Hofmann

Diabetic Diet Tips – Eating Healthily



Diabetes is currently on the increase but rather than being a debilitating condition, severely restricting the foods you can enjoy, with a sensible approach to prevention and lifestyle it is possible to enjoy life and also the foods you imbibe. Ultimately with more control over the foods you eat it is possible to balance the foods you love with the concerns of diabetes.

Whilst the foods you choose to eat on a diabetic diet are important, there are three factors that affect your eating behaviour, fundamentally:

What you eat is important. Essentially the foods within your diet will affect the way in which your body performs. The general advice is to enjoy plant foods whilst reducing the number of refined carbohydrates and also sugary drinks. As with many diets today, swapping bad fats for their good equivalents is advisable.

When you eat is important. Whilst the foods you eat are important, the times in which you eat will also affect your blood sugar levels. Maintaining regularity with your eating habits is another way to maintaining healthy blood sugars throughout the day.

How much you eat is important. As with many diets the size of your portions is also an important consideration, even if you eat healthy foods too much calorie intake will lead to weight gain which is inadvisable for diabetics.

These three tips to altering the way in which you eat should help with achieving a healthy diabetic diet, but the foods you choose to eat are still an important factor.

Good foods include vegetables, beans, whole grains and lean meat. Essentially foods that are high in fibre that contain complex carbohydrates are worthwhile. In contrast foods that have simple sugars and are high in fat are worth avoiding as these sugars are quickly absorbed by the body meaning increased blood sugars; such foods include sugar cane, fructose corn syrup, concentrated fruit juices and processed foods such as bread or pasta (particularly the white varieties of these foods).

Ultimately a healthy diabetic diet would be healthy for practically anyone. Eating good quality goods that maximise nutrients whilst cutting down on bad fats and sugars is good advice for most people. As a diabetic working with you medical professionals to manage your diet in a sensible way should help to maintain good health generally and also ensure healthy blood sugar levels.

By: Horace Tait

Need an Easy Diabetic Plan to Follow? Diabetic Diet Sheets Are the Way!



When it comes to diabetic dieting, there is some vital information that you must know, as well as some diabetic diet secrets that will help you get the maximum results out of your weight loss goals. We all know that diabetes is an awful disease and its prevalence in Western Nations is reaching almost epidemic proportions.

However, most of us who find ourselves afflicted with this disease submit to modern medicine, which has proven, many times over, that it does not have the ability to cure diabetes, which is a curable disease.

Fact: Diabetic diets are how you cure diabetes, not medicine.

It involves weight loss, healthy lifestyle changes, and begin armed with the information you need to be successful. One of the many diabetes diet secrets is that there are foods that, as a diabetic, or person trying to lose weight, that you should avoid.

Many sites offer free diabetic-diet sheets that list these “no-no” foods so you’ll know right off hand what to avoid. The foods found on the “no-no” list are ones that cause a rapid increase in glucose levels in the blood. These heightened levels are what is responsible for diabetes and weight gain to begin with.

Fact: With a diabetic diet sheet you can quickly see, at a glance, the foods that are safe and recommended and which to avoid.

This will arm you with the knowledge you need to have success in your weight loss endeavors. All of these diet plans and diabetic diet secrets are available for free, online, and are designed by medically trained professionals and take into account all the special needs of a diabetic.

There is a huge variety of different plans to choose from, depending on your tastes and lifestyle so finding an easy diabetic diet plan to follow has never been simpler. With just a few clicks of your mouse you will find, at your fingertips, a wealth of highly helpful information, tips, and menus that will help you make your weight loss goals, and ridding yourself of diabetes once and for all, a reality. With a few minutes of research, you will be able to find a perfectly suitable choice for an easy diabetic diet plan to follow that you can actually live with, and stick with, to make your goals a reality and shake off the chains of diabetes.

There is no reason to let this disease become full blown when 100% free help is available. This disease can 100% reversed so you can live a longer healthier life.

By: Sylvia Carpenter

Is Honey Allowed In Diabetic Diet?



The diabetic diet is strictly controlled in terms of sugar and mineral compounds intake. Hence it’s not surprising that “whether honey is allowed for diabetic patients” is a frequently asked question for Benefits of Honey.

Diabetes is a deficiency of the pancreas, whereby insulin is not produced sufficiently or utilised properly. It’s basically a disorder of metabolism, primarily that of carbohydrates. The ingested sugars and starches cannot be deployed, and hence are eliminated in the urine. Symptoms of diabetes include frequent urination, extreme thirst or hunger, weight loss, fatigue, numbness, and infections. There are 2 types of diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body doesn’t produce any insulin, whereas, people with type 2 diabetes either don’t produce enough insulin or their cells resist the insulin, and they tend to be overweight, because the high insulin levels, unable to channel glucose into muscle cells, convert glucose into fat and cholesterol instead. This results not only in obesity, but also very often heart disease, poor blood circulation in the legs and eye diseases. While type 1 diabetes is treated with insulin injections, which help glucose get into the body cells and maintain blood glucose control, type 2 diabetics commonly use glucose-lowering drugs. Most diabetics are type 2 and are usually in their 40s.

With appropriate control, many diabetics and pre-diabetes (people with blood glucose levels higher than normal person but not high enough to be considered diabetic) are still able to safely enjoy natural honey. Before incorporating honey into their meal planning, find out how much of the sweet liquid can be consumed on a daily basis. Each diabetic is different and should learn how his or her body reacts to different foods containing carbohydrates. Bear in mind that the total amount of starches or carbohydrates in a food is the key consideration, not the amount of sugar. Honey is a carb food as well, just like rice, potatoes, thus just keep in mind that 1 tablespoon of honey has approximately 17 grams of carbohydrate, and taking that into account when counting your total daily intake of carbohydrates, diabetics can work it out just like any other sweetener or carbohydrates. To monitor response to honey, blood sugar levels could be noted before consumption and again two hours later. Also, when purchasing commercial honey for diabetic patients, be sure that it is pure and not adulterated by glucose, starch, cane sugar, and even malt, which is to better to be avoided in a diabetic diet.

You get (99 per cent of the time) a “no-no” answer when you ask doctors if honey is allowed for diabetics. This is not surprising as the idea of eating honey to regulate blood glucose seems rather counter intuitive. But did they ever tell you that clinical studies have shown that pure honey is a healthier choice in diabetic diet than table sugar and any other non-nutritive sweeteners such as Splenda, saccharin, aspartame? Honey requires lower levels of insulin compared to regular white sugar and does not raise blood sugar levels as rapidly as table sugar, that is, it has a lower Glycemic Index than sugar. Though honey contains a significant amount of sugar, it consists largely of two simple individual units of sugar – glucose and fructose, which are absorbed at different rates into the body. In fact, Dr Ron Fessenden reveals in his book, The Honey Revolution that “the more glucose intolerant one is, the lower the blood sugar response after honey ingestion versus the higher the blood sugar response after consuming sucrose or glucose”. The book further explains why honey is able to perform this remarkable regulatory role. The perfect one-to-one ratio of fructose and glucose found in honey facilitates glucose intake to the liver, hence preventing an overload of glucose entering the blood circulation. And nature’s honey is the only sugar that posseses this special ability.

Next, the use of monosaccharide fructose is often recommended to sweeten the diet of diabetics due to its significantly lower GI. The trouble is, fructose is absorbed differently than other sugars. It is not utilized for energy like glucose, but stored in the liver as triglycerides. This presents a great metabolism burden on the liver and can eventually lead to major health issues related to obesity and further health damages for diabetics. Sadly, in their quest to avoid sugar in foods, many diabetics miss the point when they start to plan their diet around “fructose fruit sugar”, “diabetic birthday cake”, “NutraSweet ice-cream”, “sugar-free candies”, etc, which all contain corn syrup or artificial sweetners that can be potentially even more harmful than regular sugar when consumed in the long term.

Article: http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/diabetic-diet.html

By: Ruth Tan