Diabetes and Diet: The Best Foods to Help You Control Your Blood Sugar

Living with a chronic condition can certainly be one of the toughest challenges anyone can face. It may bring you down at times and push you to think you will never be able to lead a comfortable life.

During such moments, it is essential to remind yourself that you are going to be okay no matter how difficult it can get. As human beings, it comes naturally to us to find ways to adapt. The same thing applies to you on this journey with diabetes and diet.

Diabetes Diet: Developing a Healthy-Eating Plan

One of the first steps to take on your attempt to create the comfort you have been seeking for long is setting a healthy meal plan.

Your doctor or dietitian probably already recommended a list of foods you can or cannot eat when you were diagnosed with diabetes.

Many things can go wrong when you do not respect your diabetes diet. We are not saying this to scare you, but rather to raise your awareness regarding this chronic condition. 

For instance, if you are not paying close attention to the foods you are including in your daily meals, it may lead you to gain weight due to the extra calories you are consuming. Consequently, your blood glucose will rise, leading to more serious problems such as hyperglycemia, and can go beyond that to causing kidney and heart damage.

Therefore, the importance of developing a diabetes diet is unquestionable. It will allow you to keep your blood sugar under control and lower your risks of heart disease by maintaining a healthy level of blood pressure and blood fats.

Of course, the role of a diabetes diet is not only limited to blood sugar control. When your diet respects the norms, has high nutritional value and is organized, it will also help you lose weight, along with plenty of other health benefits.

Usually, a diabetes diet focuses on the three main meals of the day and puts additional emphasis on the timing of each one. It is highly recommended by doctors that you keep the same schedule of your meals each day to take advantage of your medication and insulin production.

Diabetes Diet: What Foods to Include?

While an expert dietitian is the best person you can ask this question to get precise answers that comply with your lifestyle, overall health conditions, and eating habits, we saw no harm in establishing a list of foods health experts generally recommend in diabetes diets. The list commonly involves foods that contain four main nutrients:

- Carbohydrates: You can get these from fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and some dairy products like milk and cheese.

- Fibers: Fibers are essential to your blood sugar control and can easily be found in the foods we mentioned above too.

- Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Salmon, sardines, and tuna are the perfect source of omega-3 fatty acids, largely contributing to preventing heart diseases.

- Healthy Fats: the right amount and type of fats can reduce your cholesterol levels. These can be avocados and nuts, for example.

A Final Word

It is needless to say that you should not solely rely on this article or the internet to get the information you need, but instead consult your dietitian and make the information we provide complementary to what you already know.

Other than that, we can’t stress enough on the importance of staying physically active, even when your diabetes diet is all set and applied. Physical activity will enable you to sustain low blood sugar levels, as well as blood pressure. All while making the weight loss process faster, taking you closer to your health goals with each workout you perform, as declared by the U.S National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Physical activity does not necessarily have to include a personal trainer. It can simply be getting into the habit of going for morning or evening walks, taking the stairs, and remember to keep a bottle of water with you wherever you go or do. Staying hydrated is key to a healthier body.

In all cases, you should always ask your dietitian and doctor updated on any changes you are planning to make to ensure safety.