Healthy Diet Guide for Diabetics

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The word "healthy eating" is always daunting. Many people think, "Oh no, I can't eat the foods I like anymore!"
There is no need to panic. People with diabetes can still enjoy delicious food. They may just need to limit portion sizes, change cooking methods, or change the time of day they eat.
To assist with meal planning, the American Diabetes Association divides carbohydrates into four main categories:
■Starches—Starches are polysaccharides found in bread, cereals, rice, pasta, beans, and some vegetables, such as corn, potatoes, and squash.
■Fruits - Every fruit contains monosaccharides, including the familiar apples, bananas, oranges, kumquats, persimmons and prickly pears.
■Dairy products—Milk and dairy products contain monosaccharides.
■ Vegetables – These include non-starchy vegetables such as lettuce, asparagus and courgettes.
Daily caloriesHalf of the total calorie intake should come from carbohydrates. Based on individual energy needs, this should include: 6 or more servings of starches, 2–4 servings of fruit, 2–3 servings of dairy, and 3–5 servings of vegetables.
Carbohydrate Combinations
The best way is to eat a mixture of monosaccharides and polysaccharides. The benefit of eating polysaccharides is that it prolongs the time it takes for the body to break them down into monosaccharides, thereby increasing the speed at which sugar enters the blood. When eating foods containing monosaccharides, sugar can quickly enter the blood.

You should also include fiber-rich foods in your carbohydrate diet. The more fiber a food contains, the slower it digests and the less it raises your blood sugar levels. Recent studies have highlighted the benefits of fiber, showing that high-fiber foods can lower blood sugar levels and blood cholesterol in people with type 2 diabetes.
However, the most important thing about consuming carbohydrates is not the type, but the amount. If the patient consumes more carbohydrates than usual, the insulin in the body may not be enough to transport all the sugars into the cells, resulting in an increase in blood sugar levels. Another way to control blood sugar is to divide the same amount of carbohydrates into multiple portions and eat them at intervals throughout the day.
Amount of sugar
For decades, people with diabetes have been told to avoid sugar. To this day, for many people with diabetes, this is the first misconception that comes to mind after learning they have diabetes, and then they give up eating sweets forever. But this is no longer the case, and here’s why:
For years, medical experts believed that honey, candy, and other sweet foods raised blood sugar levels faster and higher than fruits, vegetables, and foods high in sugars. As a result, people with diabetes were told to avoid sugar. But many studies have shown that this is not true. All carbohydrates affect blood sugar levels in the same way. As long as sweet foods are included in meals and the calories they contain are calculated, they will not cause blood sugar levels to rise too quickly.

However, it is best to consume sugar in moderation. Eating large amounts of sugar will still have a significant impact on blood sugar levels. Sweet foods such as candy, biscuits, and soda have very low nutritional value, and the consumer simply gets extra calories without any nutrition, and extra calories often lead to weight gain.
After eating sweets, you can test your blood sugar to understand the different effects of different sweets. The alternative to sweets is sugar-free foods that use sugar substitutes. But remember that sugar-free foods still contain a lot of carbohydrates and calories.
Protein: Power
The body uses protein for growth, maintenance, and as a source of energy. Protein-rich foods include meat, chicken, duck, goose, eggs, cheese, fish, legumes, and peanut butter. If you eat more protein than your body needs (which most people do), your body will store the extra calories from the protein as fat.
For most people, a healthy diet should have 10-20% of the calories needed in a day come from protein, which is approximately equal to 2-3 servings of protein. When planning your diet, try to choose low-fat protein sources, such as plant products, fish, skinless chicken, duck, goose, lean meat, and low-fat or skim cheese. And limit or avoid eating fatty meat, eggs, and high-fat cheese.

Fat: The Caloric Heavyweight
Fat is the most concentrated source of food energy, providing a lot of calories but with little nutritional value. Fat is found in meat, chicken, duck, goose, fish, cheese, butter, margarine, oil, salad, whole milk, desserts and snacks. The body needs some fat, but once too much fat is consumed, problems will occur.

Not all fats are created equal. Fats can come in various forms: saturated, polyunsaturated, monosaturated, or a mixture of all three. Polyunsaturated and monosaturated fats, found in seafood, olive oil, canola oil, nuts, and avocados, are healthier than saturated fats. Saturated fats are found in meats, cream, and butter. However, no matter what type of fat you eat, they are very high in calories.
All people, including diabetics, should limit their fat intake to less than 30% of total calories, and saturated fat should be less than 10%. Saturated fat raises blood cholesterol, which is the main cause of heart disease.