Today diabetes has become one of the most common health problems. We often read, hear and talk about what all diabetics should not be eating so as not to worsen their blood sugar levels. Actually, diabetes is a medical condition in which either the body is not making insulin or is making it in insufficient quantity or is not able to use the insulin which it produces.
This results in a rise of sugar levels in blood. So to prevent this from happening, diabetics are advised to minimize their intake of sweets and switch to simple food.
Easier said than done, only those who are going through it know and understand the pain of not being able to eat almost everything that they love and is delicious. Why? Because it will further aggravate your already high diabetes. But not anymore! Here I have brought some intelligent eating tips for you so that you can eat almost everything that you desire for. All you have to do is to do some modulations here and there and be wise while picking what you consume. Trust me its going to be great for you .. and your blood sugar levels as well. Now you will not have to starve your belly and taste buds of the mouth watering delicacies including sweets. Neither would you be required to switch to a boiled food diet that doesn’t taste good to most of us. All you need to do is to make slight lifestyle changes. So understand and follow what is going to come ahead!
- Never ever skip your breakfast – If you are a diabetic, then skipping your breakfast could perhaps be the worst thing you could do. Have a breakfast during early hours of the day, like within two hours of your waking up. It will keep your body energized for the rest of the day and help keeping
- Eat frequently – Yes! I am telling you to eat frequently. But make sure that portions are not too big. So divide your meals into smaller portions and reduce the between-the-meal gap. So instead of gulping it all down at once, keep something for two hours later and enjoy it well. So you can probably eat 6 times in a day keeping your calorie count same by dividing the same quantity of food into smaller portions. Your body will be better able to manage blood sugar levels in this way.
- Eat in the right quantity – Most people stop eating all the good food as soon as they discover that they have diabetes. But that’s not required. You don’t need to starve but you don’t have to overeat too. Be wise while you pick the quantity of your food. Cut your portion size by about 10-15% initially. Eat grilled or baked food instead of fried food. This alone can help control your blood sugar levels to a great extent. Plus it will help you shed some extra pounds as well!
- Set a limit – Set a limit on the foods that you will be eating from now onwards. This especially holds true for sweets, oily and other heavy foods. Also you need to decide on the limit of quantity of each meal you’ll be having from now onwards. Make plans and stick to them. This will help you a lot in avoiding over eating, unnecessary eating and unhealthy eating.
- Eat plenty of vegetables – Whole grains, fruits and vegetables are healthy food choices for diabetics but the best and healthiest among these are vegetables. They are free of even natural sugars as well as carbs which are present in fruits and whole grains. So include a lot of vegetables in your meals.
- Learn to resist cravings – Though you can surely eat some sweets and your favorite foods, but that has to be limited, like I just said above. One way is to learn to resist temptations to eating foods that could worsen your blood sugar levels. Resisting temptations is a cyclical process. If you satisfy your cravings once by eating unhealthy, they will further go on increasing. While if you resist a few times, they will no longer bother you. One way to curb your cravings is not to keep anything tempting in your kitchen at all!
- Restrict the quantity of carbohydrates – Carbohydrates are the main culprits to increasing sugar levels in blood. Its important to confine the quantity of intake of carbs. So while you might be going for sugar-free foods, they might not be carbohydrate-free and hence not actually free of sugars.
- Avoid eating out – In every circumstance, its best to avoid eating at restaurants. Its bad both for your weight as well as sugar levels. Cooking would surely involve a lot of effort but ultimately, it will keep you healthy and hence worth all the hard work.
- Choose healthier alternatives – Just do a little research and learn to choose wiser food alternatives. For instance, you could go for a granola bar instead of a chocolate bar, sweet potato instead of potato, multi-grain breads instead of white bread and so on.
- Quit smoking and drinking – Both smoking and drinking are addictions, quitting which can be difficult but nothing is impossible if your intentions are firm. Smoking and drinking worsen not only diabetes, but also heart problems, blood pressure, liver and kidney related ailments. If you are not suffering from any one or more of these at the moment, then they might put you at their risk.
