The food you eat not only helps you manage your diabetes, but also impacts on how well you feel, and how much energy you have.
Embracing a healthy-eating plan is the best way to keep your blood glucose levels in range and reduce the likelihood of diabetes complications. And it’s also something you have complete control over!
One way of understanding the impact your food choices have on your blood glucose levels is to keep a daily food log. In days gone by, this would have involved the hassle of old-fashioned pen and paper, or opening a diet app and logging your foods, but at Dario, we’ve made it simple for you. Everything you need to log and track your food choices and glucose levels are in your Dario app. And the information you get from your daily food log not only gives you important information, but also gives your healthcare team valuable insights into how you are progressing.
Let’s take a quick look at how food affects your diabetes, and how you can manage yourself.
Understanding how food affects blood glucose is the first step in managing your diabetes. The food you eat is often responsible for an out of range blood glucose reading and is perhaps one of the easiest things for you to adjust. You can learn a lot about the why behind the blood glucose reading by looking at your carbohydrate/food intake, when you ate, and how much you ate at a given meal.
What is a “diabetes diet”? Simply, a diabetes diet means eating the healthiest foods in moderate amounts and sticking to regular mealtimes. Key elements are fruits, vegetables and whole grains. In fact, a diet recommended in diabetes is the best eating plan for most everyone and it’s something you can encourage your family to join in with you. Foods with low sugar or carbohydrate will impact blood sugars the least 1. If we break down the main culprits of foods causing blood glucose spikes2 they most certainly are the “whites”: white bread, white pasta, white rice and potatoes (especially mashed processed potatoes). This is because these foods are quickly converted into glucose – having basically a similar effect in the body to consuming actual sugar! Switching to 100 percent whole grain products is a great way to keep blood glucose balanced. This is because whole grain foods contain the bran and germ portion of the wheat kernel which has more nutrients and healthy fiber.
There is also some evidence that specific dietary components impact diabetes risk. Higher intakes of nuts, berries, yogurt, coffee, and tea are associated with reduced diabetes risk, while red meats and sugar-sweetened beverages are associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.3
Let’s dig a little deeper
Healthy carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are important for health, but they are also foods that have the biggest effect on your blood glucose levels. After you eat high-carb foods, your blood glucose rises. Sweet foods and drinks, starchy foods (such as bread, potatoes and rice), and milk products contain a high level of carbohydrates.
Better choices are less processed foods with more fiber and nutrients. Good options are 100% whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, brown rice, and non-starchy vegetables like mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes and cauliflower.
Protein
Protein is needed to maintain health and vital functions. The body uses protein to build, repair, and maintain most of your body’s tissues and organs. Protein has a minimal effect on blood glucose, and if your kidneys are healthy, about 15 to 20 percent of your daily calories should come from protein3.
The USDA Dietary Guidelines recommends 5 1/2 ounces of protein-rich food each day. Foods that are high in protein include meat, fish, seafood, chicken, eggs, dairy products, legumes, nuts, and seeds4.
Fats
A healthy, balanced diet is low in fat. Fat is very high in calories compared to protein and carbohydrate and eating too much fat can lead to weight gain which can affect your diabetes management and overall health. Having said that, fat is still an important part of a healthy diet if you eat healthy fats like avocados, olive oil, olives, nuts and seeds. Healthy fats are also found in certain fish such as salmon.
These are the three basic types of foods and how they can impact blood glucose levels. Balance is important and, of course, portion size. By keeping a detailed food log, you and your care team can effectively evaluate your blood glucose based on what you eat.
- http://clinical.diabetes journals.org/content/ 29/4/161
- http://www.glycemicindex.com
- http://care.diabetes journals.org/content/42/ Supplement_1/S29.full-text.pdf
- https://health.gov/dietaryguide lines/2015/resources/2015-2020_dietary_guidelines.pdf
Units of measurement, which are shown in some of the photos and videos, represent US standard units
DAR-0118 RevA 08/2019