How to Plan Diabetes-Friendly Meals

Diabetes is a chronic disease affecting your body’s ability to use glucose for energy in its cells.

Normally, your body breaks down complex carbohydrates and long-chain sugars into glucose, a simple sugar, which it releases into the bloodstream. Rising levels signal the beta cells in your pancreas to produce and release the hormone insulin, which carries glucose molecules into the cells so they can be converted by the mitochondria into usable energy.

When you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t produce enough insulin, or it becomes unable to respond to it. That leaves the sugar in your bloodstream, which can cause a host of problems, including heart disease, kidney disease, nerve damage, and vision loss.

At Primecare Family Practice in Arlington, Texas, board-certified family practitioners Maryline Ongangi, APRN, FNP-C, and Lewis Nyantika, APRN, FNP-C, understand how uncontrolled diabetes jeopardizes your health, which is why they offer screening services. When you pick up the signs early, the disease can be more easily treated.

If you’re diagnosed with diabetes, there’s a list of foods you need to avoid, and those that can help. Here, the team talks about how to plan diabetes-friendly meals.

Types of diabetes

There are two primary types of diabetes, as well as a precursor stage that can develop into diabetes if it isn’t treated.

1. Type 1 (insulin-dependent)

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition, where your body’s immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys its tissues, believing them to be harmful pathogens. Type 1 diabetes destroys the beta cells in the pancreas, which normally produce insulin. There’s no way to prevent type 1 from developing; if you get it, you’ll need daily shots of insulin to keep your sugar levels in the normal range.

2. Type 2

Type 2 diabetes usually develops from lifestyle factors, such as lack of activity, excess weight, and an unhealthy diet. Because all these are within your control, it’s the most preventable form of the disease. With type 2, your body stops responding to insulin’s instructions, so the sugar remains in your bloodstream at high levels. Some 90-95% of diabetics have type 2.

Because type 2 progresses very slowly, you may not notice symptoms until the condition becomes advanced. That means it’s important to get your blood sugar tested regularly, especially if you have a number of risk factors.

But just as type 2 is caused by lifestyle factors, positive changes in those same factors can prevent or delay the disease’s onset. That means losing weight, eating a well-balanced diet, and staying active.

In addition, more than 1 in 3 American adults — some 96 million people — have prediabetes, a precursor to type 2. A bigger problem is that more than 8 in 10 of those people don’t know they have it. With prediabetes, blood sugar levels become higher than normal, but they’re not yet high enough for a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.

Prediabetes raises your risk for developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. As with type 2, though, positive lifestyle changes can reverse the problem before it becomes entrenched.

How to plan diabetes-friendly meals

Diabetes management is a balancing act. You have to balance what you eat and drink with how much you exercise and any diabetes medicine your doctor prescribes. What, when, and how much you eat are all important to keep your blood glucose level in the range your doctor recommends.

The food groups you have to choose from include:

• Non-starchy vegetables: broccoli, carrots, greens, peppers, and tomatoes
• Starchy vegetables: potatoes, corn, and green peas
• Fruits: oranges, melons, berries, apples, bananas, and grapes
• Grains: at least half for the day should be whole grains, including wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley, and quinoa
• Lean meat: chicken or turkey without the skin, fish, eggs, nuts and legumes, beans, chickpeas, and split peas
• Meat substitutes: tofu
• Nonfat or low fat dairy: milk, yogurt, cheese

Foods and drinks to limit include:

• Fried foods
• Foods high in saturated fat and trans fat
• Foods high in sodium
• Sweets: baked goods, candy, and ice cream
• Beverages with added sugars: juice, regular soda, and regular sports or energy drinks

Controlling portion size is also important to the diabetic diet. With the plate method, you don’t need to count calories. It indicates the amount of each food group you should eat.

Use a 9-inch plate, and divide it into quarters. Put non-starchy vegetables on one-half of the plate, lean meat or other protein on one-quarter of the plate, and a grain or other starch on the last quarter. Don’t go back for seconds.

If you take insulin, counting carbohydrates (measured in grams) can help you know how much insulin to take to keep your glucose levels normal. Carbohydrates are broken down in the body into simple sugars, i.e. glucose.

Want more tips on how to plan diabetes-friendly meals? Call Primecare Family Practice at 817-873-3710 to schedule an evaluation, or book online with us today.