I don’t think it is a coincidence that two of the biggest health challenges facing us today are obesity and type 2 diabetes. These two problems seem to go hand in hand which means if you make progress on your overweight problem you may also be able to have more success controlling your diabetes. Trying to fight or manage your diabetes without dealing with your diet is really a fools errand in my opinion. You can do it by injecting insulin more and more regularly but eventually this loses its effectiveness.
I used to work with a guy who thought that all he had to was give himself a shot of insulin and then he could eat whatever he wanted. One day, I saw him eat a whole bowl of macaroni and cheese. I knew that processed macaroni was a refined carb that would cause his blood sugar to spike to I asked him about it. He said, “watch this,” and he gave himself a shot in the belly. That was his answer. I seemed to me that he would have been much better off to eat a lunch that wouldn’t cause his glucose levels to skyrocket and, instead, would be digested over a longer a time frame so he didn’t need an extra shot. Maybe his doctor had never told my friend about this.
People suffering from type 2 diabetes should understand what a low carb diet is so they can manage their diabetes more effectively instead of just continually shooting themselves up with insulin. Of course, it would only be wise to add to their low carb diabetic diet plan a regular exercise plan in order to improve their chances of attaining optimum health. This has also been proven to help balance out sugar levels and thus allow your body to work well more naturally.
Diabetes is a condition wherein a person fails to use sugar in his body effectively, and so glucose (blood sugar) accumulates in his blood. As a result, you are likely to suffer from many of the complications that we often associate with diabetes. It is only reasonable to assume that cutting down carbohydrate in one’s diet will help those who have problems digesting it. Indeed, many diabetics who tried following a low carb diabetic diet were able to stabilize their blood glucose levels.
In general, there are two kinds of carbs—refined and unrefined. Simply put, refined carbs, such as white flour, white breads and pastas, are refined sugars. This means that once eaten, these carbs quickly become glucose in our system. Unrefined carbs are those that are usually found in beans, fruits, whole grains, and any vegetables. These foods are rich in fiber, which is responsible for slowing down the absorption of carbs in our body as well as the process by which carbs are turned into glucose. People who eat too many carbs, especially refined carbs, usually have more glucose than what their body needs. This means trouble because the extra glucose becomes fat.
You’re in for more trouble if you’re diabetic. Eating too many quickly absorbed carbs can harm your blood sugar level, causing your body to have more glucose than what it actually needs. The extra glucose will eventually become fat causing your blood sugar to drop subsequently. As your blood sugar starts to go down, you will feel hungry again. And if you’re like most Americans who take in plenty of refined carbs like pretzels and soft drinks, you’ll most likely overeat and overindulge because what you eat never really satifies your hunger and what you do is only feed your body a short-term relief.
A diabetic low carb diet has been proven to provide a lot of health benefits particularly for Type 2 diabetics. Benefits include reduction of blood glucose, weight loss, and a significant decrease in triglycerides. In fact, a low carb diet can achieve three of the four goals of dietary recommendations for diabetes. These are to have a normal, or close to normal blood glucose, blood lipids, and blood pressure, prevent complications linked to diabetes, and attend to individual nutritional needs based on motivation and cultural inclinations.
Diabetic low carb diet plan
Below is a Glycemic Index Table showing some foods and their respective GI rankings. Low GI foods are the foods highly recommended for diabetics. These foods are processed by our body more slowly than other foods making us feel full longer and take in fewer calories without getting hungry. Note that if you include a low GI food in your meal, that can lower the glycemic index of the whole meal. Moderate GI foods are those that you can eat sparingly. High GI foods are those that should be avoided.
| Food Category | Low GI Foods | Moderate GI Foods | High GI Foods |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakfast Cereal | All Bran, oat bran, Rolled Oats, Natural Muesli, Porridge | Bran Buds, Mini wheats, nutrigrain, shredded wheat, porridge oats, special K | Cornflakes, sultana bran, branflakes, coco pops, puffed wheat, oats in honey bake, team, total, cheerios, rice krispies, Weetabix |
| Staples | Wheat pasta shapes, new potatoes, meat ravioli, spaghetti torellini (cheese), egg fettuccini, brown rice, buckwheat, white long grain rice, pearled barley, yam, sweet potatoes, instant noodles, wheat tortilla | Basmati rice, couscous, cornmeal, taco shells,, gnocchi, canned potatoes, chinese (rice) Vermicelli, baked potatoes, wild rice | Instant white rice, glutinous rice, short grain white rice, tapioca, fresh mashed potatoes, French fries, instant mashed potatoes |
| Dairy | Whole milk, skimmed milk, chocolate milk, sweetened yoghurt, artificially sweetened yoghurt, custard, soy milk | Ice cream | |
| Bread | soya and linseed, wholegrain pumpernickel, heavy mixed grain, whole wheat, sourdough rye, sourdough wheat | Croissant, hamburger bun, pita, white wholemeal rye | White, bagel, French baguette |
| Snacks and Sweet foods | slim-fast meal replacement, snickers bar (high fat), nut and seed muesli bar, sponge cake, nutella, milk chonocolate, hummus, peanuts, walnuts, cashew nuts, nuts and raising, jam, corn chips, oatmeal crackers | Ryvita, digestives, blueberry muffin, honey | Pretzels, water crackers, rice cakes, puffed crispbread, donuts, scones, maple flavoured syrup |
| Legumes | Kidney beans (canned), butter beans, chick peas, haricot/navy beans, red lentils, green lentils, pinto beans, blackeyed beans, yellow split peas | Beans in tomato sause | |
| Vegetables | Frozen green peas, frozen sweet corn, raw carrots, boiled carrots, eggplant/aubergine, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, mushrroms, tomatoes, chillies, lettuce, green beans, red peppers, onions | Beetroot | Pumpkin, parsnips |
| Fruits | Cherries, plums, grapefruit, peaches, peach (canned in natural juice), apples, pears, dried apricots, grapes, kiwi fruit, oranges, strawberries, prunes | Mango, sultanas, bananas, raisins, papaya, figs, pineapple | Watermelon, dates |
Foods that contain very low carbohydrates are not included in this table because their GI level cannot be measured. In fact, these are considered to have a zero glycemic index. However, this by no way means that these should not be included in your diet, it is beneficial to make fish and meat and other foods that are high in protein part of your diet plan, but make sure that you keep your fat intake to a minimum.