Test your blood sugar before and after a meal to see if your food intake is helping to keep your values within target range. Keeping your blood sugar levels in a healthy range can not only help prevent serious diabetes complications, it can also help you feel better and empowered to manage your diabetes better. Use Test Results To Keep Blood Sugars In Range Make a chart like this to tabulate your blood sugar values Dr Kavita adds, “the quantity and quality of meals affects your blood glucose values hence a self monitoring of blood (SMBG) chart is important to ascertain and act as per the values”. Testing your blood sugar levels with the glucometer before and after your meals helps you see the immediate effect of your food choices and portions on your blood sugars, which can then help take the right steps to manage high or low blood sugar levels. It's affected by food, activity, and medication. Your blood sugar level changes throughout the day. How Testing Your Blood Sugar Around Meals Helps? For example, consuming an egg or a moong dal cheela with paneer or an omelette, legumes or a bowl of salad shall blunt the post prandial spike.” Including the right amount of protein, fibre & fat also blunts the spike in the blood glucose levels. These should be replaced with more complex carbs and more fibre. Discuss with your dietician or diabetes educator the right amount of carbs for you to keep a track of the amount eaten and set a limit.Īccording to Dr Kavita, “India is carbo-rich country where the emphasis is more on simple carbs and sweets, fat and processed bakery items. Indian diets tend to be carb-rich hence sugar levels tend to be higher post meals. Carbs are the starches and sugar content in food that raise the blood sugar levels faster than other foods. People with diabetes should know the carbohydrate content in various foods to make the right choices. Choose low-fat dairy products to reduce fat and cholesterol content
If you are non-vegetarian include fish 2-3 times a week and choose skinless chicken Include dried beans and lentils as sources of proteins Eat nuts in moderation like almonds and walnuts Have tea coffee without sugar or stick to green tea Avoid sugary drinks, have vegetable juice or unsweetened fresh fruit juice over sweet fruit juices Avoid trans fats found in bakery products Choose monounsaturated fats like olive, canola, and peanut oil instead of oils like corn, sesame, safflower Eat more dark green and yellow vegetables like cabbage, peas etc Choose fresh over frozen, canned fruits Switch to multigrain flours like ragi, bajra, jowar, wheat Include brown rice instead of white polished rice Here are some general food modifications diabetics should make and make the right food choices: A diabetic must include all food categories required for healthy living. Unlike a one-size-fits all diet, diabetic diets are highly individualised and must be planned keeping in mind the main principle, which is to support a healthy weight and target blood sugar levels. People with Diabetes should consume food with a low glycemic index and low glycemic load”, she emphasises. Eating high GI foods can cause spikes in blood glucose levels & can lead to an increased risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity & may offer anti-inflammatory benefits. “High GI foods are rated between 100-70 Medium GI foods are rated between 56-69 and Low GI Foods are rated below 55. High glycemic index, foods like white bread, rice, potatoes are rapidly digested and can fluctuate blood sugars while foods with a low glycemic index, like whole oats, lentils, soybean are digested slowly & there is a gradual rise in blood glucose levels”. The glycemic index ranks carbohydrates on a scale from 0 to 100 based on how quickly they will raise the blood glucose levels after consuming that food. Diet plays an important role in managing diabetesĭr Kavita Gupta, Director and Nutritionist at Sunil's Diabetes Research and Care Centre, says “choose foods which are low in glycemic Index.