Avoiding Carbs, Eating Non-Starchy Vegetables a Good Recipe for a Healthy Diet for Diabetics

With Christmas approaching, it’s important for diabetics to watch what they eat.  Of course, a proper diet for diabetics should be employed year-round, but the risk of adversely affecting one’s blood sugar is definitely greater around the holidays.

Naturally, the biggest risk diabetics face is to overload their plate with food. This is particularly bad if the food is high in carbohydrates, as this will cause a rise on one’s blood sugar. Specifically, diabetics should eat non-starchy vegetables that can help them keep their blood sugars under control. These types of vegetables include asparagus, broccoli, onions, peppers, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower – pretty much most vegetables you can think of. The American Diabetes Association provides a helpful list of non-starchy vegetables; the main thing to realize here is that these vegetables must not have added sodium, fat, or sugar.

Ultimately, diabetics should work with dieticians on developing a diet for diabetics that also includes effective ways to monitor one’s blood sugar, accurately track carbohydrate intake, and strategies for getting ample exercise.

 

The Ideal Gestational Diabetes Diet

If your doctor has diagnosed you with gestational diabetes, paying attention to your diet is very important during this critical phase in your life. Managing diabetes while pregnant is not easy, and you need to follow a few dietary rules.

While you take your diabetes medication prescribed by a physician, you should also pay attention to the foods you eat. Your goal is to keep a steady glucose level throughout your body. Therefore, stay away from simple carbohydrates like sugar and white flour. Have regular meals with enough carbohydrates to keep your glucose levels stable. Vegetables, fruits, and whole grains are the best foods to eat to get enough healthy carbs.

Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Pure water without any sugar is best for the developing baby and your own body. Coffee that contains caffeine is not good for someone with gestational diabetes. You may want to drink extra milk to get your calcium. If you don’t like milk, leafy green vegetables or supplements will supply you with enough of the vitamin.

If you need sugar in your food, use an artificial sweetener like agave nectar or stevia. These are natural alternatives that shouldn’t raise your glucose levels. Diabetes management while pregnant is something that you cannot brush off, because it can negatively affect your baby and raise your risk for Type 2 diabetes in the future.

Drink Water and Maintain a Healthy Diet

It may have been one of the clear signs that you have diabetes, but drinking lots of water during the day is one of the best things you can do when managing diabetes.

Drinking water throughout the day will help fight fatigue. This is important as it is a natural tendency to fall into a mid-afternoon slump. Having more energy provides more motivation to get up and get out to exercise, which is an essential tool for diabetes management.

Water helps to flush toxins from the body. If you have been consuming copious amounts of fast food, sugary snacks, and not eating the required amount of fiber; drinking water, along with consuming healthier foods, will help remove these toxins from your body. Water also helps your kidneys remove the extra glucose in your blood while preventing dehydration.

Replacing sugary soft drinks with water provides the many benefits of the water while reducing the ill effects from the soft drinks. Drinking plenty of water also helps with your mental state. Because the previously consumed beverages did not actually relieve thirst, the body has been left deprived. Drinking more water helps stabilize mood and reduce anxiety leaving you hydrated and healthy!

A well-balanced diet including plenty of water, exercise, and any required diabetes mellitus and living a long and healthy life!

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