Managing Diabetes Complications With Diet

If you have diabetes, you need to manage levels of high blood glucose – or sugar – in your blood. The right diet can have a huge impact on those levels and maintaining that diet is an important part of managing your disease.

You may not be able to control the disease, but you can manage it with a diet for diabetics, which can prevent many of the complications of the disease.

You can create a customized diet plan just for you with the help of a registered dietician. This diet will take into account many factors, including any medications you’re currently taking, your usual lifestyle, weight and any other health issues.

But a good place to start when managing diabetes or even before you’re diagnosed is:

• Limit foods high in sugar
• Eat smaller portions, spread throughout the day
• Be careful of the quantity of carbohydrates you eat and spread out your consumption
• Eat a variety of whole-grain foods, fruits and vegetables every day
• Limit use of alcohol
• Eat less fat
• Use less salt

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has an interactive diabetes meal planning tutorial that can be found in English or Spanish at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/diabetesmealplanning/htm/index.htm or http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spanish/tutorials/diabetesmealplanningspanish/htm/index.htm.

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