High Sodium Warning: Read Your Canned Vegatables Label

More people living with diabetes are taking control of the foods they eat and the meals they prepare. With more information being made available, they are finding that foods for diabetics aren’t necessarily bland tasting, hard to find foods.

A trap many do fall into, however, is their choice of vegetables. While some prefer to think that all vegetables are created equal, they are not. Manufacturers have taken some of the best vegetables and have turned them into high sodium foods with little to no nutritional value.

If you buy canned vegetables, read the label. Many are prepared with a lot of added sodium. Since diabetes already puts a person in a higher risk group for high blood pressure and heart disease, eating foods with a high sodium content can be harmful. Instead, choose fresh vegetables, if you don’t like them raw, you can lightly steam, roast or grill them. Add a dash of low sodium seasoning to keep them low in sodium and high on nutrition and taste. Frozen vegetables are a great alternative but just like canned vegetables, read the labels and avoid unhealthy choices.

Finding the Right Foods to Fit Your Diabetic Diet

When diagnosed with type 2 Diabetes, patients may be under the assumption that all carbohydrates must be avoided and they will have to adhere to a difficult diet. While a diet high in sugars, fats, and carbohydrates contributes to dangerous weight gain, managing diabetes does not mean a person has to face a life of boring, tasteless food. A diet for diabetics includes learning about new foods, healthier varieties of old favorites, and a new approach to life.

A diet for diabetics means choosing high-fiber foods and the right types of carbohydrates. If you like rice and pasta, it’s an easy switch from regular to whole wheat. Because this is something that everyone should incorporate into their diets, it can be a switch the whole family can make. If you have a weakness for potatoes, a switch from white to sweet potatoes is a healthier options. Mashed sweet potatoes are tasty, easy to prepare, and very healthy! There are even sweet potato fries that are a much healthier alternative.

If you and your children are still eating sugary cereal, you need to spend a little more time in the cereal aisle. There are so many great cereals available now that are rich in vitamins, minerals, and have a high fiber content. If you have to have a muffin in the morning, choose the healthier bran muffin. In place of oil in most recipes, you can add applesauce, pumpkin, squash, or a banana for a great, healthier choice. These are not your grandma’s bran muffins.

Carbohydrates with a low glycemic index help keep blood sugar levels even because they are digested more slowly. Your body will not have to over produce insulin and, because these foods have more fiber, they will keep your hunger satisfied for longer periods of time. Incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your meals, drinking plenty of water, and exercising helps to manage diabetes.

Stemming the Tide of the Diabetes Epidemic

It is a certifiable medical fact that type 2 Diabetes can be avoided or at least delayed through diet, exercise, proper medical treatment.  Yet the United States is nonetheless facing a diabetes epidemic of staggering proportions; 26 million Americans have the disease, and that number has doubled since 1980.

And therein lies the profound challenge facing the medical and diabetic community: how, despite all the education and diabetes management strategies available, is the condition only worsening.

Industry experts have some theories as to why this is.  Some argue that despite breakthroughs in diabetes management care, these strategies have not been practically translated into everyday activities that patients can partake in.

Then there’s the theory that the level of diabetes education is not, after all, as pervasive and useful as previously thought.  Advocates need to do a better job at promoting the importance of diet and education, and that starts at the grade school level.

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