To manage your blood glucose, you need to balance what you eat and drink with physical activity and diabetes medicine, if you take any. What you choose to eat, how much you eat, and when you eat are all important in keeping your blood glucose level in the range that your health care team recommends.
Becoming more active and making changes in what you eat and drink can seem challenging at first. You may find it easier to start with small changes and get help from your family, friends, and health care team. You may worry that having diabetes means going without foods you enjoy. The good news is that you can still eat your favorite foods, but you might need to eat smaller portions or enjoy them less often.
Your health care team will help create a diabetes meal plan for you that meets your needs and likes. The key to eating with diabetes is to eat a variety of healthy foods from all food groups, in the amounts your meal plan outlines. Learn more about the food groups at the U. Drink water instead of sweetened beverages.
Consider using a sugar substitute in your coffee or tea. If you use insulin or diabetes medicines that increase the amount of insulin your body makes, alcohol can make your blood glucose level drop too low.
Some people with diabetes need to eat at about the same time each day. Others can be more flexible with the timing of their meals. Depending on your diabetes medicines or type of insulin, you may need to eat the same amount of carbohydrates at the same time each day. If you use certain diabetes medicines or insulin and you skip or delay a meal, your blood glucose level can drop too low. Ask your health care team when you should eat and whether you should eat before and after physical activity.
Eating the right amount of food will also help you manage your blood glucose level and your weight. Your health care team can help you figure out how much food and how many calories you should eat each day. If you are overweight or have obesity , work with your health care team to create a weight-loss plan. The Body Weight Planner can help you tailor your calorie and physical activity plans to reach and maintain your goal weight.
To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories and replace less healthy foods with foods lower in calories, fat, and sugar. If you have diabetes, are overweight or obese, and are planning to have a baby, you should try to lose any excess weight before you become pregnant.
Learn more about planning for pregnancy if you have diabetes. Two common ways to help you plan how much to eat if you have diabetes are the plate method and carbohydrate counting, also called carb counting. The plate method helps you control your portion sizes. The plate method shows the amount of each food group you should eat.
This method works best for lunch and dinner. Use a 9-inch plate. Put nonstarchy vegetables on half of the plate; a meat or other protein on one-fourth of the plate; and a grain or other starch on the last one-fourth. Starches include starchy vegetables such as corn and peas. You also may eat a small bowl of fruit or a piece of fruit, and drink a small glass of milk as included in your meal plan. Carbohydrate counting involves keeping track of the amount of carbohydrates you eat and drink each day.
Because carbohydrates turn into glucose in your body, they affect your blood glucose level more than other foods do. Carb counting can help you manage your blood glucose level. They can also reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. In addition, a diet high in these fats, such as the Mediterranean diet, may have a positive effect on how the body metabolizes glucose. This exists in many healthy oils, nuts, and fruits, including :. This also exists in some oils and nuts, as well as in other foods.
Two types of polyunsaturated fat, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, are especially healthy. Food sources include:. It is also important for people with diabetes or a risk of it to keep track of what they drink. Many soft drinks and juices contain carbohydrates and added sugars. A person with diabetes can safely consume unsweetened teas, coffees, and zero-calorie drinks, as well as plain water, of course. To give the water some flavor, try throwing in some whole fruit pieces. Alcoholic drinks can also contain sugar and carbs.
People should limit their consumption of alcoholic beverages, especially:. Anyone who does drink alcohol should do so moderately. This means having no more than a 5-ounce oz glass of wine, a oz glass of beer, or 1. Another reason that heavy drinking is harmful is that combining it with diabetes medications may lead to low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia. The symptoms of this are similar to intoxication and may be difficult to recognize. The key to healthful eating is to choose appropriate, healthy foods from each food group.
It is important to focus on the macronutrients recommended above and to avoid highly processed foods that are high in sugar, salt, and fat. A diabetes educator or registered dietitian can help develop a healthy eating plan that works for each individual. They can recommend what to eat, how much to eat, and when to have meals and snacks. Read this article in Spanish. Diabetes is an ongoing condition in which the body either produces too little insulin or does not use insulin effectively.
Management includes…. Excessive sugar consumption has links to a variety of health conditions. Find out about how it may increase the risk of diabetes.
Different types of…. People with diabetes benefit from strategically balancing their diets. In this article, we describe some of the best foods to eat and which types to….
Foods and drinks to avoid with diabetes. Carbohydrates Protein Fats Drinks Takeaway Having diabetes does not mean that a person has to stop eating what they enjoy. Drinks, including alcohol. Exposure to air pollutants may amplify risk for depression in healthy individuals.
High cholesterol is a concern, too, since the damage is often worse and more rapid when you have diabetes. When these conditions team up, they can lead to a heart attack, stroke or other life-threatening conditions. Eating a healthy, reduced-fat diet and exercising regularly can go a long way toward controlling high blood pressure and cholesterol. Your doctor may also recommend taking prescription medication, if necessary. Schedule two to four diabetes checkups a year, in addition to your yearly physical and routine eye exams.
During the physical, your doctor will ask about your nutrition and activity level and look for any diabetes-related complications — including signs of kidney damage, nerve damage and heart disease — as well as screen for other medical problems.
Diabetes makes it more likely you'll get certain illnesses. Routine vaccines can help prevent them. Ask your doctor about:. Diabetes may leave you prone to gum infections. Brush your teeth at least twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste, floss your teeth once a day and schedule dental exams at least twice a year.
Call your dentist if your gums bleed or look red or swollen. High blood sugar can reduce blood flow and damage the nerves in your feet. Left untreated, cuts and blisters can lead to serious infections. Diabetes can lead to pain, tingling or loss of sensation in your feet.
If you have diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking or high blood pressure, your doctor may recommend taking a low dose of aspirin every day to help reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke. If you don't have additional cardiovascular risk factors, the risk of bleeding from aspirin use likely outweighs any benefits of aspirin use. Ask your doctor whether daily aspirin therapy is appropriate for you, including which strength of aspirin would be best. Alcohol can cause high or low blood sugar, depending on how much you drink and whether you eat at the same time.
If you choose to drink, do so only in moderation, which means no more than one drink a day for women of all ages and men older than 65 and two drinks a day for men age 65 and younger. Always drink with a meal or snack, and remember to include the calories from any alcohol you drink in your daily calorie count. Also, be aware that alcohol can lead to low blood sugar later, especially for people who use insulin.
If you're stressed, it's easy to neglect your usual diabetes care routine. To manage your stress, set limits. Prioritize your tasks. Learn relaxation techniques. Get plenty of sleep. And above all, stay positive. Diabetes care is within your control. If you're willing to do your part, diabetes won't stand in the way of an active, healthy life.
There is a problem with information submitted for this request. Sign up for free, and stay up-to-date on research advancements, health tips and current health topics, like COVID, plus expert advice on managing your health. Error Email field is required. Error Include a valid email address. It's the combination of being high in heart-taxing sodium and refined, simple carbs that can easily spike your blood sugar. And the reason isn't only because they taste awful. Researchers from the University of Calgary found that consuming caffeinated energy drinks with milligrams of caffeine can cause blood glucose and insulin levels to spike by upwards of 30 percent and may lead to subsequent problems bringing blood sugar levels down to normal.
According to one of the researchers behind the study, the caffeine is at fault for your body's inability to subsequently stabilize blood sugar as the stimulant persists in your system for four to six hours after consumption. The underlying mechanism behind caffeine's influence on blood sugar is currently unknown.
In its purest form, tea is one of the best weight loss allies you'll find. But not all teas are created equal—especially those sold in bottles. Rather than getting an antioxidant-rich elixir, you're simply sipping on a beverage that's packed with a ton of sugar.
Finishing the entire 23 fluid—ounce can would mean guzzling down a 25 grams of carbs, 24 grams of which are pure sugar. Don't be fooled. Yes, these sweet treats are produced by nature, but they sure aren't innocent. Real fruit contains nutrients like water and fiber, which both help to fill you up. When dried, these sweet and chewy snacks can carry anywhere between 34 and 74 grams of carbs—for raisins and dates, respectively—for one small 1.
Sure, it's natural and overflowing with vitamin C, but it's loaded with sugar—and totally void of any nutrients like fiber or protein to help slow the sugar spike.
An average glass packs 36 grams of sugar—or about what you'd get from popping 4 Krispy Kreme glazed donuts into a blender and hitting frappe. What's more, most of the sweetness in juice comes from fructose, a type of sugar associated with the development of belly fat. Get this: Just one commercially prepared blueberry muffin has as many carbs as not one, not two, but five slices of bread!
It's also a fat and calorie-mine, carrying over calories and a third of the day's fat in one pastry. And eating half now and "saving the rest for later" is nearly impossible; foods rich in carbs, fat, and sugar are downright addicting. A University of Montreal study found that mice who had been fed diets with high levels of those very nutrients displayed withdrawal symptoms and were more sensitive to stressful situations after they were put on a healthier diet.
They might be the perfect early-morning shortcut, but it's probably best for you to reconsider your grab-and-go meal if you have diabetes. Granola- and cereal-based bars aren't just high in refined carbs, but they're also coated in countless grams of syrups and sugars to keep them bound. Cereal bars, in particular, can serve up nearly 30 grams of carbs and 16 of those are straight up sugar.
With only 1 gram of fiber, your blood glucose levels will be hitching a ride on the sugar roller coaster. All those smiling models in yogurt commercials obviously haven't checked out the ingredients list on their purportedly healthy snack.
Most fruit-flavored yogurts on the market contain little precious fruit and are sweetened with sugar instead. It's not just fruit-flavored yogurts that are the culprits. There's a reason potato chips are one of the most addicting junk foods. They're pulverized, soaked in fat, and loaded with salt. Pancakes are a breakfast staple but they're almost completely void of nutrition.
More of a pastry than a nutritious breakfast choice, pancakes are usually loaded with more unhealthy toppings such as sugary syrup and saturated fat-laden butter. Vanilla frozen yogurt Shutterstock Frozen yogurt seems like the healthier alternative to ice cream , especially without all the fat, but "when you remove that fat, you add more sugar for taste," Anziani says. Yogurt parfaits are one of the worst offenders of having a health halo—they sound nutritious, but are secretly a sugar and calorie bomb.
Anziani says parfaits are usually all carbs; with flavored yogurt, sweetened granola, and high-sugar fruit puree, they can pack up to 60 grams of blood-sugar-spiking carbs. You're better off opting for unflavored plain Greek yogurt and adding chia seeds and a handful of blueberries.
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