All of us need to maintain a healthy body weight. However, if you have diabetes, the excess weight can make it hard for you to keep a tab on your blood sugar levels. This puts you at risk of diabetes and several other heart complications.
The worst part about diabetes is that losing weight is extra challenging for people suffering from this disease. Thus, it is essential to make some dietary changes that help manage symptoms and keep your weight in check.
Dietary tips for diabetes patients
- Opt for healthier carbs
Carbs have a direct impact on your blood sugar levels. Thus, an essential dietary tip for diabetes patients is to have awareness and knowledge of the foods that contain carbs. It would be best if you always tried to opt for healthier foods with carbs and check your portion size.
Some examples of healthy carbs include whole grains like oats, buckwheat, and brown rice, vegetables, fruits, pulses like lentils, beans, and chickpeas and dairy products like milk and unsweetened yogurt.
Simultaneously, you should also cut out foods low in fiber, such as white rice, white bread, and highly-processed cereals. Before you add anything to the cart, read through the food labels, if there is ever a doubt. - Eat more fruits and vegetables
Your meals should have a minimum of eight grams of fiber. It is particularly crucial if you are consuming a carbohydrate-rich diet. This can help you keep a tab on your blood sugar levels and keep you full for longer. This is also great for the health of your heart since diabetes has an impact on that as well. Some of the fruits and vegetables that you can add to your diet are beans, peas, barley, oats, fruits, citrus fruits, berries, pears, apples, and vegetables, including beets, carrots, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. - Cut down your salt intake
Following a salt-rich diet aggravates your high blood pressure risk, making you vulnerable to a stroke or heart disease. Furthermore, when you already have diabetes, your susceptibility to these conditions is already high. Thus, it would be best if you curtailed your salt intake to only a single teaspoon every day. Prepackaged foods have a high salt content. Thus, it would help if you read through the labels before picking something. Cook your meals from scratch. It is another vital dietary tip for diabetes patients. When you make things from scratch, you can control how much salt you add to it. You can always replace salt with herbs and spices for flavor. - Be smart with the desserts
Being diabetic does not mean that you have to cut out sugar from your diet altogether. However, you need to make healthier sweet choices. The only key here is moderation. To curb your sweet cravings, you can gradually reduce your sugar intake. If you are already eating a dessert, you should hold back on pasta, rice, or bread. Moreover, you can add some healthy fat to your desserts, such as ricotta cheese, nuts, yogurt, and peanut butter. These slow down the digestion rate and will not spike your sugar levels.
