A prime tool in implementing the sugar diabetes diet is the Diabetes Food Pyramid which breaks down food into groups and pyramid levels that diabetics should follow.
The food guide can be instrumental in helping you to develop a healthy eating plan and choose foods that won’t affect your blood sugar levels in a negative way.
It also helps you by recommending suggested number of servings from each food group. Diabetes is primarily a disease in which the body has trouble regulating blood sugar.
By implementing a sugar diabetes diet, you begin the first step towards managing your disease.
For example, whole grains are much better than refined grains in their ability to keep your blood sugar levels in balance and on an even keel.
In addition, a high fiber diet helps to slow down the digestion of carbohydrates in your stomach, which helps to even out their flow into your blood stream. So it’s a simple matter to replace the processed grains in your diet with whole grains.
Also, by following the Diabetes Food Pyramid, you can make many more substitutions.
But don’t get hung up on having to follow the suggestions of a sugar diabetes plan to the letter. If you stray from it every once in a while, it’s fine. The important thing is that you find a way to to incorporate it into the majority of your meals.
A key component of diabetes control is weight control. The primary way of achieving this is through reducing calories and the Diabetes Food Pyramid helps you to do this also by ensuring that most of your foods come from the lower potion of the food pyramid.
The Role That Glycemic Index Plays in A Sugar Diabetes Diet
In addition to following the Diabetes Food Pyramid, you should being to pay attention to the glycemic index (or GI) of foods. Foods with a low GI value will have a lesser effect on your blood glucose levels than those with a high GI. Gradually begin to swap out foods with low GI values and replace them with foods that hove low GI foods such as whole grain breads, cereals, pastas, fruits, vegetables, and so on.
What About Desserts?
The perfect desserts for anyone on sugar diabetes diets are sugar free candies, chocolates, cakes, cookies, and so on. Many large shopping stores have diabetic sections where you can find some or all of these diabetic treats. Although, to be honest, most are ordinary tasting – manufacturers are getting better at finding appropriate sugar substitutes to include in their desserts.
If you feel that you are unable to come up with an appropriate food plan on your own, seek the help of a dietitian who specializes in creating a diabetic diet. The proper sugar diabetes diet can help you to manage your blood sugar effective enough that your doctor may be able to cut down your medication or eliminate it altogether. You might also try adding cinnamon to your daily diet. Studies have shown some forms of it to lower glucose levels in the blood stream.