Insulin is a hormone produced by the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas.Insulin is required by the body cells to convert glucose into energy.

Majority of the cases of diabetes reported in children are of Type 1 diabetes.So it is also known as the juvenile diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes is a most prevalent form of diabetes.Sometimes people have high blood sugar still they not diagnosed as diabetics because that is the precondition of Type 2 Dibetes.

Gestational Diabetes is also a condition develop in pregnant women due to high blood sugar during pregnancy. Although, this can be prevented. Diabetes is a hereditary disease as well as a lifestyle disease. People whose ancestors were diabetic are likely to suffer with diabetes. People with a bad lifestyle are more prone to diabetes. So all those people who are lazy and dont feel like to exercise , eat junk food especially children and take lots stress BEWARE. Nowdays children are more into watching TV and less into playing games which is not at all a good sign for them.

Actually I feel that even people who have the diabetes history in their family can also delay its occurrence by keeping a healthy lifestyle. There is nothing to worry about or getting depressed by this diabtes as strees as I have said earlier can also lead to diabetes. By including exercise in the lifestyle, having a nutrition rich diet , controlling weight, avoid having excessive sugar, avoid excessive smoking .This does not mean that diabetic people cannot eat junk food or sweets but keeping control on everything can definitely lessen their pain.

I also recommend to start moving from the allopathic treatment to its holistic treatment.There are a number of antidiabetic herbs like bitter melon, Pterocarpus marsupium. These herbs helps in controlling blood sugar levels.
I also have come acrossed a drug called Episulin, which is a source of Epicatechin. Epicatechin is derived from the bark of Pterocarpus marsupium which has been proven to be a natural insulin mimetic.
So with these natural herbs and balanced diet one can surely fight with a smile on and less side effects.

For more details on herbal anti diabetics, please visit http://episulin.com

Prior to menopause, or perimenopause, you will have already noticed your body became more resistant to insulin which caused you to have higher than usual blood sugar levels. At menopause, as your levels of estrogen and progesterone decline forever, your blood sugar levels fall. In other words, it’s not unusual to find your blood sugars are all over the place.

Mood swings, struggling with hot flushes and night sweats, you have put on a little weight around your abdomen… sound familiar? Well, maybe you have hit menopause. Unfortunately, this also means you do not have the degree of cardiovascular protection you once enjoyed when you had normal levels of the female hormones. It also means your level of protection with osteoporosis has also declined. If that’s not enough to deal with you can expect to put on roughly 11 pounds (5kg) due to these hormone changes. And guess where a lot of it settles? Around your waist!

Weight gain of course, makes it harder for you to control your blood sugar levels.

Eating Plan: Overhaul your eating plan, include more low-GI carbohydrate foods and fiber. Make sure you exercise 150 minutes each week to help prevent weight gain and to help keep your blood sugar levels stable.

Blood Sugar Levels: Changes in your hormone levels and weight will put your blood sugar levels out of your target range. Check with your health care practitioner; he may make adjustments to your drug type or dose.

Sexual Dysfunction: Pain during intercourse and lack of interest in sex are not unusual. Neuropathy in women may cause decreased lubrication on intercourse. Adequate lubrication with a water-based personal lubricant can help with this difficulty; there is standard KY jelly right through to exotic varieties.

Your health care practitioner may suggest natural supplements or hormone creams as an alternative to HRT.

Vaginal Infections: High levels of sugar in your urine may also lead to a higher risk of infection, particularly with Candida, (thrush which is a yeast infection). This can lead to problems with vaginal soreness and irritation. This can be treated with an anti-fungal cream or pessary.

Menopause can increase circulatory problems which leads to stroke and heart disease, so blood sugar control, a healthy eating plan and exercise is particularly important at this time. Weight-bearing exercise is beneficial to strengthening your bones… and it is also important to add adequate calcium and vitamin D to your supplement routine.

• Natural Diabetic Remedies
• Natural & Safe Way To Control Diabetes
• Natural Diabetes Remedies
• 10 Beneficial Home Remedies For Diabetes

Would you like more information about alternative ways to handle your type 2 diabetes?

To download your free copy of my E-Book, click here now: Answers to Your Questions… its based on questions many diabetics have asked me over recent months.

Beverleigh Piepers is a registered nurse who would like to help you understand how to live easily and happily with your type 2 diabetes.
http://drugfreetype2diabetes.com/blog

The main aims of diet control are listed below:

1. Avoid hyperglycemia

2. Minimize fluctuations in blood glucose levels and reduce overall blood glucose

3. Achieve weight reduction in obese patients to reduce insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and dyslipidemia

4. Avoid hypoglycemia and weight gains that are commonly associated with drugs such as insulin

5. Avoid diets that may aggravate diabetic symptoms. For example, diabetic nephropathy may become acute in case of a high protein diet. These diets are known as atherogenic diets in medical parlance.

Two broad classifications of diet used in the treatment of diabetes are low energy weight reducing diets and weight maintenance diets. In the case of obese patients, a diet with low refined carbohydrate, high unrefined carbohydrate and less total energy content would result in increased insulin sensitivity and consequent decline in blood glucose.

Low energy weight reducing diets:

These are diets used for obese diabetic patients. These diets would provide a 500kcal reduction in daily intake and can cause a weight loss of around 0.5 kg per week. In obese diabetic patients it is often advised to skip snacks in between meals.

Weight maintenance diets:

These are for diabetic patients with a normal BMI. These are ideally high in carbohydrate and low in fat. The total calorie intake is not reduced in these diets.

Diets for Insulin Treated Diabetes

Diabetic patients should take care to follow a regular diet pattern and eat meals and snacks at approximately the same time every day. One useful way in which meals can be planned is to encourage the use of carbohydrates along with vegetables and reduce the consumption of proteins. It is recommended to include at least five portions of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. Children, pregnant women and lactating mothers suffering from diabetes need special dietary advice in consultation with their physician.

An ideal diabetic diet should derive at least 50% of daily caloric intake from carbohydrates and a large portion of this should be dietary fiber. Dietary fiber is mainly of two types – soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber is present in food items such as beans, peas, pulses, oats and most fruits and vegetables. It is advisable to consume at least 15g of dietary fiber on a daily basis. This can reduce not only blood glucose levels but also LDL cholesterol. Insoluble dietary fiber is found in food items such as whole meal bread and breakfast cereals. These can be a good way to satisfy hunger and manage weight. The insoluble fiber does not lower blood glucose levels directly, though. Sweet food items such as confectionery, puddings, cakes and biscuits should be restricted as much as possible. Milk also is ideally avoided.

Meal Planning Methods

Scientific meal planning for diabetes aims to meet the overall nutrient requirements of the body and keep it healthy; not just lower blood glucose levels. Thus the current lifestyle and eating habits of the diabetic patient must be taken into account before suggesting modifications. Things to keep in mind include work and meal times, food preferences, as well as the goals that the diet plan is aiming to achieve. If there are too many changes needed from one’s current eating patterns then the plan is not likely to be followed. There are some accepted methods of diabetic meal planning and some of them are summarized below

Diabetic Exchange Diets:

In this method, there are six broad types of food based on their micro nutrients – starch, non-starchy vegetables, fats, meat and meat-substitutes, milk and fruits. The daily meal plan is designed to achieve a particular number of servings from each of these areas. Here food is measured in portions and this method is found to be easy to follow. A food exchange chart shows major types of food under each category and the diabetic patient will have the flexibility to replace one food with another from the same list. This variety ensures that there is no boredom generated by eating the same food over and over again. However, care has to be taken to eat the meals at the right time and to limit portion sizes to that recommended by the nutritionist.

The Plate Method:

This is the easiest method to learn. A dinner plate is used as the basis to show proportions of each food group that should be included in the meal. In this method importance is given to vegetables. Raw vegetables should make up at least half of your plate for lunch as well as dinner. The rest can be composed of starch and protein – made up of cereals, bread, potatoes and meat. A single portion of fruit or milk can be had if required.

Pyramid Method:

This is based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and aims to provide a well balanced and nutritious diet. It focuses on reducing the amount of fat and sugar without making the diet too monotonous. You can get pyramid meal planners from the Internet.

Carbohydrate Counting:

This method is very tedious to follow as the patient needs to count the amount of carbohydrate in take in each meal. The goal is to maintain a low level of carbohydrate in the diet so as to control blood sugar levels. Unless the patient is really committed chances of failure and non compliance are high in this method.

Remember that the three pillars of managing diabetes are diet, exercise and medication. All three of these must be carefully planned and properly adhered to in order to ensure that the patient is able to lead a normal lifestyle without suffering from the complications that arise out of the disease. Ignoring any one of these aspects can cause drastic consequences in the blood sugar levels leading to problems associated with it.

• Home Remedies To Cure Diabetes
• Diabetes Cure
• Herbs And Ayurvedic Diabetes Treatment
• 6 Easy Ways To Cure Diabetes

Bob D Williams has been involved in the seo field for over ten years.
Working in various seo services but specializeing in link building services.
And in search engine optimization, professional custom videos and more.

http://www.controllingdiabetesforlife.com

This can be caused by:

• high blood sugar levels
• by high levels of fats in your blood, or
• by lack of oxygen and nutrients

When blood vessels are damaged by sugar and fat, they have difficulty carrying oxygen and nutrients to your nerves.Neuropathy in your limbs, especially in your feet, can have serious consequences. Naturally lack of feeling in your feet, means you can’t feel pain. Blisters or cuts then go unnoticed and become infected, and due to poor circulation your blood has difficulty bringing healing antibodies and white blood cells to help heal the infection. Unfortunately, neuropathy is the leading cause of lower limb amputations in diabetics.

You are more likely to to develop neuropathy if you have poor control over your blood sugar or you have sustained high blood sugar levels.

Help Your Feet:

One way of taking care of you feet is by walking… this helps to improve poor blood circulation to your feet. When walking is painful, it is time to rest until the sensation passes, then get up and walk some more. With habitual walking, diabetics can gradually improve things to the point at which pain is minimized or gone. But your feet should be checked after each walking session.

Because feet are vulnerable, an estimated 15 per cent of people with diabetes will develop a serious foot problem at some time in their lives.

Watch out for:

Numbness, shooting pains, and a pins-and-needles type of pain in your feet… these are signs of nerve damage, or neuropathy. If this is the case taking some of these steps will help you:

• change your shoes and socks several times during the day… this will help you to make more visual inspections. This also minimizes your chances of getting blisters and infections… all shoes allow your feet to slide after three to four hours
• uncross your legs
• don’t wear tight elastic hose
• avoiding smoking will also help

Your health care practitioner may prescribe medications that will help the red blood cells pass through clogged arteries. Not all people with type 2 diabetes get small blood vessel disease in their feet, but this is a common site for it to appear.Supplements:

No supplement or therapy is going to cure your neuropathy, but even a little bit of relief can make a big difference.

Alpha-lipoic acid is the number one choice for treating neuropathy and in addition, gamma-linolenic acid, part of a family of essential dietary fats, can also help with diabetes-related nerve damage.

• Natural Remedies For Pancreatitis
• Natural Treatment For Diabetes
• Does Chromium Picolinate Help With Blood Sugar Control
• VitalCare Diabetes Treatment Centers Opens New Clinic In Costa Mesa

Would you like more information about alternative ways to handle your type 2 diabetes?

To download your free copy of my E-Book, click here now: Answers to Your Questions… its based on questions many diabetics have asked me over recent months.

Beverleigh Piepers is a registered nurse who would like to help you understand how to live easily and happily with your type 2 diabetes. http://drugfreetype2diabetes.com/blog

This is especially true in those who watched brothers or sisters that were health fanatics suffer from type 2 diabetes. These siblings may have expounded on the benefits of vegetarianism or soy milk, tofu, tofu turkeys and other such foods over the years, and were devastated themselves by a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

However, if you were in a completely different environment… with brothers and sisters that were alternative health practitioners that were successful at reversing diabetes, then you wouldn’t be wondering if it’s possible to prevent diabetes at all. Instead, you would invite them over for dinner, ask them questions, call them more than usual and even schedule more family time with them, just to find out how they reverse diabetes. You would want their opinion because you know you could trust it; they would be one of your new trusted sources.

The truth is that diabetic prevention and reversal plans do exist. Every alternative health practitioner that works with diabetics and is successful at helping them reduce their medication knows what the steps are. On the contrary, most health care practitioners are not familiar with the changes that must be made in order to have a high success rate with diabetics and a high success rate with diabetic family members in the prevention of diabetes.

The basic foundation of a diabetic prevention plan starts with your eating plan.

You may be told it’s important to limit carbohydrates in your diet, but this is wrong information.

You need to:

• avoid trans fat: the type of fat you eat plays an important part in your risk of type 2 diabetes. Insulin needs to communicate with receptors on your cell membranes so that it can escort glucose into you cells. Your cell membranes are predominantly made of fatty acids. Having trans fatty acids in your cell membranes does not allow insulin to work properly leading to insulin resistance. Trans fat is found in margarine, cooking oils, and foods containing these, eg. biscuits donuts, cakes, processed and fast food
• increase fiber to 25-30g everyday: one of the most important food groups to start eating are high-fiber foods. Fiber slows down the absorption of glucose in your intestinal tract. Therefore fiber in a meal lowers the glycemic index of a meal by slowing down the rise in blood sugar that occurs after eating carbohydrates. You find fiber in vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, legumes, and grains
• reduce your carbohydrate intake: favor foods with a low glycemic index. Food with a high GI releases sugar into your bloodstream quickly. For example, white bread has a high GI and has a pronounced effect on your blood sugar level. Rye bread on the other hand, has a low GI and enters your bloodstream slowly. Nearly all fruits are low GI, as are green leafy vegetables, beans, lentils and peas, yams and sweet potatoes, barley, bulgur, oatmeal and bran cereals
• add chromium and magnesium: people who develop type 2 diabetes are more likely to be deficient in nutrients that can inhibit their insulin from working properly.

Your eating plan is central to your diabetes prevention program.

Would you like more information about alternative ways to handle your type 2 diabetes?

• Juvenile Diabetes Cure
• Diabetes – Food Guide & Recipes
• All-Natural, Herbal Diabetic Treatment
• Herbal Remedies For Diabetes

To download your free copy of my E-Book, click here now: Answers to Your Questions… its based on questions many diabetics have asked me over recent months.

Beverleigh Piepers is a registered nurse who would like to help you understand how to live easily and happily with your type 2 diabetes.
http://drugfreetype2diabetes.com/blog

All those who are at an increased risk of diabetics, because of the family history or because of their inactive lifestyle, must read through the following passages. The following reading may help you to understand the symptoms of high blood sugar and lead you to go for a diabetes screening test.

The diabetes screening tests are quick, inexpensive and painless; so there is nothing that one should worry about. Above all the diabetes screening test and timely diagnosis of the problem will help you in saving lot of troubles in near future. Let’s check the signs of high blood sugar. These main symptoms of high glucose levels are real alarming bells and one must learn to listen to these sign.

Tingling and numbness sensation in hands and feet is a top warning symptom of high glucose. This sounds ridiculous but this sensation is more like feeling of heart beat in hands or feet. The teeth of the diabetic person remain sticky in spite of thorough cleaning and proper brushing. The reason behind this is excessive circulation of sugar in blood that is then poured in the mouth along with saliva.

The diabetic may feel a tingling sensation around the eyelids. This again is directly linked with excessive level of increased blood sugar flowing in the system. This increased level of glucose is finding their way everywhere. The next alarming symptom of high blood sugar is slow and poor healing of infection and wounds. The density of the blood of the diabetic person increases; so the smaller capillaries that are closer to the surface of the skin find it difficult to receive fresh blood. The result is that healing of the skin is hampered. Small wounds and cuts at the feet of the diabetics take a longer healing time. In severe case it may even lead to amputation and gangrene.

Another classic symptom of high glucose levels is unquenchable thirst. This is an obvious and a notable symptom of all others. This is not simply a requirement of an extra one or two glasses of water like a normal person feels on a hot day. Rather this is an exaggerated version of this. Diabetics feel a nonstop urge of liquids throughout the day and night that do not have any bounds.

• Diabetes And Vitamin B1
• Treatment Methods For Geriatric Diabetes
• Diabetes Foot Care
• Diabetes Remedy Chromium

Do you want to have a free diabetic meal plan specifically designed according to your personal requirement? If yes, then check Signs Of Diabetes. This will help to design a meal plan that has the ability to control Dangerous Blood Sugar Levels in a way that you’ll end saying where is my Blood Sugar?

The old standby treatment for diabetes is lose weight, exercise, watch your diet, and take pills. Lots of prescription pills!

Our medical community is of the mindset to prescribe pills to treat symptoms instead of curing the patient which can be done with natural remedies. Mostly the patient ends up with more side effects to be treated. Of course, they might run out of patients, if they cured them.

In the olden days, if you were a diabetic, the theory was stay away from sugar and take insulin. Now the thinking has changed on this. The emphasis is on balanced eating. 50-60% good carbohydrates, and 15-20% protein, with a tad of good fats thrown in. Also 20-30 grams of fiber per day.

Good carbohydrates include whole grains, fruits and most veggies except potatoes and corn. The reason these are excluded is because of high starch content. Bad or empty carbohydrates have little nutritional value, such as bread made with white flour, pastas, cereals and most desserts. Processed foods have had most of the nutritional value removed in the preparation. Processed food also loses most of its fiber content. When shopping, look for foods with five or less grams of sugar and five or more grams of fiber per serving. You get protein from dairy products, fish and seafood. When eating beef, try to consume only lean beef. Sources of good fats are almonds, macadamia nuts and olive oil.

Has your doctor recommended a natural cure for your diabetes? Or your cancer? Or one of the other diseases that is ravaging our population? I wonder why! Could it be that doctors are not schooled to think that way? Most medical schools do not even teach nutrition classes.

Big pharmaceuticals are huge contributors to medical schools. They also offer great perks to doctors, to keep them prescribing their brand of medicine. I guess under these circumstances, it is easy to turn a ‘deaf ear’ to something as simple as giving Mother Nature a chance to heal.

There are lots of people, I being one, whom believe there are natural remedies for some of our illnesses. Now if we can just get the medical community to agree, we can all enjoy better health.

I hope this article has been of some help to you. For more good Information, go to: http://goodhealthnaturals.com

Adversely, insulin can induce the metabolism to produce fatty deposits. This may be why diabetics have the tendency to be overweight and exhibit other disorders accompanying inadequate fat metabolism. The ramifications concerning diabetes embraces obesity, arterial sclerosis, hypertension, renal failure, and retinal disorders that resulting in vision loss. Diabetes mellitus should rarely be treated with insulin. The disease can respond to herbal diabetes treatment effectively.

The most effective diabetes treatment comprise natural herbal plants, and these miracle herb plants furnish noteworthy contribution to the management of diabetes and the avoidance of its complications. Proven safe and effective, medicinal herbs enhance the dietetics planning to reverse diabetes. As a home diabetes treatment, herbs can reverse diabetes without damaging side-effects, relieve physical and emotional stress, and improve general wellness.

Type I and II diabetics can depend on the remedial benefits of a diabetes treatment using all-natural herbs. For instance, herbs, such as garlic, early flowering periwinkle, bilberry, artichoke leaves, cabbage leaves, lesser centaury, St. Benedict Thistle, walnut leaves, goat’s rue, sage, and burdock represent some of the various herbal plants that provide healing properties that cure diabetes safely. In time, herbal plants can normalize blood sugar levels, reduce the incidence of glycosuria, and reverse diabetes. Individuals who take advantage of the benefits of herb plants can gradually regain control over their body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates.

Individuals with concerns regarding diabetes mellitus can obtain further insight in diabetes treatment and how to reverse diabetes naturally. To reverse diabetes, one must consider modifications in diet and lifestyle. By reading this terrific the 3-part guide: The Diabetes Miracle Breakthrough, The Diabetes Reversal Report, and The Diabetic Warrior Report, individuals will learn steps to gain control of their health forever!

Death to diabetes
Natural cure for diabetes
Diabetes Natural Cures

Note: There are several guides on How To Reverse Diabetes, just make sure you are dealing with a natural product or treatment, this way you can reverse your diabetes for good in a safer way.

Healthy Heart – Healthy Life
Many National and International organizations consider February Heart Month. Their focus is to generate funds and to promote, encourage, and support us to live happy, healthy lives. The campaign espouses conscious awareness of eating habitsi

Health Profits of Seeds, Nuts, Fish and Oils
Sunflower seeds are not just fun to eat; they are also very nutritious to the body. While sunflower seeds contain approximately the same amount of polyunsaturated fats as their counterpart nuts, they are much richer in antioxidants that ward

Handle Heartburn By Natural Remedies From Kitchen Cupboard
There are many hundreds probably millions of heartburn remedies on the market which are easily purchased over the counter at a drug store or even in the supermarket. For more severe cases medication is available on prescription from your doctor.

Diabetic nephropathy, a progressive process, commonly leads to renal failure. About 30% of clients with end- stage renal disease have diabetes mellitus.

Researchers estimate that 25% to 50% of clients with insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus or type 1 diabetes have end stage renal disease within 10 to 20 years of beginning insulin therapy.

Renal disease can also occur in the non- insulin- dependent diabetic client. The incidence of proteinuria (protein in urine) is about 25% after the 20 years of diabetes.

This diabetic renal diet is a nutritional therapy to emphasize the need for a team approach to enhance the ability of each patient with diabetes to achieve good metabolic control. In this way, by controlling diabetes mellitus, we can manage the progressive worsening condition to our kidneys thereby preventing end stage renal disease.

The kidney metabolizes 30% to 40% of insulin, and as renal function decline the degradation of insulin also decreases, resulting in a lower insulin requirement. Renal failure may be initially identified when the client is evaluated for recurrent insulin reactions.

Researchers hope that exacerbation of renal disease can be slowed by the following:

- Carefully controlling hypertension.

- Adjusting insulin therapy and carefully monitoring blood glucose to maintain normal sugar level.

- Restricting dietary protein.

Regardless of diabetic control, however, renal failure inevitably develops within 5 to 10 years after the appearance of significant proteinuria.

These are some recommended dietary modification for patients with diabetes mellitus:

- Total calories- sufficient to maintain/achieve reasonable weight in adults, or meet increased needs of children, adolescents, pregnant and lactating women and individuals recovering from catabolic illness.

- Caloric distribution of 50- 70% of carbohydrates, 20- 30% of proteins and 20- 30% of fat.

- Cholesterol limit to 300 mg/day or less.

- Carbohydrates and sweetness

- Sodium limit to about 300mg/day, less for people with hypertension if renal complications.

- Alcohol- moderate amounts may be allowed, contingent on good metabolic control.

- Vitamin and mineral supplement- not necessary but may be given to individuals on reduced calorie diets (1200kcal/day or less)

There is no one diabetic diet that will suit the individual and the special need of a person with diabetes. The diet for an individual with diabetes can only be defined as a “dietary prescription based on nutrition assessment and treatment goals”. However, the diabetic renal diet can serve as a guideline on how to manage and control diabetes mellitus thus prolonging renal disease.

• Juvenile Diabetes Cure
• Diabetes – Food Guide & Recipes
• All-Natural, Herbal Diabetic Treatment

Discover how to effectively manage your kidney disease with diabetes by following a simple and straightforward diabetic renal diet. Start managing your disease today!

To learn more about it, click the link below.

kidney healthy diet

The good news is that it is possible to smartly chart out a diet where nobody has to stay away from any kind of food completely. What needs to be understood is ‘when to eat what and in what quantity (portion size)’.

The understanding that many have is, glucose and carbohydrates influence your sugar levels. But the fact is that anything you eat influences your sugar levels!

Understanding the various food groups and their effect on diabetes

Carbohydrates

These are primary sources of energy. 40% to 60% of a diabetic diet should comprise of carbohydrates. They are primarily divided into simple and complex carbohydrates.

Maida based BiscuitsSimple carbohydrates release sugar into the blood very rapidly causing extreme changes in blood sugar levels. Many of these also do not provide any nutrition and only add to the calories consumed, so are labeled as “empty calories”. These spikes and fall in blood sugar levels cause addictions and weight gain. For example, Candy, softdrinks, maida based biscuits and snacks, fruit juices, fast foods.

Fruits – complex carbohydratesComplex carbohydrates are “fibre rich”. They are also rich in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. They provide gradual and sustained energy to the body and help maintain blood sugar levels. They also provide a sense of fullness for a longer period of time helping weight loss. So these are termed as “good carbs”. These are foods in their natural state. Example, oats, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds, certain dairy products.

Most of our everyday carbohydrate requirements should come from “good carbs”. Carbohydrates are essential at every meal and the amount of carbohydrates should be maintained at every meal for effective control of diabetes.

Proteins

Nuts – Plant proteinsProteins are responsible for growth and repair of the cells. Enzymes and hormones (including insulin) which are necessary for the smooth functioning of the body are made of proteins. Antibodies that protect us from infections are also made up of proteins. In a diabetic, 20% to 30% of the diet should comprise of proteins.

Proteins should be a part of every meal. Protein rich foods added to a meal help prevent sudden sugar spikes in the blood. The richest sources of proteins are eggs (limit egg yolks), chicken, fish, milk and milk products (except butter). Plant protein is found in beans especially, soya beans, lentils, nuts and seeds.

Plant protein is healthier as animal products contain saturated fats (bad fats). A blend of proteins from different sources should be consumed for maximum benefit. A word of caution though, too high protein in diet increases load on kidneys, so consulting a dietician is essential before adding too much protein to the diet.

Fats

Egg yolkFats are an essential part of healthy diet as they are a source of heat and energy. They provide the essential fatty acids which are required for various body functions and are also essential for the utilization of fat soluble vitamins. We must be alert about how much fat we consume as they are very high in calories more than double of carbohydrates and proteins and are prone to getting stored in the body causing obesity and obesity related illnesses.

In a diabetic diet maximum 20% to 30% of daily caloric requirements should be from fats. They can be classified into the unsaturated (good) variety and saturated (bad) variety. The “good” fats are found in fish, fish oils, flax seeds, nuts, seeds, olive and olive oils.

The “bad fats” are found in meat, poultry, full fat dairy, butter, egg yolk, coconut and palm oils. Not more than 10% of total calories should come from bad fats. Transfats (Dalda) are even more harmful than bad fats and should be avoided as much as possible. Cookies, cakes, chips, bakery products are high on transfats. Consumption of good fats should also be restricted as any fat causes obesity.

Role of Fibre in Diabetic Management

GrainsInitially fibre was understood as an inert substance present in various foods, as it has no nutritional value. But today we have understood the positive effects of fibre by understanding the way it influences energy release of carbohydrates and the absorption of fats. Also, it has a bulking (filling) property so it can reduce hunger pangs and it also expands stool volume and acts as a stool softener.

Types of fibre are, Insoluble fibre and Soluble fibre

Insoluble fibre: Richest sources are wheat bran and other whole grains (most of the insoluble fibre gets lost in the process of milling and polishing of grains), seeds, skins of many fruits and vegetables. These have a bulking and stool softening property. Psyllium husk (isabgol) is also a god source of insoluble fibre.

Soluble fibre: Richest sources are oats, beans, lentils, seeds, brown rice, barley, apples, vegetables – mainly potatoes and broccoli. Soluble fibre delays the stomach emptying time thus slowing down the release of sugar in the bloodstream. Thus spikes of high sugar in the blood are avoided and there is a sustained release of energy in the body. Also soluble fibre traps cholesterol and reduces its absorbtion in the blood stream thus preventing complications and helping in weight loss.

Diabetes can be managed better by adding fibre to every meal (both soluble and insoluble). Consume 3 to 5 portions of fruits and vegetables daily, whole grains, seeds and nuts as mini snack to get optimum fibre in diet.

In a nutshell….

Do not skip meals. Eat small quantities every 3 to 4 hours. Maintain regular meal timings. Always have a good breakfast. Eat 2 main meals and 3 to 4 mini meals. Restrict the portion size at each meal.

Have food from all groups in recommended amounts at every meal. In the carbohydrate group, choose from good carbs. Consume proteins from different sources. Limit consumption of fats mainly saturated fats. Avoid tansfats completely. Carbohydrate consistency meaning consuming the same amount of carbohydrates (as recommended by a dietitian) at the same timings daily, prevents ups and downs in blood sugar levels and is very important in control of diabetes.

Make your diet a “high fibre diet”. It should comprise of both soluble and insoluble fibre rich foods. You don’t have to give up any food completely. Take professional help to make place for your favorite foods in your diet chart. Remember, ‘Moderation’ is the key.

http://www.medimanage.com