Diabetic diet meal plan
MUST-HAVES FOR ANY GOOD DIABETIC MEAL PLAN
1) Fibre:
This is possibly the single most important nutrient to consider when trying to improve your blood glucose regulation. Fibre has the capacity to decrease the glycemic load of any meal, meaning your body will need less insulin to get the sugar from your blood into the working cells around your body.
Additionally, fibre has a great satiating effect on your appetite, which means that you won’t go hungry and find yourself craving more food if you get enough fibre. The recommendations for fibre intake is 25-40 grams per day, depending on your body size, I usually say aim for the latter number regardless.
2) Whole foods:
Whole foods are foods that are minimally processed for human consumption, this includes fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, legumes and some animal products, among many other options.
Whole foods have the ability to improve blood glucose control because of the following reasons: They can have a high fibre content (not including animal products), they are minimally processed and therefore often contain less calories that may negatively effect blood glucose as well they are not hyper-palatable, which can cause us to easily overeat, and they can improve the health of our microbiome, which is associated with improvements in glucose regulation.
3) High water content:
Eating foods with high water content has multiple valuable mechanisms. Firstly, higher water content foods are more filling, which will decrease overconsumption. High water content foods also typically have a lower glycemic index and load, and are therefore less likely to cause large blood glucose spikes that may have trouble coming back to the physiological range. High water content can help to flush out extra glucose in your system to promoting urination. Lastly, high water content foods are important because many people have subclinical dehydration, meaning they do not consume enough water to allow their body to function at an optimal level, which can make us more lethargic, hungrier and worsen our mental and physical stress levels, all of which have a major impact on blood glucose regulation.
4) Whole grains:
Switching out refined carbohydrate for whole grains has a much greater impact than most people would believe. This is due to higher fibre content, lower glycemic load and greater satiation. Including whole grains in your diabetic meal plan is a great way to fulfil your carbohydrate needs, while not causing potential glucose excursions you may see with refined carbohydrates, especially if your insulin sensitivity is very low.
This is not an exhaustive list of food choices that can improve your blood glucose regulation, read below for my clinical perspective on creating a diabetic meal plan that will help achieve your best diabetic health, scroll to the bottom to book an appointment where we can work together to create your new diabetic meal plan.
MY CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE
People living with type one or type two diabetes mellitus can benefit from dietary changes. This is what your doctor/endocrinologist may have told you, but not provided you with any resources on how to improve your diet.
With my diabetic meal planning appointments we work as a team to make dietary changes that will both be impactful and sustainable to assure improvements in both your blood glucose levels as well as your overall health.
The most important factor is to identify what patterns in your diet are causing problems with your glucose regulation.
With my patients, one of the first steps is doing a dietary audit, where we find what foods and eating patterns could be causing your issues, often times these problem areas come as a real surprise to my patients.
I have many patients who have adopted a high carbohydrate, low fat diet who have greatly improved their blood glucose regulation. On the other side of the pendulum, I have patients who have decreased carbohydrate intake to improve their blood glucose levels. An important realization here is that everyone has their own specific needs and that we have a multitude of options when it comes to dietary changes which can be implemented according to your preferences.
To make the meal plan recommendations easy to remember I use visual cues to help you understand the components of your meal and the approximate amount that each component should fill your plate.
If you want to achieve your best diabetic health with my nutrition planning as well as other modalities to improve your blood glucose regulation, insulin sensitivity and overall health follow this link to book a complimentary consult.