Proper Diet for Diabetics

Just because you are diabetic doesn't mean that you can't have any foods that you love. It may mean changing your diet slightly, but you can still enjoy many of the flavorful and healthy foods that you crave. Your local grocery stores and markets are filled with items in every section that cater to diabetics, and offer easy-to-read labeling in order to follow your physician's guidelines.

Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits are a wonderful and filling way to get natural sugar in the form of fructose, which doesn't cause a spike in your blood sugar. All fruits are a good source of vitamins and are a nice addition to cereal for breakfast, as a snack, or on your lunch and dinner plate. Vegetables have many vitamins, too, but potatoes are high in starch. When your digestive system breaks down starch, it turns into sugar, so small portions of potatoes are better for a diabetic. Sweet potatoes have much less starch than red, brown or white potatoes, and make a good substitute.

Meats

When sugar is eaten along with fats, the fat will sustain the sugar for a longer period of time than if only sugar is eaten. We all know that chicken and fish are lean sources of protein, and are therefore the best for us. Pork and beef are not your enemies, though. Any cut of beef or pork with the name "loin" in it is the leanest cut of that meat. Pork loin and beef sirloin steak, as well as ground sirloin beef, are extremely lean so they will not cause blood sugar spikes.

Sugars

Stores have many sugar substitutes that are tasty. These can replace sugar without making you feel as if you are missing anything. An alternative to these is to sweeten items with no-sugar-added applesauce or honey. These are all natural sweeteners and are a staple in many diabetic dessert recipes. An important fact in sugar control is to read your labels carefully. Many products that say "low sugar" on the front label have extra fats in order to taste good. Examples of these are low- and no-sugar ice creams and desserts. If the fat content is raised, however, it will also raise your sugar level. BettyCrocker.com, KraftFoods.com and TasteofHome.com have diabetic dessert recipes, as well as main and side dishes, that are approved for diabetics.

Unrefined Foods

When foods go through the refining process, they acquire more starch and therefore more sugar. Wheat bread is brown and made from wheat flour that is unrefined as white flour used in making white bread. If you don't really care for wheat bread, you can use a white-wheat that is lower in sugar than white is and still tastes like white bread. Pasta and noodles are available in wheat, and brown rice has a nutty flavor that many prefer over white rice.

Considerations

The most important thing to remember is to follow your physician's advice. He may not have the same guidelines as to what he would like to see your blood sugar level for you as for others. Try to eat a balanced diet, and always eat three meals a day with small portions. Add three small snacks a day in between meals, and you will notice that your blood sugar is level most of the day. Walking just 30 minutes a day will help to bring your sugar levels down about 15 points, which can be very beneficial.