Exchange Method: Diabetes Diet Tips

"Hi, I'm Brenda Thompson, registered dietitian and owner of Life Skills Nutrition. This segment I'm going to talk about the exchanged method for meal planning to control blood sugars. The exchange list, the exchange method excuse me, historically is the most popular approach to controlling blood sugars in diabetes. It also has been used to control weight. The exchange list divides foods up into groups including carbohydrates, meats and meat substitutes groups and fat groups. This form of meal planning allows individuals to track the amount of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and calories from each food group of the food guide pyramid. When you seek advice from your registered dietitian, she may give you an example of something that looks like this. Let's say that you are recommended to eat an eighteen hundred calorie diet. She may give you a lunch where she asks you to choose three starches, two to three ounces of lean meat, one fruit, two vegetables and one fat. She would give you a daily list for each meal including your snacks. She would also provide you with a list that might look like this so that you can plan your meals accordingly. So from this list you would choose three starches, you would choose two to three ounces of lean meat, you would then choose one fruit, two vegetables and then one fat. There are also booklets with much more extensive materials based on the exchange system. This is a system that I highly recommend and find that it helps out people who are diagnosed with diabetes to be successful in controlling their blood sugars."