Eat to beat diabetes

Diabetes is on the rise, yet most cases are preventable with healthy lifestyle changes. Taking steps to prevent and control diabetes doesn’t mean living in deprivation; it means eating a tasty, balanced diet that will also boost your energy and improve your mood

Someone familiar with diabetes would probably already know that a diabetic person would have to be careful with their physical exercise as well as their diet. Diabetic diets are probably the most widely discussed disease-related diet there could be. However, there are a lot of gaps in the knowledge of the general population. Here’s coming down to pointing out the essentials of the ideal diabetes diet.

Let’s start with the avoid list as it is shorter Simply put, you shouldn’t eat processed, packaged and refined foods that have little fibre and a high glycemic index and cause the blood glucose levels to rise sharply. In other words anything made of white flour or white rice and white sugar. So then, wondering what you should eat? Here is an outline of your ideal meal.

Every meal should consist of vegetables and fats. Please don’t get scared of fat just see that it is good quality fat found in cows ghee , coconut, extra virgin olive oil plenty of nuts and seeds. Accompany this with protein and grains Sources of protein are pulses, dals, leafy green, tofu , paneer, egg.

The grains should be predominately whole grains like barley, bajra, rajgira, vari, basmati unpolished rice fish and chicken. Understand that 60 % of the diet has to be vegetables. Do note that peas are not counted as vegetables. Potatoes are not vegetables either because of the lack of fiber in its flesh.

So eat plenty of salads and vegetables—at least five to eight servings. The only kind of food that you can eat aplenty without even thinking about the glycemic index is your vegetables. These contain tons of fiber, thus being excellent for diabetes.
Fats from fried foods and trans fat like vanaspati and margarine should be had in moderation because while they may not cause your blood sugar to spike, they will affect your ability to lose weight.

Since a diabetic has a higher risk of heart disease, it’s important to control weight So limit bad fats such as chicken with skin, pork and mutton, full fat dairy products like soft cheese and ice cream, fried foods, and solid vegetable fats like used in cookies, savouries and other such snacks. Snack on nuts and seeds as 30 pistachios or 20 almonds have only 100 calories compared to fried wafers 20 grams has nearly 500 calories of bad fat .

Always balance the meal by including a small amount of protein but never excess protein as it would over load your kidneys.
That said, you should include healthy fats in your diet which can be found in coconut, cows ghee, nuts, seeds and olive oil. Include Omega 3 fatty acids found in flax seeds and walnuts.

You should also avoid eating foods that are extremely salty. This is because diabetics usually have high blood pressure. As a result, salt intake should be minimal. So stay away from pickles, papads, store-made chutney, packet soups, noodles and packaged chips, canned food and namkeen. Don’t add additional salt to cooked food and learn to flavour food with lemon juice, vinegar and herbs instead of salt.

Although diabetes is linked to blood sugar levels, you don’t need to stay away from sugar altogether. You do need, however, to get it from natural sources like fruit, grains and please stop adding sugar to foods. Completely avoid Indian Matthias like ladoos, halwa, barfi and bakery items such as biscuits cake, puddings since they are loaded with saturated fat (bad fat) and white sugar.

Stay away from all colas, soft drinks and alcohol. And remember to stick to your meal plan even if you are eating out
Choose foods which are low in the glycemic index meaning that they are digested slowly. This is very important for a diabetic since it controls insulin levels. Fruit should never be mixed with food. It should be taken 1 hour before or 3 hours later. To control sugar levels if they are not within range limit consumption of fruits to one a day .

Do not mix any fruit with food. Fruit should be had one hour before a main meal, by itself as a snack and always three hours after a main meal. It’s important to have low glycemic index fruits like all berries, apples, pomelo, orange, plums, peaches and apricots. Most dried fruits have to be avoided if sugar is not in control.

Though prunes and apricots are low in the glycemic index and can be eaten in moderation by a diabetic. When your blood sugar is in control and you are engaging in regular exercise you can you could add fruits like dates and figs occasionally.

Herbs and spices that help diabetics
Cinnamon, especially with turmeric, 1/4th tsp daily of each
Soaked fenugreek seeds, eat the seeds and drink the water
Chewing on neem leaves in the morning
Boiled mango leaves soaked overnight, strained and had on an empty stomach
30 ml of amla juice had before meals

Vegetables which are beneficial
Onion
Garlic (small quantities)
Fenugreek leaves
Bitter gourd

Although all this may sound inconvenient and difficult, over time you’ll find this becomes second nature to you. This is actually a diet for a person who wants to remain healthy and not just a diabetic diet.