This is the question my diabetic patients always ask. We hope this article improves your understanding of the diet of a diabetic patient.
AVOID THESE FOODS
If you are a diabetic patient, try to avoid the following list of foods.
1-Sugar, artificial sweeteners and honey. However, you can take sweeteners like stevia. It is difficult to skip sugar from your diet all at once, I will recommend that you decrease the sugar in your diet gradually.
2-You must stop taking sweets and chocolates. If you are at a party and want to drink chocolate, then preferably try to have continental dark chocolate with at least 70% or more cocoa solids, and try to avoid chocolates where sugar is the first named ingredient.
3-Try to avoid foods that contain ingredients ending in (ol) or (ose) as they are mainly different forms of carbohydrates such as fructose, glucose, dextrose.
4-Avoid cereals such as cakes, biscuits, tarts, pies, breakfast cereals, wheat, rye, barley, corn, rice, bread, pasta, pastries,
5-Avoid vegetables that contain higher amounts of starch and carbohydrates such as potatoes, carrots, peas, beans, parsnips, beets.
6-Also avoid fruits such as watermelon, mangoes, banana, chikoos (Pakistani), jackfruit, grapes, strawberry, sugar cane.
7-You can drink milk but in a small amount. Avoid fatty yogurts and cheese. Also be careful not to drink too much coffee or tea and add only the amount of sugar needed for flavor.
8-Avoid commercially packaged foods such as television dinners, “lean” or “light” in particular, and sandwiches, fast foods.
9-Avoid fresh fruit juices as these are highly concentrated carbohydrates. If you like fruit juices, you can dilute 1 part juice with 3 or 4 parts water.
10-Always avoid saturated fats like fatty meats, whole dairy products, butter, lard. Try to prefer unsaturated fats like olive oil, corn oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil. Avoid cottage cheese as it is high in carbohydrates and very little fat.
You must be thinking that I have mentioned all the things here, and there is nothing left to eat, these are foods you can eat:
1-You can take fruits such as apple, grapefruit, lime, peaches. You should divide your fruit and vegetable diet into five servings throughout the day. Spreading the fruit you eat throughout the day helps prevent a sudden spike in blood sugar levels.
2-You must eat a high fiber diet. The fibrous diet includes cereals, fruits, nuts, legumes, seeds, vegetables. The fibrous diet not only lowers glucose levels, but also lowers blood cholesterol.
3-Always try to eat whole foods instead of processed foods and have things like whole wheat spaghetti and brown rice instead of white rice (Pakistani Indian). Pakistanis and Indians are very fond of white rice, but if you are diabetic, avoid them.
4-You can take lamb meat, veal once or twice a week. Organ meats can also be taken as liver, kidneys and heart to feed vitamin needs.
5-Try to eat white meats such as poultry, chicken, fish, duck, etc.
6-You can take Fish and shellfish of all kinds. It is recommended to boil, steam, bake or grill the fish instead of frying it.
7-Always prefer non-fat dairy products such as “skim milk”, skim cheese and yogurt.
8-You can also take eggs, but try to take the whitish part, not the yellow one, as it can increase your cholesterol level.
9-You can take all cheeses except cottage cheese.
10-You can take all vegetables, onion and garlic are known to lower blood glucose level.
Typically, type 2 diabetic patients need a diet of 1500-1800 calories per day to promote weight loss, however the calorie requirement may vary based on the patient’s age, gender, activity level, and body weight . 50% of the total daily calories required should come from carbohydrates. A diabetic patient on a 1600 calorie diet must obtain 50% of these calories from carbohydrates. In other words, it will be equal to 800 Calories of Carbohydrates, which means that you should take 200gms of carbohydrates every day. It is better that you buy food tables with calorie measurements to know more about your required daily food.