Healthy eating helps keep your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, in your target range. Talk with your doctor to set your own target range. A healthy diet is an important part of managing your diabetes, because controlling your blood sugar can prevent complications of diabetes.
Diabetes experts suggest meal plans that are flexible and take your lifestyle and other health needs into account. A
certified diabetes educator, who is a registered dietitian, can help you design a meal plan.
Healthy eating includes:
- Limiting sweets
- Balancing 3 meals a day with small snacks as needed
- Being careful about when and how many carbohydrates you eat
- Eating whole-grain foods, fruits, and vegetables
- Eating less fat, especially high fat meats, butter, cheese, desserts
- Limiting alcoholic beverages
The
American Diabetes Association defines a healthy diet as one that contains fruits and vegetables, whole grains, dried beans and lentils, non-fat dairy foods, and heart-healthy fats. Eating too much of any food, even those considered to be healthy, can result in elevated blood sugar levels and/or weight gain. It’s easy to consume a health diabetes diet and limit food portions by following the
Healthy Diabetes Plate method, developed by a group of Idaho dietitians.
Visit the following websites to find diabetes recipes.