Monitor Your Diet To Help Monitor Your Diabetes

If you are afflicted by diabetes or have a family member with the condition, then you know that diet is a major factor in monitoring the disease. Diabetes is a disorder that affects the body’s ability to break down sugars in foods into their essential energy components. These building blocks of sugar are used by every tissue and cell in the body to maintain normal functioning. Without the vital hormone insulin, the body is unable to fully utilize the metabolic system that keeps the human body at optimal levels. By adjusting and monitoring your diet, you can help reduce your chances of having a detrimental reaction to high blood glucose levels.

When you eat food, your body begins metabolizing the contents of your stomach. Food is broken down into minerals, vitamins and energy. The more food you put into your body at one time, the harder this system has to work. Therefore, it is incredibly important for diabetics to limit the amount they eat at one time, but to eat enough through the day to keep the blood sugar levels relatively constant. The easiest way to do this is to eat six meals a day. Ideally, as a diabetic you should eat three moderately proportioned meals at breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is also important that you supplement these meals with three smaller portioned snacks in between. By breaking up the calories and quantity of food throughout the day you will prevent viscous drops and spikes in your sugar levels.

Different foods cause different reactions to your blood sugar, this function is known as the glycemic index. Diabetics should be extra careful when picking which foods to eat at which times. You can help regulate your blood sugar levels by eating something with protein, such as cheese, when you eat something sugary, like fruits. You also need to learn to stay away from certain food and drink items as these may spike your levels dangerously high. The two biggest examples of these off-limits items are alcohol and processed sugars. Both are not complex carbohydrates and can skyrocket your glucose levels. Complex carbohydrates are better for a diabetic because they are broken down and then used, whereas simple and alcohol carbs just sit around in the system taking up space.

Although the amount and types of food may vary depending on your gender and size, a good rule of thumb for food quantities for an average adult diabetic can be found on many websites. Ideally, a medium sized adult should eat six servings of starches, three servings of vegetables, two servings of fruits, two servings of dairy, and five ounces of meat a day. Once again these servings should not be consumed in one big feast but broken up over the course of six smaller meals. Fats, such as nuts and olives, should be consumed infrequently and with careful moderation as they too can affect blood sugar levels.

As a diabetic your first line of defense is your diet. By selecting your dietary choices with care and forethought, you may be able to slow the progression of this disease. If you are diabetic and are not monitoring your diet as closely as you monitor your blood sugar, you may be making an error that could prove fatal. As with any decision that involves diabetes, you should discuss with your doctor any changes you are making and ask them to steer you in the right direction for optimal health.