How Nutrition Plays a Key Role in Managing – or Avoiding -- Diabetes

You might be wondering what really influences your chances of developing Type 2 diabetes. Your race and family history aren’t things you can change, but your everyday choices --especially what you eat -- can make a real difference in your health, particularly if you are already diabetic or prediabetic.

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition in which your body is unable to use insulin properly, which creates unhealthy levels of sugar in your blood. Over time, this can increase your risk for a wide range of health problems, including nerve damage, heart disease, loss of eyesight and wounds or infections that are slow to heal.

Diabetes can be managed through medications, physical activity and lifestyle choices. But nutrition also plays a key role in reducing your risk for a disease that affects more than one in 10 U.S. adults.

Nutrition Decisions

If you have diabetes (or are at risk for it), you will be focusing heavily on carbohydrate consumption. But it’s not as simple as picking a daily carbohydrate target. Instead, there are four aspects for you to consider:

• Type. Look for carbohydrates that come from whole, minimally processed foods, including beans, lentils, quinoa, brown rice and whole wheat pasta and bread. Avoid carbs found in highly processed grains, desserts and sugar-sweetened beverages.
• Timing. You don’t want your blood sugar to get too high or too low. That means you shouldn’t go long stretches without eating. Often, when people skip meals, their blood sugar plummets, leaving them to crave carbs and overeat as a result. Plan to eat something every three to five hours – three meals and two snacks (more on this later) each day.
• Portion. When you assemble your meal plate, half of it should be non-starchy vegetables, including broccoli, asparagus and salad greens. One-fourth should be proteins. And one-fourth should be carbs, including whole grains, beans, lentils and quinoa.
• Pairing. The power of pairing is that it offsets one of the problems with carbohydrates, which tend to break down quickly, putting sugar into your bloodstream faster than your body can handle it. When those carbs are paired with protein and fiber, it slows your body’s digestion and prevents spikes in your blood sugar.

What’s a Snack?

When you hear the word “snack,” you may be tempted to think of a bag of chips or package of cookies. But when you are focused on nutrition, you need to rethink what this word means.

Rather than a sugary or salty treat, a snack is meant to be small meal that tides you over until the next time you eat. The ideal snack will have both protein and carbohydrates. And where a meal might have 45 to 75 grams of carbs, your snack will have about 15 grams.

The goal is keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day. Remember to include protein with your carbs, even with your snacks. Some good examples include Greek yogurt and berries or trail mix with dried fruit and nuts.

Reading a Nutrition Label

Carbohydrate content is an important piece of information on nutrition labels. For each meal, you should have a target for your carb intake – 45 to 60 grams for women and 60 to 75 grams for men. If you are aiming for weight loss, stick to the lower end of the range. If you are trying to maintain your weight, go with the higher end.

Keep in mind that you pick up carbs from more than just breads, pastas and other starchy foods. You also find carbs in fruit and dairy products, so you need to count those as well.

You should also look for “added sugars.” There’s no rule of thumb for added sugars, but when you have a choice (say, between two different yogurts), go with the product that has less added sugar. Also look for products that are higher in protein and fiber. For example, if you are looking at two different loaves of bread, pick the one that has more fiber and more protein.

This content is not AI generated.