Blood Sugar Control

Taming The Everyday Roller Coaster Ride
To Future Complications

For many people, blood sugar control can be an exasperating affair. It seems like no matter how hard they try, something obviously must be wrong. The numbers just never seem to be in the range your health care team recommended. Therefore from a "lifetime of trial and error", here is some of the tricks that seem to have helped me obtain better diabetic health.

• Do not eat three large or regular meals each day. Break up your food intake into 5-6 mini meals. You end up taking in approximately the same amount of calories because you eat small amounts with each meal. Some health care teams call this program "grazing".

• Obviously your choice of foods to eat makes a big difference. Avoid all the sugars from pastries, candy, sodas etc., except for an occasional treat for yourself. All of these are just tons of empty calories and most have absolutely no nutrition. Yes, fresh fruits and vegetables are still your best bets for effective blood sugar control. Sit down and eat an entire dinner plate full of steamed broccoli for only 70 calories. Take one bite of a candy bar- guess what, 70 calories. So what if you are not a broccoli fan. Change off and on to many vegetable selections for a larger than normal portion for the heavy eater. Be wary though, some vegetables such as corn, white rice, white potatoes and eggplant are simple starches to your blood sugars which means over-consumption is going to lead to blood sugar spikes.

• Many people believe they must avoid fresh fruits since they are also high in natural sugars. The operative word here was "natural". Yes, they will still raise your blood sugars (especially the highly sweet tropical fruits like pineapple, mango etc.) but all of these fruits are much higher in fiber also. Fiber helps to stabilize the quantity of sugars you are ingesting during your meal. Also fruits are packed full of advantageous vitamins and minerals which are necessary for your body's health and well-being. So instead of eliminating all fresh fruits, try instead adding back some of those which do not raise your blood sugars so quickly, then eat the others just in smaller quantities spread out over the whole day. By balancing your quantities over more time, you get effective blood sugar control plus the wealth of nutrition packed inside each bite.

• If you do have a big problem with fruits and vegetables and just can not get adjusted to eating them, get inventive. Think juicing. Try combinations of different fruits and vegetables in a good quality juicer, add ice cubes, non-fat plain yogurt, a couple of spices like cinnamon or nutmeg etc. and you can have a smoothie. Neither the fruits nor the vegetables care if you eat them on a plate or in a glass. The amount of nutrition your body receives from one is equal to the other.

• Soluble fiber in any type of food is one of the absolute best food choices you can make for your body. Other than many vegetables and fruits, try adding many of the beans varieties such as white beans, kidney beans or black beans to your daily diet. All foods high in soluble fiber have the advantage of stabilizing blood sugar levels to an even keel without the wide swings of high and lows common in many other foods. Remember though, beans are also high in simple starches, so add them into your diet for nutrition but be careful about over-extending the serving sizes.

• Eat sparingly the white potatoes, regular sweet peas, sweet corn, red beets and many of the root vegetables. Although they are excellent sources of vitamins and minerals, they also pack more sugars in each bite than many other varieties. Do not delete them from your diet therefore, just observe portion control carefully and never use two of them during the same meal/same day. Actually, it is best if you can use this type only two or three times per week as a treat for your diet.

• Change your choices of fatty meats (ground beef, sausages, bacon and high fat steaks and chops) to lower fat versions instead. Consume more chicken and turkey, free-range, grass-fed as an excellent choice of protein.

• High fat milk and dairy products are very high in fats and sugars. Reduce to lowfat or skim varieties for easier blood sugar control.

• Add a good quality vitamin and mineral supplement to your daily diet. Diabetes leads to increased urination which depletes your body's stores of valuable nutrients.

• Add a low impact but continuous exercise program to your daily routine. Even with doing absolutely nothing else, exercise alone has the capabilities of reducing insulin resistance which leads to better blood sugar control.

• Organize and reduce your daily stress levels. Added stress causes a release of cortisol, a hormone which raises your blood sugar levels. By reducing your stress and anxiety, you have better control over blood sugars.

• Avoid white breads, white flour in gravies, pastries, pastas etc. like the plague. Other than the fact there is very little nutrition contained within any of them (because of the process of milling the flour), they also will send your blood sugars soaring very easily.

  Add 100% whole grains in your breads, whole wheat pastas etc.. Some people mention they can't seem to quite get accustomed to the nutty flavors of most of the pastas.

  Two easy choices, try a few different brands, some do have flavors very similar to the white pasta varieties or mix them up. Try 1/2 white pasta with 1/2 whole wheat. As you become accustomed to the flavor, you can add more whole wheat if you desire.

Newer to the market is a brand of pasta called Dreamfields Pasta. Because of a difference in milling processes, Dreamfields actually can be ingested without the sharp spikes in your blood sugar levels. So rejoice, because you can now add regular serving sizes of many shapes of pasta back onto your weekly menu program at intervals. Just remember though, pasta is still pasta, extra-large servings and to much frequency is still going to defeat your purpose of effective control.

So effective blood sugar control is really not as difficult as you once believed. Make a few little changes as you go, adding another quick variation every few days to each week and soon you will notice you don't seem to be fighting the merry-go-round of blood sugar control quite as much as before.

Return to "Symptoms Of Diabetes" from "Blood Sugar Control"
Return to "Treatment For Diabetes"

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*Disclaimer*
This site is not intended to replace the advice and supervision of your professional medical treatment plan. Although all of the information is true and accurate to the best of our knowledge, we still recommend you carefully check all food labels before consuming any food product. We can not assume any legal responsibility for any illness obtained while following the advice contained on this site.