Foods That Diabetics Can Eat:

Attaining Diabetic Health With
Education and Planning

Finding some foods that diabetics can eat is really not that difficult. The different part, for your own diabetic health is you need to learn how to mix and match the different food groups to attain a balance in blood sugar levels. Once you have learned this, meal planning will become very easy.

What Constitutes A Good Diabetic Meal

By using this next formula, mix and match foods from all the different food groups daily. Without even knowing anything about diabetes, you can come up with a pretty good meal. So where do you start to find foods that diabetics can eat...?

Take one dinner plate and fill 1/2 of it with 1 cup of raw non-starchy vegetables. Most of these vegetables are the type you find on a salad bar such as lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, zucchini plus many more. If you desire, you may add 1/2 cup of cooked vegetables to this side of the plate also. So if you like steamed carrots, broccoli, cabbage etc. feel free to add this to your 1/2 plate.

Do you feel overwhelmed by all those items in the produce department and have no idea what you are supposed to do with all of those selections. Help, advise, recipes and nutrition information on the common vegetable varieties has been expertly offered by the Hidden Valley Ranch dressing company.

Next 1/4 of your plate will be the starches and grains group. This includes brown rice or pasta, bread products, white potatoes, corn or sweet peas. All of your grains products should be whole grains. Any of your starchy vegetables you must learn to control your portion sizes. This is because all starches change to sugars in your digestive system when they are broken down for the body's use. These are called carbohydrates, which have a tendency to initiate high blood sugars if not eaten in moderation.

The final 1/4 of your plate is now available for an item from the meat group. Pick any item high in protein but low in fat. Some good choices are poultry without the skin, fresh cold-water fish such as salmon or mackerel, lean cuts of beef or pork such as pork loin or flank steak. The less visible fat or marbling you see makes the choice a better selection of foods that diabetics can eat.

Add to this one serving of low-fat or nonfat dairy products and one serving of fresh fruit and you now have a balanced meal with excellent selections of foods that diabetics can eat.

Food Exchanges

Some other easy food exchanges for foods diabetics can eat include the following:

• low fat or nonfat hard cheeses

• olive oil, flaxseed, walnut, sesame, peanut or macadamia oils

• try to stop using all cow's milk and change to rice, hemp, almond, goat or oat milk for healthier options

• always keep your ground meat selections at 3 oz or less per serving. Purchase 90 to 95% lean ground turkey, ground beef or ground pork. Use fat free turkey dogs (2 pieces) or 1 regular hot dog for a serving

Great Snacking Combination

• 1/2 cup cantaloupe (or fruit of your choice) and 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese

• 1/2 cup carrot sticks with 1/2 cup hummus

• 1/2 large banana smeared with 1T fresh peanut butter

• 1 small apple with a low fat piece of string cheese

• 1/2 peeled red grapefruit into sections with 12 whole almonds

As you can tell the principle here is try to serve 1 carbohydrate choice with 1 source of good protein or good fats. If you always try to conform to this formula for your new plan of foods that diabetics can eat, you will over the long term notice a drop in your blood sugar levels, a reduction in your weight, better cholesterol, lower blood pressure, blood sugar and blood fats numbers and all you did was eat normally and still reap the rewards of better diabetic health.

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