Diabetic Food Plan - What Shoud You Eat and Not to Eat?

Diabetic Food Plan - What Shoud You Eat and Not to Eat?

So, your Doctor says you are now a diabetic, and has put you on oral medication for it. Now what? Well, prudently answered, your goal is now to regulate what you eat and should not eat.

How to decide

Deciding how to go about adhering to the diabetic food plan means that first, you should arm yourself with a personalized in-depth exchange list consisting of a list of foods that are measured by carbohydrates, and what the portion sizes are. There are various diabetic meal plans available to guide you what to eat and what not to eat. Most of them consist of planning centered around carbohydrates, since carbs will influence your blood sugars the most, causing rises and dips that you wish to avoid. Instead, you will desire to follow a consistent plan that keeps your blood sugars in the "acceptable range." Your doctor will advise you of what the ranges are for yourself.

The American Diabetes Association

This association will hold seminars in most major hospitals that will become invaluable to you in making out your meal plan and adhering to it. Usually a highly knowledgeable registered dietitian runs these seminars, and truthfully they are highly informative and are even fun to take. The American Dietetic Association also sets workable diabetic food plan guidelines for you.

What's on an exchange list?

. Exchange lists work in a different way than weight reduction lists do because the diabetes diet plan is based not just on the on the diabetic's ideal weight, but age, activity levels and even occupation. This is why you are counseled to take a seminar and meet with a registered dietitian. This way your exchange list is made according to your personal specifications.

Special Needs

Knowing what your special needs are and how you react to different foods to eat is also important for a perfect diabetic food plan. One person's blood sugar will rise drastically with dairy products, while another has rice as their blood sugar nemesis. Only experience will let you know which foods make your high blood sugar levels rise more than another persons. Simply keep a diary of what foods were eaten when you notice through self-testing that your blood sugars rise exceptionally high when you eat XYZ. You then may adjust your exchange list accordingly.

Panic!

It's human nature that one of the first reactions to being told you are a diabetic is panic, but at this point you should realize that there is a tremendous amount of knowledge out there, and an even greater amount of help available to you at every turn. Thus, panic is not necessary, but instead if you'll perform methodical Internet searches and arm yourself with knowledge you'll deal extremely well with diabetes and find that it does not truly alter your life.