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Diabetes diet: Create your healthy-eating plan
Your diabetes diet is simply a healthy-eating plan that will help you control your blood sugar. Here's help getting started, from meal planning to exchange lists and counting carbohydrates.
By Mayo Clinic staffHaving diabetes doesn't mean that you have to start eating special foods or follow a complicated diabetes diet plan. For most people, a diabetes diet simply translates into eating a variety of foods in moderate amounts and sticking to regular mealtimes.
This means choosing a diet that emphasizes vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Consistency also is key, because your body responds to excess calories and fat by creating an undesirable rise in blood sugar. Rather than a restrictive diet, a diabetes diet is a healthy-eating plan that's naturally rich in nutrients and low in fat and calories. In fact, it's the best eating plan for everyone.
Planning your meals
Your meal plan is an eating guide that helps you:
- Establish a routine for eating meals
- Choose the healthiest foods in the right amounts at each meal
If you stick to your meal plan and watch your serving sizes, you'll eat about the same amount of carbohydrates and calories every day. This helps control your blood sugar and your weight. On the flip side, the more you vary what you eat — especially the amount of carbohydrates — the harder it is to control your blood sugar.
If you're already eating a variety of healthy foods, you may simply need to adjust portion sizes to keep your blood sugar (glucose) under control.
A dietitian can help
Ask your doctor for a referral to a registered dietitian. A visit with a registered dietitian can provide you valuable information on how to change your eating habits and help you meet goals such as:
- Controlling overeating
- Making better food choices
- Losing weight
A dietitian can help tailor your diet based on your health goals, tastes and lifestyle. You may need to follow a more deliberate plan — eating only a recommended number of servings from each food group every day.
Using exchange lists
A dietitian may recommend using the exchange system, which groups foods into categories — such as starches, fruits, meats and meat substitutes, and fats.
One serving in a group is called an "exchange." An exchange has about the same amount of carbohydrates, protein, fat and calories — and the same effect on your blood sugar — as a serving of every other food in the same group. So, for example, you could exchange — or trade — either of the following for one carbohydrate serving:
- 1 small apple
- 1/3 cup of cooked pasta
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