If you have diabetes, it is imperative that you structure a diabetes diet plan for yourself and start to incorporate it into your daily life. Diabetes is a chronic condition, but it can be managed with careful food choices and with insulin injections. Adopting a diabetes diet plan can help make your experience more bearable.
Typically, diabetes does not just happen overnight. There is often a transition from relatively good health to having diabetes. That transition tends to be marked by a condition known as pre-diabetes. During pre-diabetes, an individual experiences elevated blood glucose levels, but they are not as high as those experienced in full-blown diabetes. Because pre diabetes is exacerbated by the same conditions as diabetes, it is imperative for those suffering from it to adopt a diet plan for pre diabetes. Not surprisingly, this diet plan has to be based on the same principles that a diet plan for diabetes would be based on.
The Pre Diabetes Diet Plan
Diabetics and pre diabetics alike should design diet plans that minimize their sugar, fat and calorie intake without compromising their nutritional needs. In order to do this well, they have to learn about basic nutrition. This involves understanding the basic food groups and the roles they play in the body. It also requires an understanding of the difference between highly refined foods and minimally processed foods once they are ingested.
The ideal pre diabetes or diabetes diet plan will eliminate deep fried foods and highly refined carbohydrates from the diet, replacing them with baked, poached, grilled and stewed foods and minimally-processed carbohydrates. The ideal pre diabetes or diabetes diet plan will also increase the intake of plant-based foods, including fresh fruits, vegetables and lentils. They will emphasize the importance of a diet high in natural fiber. In addition, they will encourage the ingestion of foods containing unsaturated fats. These include avocadoes, nuts, sunflower seeds, flaxseed, trout, and salmon. Cooking with vegetable oils like olive oil, sunflower oil and canola oil in place of shortening or animal fat will also be encouraged.
An important part of designing the right diet plan is learning one’s own nutritional idiosyncrasies. Few people share the same nutritional profile. Generally, people’s needs vary, as do their tastes, preferences, allergies, and intolerances. Taking the time to monitor which foods cause distress and eliminating them from the diet is important. Including in the diet those foods that promote health and well-being is equally important. The goal is to design a diet plan that one will readily follow without coercion.
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