Diabetes Nutrition
One of the major things that have an effect in diabetes is food; it is also a strong factor in preventing complications. Foods are mainly made up of nutrients, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Each type of nutrient has its an effect on glucose.
The effect of these nutrients when taken depends on the total amount in your diet and an individual’s metabolism. When you monitor your blood sugar level and the better you correlate the results with hat you have eaten before the test, the better of you knowing the short term and the long term effects of carbohydrates and sugar on your glucose.
Carbohydrates
Sugars and starches are what carbohydrates are made of; carbohydrates build and repairs body tissues and regulate body functions. There are two major types of carbohydrates: the simple and the complex.
Simple carbohydrates are those found in sugars such as lactose (milk), glucose, fructose (fruits and vegetables), and sucrose (beet or cane sugar). Complex carbohydrates contain one or more type of sugar. These are found in bread, pasta, rice, and some vegetables such as potatoes and corn.
***The ADA recommends that you and your health care team decide exactly how much carbohydrate you will eat in a day. Knowing this can help you better predict what your blood glucose is going to do.
Fiber
This is a kind of carbohydrate that can be found in grains, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. This is a part if a vegetable that cannot be digested. Since it cannot be absorbed, it does not contain calories. Fibre is good to eat if you are trying to loose weight.
***The ADA recommends that you get 20 to 35 grams of fiber per day. This recommendation is the same whether you have diabetes or not.
Proteins
The basic building block of a human life is protein. It is used to repair and create tissues. The most important body tissues are composed of protein; from bones, muscles, organs, and chemicals such as neurotransmitters and hormones. Protein provides energy if there is no carbohydrates.
***The ADA recommends that you get 10 to 20 percent of your daily calories from protein. If you have kidney disease, ADA recommends that you get about 10 percent of your daily calories from protein.
Fat
There are two types of fat: saturated and unsaturated fat. Saturated fat can be solid at room temperature, and it comes from animal by-products such as eggs, milks, meat, and etc. Unsaturated fat comes from vegetable product like olive oil, safflower oil, coconut oil, and palm oil. It is liquid at room temperature.
***The ADA recommends:
If your fat levels are normal and you are not overweight
Get 30 percent or less of calories from fat.
Get less than 10 percent of calories from unsaturated fat.If you have high LDL cholesterol levels
Get 30 percent or less of calories from fat.
Get less than 7 percent of calories from saturated fat.If you are overweight
Get 20 to 25 percent of calories from fat.
Cholesterol
Cholesterol is not fat, but it works with the fat in the body. It is a substance that can get into the blood stream via two routes: manufactured normally by lover and intestines, or from the food intake. Whole dairy milk products, eggs, and fatty red meat are considered as high in cholesterol.
***The ADA recommends that you eat less than 300 milligrams of cholesterol per day. If you have high LDL cholesterol levels, eat less than 200 milligrams per day.
Look for food labels for the amount of total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and calorie level in a serving of a product. Compare similar products to find one with smallest amount. If you have high blood pressure, do the same thing for sodium. Choose foods low in saturated fat. Limit the use of the products that lists fat or oil ingredients.
Aside from nutrition and the ingredients list, some labels make claims such as "low fat" or "light". These vague terms are applied loosely and often have little meaning. Aside from the nutrition information required by law, labels are usually designed not to inform but to sell a product. State and federal statutes require that labels be truthful, but they are often misleading and fail to tell the whole story.
For example:Natural: This literally means anything in nature. Everything existing on this planet is natural, including poisons.
Low Calorie: If the caloric content per serving is less than 40 and the food has less than 0.4 calories per gram, a food may be classified as low calorie, even if all the calories are from fats and simple sugars.
Lean: If the product contains 25 percent fewer calories than the standard product of the manufacturers, it qualifies for the lean designation.
No Artificial Flavors: This category may ignore artificial preservatives, many of which are highly allergenic and possibly carcinogenic.
No Cholesterol: May not contain cholesterol, but can be high in saturated fats that stimulate body cholesterol metabolism.
Serving Size: Manufacturers often make the serving size smaller than what is usually considered to be a normal portion. This makes calorie and fat content appear to be less than they really are.
Sugar Free: This designation usually refers only to the sucrose content. Honey and fructose, for example, which are also sugars, are exempted from this designation.
Non-fat: If the fat content per serving is less than 0.5 per gram, the fat content can be ignored. If the serving size is small, the food may contain significant amounts of fat and yet bear a label that loudly proclaims it to be free of fat.
May contain one or more of the following fats: Always assume that it contains the worst hydrogenated fat or saturated fat listed.
Shortening: Usually indicates a saturated fat or vegetable oil that has been made solid by hydrogenation.