Diet is the central point of diabetes management. Good meal plan must be suitable for person's goals, tastes, lifestyle and medications he/she takes.
There are different recommendations for diabetes meal planning, but the general principles can be as described below.
MEAL COUNT PER DAY
The consistency of meals time is important and it helps managing blood glucose levels.
Three main meals are planning thought the day. The time between them must be no more than 6 hours.
If the person feels starvation between meals, it's acceptable to add snacks.
When snacking, it's important to wait at least 2 hoursThe best waiting time between meals is 2-3 hours.
As for diabetes also for general healthy eating the main component is breackfast and it mustn't be missed.
The example of meal timing can be like this:
- 09:00 - breackfast
- 11:30 - snack
- 14:00 - lunch
- 16:30 - snack
- 19:00 - dinner
DIABETES MENU
The meal for each person is individual.
Universal diet plan for everyone doesn't exist.
Meal plans for several days can be very boring and unsatisfied for some individuals.
It's much more effective to give more freedom in choosing between products which are considered to be diabetes friendly.
Every person should know how different food in certain time affects blood glucose levels.
To gather this information the best way is using the glycemic monitoring.
Here are the steps how to make this work:
- The blood glucose level should be checked before eating and it must be below 130 mg/dl.
- 2 hours after eating the blood glucose is checked again, if the level is below 180 mg/dlthis food can be freely eaten in future in the same amount. If the blood glucose level is slightly above this target range, the food amount must be lowered and if the dish causes a sharp increase in blood sugar, it is advisable to remove it from the diet.
TO CHOOSE ON EACH MEAL OF THE DAY
Here is an example of which products suit the each meal of the day.
breackfast: egg, whole grain products, oatmeal, avocado, chia seed, nuts, fruit, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese and milk with low fat, vegetables, tea and coffee without sugar.
Lunch: low fat meat, fish, whole grain, rice, vegetable, milk products, fruit, legumes, mushroom, healthy fats.
Dinner: meat, fish, vegetables, milk, dairy products.
Snacks: fruit, vegetables, dairy products with low fat or other protein containing foods.
CARBS COUNT
If there is no different recommendations from personal doctor, reasonable amount of carb per main meals is 45-60 g, for snacks - 20-30 g.
Carbs per day will be 180-240 g.
If the goal is the to lower body mass along with diabetes management, it's better to choose lower carbs amount.
1 g carbs contain 4 kcal.
The main source of carbs are:
- grains, sugar, vegetables, fruit, dairy, legumes.
You must remember that carb are the main target group in diabetes management due to there ability to increase blood glucose level in a direct way. So it's important not only counting, but choosing the right type of them as well. You should avoid simple carb and use the more complex ones. For more information about this food group, see the article: CARBOHYDRATES.
Containing carbs in some popular products:
| name | carbs count per 100 g |
|---|---|
| whole grain bread | 42 g |
| white bread | 50 g |
| pasta spagetti | 31 g |
| white rice | 34 g |
| basmati rice | 25 g |
| blown rice | 23 g |
| oatmeal | 12 g |
| buckwheat | 17 g |
| wheat flour | 82 g |
| corn flour | 82 g |
| potato | 20 g |
| bean | 23 g |
| milk | 5 g |
| carrots | 10 g |
| beetroot | 10 g |
| apple | 14 g |
| banana | 23 g |
| kiwi | 15 g |
| orange | 12 g |
| pear | 15 g |
The article: Your favourite sweet in diabetes meal - yes or no?
PROTEIN COUNT
Protein amount is defend in some different factors, such as: age, sex, physical activity level, etc. One of the important things are kidney function.
If the kidneys are working properly, the protein daily amount can be 1-1.5 g/kg. For example, person whose weight is 70 kg, can eat 70-105 g protein/day.
If the kidney failure is present, the recommended protein amount is no more than 0.8 g/kg/day. (For 70 kg person it will be 56g/day).
1 g protein contain 4 kcal.
The main source of protein are:
- animal sources: meat, poultry, fish, egg, dairy products.
- plant sources: nuts, legumes, mushrooms.
Protein amount in some popular food:
| name | protein count per 100 g |
|---|---|
| red meat | 26 g |
| poultry | 11 g |
| fish | 22 g |
| egg | 13 g |
| milk | 4 g |
| cheese | 25 g |
| cottage cheese | 11 g |
| legumes | 6-20 g |
| mushroom | 4 g |
| nuts | 20 g |
FATS COUNT
The average daily amount of fat in diabetes meal planning can be 45-78 g. and the saturated fats between them no more than 10 g a day.
The source of unsaturated (good) fat are:
- avocado
- almond, walnuts, peanuts
- olive and its oil
- oily fish
- flax seeds and their oil
- chia seed
- sunflower seed and their oils
Product with saturated ''bad'' fat which usage must be limited are:
- fatty meat, sausage, beacon
- dairy products containing more than 2% fat
- butter
- dressings
- meat and bone broths
- poultry skin
- palm oil
- coconut oil
- margarines
- all ready to use food which contains trance food.
1 g of fat containes 9 kcal.
| name | fat count per 100 g |
|---|---|
| avocado | 14,7 g |
| nuts | 50-70 g |
| olive | 10,7 g |
| fish | 7-10 g |
| chia seed | 27 g |
One of the diabetes meal planning methods is so called '' diabetes plate''.
HOW TO MAKE DIABETES PLATE
This is the simple visual method of filling plate, without counting grams and kcal.
How it's done:
- We take plate with diameters of 23 cm.
- We visually divide it in two parts. And one of them we can fill with vegetables without containing starch.
- The second half of the plate is also divided in two parts. One of them may be filled with protein containing products and the other is for carbs.
- For drink we can use water or drinks without sugar and calories.
Fruits can be incorporated with vegetables or with carbs.
Fats can be part of different products, such as fish, egg, dairy, nuts, avocado, olive and so on.
INCORPORATING OF NEW MEAL PLANNING
It's very hard process to change the lifestyle radically. For most it can be even impossible at the first look.
For such cases it would be better to implement the changes gradually step by step.
For the first time it can be chosen one or more recommendations which will be done from today. After feeling comfortable with this changes, you can come back and choose another goal.
Author: Elga Giorgadze (MD of Endocrinology)
