your fork and bigger your bite when you eat, the less you will probably eat. Translation: weight loss!
And losing weight is one of the best ways to manage type 2 diabetes. In fact, losing as little as 10-15 pounds is enough to improve blood sugar levels.
Weight loss can also decrease insulin resistance in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, which means you may require less oral diabetes medications and/or insulin to control blood sugar levels. So open wide and eat up.
Make Fat Your Friend
Many people with diabetes (and lots of folks without it) believe fat is harmful. However, research has shown that replacing carbs with healthy fat reduces triglycerides – the major storage form fat in the blood, and after-meal blood sugar. So go ahead and include moderate amounts of healthy fats such as those found in avocados, and olive and canola oils.
Don’t be a Slave to Snacks
People with diabetes used to be encouraged to eat every few hours to keep their energy up and control blood sugar. But for some people, snacking just means more opportunities to overeat.
Years ago, when there were few diabetes medications, snacking was required to avoid low blood sugar. Today, there are so many options for oral medication and insulin that snacking is rarely necessary.
Go Nuts at Every Meal
Eating a daily dose of nuts has been shown to help maintain healthy levels of blood sugar and cholesterol. You can add chopped almonds to Greek yogurt and sprinkle with cinnamon for breakfast; at lunch add peanuts as a side to a sandwich and at dinner sprinkle walnuts on salad or top baked fish with walnuts or pistachios. Nuts aren’t low in calories, so trying using nuts in the shell. You’ll eat fewer if you have to crack each one open.
Use the Plate Method
The “plate method” can take much of the stress out of diabetes meal planning. When you serve yourself a meal, make half your plate non-starchy vegetables, like spinach, cabbage, collards, or broccoli; fill a quarter of your plate with starchy vegetables, like potatoes, rice or pasta; and fill the last quarter with fish, poultry or meat.
Constance Brown-Riggs, is a registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator, national speaker and author of the Diabetes Guide to Enjoying Foods of the World, a convenient guide to help people with diabetes enjoy all the flavors of the world while still following a healthy meal plan. Follow Constance on social media @eatingsoulfully