Good Diabetic Foods

Are you looking for good diabetic foods? You have come to the right place! Well, we don’t sell them, no; but let’s talk about them!

You may have been diagnosed with diabetes and need to radically change your diet. You may have been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. You may just want to prevent diabetes! That’s the best, of course; but we start from where we are, not from where we wish we were!

Maybe you want to help someone else who has diabetes…

We’re not going to be breaking any new ground here with great and wonderful revelations about how you can eat all the sugar you want and still keep your diabetes under control! No, we’re too “for real” for that!

Quick Diabetes Summary

I’m not a doctor or dietitian, but here’s just a quick summary of what I have gleaned about what diabetes is, what causes it, and what can be done about it.

There are two types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. We’re only going to focus on Type 2.

With Type 2 diabetes, your cells do not respond normally to the insulin created by your pancreas. This is called “insulin resistance.” Your pancreas tries to make more insulin to compensate. Your pancreas can’t produce all the insulin needed, and your blood sugar begins to rise. As your blood sugar rises, pre-diabetes develops, and if left unchecked, becomes full-blown diabetes. It develops without symptoms for many people; a blood test will tell if you have it.

You’re in Charge

If anything can be called “cool” about a serious disease, the cool thing about diabetes is that you have more ability to keep it in check than most other serious illnesses. It’s done by lifestyle and diet! Depending on the level of severity of your diabetes, your doctor may prescribe insulin, but still, the bulk of the control is done by you by controlling your diet and a few other factors including exercise.

The Diet Plan

A diabetic diet is actually a good diet for everyone! It is possible that it’s the lack of proper eating that brought about your diabetic condition in the first place. Hey – it’s the easiest thing not to eat right, so understood if that is the case. But if you start now with a good diet, you will be able to keep your diabetes in control and actually improve it. Yes, according to “experts,” you can actually improve your diabetes!

Here are the cornerstone foods of a good diabetic diet:

• Carbohydrates. No, a diabetes diet does not mean you cannot eat carbs! But obviously, they need to be complex carbs, that turn into sugars more slowly and at a more even pace. Whole grains and legumes have complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
  • Brown rice
  • Whole grain bread
  • Quinoa
  • Oats
  • Barley
  • Legumes, like beans and peas.
• Fruit. Fruit is an excellent source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber! The fruits you choose need to be of the kind that have the lowest effect on the glycemic index. This means they are the least likely to cause a rapid spike or drop in blood sugar levels. These fruits would include:
  • All kinds of berries: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries
  • Citrus fruit
  • Pears
  • Apples
• Vegetables. Pick the non-starchy ones, which are high in fiber and nutrition, but low in calories!
  • Tomatoes
  • Cabbage
  • Broccoli
  • Cauliflower
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Carrots
  • Peppers
  • Spinach
  • Collards
  • Kale, etc.
• Nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds help stave off hunger pangs and contain magnesium, fiber, and Omega-3 fatty acids.
  • Flax
  • Sunflower seeds
  • Walnuts
  • Almonds
  • And more!
• Fatty fish – high in Omega-3s.
  • Salmon
  • Sardines
  • Mackerel
  • Tuna
• Low-fat dairy products – sources of calcium and help control levels of blood sugar
  • Milk
  • Yogurt (low-sugar)
  • Low-fat cheeses – such as cottage cheese
• Good fats – monounsaturated and polyunsaturated to keep cholesterol levels down
  • Avocados
  • Nuts
  • Canola, olive, and peanut oils.

A Few Additional Notes…

Even though the diabetes diet is in many ways similar to, for example, the heart-healthy diet, there are a few points to especially consider related to diabetes:

• Control stress. Stress makes managing the disease harder.
• Regular physical activity and exercise are very helpful! (not unique to diabetes, actually…)
• Eat the healthiest foods in moderate amounts.
• Eat at regular intervals. The American Diabetes Association says 3 regular meals plus up to 2 low-carbohydrate and nutrient-dense snacks This helps prevent extreme swings in blood sugar levels.
• Avoid foods with added sugar or sodium.

Very Simple

With a good diabetic diet, as with most other “special” diets, the simpler and less complex the dishes you make, the easier it is to actually meet the conditions of the diet.

Casseroles, a mish-mash of all kinds of foods, prepared foods off the shelf with a long list of ingredients, and recipes with 20 different ingredients – make it more difficult to control the types of food you are eating. and the quantity of each food item.

Hey, I like casseroles – they are, for the most part, delicious! But a half-cup of pinto beans, a half-cup of cottage cheese, a cup of blueberries…makes life much simpler if you want a handle on your nutritional intake.

And simple foods are far easier and more straightforward to prepare!

Budget-Friendly

The list of diabetic foods does contain some more expensive items like salmon and avocados.

Learn to like beans! I don’t want to get all “preachy” here, but beans are an amazing food! Learn to like them! They are extremely cheap to buy, especially if you buy them dry and go through the steps to rinse, soak and boil them for the necessary amount of time.

Beans could save the world from starvation, that’s how amazing they are! Hey, I can’t say that for sure; other foods would certainly help as well! Here we are really being a “stuck record,” but rice, too; and oatmeal. Cheap, cheap, cheap! Get cheaper fruits (apples) and vegetables (say, carrots). They’re not glamorous, I know, and maybe not your favorite – but they do the job!

But look over the list; no need to break the bank because you are diabetic, that’s for sure! Just pick the foods you can afford! Fortunately, that’s true for most diets. The least expensive foods are often the healthiest of all.

In Summary…

If you are struggling to control your diabetes, and are fighting your way through, my heart goes out to you. Just like with any serious disease, the challenges can appear daunting. But take courage! Diabetes is easier to control than many other diseases. Diet is huge! The fact is that diabetes is exceptionally controllable with changes in diet, in particular. I’m not a doctor; I have some thoughts, of course, and I can glean information – but you do your own research!

If you have any comments or questions about the topic of good diabetic foods, or anything else related to controlling diabetes, please feel free to share in the comments below!

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