Thursday, July 14, 2011

The Healthiest Diet If You Have Diabetes

By Richard Horowitz


Diabetes is a challenging illness that affects a very large number of people. If you have any type of diabetes, or another problem involving your blood sugar, it's crucial to watch your diet carefully. The first place you should go for nutritional advice, of course, is your doctor, who can give you the basic guidelines you should follow. One problem is that it can be hard to stick to your recommended diet day after day, even if you know it's good for you. As a diabetic, you can improve the quality of your life by paying close attention to your diet every day. Nutrition can make a big difference with an illness such as diabetes, so let's look at some of the factors you should be aware of if you have this problem.

One factor you should always be looking at before you eat anything is the glycemic index. This index gives you an easy system to find out, at a single glance at the number, if something is safe for you to eat. If you want to know how a food will affect your blood sugar (and you have to know this as a diabetic), you'd use the glycemic index. The main consideration has to do with the kind of carbohydrates the food is composed of. You can ask your doctor, nutritionist or other medical practitioner for more information about this. If you want to eat as healthy as possible, you should always consult a glycemic index table when shopping or cooking your meals.

It was once believed that, as a diabetic, sugar was something you must avoid at all times. It's certainly have to watch your intake of sugar, but today doctors often tell their diabetic patients that it's okay to eat it in limited quantities. The fact is, sugar doesn't really have an effect on the blood sugar that's any different from ordinary starches that most people eat every day. Starches or carbs, then, will make your blood sugar level go up, just as sugar does. That's why you have to limit the amount of sugar (or carbohydrates) that you eat, but that doesn't mean you have to avoid it completely. Depending on your current state of health, your doctor may advise you to restrict sugar to a greater or lesser extent.

The TLC diet is something that you may have heard of, or your doctor may have told you about, as many diabetics follow it. This is a good diet to follow if reducing your cholesterol levels is a priority. There are certain actions you can take that will increase the effectiveness of this type of diet. If you're trying to lose weight, which is a common issue for diabetics, then you should also be exercising. As you may know, there are two types of cholesterol, and the kind you want to reduce is LDL cholesterol, the harmful kind. You should be raising your HDL cholesterol, the good or helpful type.

You can get more specific nutritional and lifestyle advice from your doctor, who will take into consideration your specific case. You can manage the illness so that it doesn't limit your enjoyment of life. You have to be vigilant about your diet, as eating the wrong foods can have serious consequences. Your meals must be chosen carefully, and you have to be aware of everything that's included. You may or may not want to stick to one diet for all time. The challenge is to discover which foods keep your blood sugar at a safe level.




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