96

13

1

552

662

Controlling Blood Sugar at Meals

Controlling blood sugar starts with controlling your diet. To do so, you need to develop healthy eating and smart lifestyle habits.

By Chris Iliades, MD

Medically reviewed by Farrokh Sohrabi, MD

Controlling blood sugar is the key to controlling diabetes. With type 2 diabetes, controlling blood sugar is difficult because your body is resistant to insulin. Insulin resistance keeps your body's cells from being able to use and store sugar from your diet. But by watching what and how much you eat and when, you can effectively control your blood sugar and manage diabetes.

How important is the right diet for controlling blood sugar in diabetes? A recent study published in the journal The Lancet compared newly diagnosed people with type 2 diabetes assigned to a standard diabetes diet to newly diagnosed people assigned to an “intensive” diet. The intensive diet group had monthly nurse support and teaching. After six months, the intensive diet group had improved their blood sugar control, while the standard group’s control had actually gotten worse.

Controlling Blood Sugar With Diet: The Basics

"The first thing you need to do is sit down with your doctor or a dietitian to find the right number of calories for your individual diet," says Shannon Knapp, RN, CDE, a certified diabetes educator at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. The number of calories you need will partly depend on your actual body weight compared to your ideal body weight.

Here are healthy-diet tips that Knapp uses to help people with diabetes manage and monitor their blood sugar better:

• Eat three meals a day spaced about four to five hours apart. "And try to eat at about the same time every day," Knapp says.
• Don't skip meals.
• Avoid “drinking” sugar. "Sugar-added drinks deplete your allowable calories without adding nutrients to your diet," Knapp explains.
• Watch your portions. "Try the Idaho Plate Method for portion control. You fill your plate with one-half non-starchy vegetables, one-fourth starch, and one-fourth protein,” Knapp says “And you can add a small serving of fruit and dairy."
• Coordinating your medications with your meal time is also important for controlling blood sugar, but talk to your doctor first. "Some medications are taken before meals, some after meals, and some don't matter, so timing meals and medications is important but different for everybody," Knapp says.
• Use a smartphone. "There are lots of apps for smartphones that can help people count calories and carbs,” Knapp says. If you have a smartphone, ask your doctor or diabetes educator to recommend some healthy-diet apps for you..

The Best Foods for Controlling Blood Sugar

The Idaho Plate Method is based on a nine-inch plate filled one-inch high. It’s designed to give you about 1,400 calories a day and 45 grams of carbohydrates per meal. Work with a dietitian or diabetes educator to design meals that fit your needs. Get started with these tips:

• Avoid simple carbohydrates such as candy, honey, and syrup. These carbs make controlling blood sugar harder.
• Eat a variety of foods from all of the different food groups.
• Make sure less than 30 percent of your calories come from fats.
• When filling half your plate with vegetables, pick colorful vegetables like lettuce, peppers, beets, tomatoes, and green beans.
• When filling one-fourth of your plate with protein, choose lean meats, poultry, fish, and tofu.
• When filling one-fourth of your plate with starch, go for high-fiber choices like whole grains, beans, or lentils.
• For snacks or dessert, good choices include a small piece of fruit, a cup of milk, six ounces of yogurt, or a half cup of sugar-free pudding.

Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are called complex carbohydrates. They’re better for a diabetes diet because they have lots of fiber. That means they’re digested more slowly, control your hunger, and are less likely to cause high or low blood sugar swings.

Finally, carefully monitor your blood sugar and let your doctor know if you’re having trouble. Monitoring your blood sugar may need to be done more often when you’re sick or you've changed your diet. Working closely with your doctor and other diabetes health care providers can help you learn more healthy-diet basics. Before you know it, you’ll be well on your way to reaching and maintaining a healthy weight, controlling your blood sugar, and managing diabetes successfully.

Last Updated: 09/30/2013

This section created and produced exclusively by the editorial staff of EverydayHealth.com. © 2014 EverydayHealth.com; all rights reserved.