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..