Diabeties (type 2) diet and diabetic meal planning

What is the difference in a diabeties diet for dibetics type 1 or type 2?

Not much actually. Because it is quite common that a patient suffers from overweight if he is a type 2 diabetic, The best type 2 diabetic diet should focus on weight loss. The reason you weight loss is preferable is that any overweight can build up a resistence to insulin which would then be a problem to a diabetic. The diabeties diet to use will still depend on the patients lifestyle - if we are talking about a growing teenager or a middle aged man working in an office etc.

Food for diebetics is something that has changed slowly over the last 100 years. Around 1940, diabetics were told to eat large portions of fat and thirty years later, a dibetic had to learn not to eat pasta. Today both of these pieces of advice, although well intended and meant, are no longer true.

Insulin is the substance that is required for moving the blood sugar out to all cells in the body. When diagnosed with diabetes symptoms, your body will then lack the insulin producing ability to some extent. The treatment of diabeties type 2 is to try and keep the blood sugar at a reasonably constant level in order to minimize the insulin load. For this reason, it is important to focus on three different things:

• The total amount of food
• The amount of energy being used in a day
  
• The amount of insulin
• Whether to go for a dibetic diet
  

Today, a diebetic can eat most types of food, but not necessarily at every time and in any quantities. When diagnosed with dibetes, it becomes important to eat at regular intervals, something that is the first cornerstone in dibetic meal planning.

A wise suggestion is to plan for three main meals and 2-3 minor snacks during the course of the day. The exact amount you eat will need to be individually chosen, depending among other things on the amount of energy you consume - i.e. the amount of exercise. The interval of no eating over night should be kept to a minimum - ideally the diet could contain a small snack late night. Good snacks include fruits or maybe a sandwiches from wholemeal bread.

The plate diet for diabetics (diabeties)

The plate diet is frequently used for diebetics - imagine your dinner plate having 3 parts - two equal and one smaller. The smallest part is where you put the protein-rich food (meat, fish and beans etc) and in the other two (the equal ones) you put

    * An amount of carbohydrates - That can be rice, pasta, potatoes etc
    * Vegetables, preferably rich in fiber, root vegetables and fruits

As different foods will affect your blood glucose levels in different ways, you will need to learn how this affects you. The blood glucose level fluctuations will depend on the speed with which your body will break down the different foods.

Here are a few examples: If you mash potatoes, these will increase your blood glucose level faster than whole potatoes would. A whole apple will increase your blood sugar less than a glass of apple juice.

Eating wholemeal bread will have the effect of lower blood sugar increase than if you eat white bread.

A comparison of close types of foods: Potatoes are "faster" blood glucose increase than rice. Rice is "faster" blood sugar levels than pasta.

Dibetic diets - slow  and fast foods

As a diabetic it is normally wise to choose slow foods (using glycemic index GI to establish the "speed" is a good idea). You don't necessarily have to avoid "fast" foods at all cost (these are the foods that convert into blood sugar fast). If you combine slow and fast foods (GI wise), it is possible to eat most things and still maintain a good mix.

Diabeties GI receipts and diets - meal plans summary.