Healthy eating habits for diabetics: the one article you must read

One of the questions we get all the time from South Africans with Diabetes is what people with diabetes can eat. Here is the simple answer:

Healthy eating habits to control your diabetes is one of the 4 things you need to do to stay healthy. You can remember it like this – BREEDING:

Take your medication
Eat healthy food
Exercise, a little every day
Lose weight, if you need to

Too many choices!

We know it can be difficult to decide what to eat if you have diabetes (type 1 or 2). There are so many choices. Low carb food? Banting? Vegetarian? Special diabetes-friendly foods? In reality, we are all different – what works for one person may not work for another. Some of us may eat fruit, some may not. Some people thrive on Banting, others don’t. But that doesn’t really help, does it?

What should people with diabetes eat?

We’ve compiled it into helpful food advice that we think will help anyone with (or even without) diabetes.

Sweet Life’s advice on diabetes and food is simple:
Eat unprocessed foods. Heaps of green vegetables.
Lower your intake of carbohydrates. Cut out refined carbohydrates.
Enjoy your food!

Eat unprocessed foods

Food that is good for your body and suitable for people with diabetes should not be packaged or have a long list of incomprehensible ingredients. It should be as close to natural as possible – unprocessed food is ideal. If you use the plate model, this means a quarter of your plate will be filled with protein (chicken, fish, eggs, meat, legumes); a quarter with whole grain, low-GI starches (if you eat carbs); and half the plate with green, dark green leafy vegetables. If you follow a low-carb eating plan, you can leave out the starch.

For protein, for example, it is healthier to choose a chicken breast than chicken pieces in crumbs (nuggets), which are processed, and French fries are a healthier starch choice than oven-baked chips (but still healthier than chips). Even though it’s not an exact science, you can still choose healthier foods all the time – your blood sugar levels will thank you.

Heaps of green vegetables

Vegetables are great and should fill half of your plate for lunch and dinner. Just remember, we’re not talking about vegetables like butternut squash, potatoes, and other starchy vegetables that will spike your blood sugar. Any non-starchy vegetables (no matter what color) are winners.

Low-carb (non-starchy) vegetables include green beans, cauliflower, spinach, lettuce, kale, cucumber, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, asparagus and mushrooms.

Lower your carbs

We don’t believe in a strict no-carb eating plan, but it’s clear that starches spike your blood sugar. It is therefore necessary to find the right balance for you. For example, if your family eats spaghetti bolognese for dinner, you can eat more vegetables and less (or no) pasta. Or you can enjoy a hamburger without the bread roll, but with lots of nice side dishes. If you can cut starch out of a meal without making it unpalatable, do it.

There is no need to “replace” the starch with special (often expensive) low-carb options. Instead, try to fill your plate with more vegetables and protein so that there is less room for starch.

Cut out refined carbohydrates

This is good advice for life – not just for people with diabetes. Refined (processed) carbohydrates – such as white bread, white rice, donuts, cookies, cake, fat cake, chips, pizza, candy and so on – are junk food. You know that. All these “foods” make you sick. Cut it out of your daily diet as much as possible.

Refined carbohydrates include:

White bread White rice Madumbe Porridge Pasta Pizza Pies Chips and soft chips Cake Cookies and biscuits Pastry (oil balls, muffins, fat cake) Soft drinks (fizzy drinks, energy drinks, all fruit juices) Sweets Chocolate Ice cream Most breakfast cereals, also cornflakes)

It is a good plan to cut out all these foods, except on special occasions. But it’s hard – we know. However, nothing on this list are healthy options for diabetics.

If a special occasion arises where you would like to enjoy a slice of cake, you can always bake the cake yourself. Then you know exactly what the ingredients are and you can adjust the amount of sugar. You can also determine the portion size. (Tip: You can cut a third of the sugar from a shortbread recipe and it won’t make a difference.)

Keep an eye on portion sizes

A portion is how much of a food you eat: how much you create for yourself. It is important to understand portion sizes so that you eat the right amount of each type of food. We’ve put together a free Healthy Food Guide that will show you exactly which foods to choose for each meal and what healthy amounts of each are. Take a peek here and download it for free.

Always put your food on a plate. Never eat them directly from the packaging or from serving plates, otherwise you will not know how much you are really eating.

Sweet Life Diabetes Community

Choose the eating plan that works for you

Everyone with diabetes is different – and not just because they have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. (Here’s the difference between the two.) What works for you may not work for someone else with diabetes, and that’s totally okay. Remember, ultimately, there is no such thing as one single best diabetes eating plan.

Usually, most of the confusion is about low-carb diets. Is this a good idea? It basically involves cutting carbohydrates from your diet so that your blood sugar levels remain more stable – closer to normal blood sugar levels.

This information will help you decide what works for you:

An easy way to keep the carbohydrate content low: See how you can start eating fewer carbohydrates without changing your diet entirely.

The low-carb pantry: Everything you need in your kitchen if you want to follow a low-carb meal plan.

Download Free Low Carb Meal Plans: 7 Day Low Carb Meal Plan / Banting Meal Plans to Download.

When we talk about healthy food for diabetics, one of the big questions on everyone’s lips is whether fruit is permissible or not. Use this helpful fruit guide for diabetics to help you decide.

Sweet Life Diabetes Community

Enjoy your food!

We believe in this. Diabetes is a chronic disease, which means it is lifelong. It is not possible to go on a diet for the rest of your life – it makes much more sense to find ways to make healthy food tasty so that you enjoy it. The challenge is to figure out what works for you and make it part of your daily eating plan.

Of course, enjoying your food means making exceptions now and again, too. We’re not robots! The most important thing is to keep portions in mind when you’re making exceptions, so you don’t have a crazy blood sugar spike.

Of course, this means that one will make exceptions now and then. None of us is a robot. It’s just important to keep portion sizes in mind when you do make an exception so your blood sugar levels don’t skyrocket.

Take a look at the Sweet Life 7 Day Meal Plan: A 100% South African meal plan, for you.

Take a look at the Sweet Life Diabetic Meal Plan for 7 Days: a 100% South African meal plan just for you.

What do you think people with diabetes should eat?

There you have it: a framework of healthy foods for diabetics so you know exactly what to choose to feel as healthy as possible. Don’t forget to join South Africans with Diabetes, and feel free to share your ideas for diabetes-friendly meals and healthy eating tips.

What about you – what do you think? Everyone experiences diabetes differently, and we’d love to hear more about your experience. Feel free to let us know in the comments below, or on Facebook or Instagram, so we can all learn from each other.