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Eating Out with Diabetes: Healthy Choices with Ethnic Cuisines

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

How have you handled eating out since your diagnosis of diabetes?

Do you still eat out weekly, not caring about the consequences of your food choices? Or have you reverted to eating at home, scared to face a large menu with confusing choices? (Is it healthy? How will it affect my blood sugar? How many calories are in that?)

Of course it is important to make the best food choices under any circumstance, but dining out can be very difficult. Being tempted by foods and desserts that you know are not in your meal plan for the day can be a big challenge. Or navigating a menu from an ethnic restaurant where you’re not sure how the menu items are prepared can thwart your good intentions.

Even though it might be difficult, diabetes does not need to prevent you from dining out occasionally or with friends for special occasions. Planning and preparing will equip you to make the best choices possible. Here are a few ideas and red flags to watch out for.

10 Simple Changes with Major Results: Small Steps to Reducing Diabetes Complications

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Diabetes is a disease that affects your whole body, from your eyes to your blood vessels, to your toes. But many people with diabetes live wonderful, healthy lives and are not held back by complications like nerve damage or heart problems.

They put extra effort into each day than the average person and come out with more satisfaction knowing they are conquering more than the average person.

You probably know that managing diabetes can be complicated, but there are a few changes you can make with major impact.

Controlling your blood sugar is the biggest improvement you can make but a lot goes into controlling your blood sugar:

controlling carbohydrate intake;
possibly taking medication or insulin;
exercising;
checking your blood sugar regularly;
reducing stress;
and the list goes on.

The following simple changes will help lead to better blood sugar control along with your other treatments, but making all these changes together will give you the biggest impact on preventing complications.

Wednesday Wellness Tip: How to Handle High Blood Sugar Right before a Meal

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Checking your blood sugar right before you eat a meal is an important habit to get into. It will give you an idea what your blood sugar has been doing for the last 3-4 hours and it will give you direction in what and how much you should eat at that meal.

So what do you do if your blood sugar is high when you check right before a meal? It is important to make sure that you don't cause your blood sugar to go higher and stay there longer with your next meal.

Remember that your goal should be 90-130mg/dL before a meal if you haven’t eaten since your last meal; but if you ate a snack less than 2 hours prior, your blood sugar is just fine if it is under 180mg/dL.

It is difficult to quickly fix high blood sugar if you are just about to eat, but here are a few tips and actions that can help prevent that high reading or help you bring it down so you will still be under 180mg/dL 2 hours after that meal you are about to eat.

Transform Your Everyday Lunch Into a Tasty, Healthified Meal

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

March is National Nutrition Month and today, March 9, is Registered Dietitian Day! It’s all about food and healthy eating this month! Be sure to send a smile to your dietitian today because dietitians are key players in your diabetes health care team.

So make your dietitian proud today and choose one of these healthy lunch options to stay on target with your blood sugar and healthy weight.

Replacing Sodas and Sweetened Beverages with Diabetes Friendly Drinks

Friday, March 4th, 2011

For some people, the idea of skipping your morning pick-me-up Dr. Pepper or missing out on your SoBe fruit punch with lunch is a devastating idea. But you can do this!

Slowly cutting back and replacing your sugary drinks with better alternatives can be such a smooth transition, you won’t even notice!

Follow this step by step guide to slash out that liquid candy that you know is hurting your body and you’ll start to notice several benefits: much better blood sugar control; losing weight from cutting out those liquid calories; improved energy; better teeth and gum health; and a feeling of accomplishment for doing something healthy for your body.

New Sugary Drinks Warning: Not Good Choice for Diabetes or Blood Pressure

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

The American Diabetes Association, your dietitian and diabetes educator have taken the stance that there are no foods off limits for people living with diabetes. But there are some foods you should eat and drink less often.

You’ve been told that it is OK to work real sugar, dessert, fruit juice, and other sugary foods into your diabetes meal plan. You need to watch how much and how often, but these are still foods you can eat.

This is still true today, but there is more information now that should urge you to choose sugary drinks even less or maybe not at all. Just because you are allowed to eat or drink something doesn’t mean that you should.

A new study from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London found that people who drank more soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks have higher blood pressure levels than people that do not drink them. And the more sugary drinks that people have, the higher their blood pressure will go.

They also found that the people who were drinking these sodas and fruit drinks more often tended to weigh more and eat/drink more calories throughout the day than someone who didn’t drink sugary beverages.

Atherosclerosis: What is it and what does it have to do with Diabetes?

Friday, February 25th, 2011

Athero-what?!? Atherosclerosis: “an arteriosclerosis characterized by atheromatous deposits in and fibrosis of the inner layer of the arteries.”

Well that didn’t help at all did it?! This is a disease that causes your arteries to become hard and narrowed (that process is called arteriosclerosis) with fatty deposit (atheromatous deposits) and extra tough tissue (fibrosis) in the artery walls.

Arteries can even become completely blocked in atherosclerosis. Your arteries are blood vessels that carry blood from your heart to the rest of your body, so atherosclerosis, blocking arteries, can lead to heart disease.

New Goal for Diabetes: Whole Grains for a healthy lifestyle

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Written by: Megan Oemichen, Dietetic Student at Iowa State University

Here is a new goal for you: why not do something different and try out this challenge... Incorporate more whole grains into your diet!

Most people are not consuming the necessary amount of whole grains in a day that our bodies need in order to function to the best of their ability. Dietary guidelines recommend that we consume between three and five servings of whole grains daily.

However, the average person is not even consuming one of these whole grain servings.

So let’s change it! There are many ways to tackle this challenge. Try substituting whole grains for things you already eat, or including them in a recipe that you have always made using refined grains. Here are a few ideas to start...

Choose whole grain, high fiber cereals for breakfast, such as oatmeal or shredded wheat.
Consume whole grain products, such as pasta or bread, in place of refined products.
Make your favorite sandwich on whole wheat bread or rolls instead of white bread.
Substitute brown rice for white rice in casseroles or soup

Just by making these few substitution in your diet, you can do your body a world of good! Whole grains have more fiber to help control your blood sugars and make you feel full. Whole grains also have more nutrients than white flour products. (Just be sure to keep track of the total carbs you eat). While these changes can be very beneficial, there is one important thing that you should watch out for...

When reading the nutrition label, make sure that the product you are buying is truly whole grain. Many labels may say ‘whole wheat’ or ‘multi-grain’ on the package, but the product is not always whole grain. Don’t get duped!

In order to be sure that your purchase is what you want, look at the ingredients list. If the first word is water, bleached flour, or some type of sugar, then this product is not actually whole grain.

Instead, look for the words ‘whole wheat’ or ‘whole oats.’ If the word ‘whole’ is not in the first ingredient, then you can be sure that this product is not whole grain and you can move on to the next one!

These tips will help to guide you in your search for whole grain foods! Set a specific goal to choose whole grains for your carb choices at least 2 times each day and then build up from there.

Set a big, long term goal to be eating only whole grain choices instead of refined grains. Make this resolution a success and check out this past blog post with more details on whole grain choices!

Tags: Eating Healthy with Diabetes, Fiber and diabetes, whole grains, Whole grains and diabetes
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Wednesday Wellness Tip: A Spoonful of Vinegar Makes the Sugar Go Down, In the Most Delightful Way!

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

There is more proof! Vinegar not only helps lower post meal blood sugar levels, but it also seems to lower the number of calories you eat throughout the day.

The Arizona State University researchers that conducted this newest study said, "The antiglycemic properties of vinegar are evident when small amounts of vinegar are ingested with meals composed of complex carbohydrates."

They had study participants consume drinks with either 20 grams of apple cider vinegar, 49 grams of water and 1 teaspoon of saccharine right after eating breakfast. And they found that blood glucose levels were 35% lower after drinking the vinegar drink compared to the water drink. And they found that the participants ate at least 300 calories less throughout the day after the vinegar drink in the morning!

The health benefits of vinegar are getting more and more evidence behind it now. There are several studies that ultimately show blood sugar levels are lower after eating or drinking vinegar. But there are several different claims as to how, when and how much.

Diabetes Friendly Valentine’s Day Treat: Chocolate Flourless Cake

Friday, February 11th, 2011

There are plenty of dessert recipes out there made with sugar substitutes or with fun and interesting ingredients that lower the carbs per serving. But if you are looking for a simple, chocolate fix made from all natural ingredients that you probably have at home, this is your recipe.

Since there is no flour in this recipe, you can have a normal serving size for 1.5 carbohydrate servings. So, no seconds with this cake. But you get healthy nutrients from these whole food ingredients, like the almonds and eggs.

Go for dark chocolate or add a few raspberries to get more antioxidants. Still be careful to watch your carb count though.

Enjoy your sweetie with this special treat, but remember that a treat like this might require tradeoffs somewhere else in your meal. Maybe pass over the bread basket or choose all green veggies for your sides.

Plan ahead so you can still enjoy this Valentine’s Day and be in full control of your blood sugar.