Know Your Blood Sugar Level And Keep It Under Control
The first step in this general treatment plan has two parts:
1) Knowing your blood sugar levelmeans you test to see how much glucose is in your blood and
2) Keeping your blood sugar level under controlmeans you keep the amount of glucose within a healthy range at all times, by eating a healthy diet as outlined by your health care provider, getting regular physical activity, and taking medication, if needed.
Your blood sugar level changes during the day based on what foods you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat. Your level of physical activity and when you do physical activities also affect your blood sugar levels.
As you get closer to your due date, your insulin resistance could increase. If that happens, you might need to take medication to help keep your glucose level under control. Knowing your glucose levels at specific times of the day will allow your health care provider to figure out the right medicine for you.
Follow your health care providers advice about when to test your glucose level. You will have to test your blood sugars four times a day and keep track of the numbers in a log book.
Even though your glucose level changes during the day, there is a healthy range for these levels. The goal is to keep your glucose level within this range. The following chart shows the healthy target range for each time you test.
How Much Sugar Can A Person With Diabetes Have
If you have diabetes, you may have been told to watch your sugar intake or even eliminate sugar altogether. But does that truly mean you can never ever eat any sugar? Or is there a way for you to enjoy a sweet treat every now and then?
Here we look at how sugar impacts your blood sugar. Read on to learn tips to identify hidden sugars, choose better carbs, and work with your doctor to stick to a diabetes-friendly diet.
Today we have a post from our guest blogger, Brent Wilson, who is a registered and licensed dietitian and certified diabetes educator with the INTEGRIS Diabetes Education Center. He completed the Coordinated Program of Dietetics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
A young woman recently came to me with an interesting question. She was athletic and trim but had just been diagnosed with prediabetes. She wanted to know: How can this happen to a slim, healthy person like herself?
Its a terrific question.
Iâm going to answer the question first, and then Iâm going to explain why. It is possible to be thin and become prediabetic. It is also possible to be obese and never get diabetes. It depends on our genes. Anyone who develops diabetes has a gene that allows insulin resistance to happen. Our genes load the gun but more importantly, our lifestyle pulls the trigger.
How Much Do You Know About The Diabetic Diet
Patients with type 2 diabetes generally are put on a 1,500 to 1,800 calorie diet per day to promote weight loss and then the maintenance of ideal body weight. However, this may vary depending on the person’s age, sex, activity level, current weight, and body style.
More obese individuals may need more calories initially until their weight is less. This is because it takes more calories to maintain a larger body, and a 1,600 calorie diet for them may promote weight loss that is too fast to be healthy.
Men have more muscle mass in general and therefore may require more calories. Muscle burns more calories per hour than fat. Also, people whose activity level is low will have less daily caloric needs.
Generally, carbohydrates should make up about 50% of the daily calories . In general, lower carbohydrate intake is associated with lower sugar levels in the blood.
However, the benefits of this can be canceled out by the problems associated with a higher fat diet taken in to compensate for the lower amount of carbohydrates. This problem can be improved by substituting monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats for saturated fats.
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Carbs Can Be Part Of A Healthy Diet
Because the body turns carbohydrates into glucose, eating carbohydrates makes blood sugar levels rise. But that doesn’t mean you should avoid carbohydrates if you have diabetes. Carbohydrates are a healthy and important part of a nutritious diet.
Some carbohydrates have more health benefits than others, though. For example, whole-grain foods and fruits are healthier choices than candy and soda because they provide fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients.
Fiber is important because it helps you feel full and keeps your digestive system working properly. In fact, eating lots of fiber can even help to slow the body’s absorption of sugar when eaten together with sugar in the same food. Everyone needs fiber, and most people don’t get enough. Some experts think that people with diabetes should eat more fiber than people without diabetes to help control blood sugar.
Sugary foods, like soda and candy, don’t usually have fiber and typically contain “empty calories.” That means they have calories but little nutritional value, and eating too many of them might leave little room for healthy foods. Eating too many empty-calorie foods can also make a person more likely to be overweight or obese. These foods can also cause tooth decay.
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Watch Your Carb Intake If Youre Diabetic
How manycarbs should diabetics eat? The simple answer is as much as yourindividual diet can handle. Diabetics may not be able to process the addedsugar. This can cause blood sugar to spike to dangerous levels.
However, that doesnt necessarily mean thatyou can never indulge again. You just have to make sure that you keep yourportions higher GI foods low and eat them infrequently. Concentrate instead onlow GI foods. And when in doubt, speak with your doctor.
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How Many Carbs Should A Diabetic Have Per Day
How many carbs per day? If you eat 2,000 calories a day, you should consume about 250 grams of complex carbohydrates per day. A good starting place for people with diabetes is to have roughly 45 to 60 grams of carbs per meal and 15 to 30 grams for snacks.
Similarly, it is asked, how many carbs should type 2 diabetic eat daily?
Most people with type 2 diabetes should stick to eating around 45 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per meal.
Similarly, how many carbs should a diabetic eat a day to lose weight? Several studies indicate that restricting carb intake to 2050 grams of carbs per day can significantly reduce blood sugar levels, promote weight loss, and improve heart health in people with diabetes .
Also to know is, what are good carbs for a diabetic to eat?
These foods are high in carbohydrates and can significantly raise blood sugar levels in diabetics:
- Bread, pasta, cereal, corn and other grains.
- Starchy vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and taro.
- Legumes, such as peas, lentils and beans .
- Milk.
- Fruit other than berries.
How many carbs should you have per day?
The dietary guidelines recommend that carbs provide 45 to 65 percent of your daily calorie intake. So if you eat a 2000-calorie diet, you should aim for about 225 to 325 grams of carbs per day. But if you need to lose weight, you will get much faster results eating around 50 to 150 grams of carbs.
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Why Are Carbs Important For Diabetics
Diabetes is your body not being able to process carbs properly, which results in fluctuating blood sugar levels. Here, either your body produces less or no insulin to absorb glucose. Carbs contribute to treating diabetes because they are generally broken down in your body to form glucose, raising blood sugar levels when required.
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Eating 100150 Grams Per Day
This is a moderate carb intake. It may work for people who are lean, active, and trying to stay healthy and maintain their weight.
Its possible to lose weight at this and any carb intake, but you may also need to be aware of calorie intake and portion sizes to lose weight.
Carbs you can eat include:
- all vegetables
- several pieces of fruit per day
- moderate amounts of healthy starches, like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and healthier grains, like rice and oats
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How Many Carbs Should I Eat
Theres no one size fits all answereveryone is different because everyones body is different. The amount you can eat and stay in your target blood sugar range depends on your age, weight, activity level, and other factors.
On average, people with diabetes should aim to get about half of their calories from carbs. That means if you normally eat about 1,800 calories a day to maintain a healthy weight, about 800 to 900 calories can come from carbs. At 4 calories per gram, thats 200225 carb grams a day. Try to eat about the same amount of carbs at each meal to keep your blood sugar levels steady throughout the day .
This sample menu has about 1,800 calories and 200 grams of carbs:
Breakfast
½ cup rolled oats 1 cup low-fat milk 2/3 medium banana ¼ cup chopped walnuts Total carbs: 65 grams
2 slices whole wheat bread 4 oz. low-sodium turkey meat 1 slice low-fat Swiss cheese ½ large tomato 1 TBS yellow mustard ¼ cup shredded lettuce 8 baby carrots 6 oz. plain fat-free Greek yogurt ¾ cup blueberries
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So How Do I Use This Information
Now that you know the optimal split between calories from protein, carbs, and fat, its time to calculate the actual amounts you need in grams.
Start by calculating your daily calorie need, using the guidelines from this post. Lets say that you calculated a daily need of 2.000 calories. With a 40/40/20 energy split of protein, carbs, and fat, you would need:
- 800 calories from protein
- 800 calories from carbs
- 400 calories from fat
To calculate the amounts in grams, you divide by how many calories there are per gram in each macronutrient .
For a 2.000 calories diet, your daily amounts would be:
- 800 calories from protein / 4 = 200 g Protein
- 800 calories from carbs / 4 = 200 g carbs
- 400 calories from fat / 9 = 45 g fat
And there you have it! It may seem a little complicated at first, but when you do it step-by-step, its actually quite easy to calculate exactly how much protein, carbs, and fat you need in your diet.
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How Many Carbs Should Diabetics Eat
Generally, experts recommend that you receive 45to 60% of your daily calories from carbs. However, its a little more complexthan that.
Carbohydrates come in different types. Eachtype has a different rating on the glycemic index . And each type impactsyour blood sugar to varying degrees.
For example, higher glycemic index foods convertto sugar quicker in your body and can cause dangerous blood sugar spikes. HighGI foods have a rating of 70 or more. They can include foods like:
- white bread
- instant oatmeal
- pineapple
On the other hand, low glycemic index carbsmay actually help control type 2 diabetes symptoms and weight loss. These foodsrate at 55 or less on the GI scale. Low GI foods include:
- sweet potatoes
- 100% stone-ground whole wheat bread
- non-starchy vegetables
- most fruits
- rolled or steel-cut oatmeal
There are a few medium GI foods to choosefrom, too. But you need to make sure to eat these in moderation. Theyrerelatively safe, assuming GI range of 56-69, as long as you watch yourportions.
So, how many carbs can a diabetic eat? Thatdepends on you. Here are some steps to figure out the right amount:
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How To Determine The Number Of Carbs I Need
How many carbs you can eat based on actually is based on your gender, your age, your activity status, and your diabetes duration and severity. Im going to give you an example. Lets say you have been a diabetic for 20 years and you are 65 years old and you are a woman. You are on three oral medications. And youre on basal insulin and youre on three oral agents. You are inactive you have your problems such as your joint problems. You are generally sitting at home. Youre really not doing anything much. You are around 230 pounds. I would consider that an obese.
So, in this case, how many carbs should you eat? My answer to that would be very little very carbs. Little because I can imagine you as being very insulin resistant. Anytime you eat very little carbs your blood sugar is going to skyrocket.
What Foods Contain Carbs
There are three types of carbohydrates: sugar, starch and fiber. If you’re counting carbohydrates, you want to pay attention to the Total Carbohydrates on the nutrition label, which is the sum of all three types.
You probably already know that there are carbohydrates in a slice of bread or a bowl of pasta. But here are some other foods that mostly derive calories from carbohydrates .
- Grains: Bread, cereal, pasta, rice, tortillas, crackers, oats, whole grains
- Legumes: Lentils, beans, peas
- Starchy vegetables: Potatoes, corn
- Nonstarchy vegetables: All other vegetables
- Fruit: All kinds
- Sugary beverages: Regular soda, fruit juice
- Sweets: Ice cream, candy, baked goods
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What About Sugar Substitutes
A sugar substitute is a sweetener that is used in place of sugar. The sugar substitutes approved by the Food and Drug Administration are aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, and neotame. All can be safely consumed in moderation. Sugar substitutes do not need to be counted in your meal plan. If they are used as a sweetener in food that contains few calories and no other carbohydrate , that food is considered to be a “free food.” If, on the other hand, the sugar substitute is used in a food that contains other carbohydrate sources , the total carbohydrate content must be counted. That food is not considered a “free food.”
How Do You Count Carbohydrates
You can count grams of carbohydrates or carbohydrate choices. A “carbohydrate choice” is a portion of food from one of the carbohydrate food groups that contains 15 grams of carbohydrate.
1 carbohydrate choice = 15 grams of carbohydrate. For example, 1 slice of bread from the starch group, 1 small apple from the fruit group, 1 cup of milk from the milk group, and ½ cup of ice cream from the sweets group are each called a carbohydrate choice and contain 15 grams of carbohydrate. Carbohydrate choices can also be calculated by referring to the total carbohydrate content on a food label. Do not count meats, non-starchy vegetables, or fats as carbohydrate choices.
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What’s The Deal With Low
Low-carb diets are often trending, and if you have diabetes, it might be tempting to try it out. But be aware: It’s difficult to study low-carb diets because there is no consensus on how many carbs a low-carb diet contains. In general, it’s less than 45 percent of calories from carbs, but could be as low as 10 percent, like in the ketogenic diet.
If you’re eating for diabetes, you also have to consider what’s being studied-the effect of a low-carb diet on blood sugar control? Insulin sensitivity? Weight loss? A1C? Cholesterol levels?
In the short term, low-carb diets lead to weight loss and improved blood sugar control. However, one study found that after one year, there was no difference in weight lost or A1C levels between those who ate a low-carb diet and those who ate a low-fat diet.
Here’s something else to think about: When people eat low-carb diets, they tend to eat more fat and protein. Choosing saturated fats like red meat and dairy can raise cholesterol levels. So while you might improve your blood sugars eating low-carb, you could worsen your heart health in the process.
Can I Go With No Carbs To Cure My Diabetes
No carb or very low carb diet can help put diabetes in remission but will not cure diabetes in the long term.
Exercise also has many benefits. I know there are a lot of keto people out there and they think that the carbs are poison for you. Thats not true. You have to have some healthy carbs in your diet to make sure that you have enough fuel for your muscle during exercise. You have to exercise in addition to the diet because exercise will help your cholesterol in addition to many other health benefits. Those people who eat fat all the time and not exercise, dont think that theyre looking forward to a very good heart outcome or great cholesterol. So, the bottom line is you want to have some healthy carbs. You should have a min of 15-30 grams per meal in your diabetic diet. Moreover, If youre very active and exercising five times a week meaning you are physically active, then you can try eating 45 up to 60 grams per meal. Believe me, you can still be very fit you can still be controlling your blood sugars very well just because you are physically very active.
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How Many Carbs Should You Eat Per Day To Lose Weight
Low carbohydrate diets can be very effective for weight loss, according to research.
Reducing carbs tends to reduce your appetite and cause automatic weight loss, or weight loss without the need to count calories.
For some people, a low carb diet allows them to eat until fullness, feel satisfied, and still lose weight.
The number of carbs a person should eat every day for weight loss varies depending on their age, sex, body type, and activity levels.
This article reviews how many carbs you should eat per day to lose weight.
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According to the Food and Drug Administration , the Daily Value for carbs is 300 grams per day when eating a 2,000-calorie diet .
Some people reduce their daily carb intake with the aim of losing weight, cutting down to around 50150 grams per day.
Research has shown that low carb diets can be part of an effective weight loss strategy.
This diet restricts your intake of carbohydrates including sugars and starches like bread and pasta and replaces them with protein, healthy fats, and vegetables.
Studies show that low carb diets can reduce a persons appetite, lead to them eating fewer calories, and help them to lose weight more easily than in other diets, provided they maintain the diet .
In studies comparing low carb and low fat diets, researchers need to actively restrict calories in the low fat groups to make the results comparable, but the low carb groups are still usually more effective .
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