Which Foods Should People With Diabetes Avoid?
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
You hear it in your own head, and probably from a lot of other people- you can't eat sweets, no potatoes, avoid all white foods, blah, blah, blah. What is the real story? We need to know where, when, and how to fit any food into a diabetes meal plan. This video should help you, and quieten some of those voices (including the ones in your head).
Welcome back to DiabetesEveryDay. In addition to being a registered dietitian and certified diabetes care and education specialist, I am also managing my diabetes like you.
Table of contents
What Foods Should Diabetics Avoid?
There are a couple of questions that I keep getting asked either in a question format, like my “can I eat this… series” or people asking me more in a telling way…you can’t eat this or that cause it has too much “sugar”. And people think or imply that there are foods you need to avoid.
Well, I’m here today to answer the big question…what foods should people with diabetes avoid?
Ok, I’m going to give you the straight answer…there really is not any food we need to totally avoid. YAY! There’s a time and place for almost any food. Are there better choices and better times of the day? Absolutely yes.
Place and Time?
When I’m talking about a place and time for certain foods, I’m thinking about fast-acting carb choices like sugar, honey, hard candies, or fluff. These carb foods should be used if you have a blood sugar level of 70 or below, that’s low blood sugar. If you eat these types of sweets and your blood sugar is not 70 or below, it’s true, these foods may spike your blood sugar. As for other dessert-like foods, there are possibilities you can fit them into your eating plan.
Let’s face it, we know, whether we have diabetes or not, none of us really have the free for all to eat as much as we want. So this message of “fitting a food into your eating plan”, holds true for all of us.
I have several videos covering foods you may be wondering about. Make sure to scroll through the videos tab to search for foods like potatoes, bread, fruit - all kinds of fruit, carrots, or yogurt. I review the science-based information in each of these videos.
Be Sure to Check Out - Can I Eat Potatoes With Diabetes?
My Three Foundational Tips
So if you don’t need to really avoid certain foods, what can you eat? My three foundational tips are:
- Use the plate method to make sure you are eating a balanced approach - protein food in one section: carbs (like fruit, bread, crackers, whole grains) on half your plate and low carb vegetables in the remaining section.
- In general, try to have protein at your meal, healthy fat and carbohydrate foods that contain fiber. This will help keep blood sugar steady after the meal.
- And my third tip is to check your blood sugar before and two hours after eating to see how the food choices are lining up with your blood sugar. You will want your reading to be 180 mg/dl or lower at the two hours after eating point.
Be Sure to Check Out - 5 Basic "MUST DO's" For Managing Your Diabetes
I hope this information gives you some relief that there really isn’t a list of foods you must avoid. Please let me know if there is a food, you are curious about.
Until next time, cheers to your health.
Don't forget to take a look at our most frequently asked questions.
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