Healthy Eating For People With Diabetes

The foods you choose to eat and your eating habits will help you manage your diabetes. Healthy eating will help to control you blood glucose level, your blood fat level (cholesterol and triglycerides), blood pressure and body weight. Diabetes is a lifelong condition, so establishing good eating habits that you can keep to in the long term is essential.

The Overall Dietary Principles For Diabetes Include:

1. Having regular meals and snacks over the day.
2. Selecting a variety of foods from different food groups. These would include cereals, fruit and vegetable, low fat dairy products and lean meat fish or chicken.
3. Avoiding saturated fats which are found in animal foods like full fat milk, meat, butter and cheese as well as palm oil and coconut products.
4. Taking moderate amounts of unsaturated fats like olive, canola or sunflower oil, mono or polyunsaturated margarines, oily fish, avocado and seeds and nuts.
5. Whenever having carbohydrate foods ensure that they contain lots of dietary fibre and are the type that result in a slow and gradual rise in blood glucose levels. These are said to have a low glycaemic index. Great selections include wholegrain breads, high fibre breakfast cereals, pasta and noodles, basmati rice, legumes such as baked beans, vegetables and low fat milk and yogurt.
6. Being aware that some sugar can be included in a healthy eating plan as part of a high fibre food (eg on cereal). It is not recommended that lollies and standard soft drinks as well as high fat baked items with added sugar be eaten regularly.
7. Selecting low salt commercial products and not adding salt at the table.
8. The drinking of alcohol be only in moderation. Try to keep to 2 standard drinks per day for women and 4 for men and have at least 2 alcohol free days a week.

The recipes provided in this section follow these recommendations and can be included into your healthy eating plan. Each recipe has been reviewed by the dietitians at Diabetes Australia Victoria and approved as being suitable for people with diabetes. If you would like further information on Diabetes then refer to the Diabetes Australia Victoria website www.dav.org.au. For an individualised eating plan we would recommend that you attend and Accredited Practicing Dietitian found on www.daa.asn.au.