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Diabetes is a condition that’s on the rise in much of the world. And research shows that the main reason for that is what we eat. Being overweight puts a strain on the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. As a result, the body signals that the pancreas should produce less insulin, and as a result, people become insulin-resistant.
That insulin resistance causes your body to be unable to process glucose from the food you eat. As a result, glucose builds up in your blood stream and produces a range of side effects from a higher likelihood of cardiovascular disease to kidney failure.
Diabetes is a serious condition that can prove fatal, but it can be controlled with careful dieting. And with the right lifestyle changes, you can even reverse diabetes if you begin early enough. That’s why maintaining a good diabetes diet is so crucial. So what should you avoid when you have diabetes? And what does a good diabetes diet look like?
Foods to Avoid With Diabetes
In terms of foods that you should avoid when you have diabetes, remember one word: processed. Processed food is not only unhealthy for people with diabetes (as it is for everyone) but dangerous as well. By processed food, we’re talking about the kind of stuff you find in the frozen aisle at the grocery store. Frozen dinners, pizzas, and all the other stuff everyone sort of knows isn’t good for you.
These types of foods are high in carbohydrates, which raise your blood sugar and put stress on the beta cells that produce insulin. Avoid high amounts of carbohydrates generally, which means stay away from white bread, pasta, and any other processed grain. Soda is also a somewhat surprising thing you need to avoid because of the high amounts of carbohydrates which come from the high-fructose corn syrup used to sweeten it. In fact, the average 12 oz can of soda has as many carbs as a bowl of pasta.
Avoid sugars and fats as well. French fries, as well as anything fried, are laden with the kinds of fats you want to avoid. And pastries are high in both sugars and fats, thus they should be avoided at all costs.
Basically, stick to the expert recommendations for a balanced diet. You know that feeling everyone has from time to time where we eat something and then feel kind of guilty about it? We all do it, but when you have diabetes, you have to be more careful or you’ll suffer from serious health problems. Avoid the sorts of things we all know we shouldn’t be eating and you should be fine.
Good Diabetes Diet
The key to a good diabetes diet is calorie restriction. Research has shown that by drastically reducing the number of calories you eat you can not only lose weight, which helps with diabetes, you can actually force your diabetes into remission for decades.
The experts recommend that someone who has just been diagnosed with diabetes restrict their calories drastically. Not just like with normal dieting but to around 800 calories a day. Obviously, this sounds pretty miserable. But if you can do it early enough, you might actually give your beta cells a chance to start producing insulin again and reverse your diabetes.
These sorts of very low-calorie diets are obviously uncomfortable, but they are without a doubt the best chance someone with type 2 diabetes has to overcome their insulin resistance. There are a number of ways to do this, but generally, you’ll want to start skipping traditional meals and replacing them with things like diet shakes and protein bars.
You want to maintain this kind of diet until you’re within a healthy BMI, at which point you can reassess where you are with your diabetes. If you’ve achieved remission, you’ll be able to move back to a more normal diet, but it’s important to keep avoiding the kinds of foods that lead to diabetes in the first place. Otherwise, it’s likely to return.
If not, you’ll want to consult with your doctor about your options. And before beginning any very low calorie diet, you should make sure you’re healthy enough to do so. Consult with a health care professional about what sort of diet is best for you. And consider seeing a licensed nutritionist. They’ll be able to design a healthy diet based around your needs.
Just remember that you have to take diabetes seriously. And taking charge of your diet is the best way to do that.
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