Dietitians tips for managing diabetes

Did you know that there is actually no such thing as a ‘diabetic diet’? The dietary management for diabetes is the same as managing a healthy body weight. The major difference though is the risk of not managing your body weight and blood sugar levels is a lot great if you’re a diabetic.

The key is learning how best to manage your diabetes and blood sugar levels to avoid any complications.

My top tips to manage your diabetes:

• Use your blood sugar monitor as a tool to help learn which foods affect your blood sugar levels.
• Eat regular meals and don’t skip or miss meals, this will cause more chaos for your organs and cells, not to mention the longer term implication on your metabolism.
• Include carbohydrates with most meals – If you don’t know what carbohydrates are, where they come from and the impacts on your blood sugars then seen help from a dietitian.
• Limit high sugar food and drinks such as cakes, lollies, chocolate, cakes, soft drinks, fruit juice.
• Limit your intake of fatty foods especially deep fried foods and pastries.
• Limit alcohol to 2 standard drinks per day.
• Try and use exercise as a means to help manage your blood sugar levels and body weight. Find an activity you enjoy and can commit to, when it comes to exercise it’s all about consistency.
• The more you educate yourself to understand diabetes and the physiology behind diabetes and the impact on your blood sugar levels the easier you will find your self-management will become.