For those with diabetes, it is important to take exceptional care and to maintain a diabetes diet plan in order to maintain blood sugar levels. Changing your lifestyle to be healthier is always a great choice whether you are attempting to control or to prevent diabetes.
What is the diabetes diet plan?
For diagnosed diabetics, a diabetes diet plan can be a major lifestyle adjustment and choosing an option that is comfortable to maintain is absolutely essential.
The diabetes diet plan, also referred to as Medical Nutrition Therapy or MNT, carries a few considerable differences in comparison to the average fast weight loss diet. Unlike most restrictive diet programs, this particular diet focuses more on eating healthy while maintaining a low intake of calories and fat. While on this plan, you will be ingesting more healthy carbohydrates, fiber rich food, fish, vegetables, fruits and good fats while eliminating sodium, unhealthy fats and unhealthy carbohydrates. Since the greater emphasis is on fruits, vegetables and various whole grains, it can be thought of as a perfect vegan diet plan with a few modifications. In reality, this particular diet plan is a great move towards a healthier lifestyle for just about anyone.
For whom is this diet plan intended?
With unhealthy eating comes excess fat storage which prompts the body to create too much glucose. This could lead to a range of nerve, kidney and heart complications. Whether you are diagnosed with diabetes or pre-diabetes, MNT is highly recommended for you to keep your glucose levels in check as well as to act as a fast weight loss diet. For those with Type 2 diabetes, weight loss will aid to control blood glucose as well as to lose weight. As for those with a desire to adopt a fast weight loss diet, MNT can be a nutritious and well planned method to reach the targeted weight.
What are the types of diabetes diets available?
You will require the assistance of a dietician to put together the ideal diabetes diet plan to suit your needs. There are various options to choose from and your selection is based on your health goals, lifestyle requirements and meal preferences. Below are a few popular options;
Being vegan means giving up all animal products (including dairy) and adapting this approach to a diabetes diet plan can help with weight loss.
Vegan diet plan – Being vegan means giving up all animal products (including dairy) and adapting this approach to a diabetes diet plan is definitely a fast track to losing weight. You will be obtaining all the necessary nutrients from plant based foods and supplements while eliminating a range of foods from your daily diet.
Vegetarian diet – This diet is generally easier to adopt in comparison to the vegan diet plan. While you will eliminate all meat items, you will still have the freedom to enjoy various animal products as per your preference. Once again, the recommended nutrients need to be obtained from fruits and vegetables while some proteins can also be ingested via certain soy based products.
Flexitarian diet – Defined as ‘flexible vegetarianism’, the flexitarian diabetes diet is a highly rated program that limits daily caloric intake to 1500 a day. As the name suggests, the idea is to focus on vegetables, fruits and grains with the occasional meat product thrown in. This is a great fast weight loss diet for those who are not entirely motivated to give up meat.
Volumetrics – On this diet plan, food is divided into 4 categories (category 1 being the lowest) depending on their energy density. Diabetics are recommended to ingest more of the food items that fit into categories 1 and 2 (fruits and vegetables) while reducing the intake of the items in categories 3 and 4. This is an ideal choice for those with Type 2 Diabetes as the program is designed to help shed a couple of pounds per week.
DASH diet – This diet requires you to stick to a calorie limit set with regard to your daily activity level and age while reducing the intake of salt. It is important that this particular diabetes diet plan is designed with a calorie deficit to promote weight loss while still keeping blood sugar in check.
As you can see above, diabetes diets come in a wide range and it is important to do some research in order to find the ideal choice that works with your body. Whether you decide to opt for a highly restrictive approach such as the vegan diet plan or something fairly lenient such as the flexitarian diet, it is important to take the process seriously in order to not aggravate your condition. For those who seek to lose weight or to prevent diabetes, the options can be chosen with the aid of a dietician while those with diabetes need to get approval from their doctor first. For diagnosed diabetics, a diabetes diet plan is more than a choice but a major lifestyle adjustment and choosing an option that is comfortable to maintain is absolutely essential.
