10 nutrition tips to feed your schedule

Even for a diabetes veteran, the daily tasks of diabetes self-management are time-consuming. Eating wisely can be both rewarding and time well spent in helping to manage the disease.

Devoting time to self-care is essential for good diabetes management, whether it’s time spent taking medications, monitoring blood glucose, or keeping daily records. Preparing healthy meals is critical, but it can also be time-consuming. Here are 10 quick and easy-to-digest nutrition tips to make your food-planning easier!

1. Sugar-free doesn’t mean it’s okay. You probably already know that carbohydrates, the main nutrient that affects blood glucose, are found in starches, fruits, milk, some vegetables, and sweets. Just be aware that when a food is labeled “sugar-free,” it may still be a source of unwanted calories or carbohydrates if it is sweetened with sugar alcohols. Read the Nutrition Facts on food labels carefully, noting the amount of total carbohydrates in the food, rather than only the claim that it is “sugar free.”

2. Know your sweeteners. Use a variety of sweeteners in moderate amounts. Nutritive sweeteners, such as fructose (fruit sugar), sucrose (table sugar), and sugar alcohols, contain calories and can raise blood glucose. Non-nutritive sweeteners, including acesulfame-K, aspartame, neotame, saccharin, and sucralose, have no calories or carbohydrates, so they don’t raise blood glucose.

3. Watch out for portion distortion. Food portions have become super-sized over the years. A cheeseburger in the 1980s provided 333 calories, while today’s typical burger contains almost 600! Train your eyes to see the correct portion size. For example, 1 cup of cooked pasta or rice looks like a clenched fist, ½ cup vegetables is the size of half a tennis ball, and 3 ounces of meat, chicken, or fish is the size of a deck of cards or the palm of your hand.

4. Prepare for snack attacks. Spreading mini-meals or snacks throughout the day can help control your hunger and calorie intake, and result in improved blood glucose levels, weight loss, and lower blood cholesterol. Your healthcare team can help you determine what will work best for you. Aim for foods with 15 grams of carbohydrates per serving. Good choices include a small piece of fruit, eight animal crackers, or ¾ ounce of pretzels. Some snacks are considered “free foods”—1 cup of light popcorn, 10 goldfish-style crackers, or ¼ cup of blueberries.

5. Eat smart when eating out. Americans love to eat out. Enjoy dining away from home, but keep your blood glucose in mind. Here’s how: Scout out restaurants with healthy offerings ahead of time, split an entrée or dessert with your dining companions, and ask for salad dressings, butter, and sour cream “on the side.”

6. Learn to deal with the “food police.” If friends or family constantly make comments such as, “Are you allowed to eat that?” recognize they are also adjusting to your diabetes. Try to reframe the situation in a positive way; for example, you could say, “Thanks for reminding me. I know you want to help. I’ve already planned to do some extra walking today to handle the extra calories and carbohydrates in this treat.”

7. Be cautious with alcohol. Limit yourself to one drink or less per day if you’re a woman and two drinks or less per day if you’re a man. One serving of alcohol is considered 12 ounces of beer, 1½ ounces of distilled spirits, or 5 ounces of wine. Alcohol can increase your risk for hypoglycemia, so don’t drink on an empty stomach.

8. Stay away from special supplements. Although many products on the market claim to improve blood glucose, if you eat a balanced and varied diet, you shouldn’t need vitamin and mineral supplements for diabetes. Check with your doctor about using a multivitamin and be especially careful about herbal products, which are unregulated and can interfere with diabetes medications.

9. Choose heart-healthy fats. Polyunsaturated fats, especially omega-3 fats and monounsaturated fats, offer important health benefits. Limit saturated fat from animal and dairy foods and trans fats, from foods such as stick margarines and solid vegetable shortening, and commercial baked goods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Always check labels.

10. Use all resources available to you. A registered dietitian (RD) and certified diabetes educator (CDE) are valuable members of your health team as you learn to live with diabetes. Ask your physician for a referral or contact the American Diabetes Association (800.342.2383, www.diabetes.org), the American Dietetic Association (800.877.1600, www.eatright.org), or the American Association of Diabetes Educators (800.338.3633, www.diabeteseducator.org) for more information.