The use of any medication to treat type 2 diabetes still cannot fully compensate for the effects of malnutrition on blood glucose levels.Proper nutrition is an essential part of effective type 2 diabetes management and will help you achieve your blood glucose goals.
Nutritional approach to people with type 2 diabetes, with or without overweight, arterial hypertension, etc. , will be slightly different.
Most overweight people with type 2 diabetes. Being overweight prevents your insulin from working effectively, so your blood glucose levels stay high.Therefore, weight loss is an indispensable condition for rational treatment!Even moderate weight loss (by 5-10%) improves carbohydrate metabolism, especially in the initial period of the disease.
How to achieve weight loss?
It should be noted right away that there are no special products or herbs for weight loss. Currently, there are no medications that can provide highly effective and completely safe weight loss by themselves, without diet.
The only reliable way is to limit the energy intake of the body.(this is stated in calories), i. e. i. compliance with the ruleslow calorie food. The resulting energy deficit leads to the fact that the "conserved" energy reserves in adipose tissue will be used for various needs of the body, and the weight will definitely decrease.
Energy carriers in food are its three components:proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The most caloric of them are fats, they contain 9 kcal per 1 gram; in proteins and carbohydrates - 4 kcal per 1 gram.
The most effective way to reduce the calorie content of your diet is to reduce its fat content. It is not only safe, but also useful for modern man, because our diet is unfortunately saturated with fat. Compared to fat, the calorie content of protein and carbohydrates can be considered moderate, however, to achieve a good effect on weight loss, they still need to be somewhat limited.
There are several foods that you don't need to limit when losing weight. On the contrary, it is these products that can compensate for the aforementioned restrictions and supplement the reduced amount of food. This food group is mainly represented by vegetables, which are poor in nutrients but rich in water, as well asplant fiberswhich are not digested. Plant fibers bring many benefits to the body: they improve bowel function, help absorb vitamins, have a beneficial effect on fat metabolism, etc. c.
There are three groups of products that must be used in different ways to lose weight.Looking at these groups, you will definitely have an association with a traffic light.
Maximum limit
High-calorie foods: rich in fat, alcohol, sugar and pastries
Examples:any oil, lard, cream, mayonnaise; cream, fat cottage cheese and cheese; fatty fish, poultry skin, canned meat; fish and vegetables in oil; fatty meat, smoked meat, sausages; sugar, sweet drinks, honey, jam, jams, sweets, cakes, cookies, chocolate, ice cream, nuts, seeds, alcoholic beverages.
Moderately restrict (eat half of previous normal portion)
Medium-calorie products: proteins, starches, dairy products, fruits and berries.
Examples:milk and fermented milk products with regular fat or low-fat / skimmed milk fat, cheese with a fat content of less than 30%, cottage cheese with a fat content of less than 4%, eggs, lean meat, fish, pasta, bread and lean pastries, cereals; fruits, potatoes, corn, ripe peas and beans.
Use without restrictions
Low-calorie foods: vegetables (except potatoes, corn, mature peas and beans) and low-calorie drinks.
Examples:radishes, radishes, beets, carrots, mushrooms, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, eggplants, bean pods, young green peas, lettuce, greens, spinach, sorrel, any cabbage; tea, coffee without sugar and cream, mineral water.
Is it possible to follow a low calorie diet without counting calories?
It is quite possible if you follow the principles of product selection outlined above. In addition, experts have long recognized that it is not the number of calories that a person needs to eat that is important (it is quite difficult to specify exactly for each person), but by how much a person actually reduced his diet!
The indicator of correct adherence to the principles of a low-calorie diet will be the achievement of the result: weight loss! If the weight does not decrease, this indicates that it has not yet been possible to significantly reduce the calorie content of the diet.
How do different carbohydrates affect blood glucose levels?
Carbohydrates are the only nutrients that directly raise blood glucose levels, but that's no reason to drastically limit them.
Carbohydrates should be sufficient in the diet of any person, including diabetics (at least 50% of total calories), as they are the body's source of energy. In addition, different carbohydrates have different effects on blood glucose levels.
There issimplycarbohydrates (they are called sugars), which are digested very easily because they consist of small molecules and are quickly absorbed in the digestive tract (after 10 minutes). They raise blood glucose levels immediately and very strongly. It is these carbohydrates that make sugar, honey, there are a lot of them in fruit juices (they are also in natural fruits, but due to the presence of fiber, the absorption of carbohydrates is not so fast), beer. Such carbohydrates are also found in liquid dairy products, but because of the fat content, the carbohydrates are not absorbed as quickly.
Another type of carbohydratecomplex(starches), they also raise blood glucose levels, just not as fast and not as much as simple carbohydrates. Representatives of such products: bread, cereals, pasta, potatoes, corn. A starch molecule is large and the body has to work hard to assimilate it. Therefore, the glucose resulting from the breakdown of starch is absorbed more slowly (after about 30 minutes), which increases its level in the blood to a lesser extent.
Culinary processing of starchy foods (any grinding, long-term thermal exposure) contributes to an increase in blood glucose levels. This means that a sharp increase in blood glucose levels when eating starch can be prevented by using certain processing and cooking methods. For example, it is better not to boil potatoes in mashed potatoes, but to boil them whole in their skins so that they remain dense. It is also better not to boil the porridge for too long. It is preferable to prepare them from large uncrushed grains (buckwheat, rice).
Enriching food with plant fibers prevents blood glucose levels from rising. Therefore, it is better to buy grain or bran bread rather than fine flour. Fruits and berries should be consumed in their natural form, not in the form of juices.
There are following types of carbohydrate products –"free", after which the blood glucose level does not rise or rises slightly. These products include almost all types of vegetables in normal amounts (except potatoes). For example, cabbage, lettuce, parsley, dill, radish, turnip, zucchini, eggplant, pumpkin, pepper, etc. Among the products of this group, beets and carrots have the highest amount of carbohydrates, but the increase in blood glucose level after them is not very high. Therefore, if you eat them in moderation (as a supplement, no more than 200 g), they can also be ignored.
Do I have to count carbs?
A person with type 2 diabetes who takes oral antidiabetic drugs or who simply follows a diet does not need to accurately calculate the amount of carbohydrates in food. Many people with diabetes have heard of the so-called bread units. For those receiving insulin, the following calculation system exists. This makes it possible to correlate the amount of carbohydrates consumed with the doses of short-acting insulin that these people with diabetes inject before meals.
Special "diabetes" products
Sweeteners can make food sweeter without raising blood glucose levels or gaining weight. But in this case, we are talking only about calorie-free sugar substitutes. They include aspartame, saccharin, cyclamate, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, stevioside. They do not affect blood glucose levels and weight at all. However, most "diabetic" foods (cookies, chocolate, waffles) contain sorbitol, xylitol, or fructose instead of sugar, which is almost as high in calories as sugar. Therefore, if you are overweight, they should be limited as much as possible, just like regular sweets.
Fractionated diet
Fractional mode means several meals during the day (5-6 times, but still not more often than after 2. 5-3 hours) in small portions. This is helpful because a low-calorie diet can make you feel hungry. Eating more often will help reduce this. In addition, a small portion of food is low in carbohydrates and will make the work of the pancreas easier.
Alcohol
Due to the high calorie content (7 kcal per 1 g), alcohol can contribute to weight gain. In addition, it directly worsens the indicators of fat metabolism and blood pressure. Therefore, limit your alcohol consumption as much as possible.
Alcohol is known to adversely affect the liver. It can cause hypoglycemia if a person with diabetes takes glucose-lowering drugs and insulin. Never drink alcohol on an empty stomach!