Healthy Eating and Your Diabetes

Healthy eating is important if you have diabetes because some of the foods that you eat will affect your blood glucose (sugar) levels. The rest of your family can join you in healthy eating too!

WHAT IS HEALTHY EATING?

Eat regularly

Have 3 main meals a day i.e. breakfast, lunch and evening meal

Eat less sugar

Sugar and foods containing sugar can cause the blood glucose to rise suddenly.
It is best to replace these with low sugar and sugar free foods instead.

FOODS HIGH IN SUGAR	FOODS LOW IN SUGAR/SUGAR FREE
Sugar, glucose, glucose syrup, dextrose, sucrose, icing sugar	Artificial sweeteners, e.g. Canderel Sweetex, Hermaseta
Sweet squash and fizzy drinks - e.g. Ribena, Lucozade Drinking Chocolate	Diet and low calorie, sugar-free squash and fizzy drinks - e.g. Robinsons Special R, Diet Coke, Pepsi Max tea, coffee, cocoa or low calorie chocolate drinks
All sweets, e.g. Chocolate, toffee, fudge, tablet, mints, chocolate covered and cream filled biscuits, marzipan	Fruit Plain biscuits or scone Sugar-free chewing gum
Sugar-coated or honey coated breakfast cereal, e.g. Frosties, Sugar Puffs	Unsweetened breakfast cereal e.g. porridge, Weetabix, Branflakes, Cornflakes, Rice Krispies
Sweet pudding e.g. crumble, tarts, tinned fruit in syrup	Fresh or dried fruit Diet yoghurt, sugar-free jelly Tinned fruit in natural juice
Marmalade, jam, honey, syrup	Reduced sugar marmalade or jam

Providing your day-to-day eating is healthy, the occasional celebration meal will do no harm. If you are going to have something sugary, it is best to have it just after a high fibre meal.

Fill up on fibre and starchy (carbohydrate) foods

Starchy foods include whole grain breakfast cereals, potatoes, rice, pasta, chapattis and whole grain bread.
Make these foods the main part of every meal
Add lentils, beans, split peas or broth mix to home-made soups and stews.

Cut down on fried and fatty foods

Eat less butter, margarine, oil, lard, dripping, cheese and fatty meats
Choose low fat dairy products e.g., skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, low fat spreads or cheeses instead of the full fat versions.
Remember low fat products still contain a lot of fat so don't be tempted to use twice as much!
Cut fat off meat, take skin off chicken and have smaller helpings of meat, fish, eggs and cheese.
Watch out for hidden fat - eat fewer pies, sausage rolls, cakes, crisps and biscuits
Grill, poach, boil, microwave or oven bake food instead of frying.
If you need to use oil in cooking, measure it out so as to use less. Go for 'unsaturated' oils such as olive oil, sunflower oil or corn oil.

Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables

Aim to eat 2-3 servings of fruit each day
Buy fresh fruit or fruit tinned in natural juice
All fruit is good for you including bananas and small quantities of grapes or dried fruit
Try to eat at least 2-3 servings of vegetables and/or salad every day
Use fresh, frozen or tinned vegetables

Eat less salt

Cut down salt gradually so that you can get used to the taste change. Adding herbs and spices instead can help.
Use as little salt as possible in cooking. Try not to add more salt to your meal at the table.
Cut down on processed foods such as tinned and packet foods, salty meats, crisps and salted nuts.

Drink alcohol in moderation only.

Diabetic Foods

You can buy all the foods that you need from ordinary shops and supermarkets. There is no need to buy special "diabetic" foods. They can have a laxative effect and will not help if you are trying to lose weight.

REMEMBER

Enjoy the food that you eat.
A healthy diet is the most important part of your diabetes treatment.
If you have any questions about your diet, ask your doctor to refer you to a dietitian.
This information has been adapted from the Tayside Dietitians Consortium

Further Dietary Information

Diabetes UK provides a variety of cookery books and other information for people with diabetes. Contact Diabetes UK at

10 Queen Anne Street, LONDON W1M 0BD. Tel. 0171 323 1531, Fax. 020 7424 1030

Website: http://www.diabetes.org.uk/