Diabetes Diet and Nutrition

Eating right is a key step to preventing and controlling diabetes. Fortunately, whether you’re trying to reduce your risk of diabetes or manage a pre-existing problem, you can still enjoy your favorite foods and take pleasure from your meals. Your nutritional needs are the same as everyone else no special foods or complicated diets are necessary. But if the way you eat has been less than healthy, you may need to learn some better eating habits. The key to a diabetes diet is eating in moderation, sticking to regular mealtimes, and eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Diabetes is on the rise, yet most cases of diabetes are preventable with healthy lifestyle changes. Some can even be reversed. The bottom line is that you have more control over your health than you think. If you’re concerned about diabetes, you can make a difference by eating a healthy diet, keeping your weight in check, and getting exercise.

Healthful eating helps keep your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, in your target range. Physical activity and, if needed, diabetes medicines also help. The diabetes target range is the blood glucose level suggested by diabetes experts for good health. You can help prevent health problems by keeping your blood glucose levels on target.

If you have diabetes, you need to learn about the benefits of adding soluble fibers to your diet. These can be found in many different vegetables and fruits. The reason why they work so well for diabetics is that they slow down glucose absorption in the intestine. This decreased absorption can help keep your blood glucose level from getting too elevated, which can cause a hyperglycemic reaction.

Eating for diabetes doesn’t mean eliminating sugar. But in order to get the most enjoyment out of sweets, it is best to save them for special occasions. After all, they are called treats for a reason. If you have diabetes, you can still enjoy a small serving of your favorite dessert now and then. The key is moderation.

Carbohydrates have a big impact on your blood sugar levels, but you don’t have to avoid them. You just need to be smart about what types of carbs you eat and how you balance them in the rest of your diet. Carbohydrates include simple sugars and complex starches and fibers. Your body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose (blood sugar), which is the fuel for your cells.

Recommendations of diabetic diet differ for person to person, based on their nutritional needs, lifestyle, and the action and timing of medications. For example, diet for Type 1 diabetic, focus mostly on matching food intake to insulin whereby one needs to know when insulin peaks and how fast the body metabolize different type of foods. In Type 2 diabetic the concern may be more oriented to weight loss in order to improve the body's ability to utilize the insulin it does produce. Thus, learning about the basic of food nutrition will be able to help in adjusting diet to suite the particular condition.

Eating right for diabetes comes down to three things:

What you eat. Your diet makes a huge difference!! Basically all you should eat mostly plant foods, cut back on refined carbs and sugary drinks, and choose healthy fats over unhealthy fats.

When you eat. Diet is part of it, but keeping regular meal and snack times also affects your blood sugar levels and will help to keep them more constant.

How much you eat. Portion sizes matter. Even if you eat very healthy meals, if you eat too much you will gain weight, which is a factor in diabetes.

You do not need to eat special foods, but instead simply emphasize vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. A diabetes diet is simply a healthy eating plan that is high in nutrients, low in fat, and moderate in calories. It is a healthy diet for anyone!

Water; The Essential Element of Life

Are you drinking enough water? If you're not, you could end up with excess body fat, poor muscle tone, digestive complications, muscle soreness even water-retention problems. As you know, up to 75% of your body weight is water. Water plays a role in every process occurring in your body, right down to the cell level. We can go without eating for a month or more and still survive, but death is almost certain within a matter of days without water.

Next to air, water is the element most necessary for survival. A normal adult is 60 to 70 percent water. We can go without food for almost two months, but without water only a few days. Yet most people have no idea how much water they should drink. In fact, many live in a dehydrated state.

When a person stops drinking water or doesn't drink enough, they can become dehydrated. Symptoms of dehydration include dry and sticky mouth, sunken eyes, not producing enough tears, little to no urine output and lethargy, according to the National Institutes of Health. People who don't drink enough water may also develop low blood pressure and a rapid heart rate.

The body cannot survive without water. Water consumption helps the body breathe, because it moistens the lungs. Lung functions can use up to a pint of water every day, decreasing the body's moisture through exhalation. When that liquid isn't replaced, it makes it difficult to breathe. People who don't drink enough fluids can also gain excess body fat, have poor muscle tone and a decreased ability to digest food.

Drinking water is important if you're trying to lose weight, some studies have shown that thirst and hunger sensations are triggered together. If there is a slight dehydration the thirst mechanism may be mistaken for hunger and one may eat when the body is actually craving fluid. As most food contains some water, if one doesn't drink much they may be subconsciously driven to eat more to gain the necessary water supply however, you also gain the undesired effects of increased calorie consumption. Drinking more water can help to prevent overeating and benefit weight loss.

While water is very important for your health, there are some times when drinking too much water can be a problem:

If you have any kidney or adrenal problems, or your doctor has you taking diuretics, you need to consult with your doctor about how much water to drink each day

Don't drink all of the water you need per day all at once. Divide the amount you need and drink several glasses of water throughout the day. This is especially important if you engage in lots of heavy exercise.

For the average person experts suggest getting at least 64 ounces of water daily or eight 8-ounce glasses. If you are on a diet to lose weight it is more important to consume more and keep drinking water throughout the day, unless you have any medical condition that doesn't allow much water intake. A good guide for daily intake is to drink 1 ounce of water for every 2 pounds of body weight. A 200 pound person should be drinking around 100 ounces (12.5 cups) of water in order the gain the benefits of increased energy and metabolism.

Your intake should be spread throughout the day and evening. You may wonder if I drink this much, won't I constantly be running to the bathroom? Yes. But after a few weeks, your bladder tends to adjust and you urinate less frequently but in larger amounts. And by consuming those eight to ten glasses of water throughout the day, you could be on your way to a healthier, leaner body.