Diabetes care - advice from Dr. Ciszak
If you have diabetes, you owe it to yourself to know as much as possible about the disease. One of the best sources of information is the Canadian Diabetes Association website. Please set aside some time to study their articles carefully.
The information below lists just the bare essentials of the diet you should follow.
Good news: the "diabetic diet" is the same diet that works for lowering cholesterol, controlling high blood pressure, losing weight and generally staying healthy. It is the diet that you should be on ANYWAY.
Avoid fast foods and eat "slow foods". These are foods that require lots of chewing and take a while for the stomach to digest. Raw vegetables, fruit, beans, whole grains and unsalted nuts are in this category.
Eat frequent small meals and avoid feasts. You should have at least 3 meals a day and never skip breakfast.
Eat most of your food in the first half of the day. That means that, if you get up at 7 and go to bed at 11, your breakfast and lunch together should be bigger than your supper.
Limit simple sugars. Plain sugar, honey, pastries, fruit juice and pop are in this category. Artificial sweeteners are OK but it is best to develop a dislike for sweet foods. This happens automatically after you give up sweets and it takes a few weeks.
Limit animal fat. Red meat, ANY deep fried food, milk fat and lard are in this category. Limit meat servings to only one per day. Use fish as often as you can.
Maximize fibre. All the "slow foods" mentioned above contain fibre. But also bran, flax seed and commercial fibre supplements are great. Caution: a lot of commercial "bran cereals" contain a lot of sugar. Buy pure bran and add it to your sugar-free cereal, soup or salad.
That's it! I have not mentioned anything about exercise but that goes without saying.
Dr. Wojtek Ciszak 2010