The use of any type 2 diabetes medication cannot yet fully offset the impact of malnutrition on blood glucose levels.Proper nutrition is an essential part of effective type 2 diabetes management and will help you reach your blood glucose goals.
Nutritional approaches for people with type 2 diabetes with or without overweight, high blood pressure, etc. will vary a bit.
The vast majority of overweight people have type 2 diabetes. Being overweight prevents your own insulin from working effectively, so blood glucose levels remain 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 specific medicinal products or plants for weight loss. Currently, there are no drugs that alone, without dieting, can provide highly effective and completely safe weight loss.
The only reliable way is to limit the energy intake in the body.(indicated in calories), i. e. compliance with the ruleslow calorie food. The resulting energy deficit leads to the fact that the "conserved" energy reserves in adipose tissue will be spent on various needs of the body, and the weight will definitely decrease.
The energy carriers in food are its three components:proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The richest in calories 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 caloric content of a diet is to reduce its fat content. This is not only safe, but also useful for a modern person, since our diet, unfortunately, is oversaturated with fats. Compared with fats, the calorie content of proteins and carbohydrates can be considered moderate, however, to achieve a good effect on weight loss, they still need to be slightly limited.
There are a number of products that do not need to be limited when losing weight. On the contrary, it is these products that can make up for the above restrictions and replenish the reduced amount of food. This food group is mainly represented by vegetables, poor in nutrients but rich in water, as well asvegetal fibersthat are not digestedVegetable fibers provide many benefits to the body: they improve intestinal function, help the absorption of vitamins, have a beneficial effect on fat metabolism, etc.
There are three groups of products that, in order to lose weight, must be consumed in different ways.Looking at these groups, you will definitely have an association with a semaphore.
Maximum limit
High-calorie foods: high in fat, alcohol, sugar and sweets
Examples:any oil, lard, sour cream, mayonnaise; cream, fatty cottage cheese and cheese; oily fish, poultry skin, canned meat; fish and vegetables in oil; fatty meats, smoked meats, sausages; sugar, sweet drinks, honey, jam, jams, candies, cakes, cookies, chocolate, ice cream, nuts, seeds, alcoholic beverages.
Limit moderately (eat half the usual serving above)
Medium calorie products: protein, starch, dairy products, fruits and berries.
Examples:Regular-fat or low-fat/skim milk and sour-milk products, less than 30% fat cheeses, less than 4% fat cottage cheese, eggs, lean meats, fish, pasta, breads, and lean baked goods , cereals; fruits, potatoes, corn, ripe grains of peas and beans.
Use without restriction
Low-calorie foods: vegetables (except potatoes, corn, ripe peas, and beans) and low-calorie drinks.
Examples:radishes, radishes, beets, carrots, mushrooms, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, eggplant, bean pods, young green peas, lettuce, greens, spinach, sorrel, any cabbage; tea, coffee without sugar and cream, mineral water.
Is it possible to go on a hypocaloric diet without counting calories?
This is quite possible if you are guided by the principles of product selection described above. In addition, experts have long recognized that it is not the number of calories that a person needs to consume (it is quite difficult to specify exactly for each person), but the amount by which a person actually reduced his diet is important!
An indicator of the correct observance of the principles of low-calorie nutrition will be the achievement of the result - weight loss! If the weight does not decrease, then 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 increase blood glucose, but this is not a reason to drastically limit them.
Carbohydrates in the diet of any person, including a person with diabetes, should be sufficient (at least 50% of total calories), since they are a source of energy for the body. Also, different carbohydrates have different effects on blood glucose levels.
There aresimplecarbohydrates (they are called sugars), which are very easily digested, because they are made up of small molecules and are quickly absorbed in the digestive tract (after 10 minutes). Immediately and very strongly increase the level of glucose in the blood. It is from these carbohydrates that sugar, honey are made, many of them are found in fruit juices (they are also found in natural fruit, 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 due to the fat content, carbohydrates are not absorbed as quickly.
another type of carbohydratecomplex(starches), also raise blood glucose levels, but not as fast or as much as simple carbohydrates. Representatives of such products: bread, cereals, pasta, potatoes, corn. The starch molecule is large and to assimilate it, the body has to work hard. Thus, the glucose formed as a result of the breakdown of starch is absorbed more slowly (after about 30 minutes), thereby increasing its level in the blood to a lesser extent.
Culinary processing of starchy foods (any grinding, prolonged thermal exposure) contributes to the increase in blood glucose levels. This means that a sharp rise in blood glucose from eating starches can be prevented by using certain processing and cooking methods. For example, it is more correct to cook potatoes not in the form of mashed potatoes, but to boil them whole with their skins, so that they remain dense. It is also better not to cook porridge for a long time. It is preferable to cook them from large uncrushed grains (buckwheat, rice).
The enrichment of food with vegetable fibers prevents the increase in blood glucose levels. Therefore, it is better to buy grain or bran bread, and not fine flour. Fruits and berries should be eaten in their natural form, not in the form of juices.
There are such types of carbohydrate products:"free", after which the level of glucose in the blood 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, bell pepper, etc. Among the products of this group, the largest amount of carbohydrates is found in beets and carrots, but the increase in blood glucose after them is not very large. Therefore, if you eat them in moderation (as a side dish - no more than 200 g), then you can also ignore them.
Do I need to count carbs?
A person with type 2 diabetes who takes oral diabetes medications or is simply dieting does not need to accurately estimate the amount of carbohydrate in food. Many people with diabetes have heard of so-called bread units. There is a system of such a calculation for those who receive insulin. It allows you to correlate the amount of carbohydrates consumed with the doses of short-acting insulin that these people with diabetes inject before meals.
Special "diabetic" products
Sweeteners can make food taste sweeter without raising blood glucose levels or gaining weight. But in this case we are talking only about non-caloric sugar substitutes. These include aspartame, saccharin, cyclamate, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, stevioside. They do not affect blood glucose levels or weight at all. However, most "diabetic" foods (cookies, chocolate, waffles) instead of sugar contain sorbitol, xylitol or fructose, which are almost as high in calories as sugar. Therefore, when they are overweight, they should be limited as much as possible, like regular sweets.
fractional diet
The fractional mode means several meals during the day (5-6 times, but not more often than after 2. 5-3 hours) in small portions. This is helpful because hunger can occur when following a low calorie diet. Eating more often will help reduce it. In addition, a small portion of food contains few carbohydrates, and this will facilitate the work of the pancreas.
Alcohol
Due to its high caloric 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. So limit your alcohol intake as much as possible.
Alcohol is known to have adverse effects on the liver. It can cause hypoglycemia if a person with diabetes takes glucose-lowering medications and insulin. Never drink alcohol on an empty stomach!