Diabetes and Diet: What’s the Connection?

About 40 years ago, the connection between diabetes and diet was not clear-cut. Dietitians didn’t restrict carbohydrates that much and were more concerned about fat levels. They didn’t want diabetics to end up with a heart attack and heart disease.

With thousands and thousands of research studies on diabetes, diet, diabetes complications, medications, and natural healing, things have drastically changed. The Glycemic Index research hit the scientific journals in the 1980s. And now we know that it’s the type of carbohydrates in the diet that matters most to diabetics.

Understand the Diabetes and Diet Connection

If a health practitioner really wants to see improvement in their diabetic patients, they will pay attention to carbohydrate levels as well as fat levels in the diet.

This time though, they realize that if carbohydrate levels rise too high in the diet of a Type 2 diabetic, the insulin levels will also rise pretty high and the person will start cycling into hard-to-manage blood sugar levels.

You already know junk foods, especially sweets can be irresistible If gone unchecked they can even cause a person to develop an addiction to where cravings will occur, even in the morning when you first wake up.

But food for diabetes doesn't have to be boring either. It can actually be both exciting and flavorful.

The sugar and carbohydrates start a feeding frenzy that is difficult to stop

Understand the Glycemic Index

One of the most useful steps a diabetic can take is to learn how the Glycemic Index relates to diabetes and diet.

The Glycemic Index is a scale from 0 to 100 whereby carbohydrate foods are rated for how fast their sugar content ends up in the bloodstream. Foods such as sugar, corn sweetener, and potatoes have a high Glycemic Index, which is considered to be 69 and higher on the scale.

Foods such as breads, pastas, some starchy vegetables and some fruits are in the moderate Glycemic Index range between 55 and 69. These foods don’t release sugar into the bloodstream as fast as the High Glycemic Index foods do.

Low Glycemic Index foods are those with a rating of 0 to 54. These foods release sugar into the bloodstream very slowly.

Learn the Foundations

This diabetes diet information is the starting foundation for how to select foods you are eating for your meals. By focusing on Low Glycemic Index Foods – whether you are vegetarian or a meat-eater, you can then regain a certain amount of blood sugar regulation. And it happens just by watching your fork.

How important is the connection between diabetes and your diet? It’s so important that without knowledge in this area, a diabetic risks having a low quality of life with guaranteed health complications.

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