Taming Type 2 Diabetes

If you’re anything like me, your first reaction to the diabetic diet was confusion. How much of what can I eat when? What am I not supposed to eat? Portion control? Carbohydrates? Fat and fiber? Salt?

I know about all these things – I mean I went to school, right? – but when you’ve grown up eating as you please (this is America after all), somehow applying scientific principles to your diet is . . . hard. Hard to do, of course, but just plain hard to figure out, too. So . . . I did a little more research and made some notes and have tried to simplify the whole business. I’ll start with carbohydrate counting.

Counting carbs (sugars and starches) is a way of meal planning that helps you keep track of the total number of carbs you’re consuming each day. It helps allow you to eat what you want –although when you have diabetes, “what you want” doesn’t mean what it used to (i.e., before you had diabetes). The idea is that you limit the number of carbs you consume and you evenly distribute them over your day’s meals to help keep your blood sugar under control.

When I was diagnosed with diabetes, I visited a dietician who gave me some guidelines for my own diabetes diet and for my carbohydrate intake: 30 grams at breakfast, 60 at lunch, and 60 at dinner plus 30 for snacks. (Remember: This is what was recommended for me personally, my carb counting plan; you need to make your own appointment and get your own numbers.)

This was pretty straightforward for fruits and vegetables and meats, the non-packaged foods. You learn the carbs per serving and what a serving size is and, before you know it, it’s second nature. But the serving size aspect for packaged foods was quite a different story. It’s just not as clear cut; what I might consider a serving and what the company packaging the food might consider a serving can be radically different. For packaged foods, you have to read the labels and you have to pay attention to the serving size.

I spent a few long shopping sessions reading labels, but I have managed to get a good handle on carbs. Being sure to check my blood sugar before and after meals has helped me even more by making me aware of how specific foods affect me. All in all — and painful though reducing my chocolate cake intake has been — it hasn’t been that difficult. And more important, it has worked: My husband and I have both managed to lower our A1C’s by diet.

Carbohydrates are always the big thing you hear about in the diabetes diet, but there are other things. Fiber. Salt. Fat. I’ll take at look at some of them in the future.