Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common diseases in the world. Despite all its complexity, there are methods that can greatly facilitate a person’s life. First of all, you need to follow a certain diet.
If you follow a properly prescribed diet, then diabetes will not affect general well-being, and in addition, the likelihood of various types of complications, including heart attack, stroke, etc. , is reduced.
Types of diets
The diet for diabetes is determined depending on the type of disease itself and the age category. Thus, there are general principles for building a proper diet, which are adjusted based on individual indicators of the human body.
Since it is impossible to cure the disease, a certain menu is assigned to reduce the risk of it. Eating the right foods at a clearly defined time is essential for:
- reducing the risk of chronic and acute complications,
- maintaining good health and relatively strong immunity,
- prevention or weight loss,
- keeping blood sugar levels within acceptable limits.
There are two types of diabetes. In other words, the first is called insulin dependent. Its development is associated with damage and death to cells located in the pancreas and responsible for insulin production.
With it, the diet is focused on maintaining the process of insulin therapy and is rather an additional method of disease control. His principles are similar to those followed by healthy people in achieving good figure and well-being.
The main difference is the need to calculate the amount of carbohydrates. Since the treatment for type 1 diabetes consists of taking insulin, you need to monitor what percentage of your daily diet is given to carbohydrates. As a rule, it should not be more than 60%.
Because type 2 diabetes is also non-insulin dependent, it develops in obese people, and therefore nutrition comes first. In the initial stage of the disease or mild, the point is to rationally get rid of extra pounds.
When diabetes of this type reaches a moderate or even severe form, then in addition to diet, medicines for lowering blood sugar, ie insulin, are prescribed. It is worth noting that in such cases you must pay special attention to physical activity. Thanks to them, such a problem as obesity can be solved without surgery.
The most popular diets are the so-called. 8 and 9 tables. The eighth diet table is applicable to those who are overweight or have a tendency to be overweight. The ninth is taken as the basis for determining the diet for diabetics.
Diet number 9 for diabetes
Diet no. 9 is considered curative and is prescribed to normalize metabolism (carbohydrates). It also aims to prevent disorders related to fat metabolism. Its caloric content should not exceed 2500 kcal.
Such a diet is characterized as follows:
- the calorie content should be reduced by consuming animal fats and carbohydrates that are easily digestible (except for sweets and sugar),
- partial restriction or complete removal of cholesterol and salt,
- consuming more vitamins and fiber,
- the protein content should be within normal limits.
All healthy diets, including the ninth, are based on proper food intake. You need to eat often and in small portions. In total, the frequency should be 5 or 6 times a day.
Fried or stewed food should be eaten as little as possible or completely forgotten. In the first place it should be baked and cooked. It is best to design a menu for the week, because it will be easier to follow. Particular preference should be given to the following products:
- lean meat
- lean fish
- vegetables that do not contain more than 5% carbohydrates,
- fruit (not all),
- natural sugar-free drinks.
As for spices and eggs, their consumption should be limited. This is especially true of egg yolks. The amount of protein per day should not exceed 1, 5 pieces. In addition to the need to exclude sweets, pasta, pasta and puff pastry for diabetes, pickles are also pickled.
Bananas, dates, figs, grapes and all its derivatives should not be categorically consumed. The same goes for fats like pork, lamb and beef. To get the necessary fats, you need to eat butter (without salt) and vegetable oil in moderation.
Diet number 9 is the basis used in naming the necessary diet. Depending on the personal characteristics of the person with diabetes, it adjusts. There are different types of diets that you can combine and find the one that suits you.
What is a bread unit?
Since the purpose of a proper diet for diabetics is to consume a certain amount of carbohydrates, you should know how this valued norm is determined, which determines how much and what foods you need to eat.
All products, which include carbohydrates, have different physical properties and calories. These characteristics are not subject to the usual measurement method. In addition, a diet for diabetes mellitus requires increased control over one’s daily intake.
To make it easier to determine how much you need to eat this or that product and not exceed what is allowed, nutritionists have introduced the term "bread unit". The concept is used in cases when a diabetic is prescribed insulin intake.
With such a measured unit, it is much easier for a person to understand what can be eaten and drunk and what cannot. He composes his healthy menu based on personal indicators, and can also change some foods for others that contain carbohydrates.
As a rule, a person should consume 18 to 25 such units per day. Since there should be five meals, it is logical to rationally distribute this amount at any time. The main "dose" should enter the body in the first half of the day. To keep track of the number of units of bread consumed, you can write your own menu by day.
How many calories do you ingest per day?
The diet for diabetes mellitus requires the rejection of many foods and meals that were previously included in the daily diet. However, you should not confuse foods that allow you to normalize your sugar levels with those needed to lose extra pounds.
The diet for type 1 diabetes aims to accurately calculate how much insulin is needed. Caloric content in this case does not play such an important role. It must be monitored so as not to increase weight.
A diet with type 2 diabetes requires increased control of calorie intake, as it often develops in the presence of obesity. However, it is also not worth bringing their numbers into fanaticism.
The number of calories per day is calculated depending on the individual indicators of the organism. The diet itself should be low in carbohydrates, but it does not imply a complete lack of carbohydrates. You need to get full, but it’s important not to overeat.
When asked what you can eat with type 2 diabetes, many believe that you have to sit almost on crumbs and water. This is absolutely impossible. Food should be complete, with vitamins and fiber.
There are various recipes for delicious, satisfying and at the same time healthy dishes that will not allow you to recover, but at the same time the person will be full of strength and energy. What type of food should be consumed and what is the approximate number of calories per day allowed, you need to talk to your doctor.
Useful and unhealthy food
Low carb diets are different. For a healthy person they are less strict than for someone diagnosed with diabetes. But they have the same meaning. They differ in the main list of products that are divided into healthy and harmful for diabetics.
Useful
- all kinds of vegetables,
- greens (spinach, sorrel, dill),
- mushrooms,
- meat and fish (lean),
- Coffee and tea,
- mineral water.
Harmful
Moderate increase in sugar:
- potato,
- cereals,
- pasta, including hard varieties,
- milk products.
Strongly increasing sugar:
- sweets,
- baby
- drinks with added sugar,
- alcohol,
- grapes and their derivatives,
- hot and salty spices.
This division of products is generally accepted and is often taken as the basis for the development of menus diabetes mellitus. But what is good for one person may turn out to be bad for another. Since everything is relative, an individual diet is prepared for each diabetic.
How to eat against obesity
It is believed that in order to lose weight you must adhere to a strict low-calorie diet. But the point is, it doesn’t work. Numerous studies have shown that with the reduction of caloric content in your diet, apart from the constant feeling of hunger, to fainting from hunger, nervousness and other things, nothing else happens.
With such a diet, it will be possible to lose literally a few kilograms, but if the body is characterized by elasticity and good muscles at the same time, that is all that will leave it in the first place. Subcutaneous fat will not go anywhere, and sometimes, on the contrary, it will accumulate even more.
A protein diet involves active protein intake and a parallel reduction in the amount of fat and carbohydrates. The approach itself is not bad, but it also has its nuances. Again, it is impossible to overdo it with protein, and it is completely forbidden to exclude fats from the diet. Lack of carbohydrates will lead to loss of vital energy.
In the end, it all comes down to a low-carb diet again. By itself, it is necessary to reduce sugar. She is not exactly a savior in losing weight, but she is the best of all those presented. It is to his credit that all the necessary elements necessary for the maintenance of vital activity enter the body.
Therefore, when there is a rational amount of natural fats, proteins and carbohydrates, the body does not have to create deposits. Metabolism begins to act like a clock, there is no chronic hunger, the symptoms of the disease practically disappear, and the person becomes more active.
Diet for type 1 diabetes
Maintaining a healthy body with type 1 diabetes requires the same low-carb diet. But in this case it must be strict. The table number does not play a special role here, although diet 9 is often taken as a basis.
The problem is that even the effect of insulin is very different, so it is quite difficult to normalize the indicators. That is why it is necessary to adhere to a certain diet. The less carbohydrates enter the body, the less insulin is needed.
It should be understood that your diet is interrelated with your personal dose of insulin. Therefore, when making a menu you need to consider the amount of medicine. It is better to arrange it by days to make it easier to keep track.
Diet for type 2 diabetes
Because type 2 diabetes is less complex than type 1 diabetes, diet is key to weight loss and its prevention in the future. Again, a low-carb diet is recommended. Of course, this is an approximate diet that adapts. Its significance is in the normalization of glucose and insulin in the blood, as well as in the control of insulin resistance.
Some people practice taking different weight loss pills and treatment with folk remedies. You should forget about the first one, because at best it won’t make sense from these medications.
Folk remedies, as a rule, consist of any herbal infusions and decoctions. If you really understand medicinal herbs, there may be some of that, but you shouldn’t make that the basis of treatment.
Renal failure
Renal failure may develop in the background of the disease. It should be understood that this is not caused by dietary protein, as many mistakenly believe, but by high blood sugar levels.
The active development of such a disease is stopped when glucose levels return to normal. Diet helps for this purpose. Protein is not excluded from the diet, but you need to work with carbohydrates. Proper nutrition available to ordinary people can even lead to the fact that the kidneys are completely restored.
However, if the process is taken to an extreme, there will be no return to healthy kidneys. Moreover, in such a case, a low-carbohydrate diet can accelerate the destructive process. To avoid this, you need to monitor your condition, and a table created for you will help you control your diet, in which meals and insulin doses are scheduled as needed.
Other important points
Diabetes can develop at any age. In children, this can happen against the background of the fact that there has been an overeating of flour products, sweets. If you find the problem in time and start solving it properly, you can avoid complications.
In women, the disease can occur for a variety of reasons. Constant stress, heavy diet (mostly unhealthy foods), as well as inactivity can cause excess weight and, as a result, type 2 diabetes.
There is often a situation in which the disease arose during pregnancy. This is due to hormonal imbalance. In addition, a woman during this period can actively consume foods that can cause the development of diabetes.
As a rule, there is a less strict diet for pregnant women that is aimed at normalizing the processes in the body and partial weight loss, but at the same time without harm to the fetus.
With gestational diabetes mellitus or diabetes during pregnancy, a strict diet should only be discussed with a specialist. The diet should be adjusted taking into account the fact that there is a parallel development of the fetus. By excluding any products, you can harm the unborn child.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus develops somewhat less frequently in men than in women. This is due to the fact that they have a slightly accelerated metabolism. But unhealthy foods, alcohol addiction, and low physical activity can easily lead to such a problem.