Healthy eating

Eating healthy is important for everyone, but it’s even more important for people with diabetes.

To manage your diabetes, you’ll want to:

• Eat a variety of foods in the right amounts
• Eat regularly
• Match how much you eat with your activity level

You don't need to ban any foods from your meal plan, but you may need to limit the amounts or how often you eat some of them.

Good diabetes self-care means following your meal plan, being active, and taking your diabetes medicines as directed. Your meal plan should:

• Include a wide variety of foods so that you get needed nutrients (the healthy things in food)
• Include many of your favorite foods so that you enjoy what you eat
• Be easy to follow

The goals of your meal plan are to help you:

• Keep your blood sugar within your goal range
• Manage your weight
• Manage blood cholesterol and fat levels to reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease
• Manage blood pressure
• Reduce your risk of diabetes-related health problems

Carbohydrates and blood sugar

Carbohydrates are the main kind of food that raises blood sugar levels. That’s why it’s important to be aware of the amount of carbohydrates you eat. Simple carbohydrates, or sugar, will begin to raise blood sugar very soon after you eat them. Complex carbohydrates, or starchy foods, take longer for the body to change into sugar but will eventually be changed completely to sugar. Protein and fat have little effect on blood sugar levels.

Carbohydrate counting and diabetes

Carbohydrate counting can help you manage your blood sugar. Some people on intensive insulin therapy or insulin pumps use carbohydrate counting to match the amount of rapid-acting insulin they take before eating to the amount of carbohydrates they choose to eat at a meal. Learn more about one type of rapid-acting insulin.

Carbohydrate counting can help you:

• Manage your blood sugar
• Be flexible in your choice of foods and meal times
• Eat more foods that you enjoy

To count carbohydrates, you need to:

• Know which foods contain carbohydrates
• Find out how many carbohydrates are in those foods
• Read food labels and use measuring tools, such as measuring cups, spoons, and a food scale
• Work with your diabetes care team to decide how to divide your carbohydrates among your meals and snacks

Which foods contain carbohydrates?

Many foods contain carbohydrates. The foods that contain the most carbohydrates are:

• Starches – bread, cereal, crackers, grains, rice, pasta
• Starchy vegetables – potatoes, corn, peas, beans
• Nonstarchy vegetables – green beans, broccoli, lettuce
• All fruits and fruit juices
• Milk and yogurt
• Sugary foods – candy, regular soda pop, jelly
• Sweets – cakes, cookies, pies, ice cream

In fact, the only food groups that generally don’t contain carbohydrates are:

• Meats and meat substitutes, such as eggs and cheese
• Fats and oils

Because carbohydrates raise blood sugar more than other nutrients, you may wonder why you should eat them at all. You need to eat foods with carbohydrates because they provide your body with energy, along with many vitamins and minerals.

Sweets are okay to include in your meal plan once in a while. But keep in mind that sweets often contain a lot of carbohydrates, calories, and fat, with very little nutritional value.

How much do I need?

Work with your registered dietitian to find the number of carbohydrates you need in your meal plan. That’s the number that you should aim for each day.

Your dietitian or diabetes educator can help you easily divide your carbohydrates among your meals and snacks. If you take diabetes pills or one to two injections of insulin a day, it’s important to try to eat the same amount of carbohydrates at the same meals and snacks each day. If you take three or more injections of insulin a day, you may have more flexibility with your meal plan.

Skipping meals can lead to low blood sugar, especially if you take insulin. If you include snacks in your meal plan, don’t forget to count the carbohydrates!

Daily calorie goal

The table below shows how many servings from the different food groups you would eat for each daily calorie level. Each column lists the total grams of carbohydrates, the recommended number of food servings from each food group, and how many grams of carbohydrates are in these servings.

• Current recommendation of total carbohydrates for a healthy diet is 50% of total calorie needs
• 1200 calories per day is the minimum necessary to meet your nutrient needs

	1200	1500	1800	2000	2200
Total carbohydrates (grams/serving)	144	174	209	239	269
	Servings	Servings	Servings	Servings	Servings
Starches (15 grams)	5	6	8	10	11
Fruits (15 grams)	2	3	3	3	4
Milk and yogurt* (12 grams)	2	2	2	2	2
Vegetables, nonstarchy (5 grams)	3	3	4	4	4

Lean meat and meat substitutes	4 oz	6 oz	7 oz	8 oz	8 oz
Fats	5	6	7	7	8

Bold = foods that contain carbohydrate. *Fat-free.

The amount of calories and carbohydrates you need depends on your:

    Height
    Weight and weight history
    Age
    Usual food habits and daily schedule
    Level of physical activity
    Blood sugar levels
    Blood cholesterol and fat levels

For women, a reasonable starting point is about 45 to 60 grams, or three to four servings, of carbohydrates each meal, and for men, 60 to 75 grams, or four to five servings, of carbohydrates each meal. How the carbohydrates are distributed between meals and snacks depends on your current food habits and daily schedule, and the types and doses of your medicine.

What about the glycemic index?

The glycemic index is a measure of how much an individual food will raise the blood sugar level. Some carbohydrate-containing foods can cause a faster rise in blood sugar level than other foods. Considering the glycemic index of foods may be an added benefit to blood sugar management. Talk with a registered dietitian for more information about the glycemic index.

What is a serving?

The exchange lists for meal planning can help you determine serving sizes. One serving of starch, fruit, or milk has about 15 grams of carbohydrate.

The size of a single serving varies with the type of food. Serving sizes are often smaller than what you are used to eating. At first you'll find it helpful to weigh or measure your food to determine your serving sizes. Here are some examples of one serving of foods that contain 15 grams of carbohydrate:

    1/2 cup cooked cereal, grain, or starchy vegetable
    1/3 cup cooked rice or pasta
    1 slice of bread or a small roll
    1 small piece of fruit
    1/2 cup corn, peas, or potatoes
    1 cup non-fat milk or yogurt

You can read the labels on food products to see how much protein, fat, fiber, and carbohydrates they contain. Be aware that some "low-fat" products have extra sugar. Check the food label for words that end in "-ose," such as sucrose, fructose, and dextrose. These are types of sugars. The total grams of carbohydrates on the label less the grams of fiber is the number you should use when you are counting carbohydrates. This number will include starch and sugar.

You can use the Food Look-up Tool to find the nutritional content of many of your favorite foods.

If you are dining out or are unable to use measuring cups or scales, you can estimate serving sizes by using your hand.

*The estimated serving sizes are based on the size of a small hand.

Other Nutrients

Protein:
Protein helps to build and repair your body tissues. Protein-rich foods include:

• Meat
• Poultry
• Fish
• Dairy products
• Eggs

Some protein-rich foods are also high in fat and cholesterol. Choose low-fat protein foods to limit your fat intake. If you have no kidney problems, health experts usually recommend that 15% to 20% of total daily calories come from protein.

Fat:
Different kinds of fat make up the rest of your meal plan.

• Monounsaturated fat includes fats, such as canola and olive oil
• Polyunsaturated fats are found in corn and safflower oils
• Saturated fat is usually solid at room temperature, and is found mostly in animal products such as butter and meat, but also in tropical oils, such as coconut and palm kernel oil. Less than 10% of your total daily calories should come from saturated fat.

-Back To Top-

• en Español >
• Company Info >
• Privacy & Legal Notices >
• Site Map >
• 137762    © 2010 Novo Nordisk A/S.