Diabetics need to understand basic principles of sensible eating to consume the same food as the rest of the family. Dr Pradeep G Talwalkar guides you on a perfect meal
Planning one’s meals and a judicious selection of food type and quantity is a vital and primary step in managing diabetes. In fact, food regimentation and regular exercise in combination are sufficient to control blood glucose in mild diabetics.
I try to avoid the term ‘diet’ because people interpret it variously, more often than not as a restriction in food quantity across the board. It has negative, restrictive or unfriendly connotations. In fact, diabetics who have an ideal body weight need not restrict the number of calories they consume in a day. What they need to do is to take frequent but smaller meals; avoid refined sugars and fatty food; and go for ample rough cereals and vegetables to get adequate fibre into their systems. If you understand the basic principles of sensible eating, you can consume the same food as the rest of your family. A diabetic does not require any specially prepared meal. A balance meal plan contains all the constituents of food in optimum proportions.
Fatty Fundamentals
>limit you fat intake to 20 per cent of the total energy you need.
>Consume saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in equal amounts.
>Don’t have any fat or oil in unlimited quantities — no fat or oil is ‘totally safe’.
>Don’t shun ghee totally. In fact, since it provides the ideal w6:w3 ratio of essential fatty acids compared with oils rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, like sunflower oil, it is good for you to have a little bit of ghee, say ½ to 1tsp daily.
>Mustard oil and coconut oil have good w3:w6 ratio and are recommended for cooking. You can mix them with sunflower oil. Other sources of w3 fatty acids are fish liver oil, flax seeds, walnuts, wheat, bajra, black gram, cowpea, kidney bean, green leafy vegetables and fenugreek.
>limit consumption of cooking oil to ½ kg per month — works out to four tsp daily.
>Water-soluble fibre absorbs water to swell up and makes you feel full, thus helping you control your food intake and reduce weight. Oatmeal, lentils, apples, oranges, pears, beans and flax seeds are rich in this fibre. A traditional Indian vegetarian diet, rich in vegetables, fruit and cereals provides adequate fibre; hence supplementary medicated fibre preparations (usually rather expensive) are not required.
Why must I include fibre in my dietIJ
>Fibre slows down the digestion of carbohydrates into glucose, and its absorption, so there is no sharp postmeal rise in blood glucose.
>High fibre intake helps reduce the levels of blood cholesterol and triglycerides, both likely to be high in diabetics, and both potential risk factors for heart disease.
>Especially with water-soluble fibre, you feel full and avoid eating more food. This helps you control your weight and, thus, your blood glucose.
>Consuming water-insoluble fibre prevents constipation. By preventing chronic constipation, chances of large bowel cancer are reduced.
Apart from being absolutely essential for survival, it is an important constituent of all foods. You need a sufficient amount of water to digest your food properly and completely. People with impaired heart and kidney functions should limit their water intake because drinking too much water increases the volume of blood and, therefore, the workload on the heart. Those with failing kidneys cannot compensate by eliminating the extra water through urine.
Diabetics need vitamins and minerals in the same quantities as normal people.
Ask yourself these questions
>What is my ideal body weightIJ
>How many calories should I consume dailyIJ
>What is the best meal plan to deliver the calories I needIJ
(courtesy living Easy with Diabetes, The Ultimate Handbook, Penguin Books India)