Diabetes
Top 4 Foods To Control Diabetes
Diabetes limits your food options, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t eat your favourite foods. There is still a variety of delicious food available suitable for you. By including these four foods in your meal, you’ll give your body the nourishment it need.
Editorial Credit: Shutterstock.Com
If you have diabetes, it is not easy to manage your diet and control your blood sugar levels. Some food can cause massive spikes, while some can lower blood sugar. But, don’t worry, after years of medical research, we’ve been able to determine what foods are better than others. Our information on what you eat can help you control your blood sugar, stave off hunger, and feel full longer.
This blog will discuss the top 4 foods to control diabetes and lower blood sugar.
-
Non-Starchy Vegetables
The health properties of green vegetables are significant for those with diabetes.
Damage to the cells inside our body can cause complications, so we need a loaded supply of vegetables to preserve our cells and the health of our blood vessels.
Eating vegetables is quite beneficial against complications, and a large intake of non-starchy vegetables is highly recommended for all people with diabetes.
Since they’re whole food with a trace volume of sugar and enriched by fiber, you can eat as countless non-starchy vegetables as you want without panicking about high blood sugar spikes. To get the most out of your non-starchy vegetables, Choose fresh, frozen, and packaged vegetables and vegetable extract without added sodium, fat, or sugar.
The list of common non-starchy vegetables is as follows:
- Asparagus
- Artichoke
- Baby corn
- Bamboo shoots
- Brussels sprouts
- Broccoli
- Cabbage (green, bok choy, Chinese)
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Daikon
- Greens (spinach, kale, mustard, turnip)
- Kohlrabi
- Leeks
- Mushrooms
- Onions
- Peapods
- Peppers
- Radishes
- Green salad ( spinach, chicory, endive, escarole, lettuce, arugula, radicchio, watercress)
- Sprouts
- Squash (cushaw, summer, crookneck, spaghetti, zucchini)
- Swiss chard
- Tomato
-
Nuts and Seeds
Fatty foods like nuts and seeds help control diabetes and lower blood sugar. Nuts are enriched with fiber, and most are low in digestible carbs, so they would not increase your blood sugar.
The nuts suitable for diabetes include almonds, brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, macadamia nuts, pistachios, and walnuts.
Antioxidant-rich walnuts can be nearly half the risk of developing Type-2 diabetes.
If you’re sensitive about your weight, make sure to eat nuts in moderation. Even though they’re high in healthy fats, it’s still fat And can cause you to become overweight.
Seeds are another excellent source of healthy fats that are beneficial in controlling diabetes. They can increase insulin sensitivity and decrease inflammation while simultaneously providing antioxidant benefits that help reduce the number of loose radicals in your body and protect against diabetes. Seeds also contain most nutrients.
-
Beans
Beans are super healthy food for people with diabetes. Beans are an excellent, affordable source of protein, fiber, and minerals. Adding beans to your diet, you can keep your blood sugar levels stable and can keep the body healthy.
Beans are the origin of plant-based protein, and they can satisfy hunger while helping people reduce their carbohydrate intake.
Beans also score short on the glycemic index (GI) scale, which means it does not trigger significant spikes in a person’s blood sugar levels.
They are complex carbohydrates, so the body digests more slowly than other carbohydrates.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) suggests that eating beans may help with weight loss and could help regulate blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
The type of beans you can use:
- kidney
- navy
- pinto
- black
When using canned beans, make sure to choose options without added salt. Otherwise, you can drain and rinse the beans to remove any added salt.
-
Probiotic yoghurts
Probiotics are helpful bacteria that live in the human gut and improve the whole body’s digestion system.
Some research indicated that eating probiotic yoghurts could improve cholesterol levels or heart health in people with type 2 diabetes. It also helps to lower the risk of heart disease.
Regular consumption of probiotic foods may reduce inflammation and oxidative stress and increase insulin sensitivity in your body.
A diabetic person should prefer a plain category with no add-on sugar. Probiotic yoghurt carries live, active cultures called Lactobacillus, advertised on the label.
Additionally, Use Olive Oil
A study found that the Mediterranean-diet staple packs a punch when managing diabetes, primarily due to its high monounsaturated fatty acid, or MUFA, content.
Olives are crushed in a grinder to release liquid and then processed to separate the oil and water in a machine. Olive oil contains MUFAs, which help keep blood sugar in check by lowering insulin resistance assisting cells to better respond to your body.
Additionally, olive oil is a powerful antioxidant that protects the body from damage caused by free radicals in the body.
Don’t worry about the fat from olive oil. It contains White fat, which has more calories than carbohydrates, gram for gram; it helps keep you full, controls blood sugar spikes, and allows your digestive system to absorb critical nutrients, such as vitamins A and E.
Conclusion
Diabetes limits your food options, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t eat your favourite foods. There is still a variety of delicious food available suitable for you. By including these four foods in your meal, you’ll give your body the nourishment it needs so you can indulge a little now and then.
