10/07/2012

The Diabetes Food Guide more commonly known as the Food Pyramid for Diabetics is a tool that illustrates in diagram for the amount of foods belonging from each food group a person with diabetes should consume per day. It is a modified version of the food pyramid and is tailor fit for people who want to lose weight and maintain stable blood glucose levels. It shows that the diet should consist mostly of starchy vegetables that have the same complex carbohydrates of whole grain by having peas, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, and beans placed at the bottommost level of the pyramid. Cheese has also been transferred from the Milk Group to the Meat and Others Group because its carbohydrate content is similar to the latter.



Useful Facts about the Diabetes Food Guide



1. Selecting foods in quantities based on the food pyramid can serve as a reliable quick guide towards having enough nutrition while also having a stable blood sugar level.



2. Understanding the proper serving size of carbohydrate-rich foods and how to select the right number of servings per meal is a great way to keep the stability of your blood sugar level.



3. Servings are usually small with a slice of bread or piece of starchy vegetable having a recommended size that should fit in the palm of an average woman.



4. The recommended size of a fruit per serving should not exceed the size of a tennis ball.



5. The recommended serving of milk should equal to that of a small coffee cup.



The Diabetes Food Guide helps make sure that you eat enough foods from each food group and that each food is of better quality in terms of the type of carbohydrates it contains. It is important not only to reduce your consumption of carbohydrates but also to limit your carbohydrate consumption to purely complex carbohydrates. Carbohydrates greatly increase the amount of sugar in the bloodstream. Simple carbohydrates are absorbed almost immediately which makes the blood glucose rise extremely fast. Complex carbohydrates on the other hand are broken down into simpler components first and thus the increase in blood glucose is gradual and spikes in sugar levels are avoided.



The Diabetes Food Guide places foods that are low in carbohydrates with the carbohydrates being complex in quality on the bottom levels of the food pyramid. Foods rich in simple carbohydrates on the other hand are placed on the topmost levels.
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