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Saturday, October 22, 2016

What is a Balanced Diet For a Type 2 Diabetic?

This question came up on one of the forums I am on recently. There were many conflicting responses, often including discussion about various macronutrients (fat, protein, carbohydrates) and micronutrients (minerals, vitamins etc), the evils of sugar, cholesterol and saturated fats, the need for lots of fruit or grains etc etc. A lot of people also went into great detail about maximum and minimum percentages for fats, carbs and protein.

I believe in KISS, so I try to keep it simple with easy to follow rules for my way of eating. As I have to eat this way for the rest of my life I do not want an excessively complicated food selection system.

My definition of a balanced diet for a type 2 diabetic (me) is pretty basic and not in terms of percentages of anything. The basic description is simple, although the personal investigation creating the way of eating I follow today was fairly complex. The links at the foot of this post describe the journey to this point.

The simple version:
  • I let my meter show me my carbohydrate limits for the time of day and the meal.
  • I let common sense and satiety limit my protein and fat portions.
  • I include a reasonably wide variety of vegetables in my menu, favouring fresh and seasonal vegetables where possible.
  • I also include fruits but those are limited to minimise blood glucose spikes.

In applying those basic rules for myself I also take these factors into account:
  • Variety in choices of meats, fish, seafood, dairy, vegetables and fruits makes the menu interesting and also improves the chances of getting all needed vitamins and micronutrients.
  • Excess of any macronutrient is not wise.
  • Excessive restriction of any macronutrient is just as unwise.
 These links to past posts expand on those points and others: 

Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia.

Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter 
There Is Nothing I Could Eat I like More Than my Eyes

6 comments:

Aliceq said...

In addition, I'd add that I generally eat fruit in conjunction with fat and/or protein. For instances, berries go with cream or yoghurt. Today I had half an apple (in season in the northern hemisphere) with peanut butter.

Unknown said...

Is KISS enough though? My doctors says that sugars, fats and proteins should be monitored closely. It can be easier to do that than to use test strips to tell you if you've eaten too much. I'll try your KISS method and will see what A1c shows in 3 months. I kind of hate counting ounces all the times.

On another note, I've seen you share some helpful advices and was just reading an article about how to get free glucose monitors and sometimes even test strips. Might be useful to somebody if you include it in your next post. Here is the link http://minimed670g.com/free-glucose-meter-test-strips/

Keep up the good work!

Best,
Roger

klifecareindia said...
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Sushant said...
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Barbara said...

So, no peas in your brisket meal? We're about to cook this today, but we have English peas. I think they're high in sugar, so I'll be careful.

Second question: when you give your range of nondiabetic numbers, from 70 to 130 (?) are you distinguishing between fasting, or post prandial?

thanks!

Alan said...

Barbara, I include peas and other carbs in my diet and recipes but I know my carb portion size limits from past testing at my peak after meals. Go to the link "Test, Review, Adjust" for more on that subject. I'm not sure where I said 70 to 130; I usually try to stay in the range 4-8 mmol/l or 70-140 mg/dl at all times. The most likely timing for high results would be post-prandial but my lows usually, but not always occurred reactively a few hours after highs. I stopped getting those after I stopped going high.