What is a Diabetic Diet?
This time, we won’t write for people with diabetes. Instead, we’ll write for the people who live with, work with, or interact with the people with diabetes. This is done with the aim of helping other people understand this complicated disorder. People without diabetes are used to simply eating what they want to, when they want to, on any impulse or whim. Diabetics live in a different world, and have to adhere to a special diabetic diet.
Briefly, diabetes is a condition in which the pancreas is unable to produce sufficient insulin to regulate the amount of sugar in the blood. This is a regulatory problem - both too much and not enough glucose sugar in the bloodstream is a problem. Think of it as having a thermostat in your home, preventing it from getting too hot or too cold. Now imagine life without a thermostat, so you have to continually check the temperature and adjust the heater and air conditioner manually. That’s what diabetics have to do with their body’s sugar levels.
This is a very well-researched disease, and diabetics have many resources that they use. The American Diabetes Association has a website up with resources such as a guide to the American diabetic diet including recipes, exercise and health tips, activism and awareness campaigns, and even a community with discussion boards.
The diabetic diet plan doesn’t mean eating special foods or even restricting certain food groups, as much as it means specifying certain food groups at certain times. Most diabetic diets are based on six key areas: restricting sweets, frequent and scheduled eating, monitoring carbohydrates, emphasizing whole grain and fiber foods, restricting fats, and restricting alcohol. Since carbohydrates break down to sugars in the body, and alcohol is also high in sugars, you can see where most of the diet focus area revolves around sugar intake.
Most diabetes patients end up with a diabetic diet sheet, a graph showing what proportions of what foods are safe to eat when. It’s a give and take situation; some diabetics work things out through a kind of exchange diet, where you can (for example) pass on potatoes in the main course of the meal so you can have a slice of pie for dessert.
There are different schools of thought on diabetic diet plans and also different types of diabetes, so there’s some room for interpretation. Frequently diabetics gravitate to a partial vegetarian diet, or at least one that’s high in fiber, fruits, vegetables, and grains, while being low in meat, fats, and sugars.
The important thing to remember when dealing with a diabetic is to take their word for what they need to eat and when. You have to have patience with them, and realize that this condition taints every activity that they do. For instance you might think nothing of going to a baseball game, but your diabetic friend has to consider that they can’t get through the whole game on hot dogs and beer. They will have to either eat before the game or bring a case of snacks with them. For another example, going to outings such as amusements parks presents a challenge. Try finding food at a country fair that doesn’t involve sugar or fat! It’s almost impossible.
Public restaurants and businesses occasionally get a clue and offer a special diabetic menu, but really it’s nearly the same situation as with vegetarians; in a country where simply everything is offered swimming in grease, deep-fat fried, and with a side order of starch, it can seem almost impossible to get the right food to meet a diabetic’s needs.
Just understand that a diabetic has serious risks to their later health for every mistake they make. Complications from diabetes can lead to many problems, from blurred vision to loss of limbs and vital organs and even life expectancy itself. Part of the work which the diabetes community is doing is to raise awareness for the management of the disease, and considering that a healthy diet is part of preventing certain strains of diabetes from forming, prevention is also a large part of this activism as well.
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