What Kind of Diet Should I Adopt to Treat Type 2 Diabetes?

Introduction

The type 2 form of diabetes can be worsened by certain lifestyle choices, particularly what do you consume or don’t consume. Your doctor may advise you to change your diet to treat type 2 diabetes. What kind of diet is ideal for someone suffering from this medical condition?

You won’t find a specific diet for type 2 diabetes. However, doctors will advise a standard set of guidelines for healthy eating diet for someone who has diabetes.

Diabetic Dietary Goals

There are a few specific objectives your doctor will want you to try to achieve with your diet. Your nutritional intake should be improved, ensuring that you keep your diet balanced with plenty of vitamins and minerals. Your diet should also help you to lose weight, as many people who suffer from diabetes are considered overweight or obese.

If that’s not the case with you, then your diet should help you maintain a healthy weight. That may mean it needs to be a diet that has minimal fat and sugar and plenty of fiber.

Your diet should also help you to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. Because exercise is so important to fighting diabetes, your diet should help you to keep up decent energy levels. Diets with plenty of fiber, protein and carbohydrates allow you to do just that, maintaining a high level of energy in the body and making it easy to stay active.

Choose Healthier Fats

One way to ensure that you get enjoy a wide variety of foods but don’t put your diabetic dietary goals is to choose healthy fats. Some fats are damaging to your heart in your body come especially in large quantities. Other fats, when eaten in moderation, can be very hard to healthy and actually help you to maintain a good body weight.

Fats fall into several different categories, including saturated and unsaturated fats. These are very wide categories for this food group, but essentially saturated fats are generally unhealthy while unsaturated fats aren’t typically healthy.

Saturated fats include the fatty tissue from most types of meat, including beef and pork. Other types of saturated fats include palm oil and dairy products. Consuming very much saturated fat in what you eat will expand your waistline, add to your body fat content, and increase the difficulty of keeping type 2 diabetes under control.

What about unsaturated fats? These include nuts, seeds, olive oil, and peanut oil, to name a few. Please provide heart healthy fats that are really good for your body’s overall health. In moderate quantities, unsaturated fats are very good for you, and in many cases, you can substitute in these unsaturated fats for less healthy saturated ones. That’s a great way to change up your diet and target the symptoms of type 2 diabetes.

You should also try to avoid what are known as trans fats. These tend to be found in processed foods, as well as margarine, shortening, and many baked items.

Utilize A Whole Body Approach

Any kind of effective dieting plan will have a wide focus. It’s not about just cutting out specific kinds of fats and trying to replace them with healthy ones. You will want to make sure that you limit the quantity of food you eat to help keep your weight under control. You also want to make sure that you watch how much sugar you consume, especially since sugar can be hidden within many different kinds of foods you may eat regularly throughout the week.

Any effective dieting plan that targets type 2 diabetes symptoms should be combined with a proper treatment and a medication regimen. Diabetic sufferers can use resources like Canadian Insulin and other online shops to get the medications they need. Always make sure you speak to your doctor about which medication and treatment you should be using for dealing with any condition you are suffering from. Your medical needs and your treatment plan you should use may vary over time and may need to be adjusted as your health changes.

The Takeaway

Schedule a consultation with your healthcare provider about the diet you should be adopting to handle your symptoms. With adequate dietary changes, many of the effects of diabetes can be minimized and managed. These kinds of changes can help you take control of your life once more.

About Theresa Duncan

Originally from Detroit, MI, Theresa has been offering health and fitness advice for the last 30 years while working as an engineer. She decided to turn her passion into a profession, and finds nothing more satisfying than helping others reach their health and fitness goals.