5 Smart Ways To Beat Diabetes!

Diabetes is a lifestyle disease that can easily be managed by controlling your diet. Along with being aware of your sugar intake, your diet should help you lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. However, this does not mean you have to resign yourself to a lifetime of tasteless food. Here are a few diet tips that can help manage diabetes.

1. Choose high fiber carbs
Carbs are an essential element of the daily diet but have a big impact on blood sugar levels. Hence it is important to pick the rightcarbs. Your diet should have a limited amount of refined carbohydrates such as white bread, pasta, soda etc and should be focused more on high fiber carbs such as brown rice, sweet potatoes, rolled oats and bran flakes that are digested slowly. This prevents your body from producing excessive insulin.

2. Be sweet smart
The key to indulging your sweet tooth and controlling diabetes is moderation. Abruptly, removing sugar from your diet can make you crave for it. Instead, gradually lower your sugar intake. If you can't miss out on the dessert at the end of a meal, reduce the amount of carbs in your meal. Adding healthy fats like peanut butter, yogurt or nuts to your dessert can also slow down the digestive process and thus control blood sugar levels.

3. Keep a food diary
When you are diabetic, it is very important to eat at regular intervals. Eat frequent, small meals is often better than fewer large meals. Try and maintain a food diary to keep track of your calorie intake. This helps identify problem areas of where your body is getting excessive calories from. When you are aware of the calories associated with things you eat, it is easier to cut down on snacks and replace unhealthy snacks with healthier options.

4. Choose fats wisely
It is impossible to completely cut out fats from your diet. While some fats such as liquid vegetable oils and commercial baked goods are unhealthy, others have important health benefits. Unsaturated fats are the healthiest and safest fats. Replacing your vegetable cooking oil for olive oil and biscuits with nuts are easy ways to make smart choices with your fat intake.

5. Go green
Green leafy vegetables are low on carbs and high on nutrients. Thus, make these an integral part of your meals. Vegetables like kale, spinach, lettuce etc can be eaten raw or cooked. Along with being nutritious, they also add textures and colour to your meals, thus making them more visually appealing.