Whether a person is suffering from Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, the importance of maintaining the proper diabetes diet cannot be underestimated. In fact, even if a diabetic is on insulin or is taking oral medications to keep their blood sugar levels at normal levels, a proper diet can actually prove to be more effective in helping to promote these goals as well as help them maintain normal blood pressure and ideal body weight as well. Furthermore, the right diabetic friendly foods will also ensure that further complications are prevented including suffering from heart as well as kidney ailments that commonly affect most diabetics.

Us Dietary Guidelines

It is advisable to follow a healthy diabetic diet according to the US Dietary Guidelines that shows people how to eat healthily and provides useful tips as to what to include in your diet and what to exclude. Typically, a proper diabetes diet must include use of virgin olive oil as too canola oil as too used of sunflower and rapeseed while excluding use of saturated fats which are generally found in animal products and to also exclude foods with lots of cholesterol in them.

A healthy diet must also include a lot of fibers including whole grains and fresh foods as well as vegetables and even eating nuts and seeds or legumes is recommended while at the same time needing to severely curtail sugar intake – even when the sugar is consumed from fruits. It is also necessary to lower your intake of protein though consuming fish as well as soy-protein is certainly good for your health.

Diabetics must also curtail their intake of salt and in fact, according to the American Diabetes and Dietetic Association, you need to ensure taking more balanced foods which should include getting calories from carbohydrates while also eating less fat and proteins. In fact, the right diabetic diet could include two helpings of fatty fish and five portions of vegetables and fruits as well as six helpings of whole grains.

The right diabetes diet will help both diabetics of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetic condition and at the same time the diabetic must always also ensure that they carry with them some sweets as well as glucose substitutes so that they have something available to help prevent a collapse on account of hypoglycemia.

It also pays to understand what kind of Type 2 diabetes diet a person should take. Type 2 diabetes of course indicates a condition known as Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus or NIDDM for which different diet is required.