Healthy Diet:

When someone is diagnosed with having diabetes, it is simply that person's body saying it is time to eat healthier. Each person has individual nutritional needs and with the help of your doctors & nutritionist you can come up with a meal plan that won't leave you hungry and will help you control your blood glucose levels.

 

What Is A Diabetes Meal Plan?

People with diabetes have to take extra care to make sure that their food is balanced with insulin and oral medications, as well as exercise to help manage their blood glucose levels.

This might sound like a lot of work, but your doctor and/or dietitian can help you create a meal plan that is best for you. When you make healthy food choices, you will improve your overall health and you can even prevent or delay complications like heart disease, some cancers, and hypertension.

 

What Is A Healthy Diet?

A healthy diet is a way of eating that reduces risk for complications such as heart disease and stroke. Healthy eating consists of eating a wide variety of foods including vegetables, whole grains, fruits, non-fat dairy products, beans, lean meats, poultry and fish.

There is no one perfect food so including a variety of different foods and watching portion sizes is key to a healthy diet.

Making Healthy Food Choices:

  • Eat lots of vegetables and salad.
  • Include fruit into your meals daily.
  • Choose water and calorie-free "diet" drinks instead of regular soda, fruit punch, sweet tea and other sugar-sweetened drinks. DRINK 6-8 CUPS of WATER/SELTZER DAILY.

  • Choose whole grain foods instead of processed products.
  • Use dried beans (like kidney or pinto beans) and lentils in your meals. Also, try to include fish in your meals 2 times a week.
  • Choose lean meats like cuts of beef and pork. (Lean types include meat, pork loin, london broil, veal and well trimmed lamb.)
  • Choose non-fat dairy such as skim milk, non-fat yogurt and non-fat cheese.
  • Limit high calorie snack foods and desserts like chips, cookies, cakes, and full-fat ice cream. (Such snacks should be saved for special occasions.)
  • Eating too much of even healthful foods can lead to weight gain. Watch your portion sizes.

 

Health Tip #:005

Developing a Healthy Sleep Pattern

There are many things a person does before bed or to their sleeping environment that can affect their sleep pattern.

The average person requires approximately 8 hours of sleep each night. You should try to go to bed and wake up the same time each day. You should also avoid going to bed hungry, but avoid any products that can act as stimulants and keep you awake (i.e. coffee, tea, soda and chocolate should be avoided). You should also avoid strenuous exercise before bedtime. Finally, you should avoid bright lights in and around your bedroom before bed. Dimmer switches, energy efficient bulbs, and turning off your television and computer will help with this problem.

We hope these helpful tips will put you on your way to a better night's sleep. Pleasant dreams from all of us at Better Living Now!

Better Living Now is a proud supporter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation:


© 2007 by Vanderbilt University

Reference: American Diabetes Association:

Reference: American Diabetes Association:



There are 23.6 million children and adults in the US with diabetes -- 5.7 million people are undiagnosed and 57 million have a condition called pre-diabetes.

Take this test to see if you are at risk for having or developing type 2 diabetes.