Diabetic Diet & Blood Gluecose

When you are trying to follow a diabetic diet, do you count carbs or NET carbs? For example, steel cut oatmeal has 27 g carbohydrate but 3 grams of fiber, for 24 g of net carbs. Which should I go by?

Theoretically you’re supposed to subtract the fibre but I find that it doesn’t work that way on me. In the example you gave, the oatmeal would affect me as 27g of carbs (verified by testing blood sugar after eating) and I know this is the same for many other foods. So I count the total amount.

You will only find out how YOUR body works by testing your blood sugar.

I have often noticed that diabetics are often overweight. Why is this? Is diabetes caused by being over weight in the first place, or is being fat an effect of having diabetes?

Obesity and diabetes have a very close connection. Eighty to ninety percent of patients who have diabetes of any type were also diagnosed as overweight or obese.

Understanding the relationship between obesity and diabetes has allowed doctors to come up with certain measures in preventing the occurrence of the disease.

Being overweight can produce an abnormally high amount of stress in your body. It makes your system less capable of controlling the amounts of glucose that is produced.

Aside from that, obesity can also lead to insulin resistance.

So even though you still do not have diabetes, you are eventually going to develop the disease if you fail to bring your weight back to normal in the future.

Obesity and diabetes have one common denominator: weight gain. Obese people are very prone to diabetes while diabetic patients always have a tendency to gain weight.

But aside from that, those who take in insulin to treat certain types of diabetes are also very prone to gaining weight.

This is primarily because there are more amounts of glucose that enter into the cells rather than being eliminated out of the body.

These are stored up as fat and when accumulated at high amounts, can lead to weight gain.

What are the treatments for obesity and diabetes?

One of the best ways to treat both obesity and diabetes is a change in lifestyle. Exercising more and turning to a more well-balanced diet have been proven to help patients reduce weight and battle diabetes at the same time.

Doctors highly recommend that diabetic and obese patients shift to a high fiber, low carbohydrate and low glycemic index diet. Regular exercise has been proven to help as well.

Twenty to thirty minutes of moderate activity can do wonders to your health. These changes in lifestyle can help you target both obesity and diabetes.

Patients who are taking insulin shots are recommended to control their food intake as well. As mentioned before, the increased amounts of glucose that is permitted to enter into the cell through insulin shots can be stored up as fat.

And hence, patients who continue to eat as much as they did before are most likely to gain even more weight. So when taking these shots, try to eat lesser amounts of food to prevent unhealthy weight gain.

Both obesity and diabetes should never be taken for granted because these conditions can cause serious complications.

source:http://www.healthcarenets.com/

My son is only 13 years old right now and the doctor said we ought to be careful with what we give him because his blood sugar is high.

Take a look at the website for Diabetes UK it has loads of dietary advice for adults and children – I think it will help you to plan a healthy diet for him