Wise Food Choices can Help you to Manage your Diabetes Wisely

Some diabetics believe that all vegetables and fruits are safe for eating and since maida and rava are from wheat they are safe. Some avoid rice but eat rice flakes (aval, poha).

We have studied and seen that making certain choices in our regular food can significantly reduce the sugar levels. The first factor to be understood is that any food containing more fiber is a better choice. E.g. Whole wheat, broken wheat and atta are better choices than maida, rava, sevia, noodles, pasta, etc. In the whole wheat the skin is difficult to digest and since the body has to work harder to digest it, the blood sugar levels will come down. Similarly, whole wheat or atta chapatti, whole wheat bread, wheat puttu and ragi puttu are better than rice, idli, rice puttu and aval. These rice items are polished and have lost their fiber. Also ragi puttu, ragi dosa, ragi porridge, oats porridge and cornflakes are better to eat for a diabetic than rice items.

Bakery products are mostly made of maida and lots of dalda, vanspathi or butter is added to them so they are very, very dangerous for diabetics. Whole wheat bread is permitted and 1-2 digestive biscuits or 2 marie biscuits may be eaten at tea time (4.30pm). Please do not exceed 2 biscuits. All other biscuits have too much fat so please avoid. Instead of marie biscuit at tea time, one or two slices of whole wheat bread may be eaten as an alternative. Idli, dosa, puffed rice (bhel) and chaat items are very dangerous as a tea time snack. Mixture, muruku, bujjia, peanuts, etc. are certainly not to be eaten.

Among vegetables those with more fiber and less starch must be chosen. All greens are good, palak, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, ladies finger, beans, brinjal, bitter gourd, ridge gourd, kovaika and peas are better choices than potato, colocassia, yam, tapioca and beet root. Radish, a little carrot and pumpkin may be eaten. But potato, sweet potato, tapioca, etc. are best avoided. The other vegetables would be 30 calories for 100gm whereas potato, tapioca, etc. would be 90 calories for 100gms. I must mention that at both lunch and dinner a diabetic must try to eat 1-2 cups raw salad e.g. tomato, cucumber, onion, cabbage, lettuce, capsicum, radish, etc. These are full of fiber and if eaten with a meal, helps to reduce the intake of the quantity of rice and cooked food and also reduce the blood sugar.

Among fruits the safest fruits for a diabetic to eat are Mosambi, Orange, Apple, Pear and Pomegranate. These have a high fiber content. One medium size fruit among any of these may be eaten at 11am and any one more at 6pm. All kinds of bananas are dangerous and very high in their sugar content. One apple or orange is 50 calories. While one banana is 100 -120 calories. Even the small ellakki banana is high in its sugar content. Also banana, mango, jackfruit, custard apple and chickoo are fruits which are very pulpy, with less fiber and so they make the blood sugar shoot up suddenly and must be strictly avoided if sugar levels are high. These fruits are said to have a high glycaemic index.

Milk/Curds may be consumed but use only milk which has been thoroughly skimmed ( cream removed). Fish and chicken from fish or chicken curry may be eaten but without the gravy or with very little gravy. The gravy is fatty and bad for diabetics as the gravy contains the oil used for making the masala as well as the oil that comes out from the fish or chicken into the gravy. Dietary control and wise food choices is the secret to managing diabetes. If not managed well the complications of diabetes are destruction of the heart, kidney, eye sight, hearing, and gangrene in the foot.