Diabetic Diets|Diabetic Cooking

Having a diabetic menu is extremely important as the maintenance of good health of the diabetes patients highly depends on the selection as well as adaptation of proper diabetic menu. In this connection, a proper diabetic menu is a low calorie diet. Apart from being low calorie, a diabetic menu has to be low cholesterol and low glucose level too. This way, a diabetic menu has to contain all these features for meeting the complete nutritional requirements of a diabetic patient.

It has to be borne in mind that dietary requirement for not all kinds of diabetes are equal. For example, a diabetic menu for juvenile diabetes and a diabetic menu for adult diabetes are quite different. However, some common factors are also there and they are like the previously mentioned criteria having minimum glucose, lipid quantities. As far as the sources of a diabetic menu are concerned, they are mostly fat free sources devoid of excessive carbohydrate. Accordingly, fresh vegetables, fruits and other fresh foods are given prime importance in the diabetic menus.

First, remember that a diabetic menu is a comparatively strict diet. Accordingly, you have to select the food items quite carefully. First, it has to be taken care of that the foods are sufficiently fresh in quality and in addition are not tinned or canned in any way. It is not true that you will not be able to take sugar at all when you opt for the fruits as there is sugar in them. Therefore, just take care that your diabetic menu is a balanced one, devoid of excessive glucose beyond the permissible level. Introduce more oranges, apples, red cabbage, beans, bananas, and carrots into your diet. Apart from this, incorporate many high fibered vegetables along with those leafy ones in your diabetic menu. Fiber is important as it helps in the digestion quickly.

Whole grains are quite helpful in the diabetic menu. Processed foods should be avoided accordingly. Here, wheat spaghetti and brown rice and breads are much preferred when it comes to preparing a diabetic menu. Instead of having heavy meals at a time, take short meals at regular intervals. This will help you to digest your food fast and easily. As far as the dairy products are concerned within the diabetic menu, opt for the skimmed milk, non-fat yogurt, and cheese. Again, instead of cheese and butter, opt for the margarines in the diabetic menu that are light enough when compared to the previous ones. If you are a diabetic patient, abstain from the high-calorie drinks and alternatively stick to the fresh fruit juices. Although it is disheartening enough to say, take out the desserts from your regular diabetic menu. Although it is really a tough job to live without cakes, pastries, and cookies, but if you feel helpless then opt for the products, especially meant for the diabetic patients with sugar-free elements.

A sample diabetic menu is given here for an easy understanding of the readers:

Early morning: tea/coffee without sugar

Breakfast: skim milk - 1 cup, whole wheat bread/ porridge ½ cup/ egg sandwich- 2 slices

Mid morning: any one citrus fruit

Lunch: green leafy vegetables, whole grain foods, fish/chicken/egg (1 piece), vegetable salad, curd

Evening: tea/coffee without sugar, snacks biscuits

Dinner: whole grain breads, salad, poultry protein products, skim milk.