If you suffer from diabetes watching what you eat is one of the most important things you can do to stay healthy. Your food choices are very important because certain foods can cause blood sugar spikes or increase your risk of diabetes complications.
Living with diabetes doesn't limit you to bland and boring foods, but you do need to be aware of what you eat. You should limit (or at least minimise) your consumption of the following six types of foods:
1. Sugary Foods
Soda, sweets, desserts, and other foods that are made primarily of sugar are considered low-quality carbohydrates. These foods lack nutritional value and can cause a sharp spike in your blood sugar and lead to weight problems, both of which increase your chances of diabetes complications.
2. White Rice, Bread, and Flour
These are called refined starches and they act a lot like sugar once your body begins to digest them.
3. Full-Fat Dairy products
Some studies have found that eating a diet high in saturated fat from dairy products may worsen insulin resistance. Try to limit dairy products made with whole milk, such as cream, full-fat yogurt, ice cream, cream cheese and other full-fat cheeses.
4. Fatty Cuts of Meat
Saturated fats in meat raise cholesterol and promote inflammation throughout the body, and it can also put people with diabetes at an even greater risk of heart disease than the average person; especially since their risk is already elevated as a result of diabetes.
5. Packaged Snacks and Baked Goods
As well as sugar, junky white flour, sodium, and preservatives, packaged snacks and baked goods like chips, cookies, doughnuts and snack cakes often contain trans fats. Trans fats increase your “bad” (LDL) cholesterol, lower your “good” (HDL) cholesterol and raise your risk of heart disease.
6. Fried Foods
These foods typically soak up tons of oil, which equates to lots of extra calories. Many of these foods are coated in breading first, further increasing the amount of calories. Some foods are deep-fried in hydrogenated oils that contain unhealthy trans fats, which will raise your LDL ("bad" cholesterol), lower your HDL ("good" cholesterol), and increase your risk of heart disease.