Diabetics – Diet for diabetics, food, menus, meals

How do you control Diabetes?

It has long been a medical fact that diet is essential in controlling diabetes, especially type 2, or adult-onset diabetes. In a six-month study published online, researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that people with type 2 diabetes, when placed on a diet of carbohydrates with a low glycemic-index rating, were significantly less reliant on medication to control their condition. In a number of cases, patients on a low- or non-glycemic carbohydrate diet had managed their type 2 diabetes to the point where medication was dispensed with altogether.

Though doubtless very important, diet is only one of a number of considerations in the treatment of diabetes. Education, regulation, advocacy, monitoring, and communication, are all critical factors in controlling diabetes. No better treatment regimen exists for prevention of long-term problems with diabetes than teaming up with your health care providers to aggressively manage your type 1, or type 2 diabetes.

There are six simple, but very important steps that are vital in this team effort:

•    Educate yourself about diabetes; find out what it is, and how to deal with it. Set up a program of regular care, and ensure that your treatment program works.
•    Frequent testing for and treatment of potential long-term complications. Foot, eye, and dental checkups, as well as regular testing for triglycerides, all must be undertaken with near-religious adherence.
•    Following the advice of your healthcare team, teach yourself how to control your diabetes
•    Remember your diabetes ABCs; monitor and record your A1C, (average levels of blood glucose), blood pressure, and cholesterol.
•    Help prevent long-term problems with diet, medication, and frequent checkups.
•    Treat the first signs of long term complications.

Finally, attitude, a positive frame of mind, will, of course, provide the basic framework within which your diabetes treatment regime will be assembled. A can-do approach to controlling diabetes will all but assure you a long and healthy life.