Glucocil can play a major role in maintaining a healthy diet by helping with carbohydrate control and reducing post-meal blood glucose fluctuations.
Diabetes now affects an estimated 21 million people in the U.S., and the numbers are rapidly rising in line with the current obesity epidemic. (Indeed, for those born in the year 2000, the lifetime risk of developing the disease is 35%!) Thus, the answer to the question of what is the best diet for someone with diabetes is “the same kind of healthy eating that is best for everyone.”
Managing diabetes means maintaining a 24/7 balancing act between blood sugar levels and carbohydrates (see below). Whereas the dreaded “diabetic diet” is mostly a myth, diabetes management often includes dietary changes involving both carbohydrate and calorie control (combined with a regular exercise program). Just about everyone needs to focus on high fiber, nutrient-dense whole foods, including fish, lean meat and poultry, most dairy products and plant foods. On the other hand, nearly everyone should try to avoid highly processed foods, which are often full of refined flour and sugar.
If you or someone you know has already been diagnosed with diabetes, this is certainly the time to learn more about diabetes-friendly eating and what constitutes a healthy diet. It will definitely affect the way one feels, looks, and tests at home and in the doctor's office.
Carbohydrate Control
In addition to portion size and meal frequency, people with diabetes must pay particular attention to dietary intake, specifically carbohydrates (carbs). Diabetes involves maintaining a continuous balancing act between blood sugar levels and carbs, which are the body’s main source of glucose (also known as dextrose).
Carbohydrates, which range from simple sugars and fast foods to grains (breads, cereals), pasta, and starchy vegetables (potatoes, corn, beans) can also be found in dairy products, fruits and many beverages. Indeed, it’s been estimated that 60–90% of the average American diet is composed of carbs.
Since many of these foods contain nutrients essential to good health, having diabetes certainly doesn’t mean that one must eliminate all carb-containing foods. The American Diabetes Association recommends limiting carbs to no more than 50 – 60% of total daily calorie intake. Various blood glucose-lowering tools (including exercise) should be used to balance out their effects, and careful after-meal blood sugar monitoring is a necessity.
Carb Complications: The extent and speed with which carbs can affect blood sugar levels after any particular meal is often a function of the fiber, fat, and protein content of the other nutrients. Pizza, for example, is notorious for causing a delayed blood glucose rise because the high fat content slows the absorption of carbohydrates in the intestines. On the other hand, foods with a high glycemic index (baked/mashed potatoes; white bread) may cause a more dramatic blood glucose rise than foods with the same proportion of carbs. Lastly, as we all know, people have very individualized reactions to given foods. What might send one person’s blood sugars skyrocketing may have practically no effect on someone else. Home blood glucose monitoring is the best way to discover one’s own response pattern.
Post-meal blood sugar spikes
The most common measure doctors use to determine the efficacy of a diabetic management regimen is the glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) blood test, a time-averaged indicator of one’s overall blood glucose control over the past 2–3 months. But sometimes, despite all the perfectly acceptable mealtime meter readings you’ve recorded, the lab report shows high A1c concentrations.
Despite everyone’s concern, the explanation may be that you are a victim of postprandial hyperglycemia (i.e., after-meal high blood glucose levels). Although it is normal for blood glucose to rise somewhat after meals, dramatic and consistent rises can result in higher HbA1c results than your overall (including pre-meal) readings would indicate. So even though these postprandial glucose levels are temporary—indeed, they look like spikes when plotted on a graph—they can cause your HbA1c to rise to levels indicating the risk of serious diabetes complications.
The most practical way to measure after-meal blood glucose spikes is to use a blood glucose meter to check the level of a blood sample (from a finger) before AND after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You need to take pre-meal readings into account since it is the increase due to food intake that determines the true extent of the post-meal spike.
As described in the references cited below, recent clinical trials suggest that a factor other than the integrated blood glucose concentration (as measured by HbA1c) plays a role in the microvascular complications of diabetes. This factor may be the high/low fluctuations or “spikes” in blood glucose concentration.
References
Brownlee M, Hirsch IB. Glycemic variability: a hemoglobin A1c–independent risk factor for diabetic complications. JAMA 2006;295:1707–8.
Monnier L, Mas E, Ginet C, et al. Activation of oxidative stress by acute glucose fluctuations compared with sustained chronic hyperglycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes. JAMA 2006;295:1681–7
