Low carb diet for type 1 and type 2 diabetes

Many diabetic patients find that eating low glycemic index foods has a positive effect and significantly improves their condition. Indeed, a low-carbohydrate diet in diabetes helps to avoid a sharp increase in blood glucose levels. This is easy to verify if you regularly measure this level before meals, and again an hour and a half after it. A particularly pronounced effect is observed if the patient does not take insulin therapy, adjusting the sugar level with proper nutrition.[1]

Indications

A low-carbohydrate diet is especially recommended for patients with severe diabetes (with glucose values more than 15 mmol / liter), or with severe obesity. Limiting the intake of carbohydrates contributes to rapid weight loss, a decrease in the amount of body fat, and stabilization of the amount of glucose in the bloodstream.[2]

The use of a low-carbohydrate diet in most cases makes the treatment of diabetes more successful, and is often used to get rid of excess body weight.

Changes in nutrition consist in a strict restriction of the amount of carbohydrates, when compared with the usual diet: no more than 30 g (better - less) daily. Under a strict ban fall pasta, bakery products, potatoes. In more detail about the prohibited and permitted foods with a low-carbohydrate diet, we will discuss further.[3]

• A low-carbohydrate diet for type 1 diabetes is prescribed against the background of insulin therapy, but only under medical supervision. Improper nutrition can lead to a deterioration in the patient's condition. It is important to eat foods that do not cause a spike in blood sugar, and also consider the amount of carbohydrates consumed with each meal. The calculation table of bread units offered to patients helps to choose suitable carbohydrate products without problems, avoiding fluctuations in blood sugar.
• A low-carbohydrate diet for type 2 diabetes at an early stage of development can replace drug therapy: if you normalize body weight and adjust nutrition, you can do without taking hypoglycemic drugs. The middle and severe stage of type 2 diabetes also requires dietary adjustment, but already against the background of additional intake of appropriate medications.
• A low-carbohydrate diet for gestational diabetes is prescribed individually, as dietary changes largely depend on the woman's current diet. The main thing is regular monitoring of the amount of carbohydrate foods, the level of sugar in the bloodstream. It is necessary to reduce the percentage of carbohydrates in the diet, and the amount of the remaining evenly distributed over several meals throughout the day. This approach will help keep glucose levels under control, avoiding sudden drops. Experts advise to abandon such products in gestational diabetes:
  • raw eggs, half-raw eggs (soft-boiled);
  • sweets, pastries, sugar and dishes with it;
  • liver;
  • whole milk.

In gestational diabetes, it is important to take steps to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes. Therefore, changes in nutrition should be maintained after the baby is born.

General information of the low carb diet for diabetes

From the name of the diet, it becomes clear that its main goal is to reduce the amount of carbohydrates consumed and, accordingly, prevent fluctuations in glucose levels in the bloodstream. However, these are not all the factors on which the low-carb regimen is based:

• Most patients with diabetes are overweight, which in itself becomes the cause of the development of various glycemic disorders. Therefore, one of the goals of a low-carbohydrate diet is to reduce body weight to normal levels.
• In addition to reducing the amount of fast carbohydrates, you need to pay attention to reducing the percentage of saturated fatty acids in the diet. It is advisable to drastically reduce the consumption of animal products, eliminate trans fats, get rid of addiction to fast food, and do not buy processed foods.
• When consuming meat and dairy products, you need to opt for less fatty options. But the body needs polyunsaturated fatty acids: they help prevent inflammation and prevent the development of atherosclerotic changes in the vessels.
• The basis of a low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes should be food with a low glycemic index. It is especially good to include fresh vegetables, cereals, legumes, herbs, unsweetened berries and fruits, vegetable oils, cheese, kefir and natural yoghurts, egg whites in the menu.

Diabetes is a complex disease that at first proceeds without obvious painful signs. But it is at the initial stage that it is easiest to stop this disease, and it is the correct low-carbohydrate diet that plays the decisive role in this.[4]

Detailed menu for every day

• On Monday, breakfast is scrambled eggs with whole grain toast and a slice of hard cheese. They have lunch with vegetable carrot soup, buckwheat casserole. Dinner is baked fish fillet with stewed cauliflower. During the day, a snack with natural yogurt is allowed, you can eat an apple or vegetable salad.
• On Tuesday, breakfast is oatmeal on the water with berries and pumpkin seeds, without sweeteners. They dine with stewed beans with vegetable salad and a small amount of tuna. Dinner is vegetable goulash with a piece of low-fat beef. During the day, they snack on avocado, natural yogurt, cottage cheese pudding.
• Wednesday breakfast is couscous with almonds, blueberries and pumpkin seeds. Lunch vegetable stew with chicken chop. For dinner, a meat casserole with Greek yogurt and carrot salad is served. Between meals, you can have a snack with buckwheat flour cakes, an apple.
• On Thursday, for breakfast, a mushroom omelet with tomatoes is prepared. They dine with buckwheat soup and a piece of steamed meat with raspberry sauce. For dinner, fish fillet with lettuce, berry compote are prepared. For a snack on this day, pieces of hard cheese, grilled vegetables are suitable.
• On Friday, breakfast is an omelette with whole grain bread and cucumber. They dine with onion soup, barley garnish with a piece of beef. Dinner is a chicken steam cutlet with brown rice and cauliflower. During the day they eat a little cottage cheese with berries, fermented baked milk.
• On Saturday, you can serve toasted whole grain toast with mushrooms and cheese for breakfast. For lunch, lentils are prepared with chicken meat and green salad. Dinner is fish steak and chopped vegetables. For snacks, sunflower seeds, yogurt and cottage cheese are perfect.
• On Sunday, breakfast is buckwheat with grated cheese and sesame seeds. They dine with celery soup, cucumber salad with chicken meat. They have dinner with stewed asparagus, steam cutlets with yogurt. As a snack, several olives, kefir with berries are used.

Low Carb Diet Recipes for Diabetes

Dishes while following a low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes have their own characteristics, but this does not mean that they will be tasteless and of the same type. For breakfast, lunch or dinner, you can even serve light versions of well-known traditional dishes, and even desserts with berries and cottage cheese.

• Onion omelet.

Chop green onion feathers. Eggs are poured into a bowl, beaten with onions. Spread the mass on a frying pan heated with oil, cover with a lid, and sprinkle with grated cheese a few minutes before readiness. Salt is not necessary: for diabetes, salt from cheese will be enough.

• Turkey steak.

Finely cut the turkey fillet with a knife. Chopped greens and onions, a beaten egg, salt and pepper, a little sour cream, a couple of tablespoons of semolina and flour are added to the resulting mass. Stir. Put a frying pan with oil on the fire. Wet hands form steaks from the mass, spread on a frying pan, fry on each side until cooked.

• Millet porridge with pumpkin.

Cook millet porridge (3 cups of liquid take ½ cup of millet). Finely chopped pumpkin pulp is added, continue to cook over low heat, with constant stirring. As soon as the porridge thickens, it is removed from the heat, a little butter, berries, and a little raisins are added. A pot of porridge is wrapped in a warm blanket and left for a couple of hours to languish. After such languor, the dish becomes especially tasty.

Recipes that are offered for a low-calorie diet for diabetes should use both high-calorie and balanced ingredients. It is optimal to cook dishes based on lentils, soy, vegetables and cereals. Most recipes do not require any serious culinary skills: you can cook without problems in a regular home kitchen. The dishes are suitable for both patients with diabetes and healthy people.

Benefits

A low-calorie diet in diabetes reduces the carbohydrate load on the body and allows you to control glucose levels without resorting to taking hypoglycemic medications. The basis of nutrition is in such moments:

1. enrichment of the diet with fiber;
2. consumption of omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids;
3. establishing a meal regimen, eliminating overeating and periods of starvation;
4. saturation of dishes with vitamins and minerals.
5. What foods are most recommended for a low-calorie diet and why?

• Legumes are an excellent source of protein and fiber at the same time. For example, beans saturate well and at the same time stabilize sugar levels. In just one hundred grams of dark beans, there are 8 g of fiber and protein, and there are no unnecessary fats. Legumes can be successfully used for soups, salads, side dishes.
• Dairy products are the main supplier of calcium and vitamin D to the body. According to scientists, 1200 mg of calcium in combination with 800 IU of vitamin D daily reduces the likelihood of developing diabetes by more than 30%. Experts advise in the morning to eat oatmeal with kefir or ryazhenka, instead of dessert, eat yogurt or a little cottage cheese.
• Fish is a rich supplier of omega-3 fatty acids to the body, which protect against vascular diseases, strengthen the immune system, and increase insulin sensitivity. Fish dishes are recommended to be included in the diet for diabetes up to two times a week. You can add fish pulp to salad, cook omelets and casseroles from it.
• Cereals contain fiber, vitamins and useful trace elements, as well as the so-called slow carbohydrates that do not cause a sharp drop in glucose levels in the bloodstream. Therefore, their use cannot be ignored. A serving of porridge lowers cholesterol levels, slows down the absorption of carbohydrates, and improves insulin resistance. Cereals are ideal for breakfast, as they give the body energy and perfectly saturate.
• Berries, greens and vegetables are rich in fiber, polyphenols, mineral and vitamin components. Their regular use improves the functioning of the digestive tract, prevents violations of cardiac function, lowers the content of sugar and bad cholesterol in the bloodstream.

With diabetes, it is very important to take into account all carbohydrates entering the body. To simplify the compilation of a low-carbohydrate diet, a special unit has been defined for diabetics that measures the carbohydrate content in foods - we are talking about a bread unit (XE). This indicator reflects the amount of carbohydrates in 25 g of bread (approximately 12 g of sugar). It was found that one XE increases the level of glucose by 2.8 mmol / liter. Therefore, experts have determined the daily rate of XE consumption: it is calculated separately for each patient, and this rate should be adhered to. Usually it ranges from 7 to 28.[5]

In addition, the total carbohydrate amount that the patient receives daily must match the amount of insulin entering the bloodstream.

What can and what can not?

What can you eat?

A low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes involves the use of the following dishes and foods:

• lean and low-fat meats, skinless white chicken meat;
• fresh or frozen fish in its low-fat versions (carp, hake, pollock, cod, trout);
• egg white (chicken, quail);
• dietary hard cheese, dairy products;
• beans, cereals (optimally - buckwheat and oatmeal, barley and wheat cereals, lentils, bulgur, couscous);
• vegetables;
• tea, tomato juice, light berry compotes without sweeteners;
• vegetable oils.

The first courses should be cooked on vegetable broths, but it is better to refuse bread - for example, in favor of whole grain croutons or bread rolls.

What can't be eaten?

With diabetes of any type, it is better to “forget” about such dishes and products:[6]

• sugar, sweets, chocolate;
• pastries, including cakes and pastries, cookies and even bread;
• alcohol, soda, fruit juices;
• sweet fruits, dried fruits;
• corn, potatoes;
• hot seasonings and spices, mustard, adjika, chili pepper, wasabi, etc.;
• lard, fatty meat parts;
• fresh milk, butter, cream, fat sour cream, processed and smoked cheese;
• marinades, sour and salty snacks and snacks.

Contraindications

Diabetes is a complex and dangerous disease, and an improperly chosen diet can cause significant damage to health and aggravate the course of the pathology. Starvation, unbalanced and excessively limited nutrition, the so-called "monodiets", are contraindicated for diabetics . If a doctor prescribes a low-carbohydrate diet to a patient, then it should be developed by specialists specifically for this disease.

Diet therapy is an important point in the overall treatment of diabetes mellitus, regardless of whether the patient is taking insulin or hypoglycemic drugs . In addition to improving well-being, a low-calorie diet allows you to maintain normal weight. With excessive body weight, it is recommended to reduce it by about 6% for ½-1 year. A low-calorie diet helps you slowly but steadily lose weight by creating a calorie deficit of 500 to 1000 kcal/day. The total daily calorie intake for women with diabetes should not be less than 1200 kcal, and for men - at least 1500 kcal. It is impossible to starve patients suffering from diabetes categorically.

Possible risks

Can a low-carb diet for diabetes solve all the problems associated with the disease? Unfortunately, it cannot. The benefits of such nutrition can only be discussed if the patient carefully observes the equilibrium combination of proteins and fats with a low intake of carbohydrates. But carbohydrates in the diet of a diabetic must be from the category of slow ones - for example, cereals. What risks are present if this balance is not observed?

First, there may be a percentage reduction in muscle tissue. However, this risk can be mitigated if an adequate protein-fat-carbohydrate balance is restored in a timely manner. This often happens when there is a shortage of protein foods in the menu.

A much more serious complication of diabetes can be ketoacidosis. Fat utilization for energy metabolism in the body is called ketosis. This condition cannot be called dangerous. But the formation of numerous ketone bodies and acetone compounds in diabetes is a very serious condition. It is more often found in patients with type 1 diabetes, but sometimes occurs in variant 2 of the disease. It is considered an emergency, so if vomiting, abdominal pain, dehydration, an unusual smell from the mouth, loss of consciousness, you should immediately consult a doctor.

Complications

Although effective in weight management and stabilizing blood glucose levels, a low-carbohydrate diet in diabetes can result in a number of complications. Indeed, a sharp restriction of carbohydrates in the diet cannot be associated with the development of ketoacidosis, disorders of food digestion. Patients often experience constipation or diarrhea, bad breath, headaches, and a constant feeling of fatigue. With an incorrect ratio of protein components, the protein load on the kidneys may increase, the acid balance may be disturbed, which can cause leaching of minerals from the bone tissue, weakening the bones.

However, a low-carb diabetic diet is one way to quickly and effectively bring weight and sugar levels back to normal. Complications will not arise if you choose the right diet, paying attention to the correct balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. In general, the safety of a correctly formulated low-carbohydrate diet is confirmed by a huge number of patients who did not notice any deterioration in their condition, provided that all the principles of therapeutic nutrition are followed.

Low Carb Diet Reviews for Diabetes

If we analyze the existing reviews, then the low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes is tolerated by patients without much difficulty. Such nutrition completely eliminates starvation and sudden changes in blood glucose levels, and as a result, the body does not have to additionally deal with stress. A minor disadvantage is that the brain may lack energy. This can be manifested by drowsiness, impaired mental activity, headaches.

A low-carbohydrate diet for diabetes is more of a diet change than a diet. This regimen should be followed at least until the normalization of weight and stabilization of sugar levels in the bloodstream. Many diabetic patients have accepted the diet as the only correct nutritional principle, based on the restriction of certain (mainly carbohydrate) foods. However, the question of the duration of such dietary changes should be asked to your doctor: for some patients, the diet is recommended for a two to three week period, while for others it may become a permanent lifestyle. Consulting a doctor about this will help to avoid adverse consequences for the body.

Results

One of the features of diabetes mellitus is that the disease progresses "silently", without any kind of attacks and exacerbations. Unfortunately, this often leads to the fact that patients do not take the disease too seriously, believing that nothing needs to be changed in lifestyle and nutrition. But we should not forget that when diabetic complications appear, it will be too late to change anything.

With diabetes, it is very important that the patient himself takes responsibility for his own health, and does not rely only on the doctor. Even the best doctor will not be able to monitor the lifestyle and diet of the patient around the clock. But the results of treatment largely depend on what a person eats or drinks, within what limits his weight is maintained, etc. Every patient must understand: a low-carb diet for diabetes will really help improve well-being and normalize blood sugar levels. However, this issue must be taken seriously and responsibly, relying on oneself and one's own strengths.