Is your sugar level high and do you want to change this? But where to start?
Because having high blood sugar can lead to dangerous consequences and complications. That is why you, as a type 2 diabetes patient, want to change this quickly. Fortunately, that change can come very quickly.
When you consciously change your eating pattern, you can notice huge differences in your blood values such as your glucose level and hba1c value within 4 to 6 weeks if you have this measured (yourself or in a pharmacy). However, making your diet healthier is a problem if you don't know what is healthy.
You will be learned how to lead a 100% diabetes-free life. So you have to never worry about the issue again.
#1 Fewer carbs
The meaning of the word blood sugar (sugar in your blood) is also a hint to what you need to improve. You and I just can't get around that.
Bombarding your body with carbohydrates and sugars has caused (pre)diabetes.
The average person has a diet that consists of 60% (or more) carbohydrates. If you have received these carbohydrates and sugars through fruits and vegetables, this is not such a problem. Then you wouldn't have had type 2 diabetes now.
But for most people, this is not the case and they get carbohydrates through unhealthy products. which leads to diabetes.
Read this How to cure diabetes in 8 weeks
Certain products in the diet ensure that you quickly get a lot of carbohydrates:
- Bread
- Chocolate sprinkles
- chocolate paste
- Jam
- Drink yogurt
- (Fresh) fruit juices
- A glass of fresh as a snack
- Cookies as snacks
- Potatoes
- Pasta
One bad meal doesn't make you unhealthy.
Is it unhealthy to eat the listed products? Not in itself. It is certainly not ideal. But your body can have it every now and then.
But if the majority of your diet consists of the above products on a daily basis, you will have problems.
And by problems, of course, I mean elevated blood sugar.
Try to avoid or replace the above products.
sugars diabetes
Replace sweet spreads (and other products) with savory and high-fat products. These contain much fewer carbohydrates and sugars.
Ideally, you want to reduce your carbohydrate and sugar intake to a maximum of 30% of your diet. The lower you can get it, the healthier it is for you.
#2 Choose the right carbohydrate
OK. Let you and I assume that you will eat fewer carbohydrates from tomorrow. You neatly use a limit of a maximum of 25% carbohydrates.
Can you fulfill your carbohydrate needs by eating cookies, chips, and sweets all day long? New!
On paper, 100 grams of carbohydrates and sugars from candy is the same as 100 grams of carbohydrates and sugars from broccoli.
This is not how the physical body works.
It is not a cash register where you enter numbers. The body is much more complicated.
- The quality of the sugars in your diet may matter even more than the quantity (amount) of the sugars in your diet. Eating broccoli is not even remotely comparable to candy.
Quality over quantity
Broccoli contains much fewer carbohydrates and sugars per 100 grams than cookies, fries, and candy. To get the same amount you have to eat more.
Broccoli will therefore fill your stomach well and satiate you early. You are therefore less likely to overeat.
In addition, broccoli also contains fiber. Fiber ensures that the sugars and carbohydrates are released into the bloodless quickly. As a result, your blood sugar level rises less quickly and is high, and remains stable during the day. Ideal if you have type 2 diabetes.
Broccoli isn't the only food that does this. All plants contain an ideal fiber/carbohydrate ratio.
That's why you want to replace your traditional carbohydrate sources (bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, baked pastries) with healthier products. Think of the following products:
Bad products:
- Potatoes
- Pasta and rice
- Bread
- Sweet sandwich filling
- Cookies
- Sweets
Can be replaced by:
- Beans or extra vegetables
- Mushrooms
- Oatmeal/whole wheat bread
- Cheese or meat products
- Fruit
- Nuts and seeds
#3 Right proportion on your plate
To easily combine the top two tips, it's best to use my 50/25/25 rule to apply.
Look, when you and I eat we often use a plate. At least, if you have not bought a ready meal in such a plastic construction. And of course, you can fill that plate in several ways. Let's assume for a moment that you and I are going to eat potatoes, meat, and vegetables tonight.
- If you've been paying attention, you'll now be thinking "hey, we really should replace those potatoes with beans, Ben."
And that's absolutely right. So let's eat beans, meat, and vegetables. How much of everything will you put on your plate?
The average person opts for half a plate of beans (or potatoes), a quarter or more of meat, and some vegetables. Unfortunately, that doesn't make me and your body happy. In order to easily improve your blood sugar level, you want to use different proportions from now on.
50/25/25 is how you do it
- Be the first to fill your plate for 50% with vegetables
- Then grab a piece of meat that fills your plate for 25% or more
- Finally, get your beans (or potatoes)
By filling up your board in this order, you avoid a lot of misery.
Avoiding eating too many carbohydrates is the primary thing to follow. Vegetables (apart from potatoes) are low in carbohydrates and high in fiber. So very healthy! You kill two birds with a stone by filling 50% of this. By taking your piece of meat afterward, there is little room left for the carbohydrate source.
From now on you should see carbohydrates as an 'extra' on your plate. Not as the main ingredient.
#4 Eat a salad more often to lower your blood sugar
"Think of a salad."
It is a dish that is relatively simple to make, easy to take with you, and also healthy. Depending on the ingredients of your salad, you can eat a lot of it without taking in too many calories, carbohydrates, or sugars.
That's three birds with one stone this time. Those flies are going fast!
By buying a plastic container with a sturdy lid, you have everything you need for a salad. But you might be thinking about what to keep in that salad. That's the beauty:
Everything is allowed and nothing is wrong.
Well, as long as they aren't unprocessed products full of carbohydrates. You can of course add rice and potatoes to your salad, but this will not be very beneficial for your blood sugar level. In fact, I strongly advise against it. What you can choose is:
- Salad
- Vegetables (cucumber and bell pepper work well)
- Beans
- Maize
- Chicken
- Meats
- Tuna
- Sardines
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Cheese
- Olives
- capers
- Pickle
- peppers
- Avocado
- Egg
- Sun-dried tomatoes
- Dry herbs (salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, and basil) For a sauce:
- Pesto
- tomato Tapenade
- Olive oil
As you can see you can use a lot of things. The beauty of a salad is that you can make it however you want. You can add anything from the above list as needed. Whatever the combination, it will be the healthiest lunch you've had in ages.
#5 Move more
You have elevated blood sugar. You may have even been officially diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and are already taking metformin. If you're like the average person with elevated sugar levels, chances are you don't have an active lifestyle.
"You don't have to immediately compare yourself with someone who runs 10 kilometers every day. But I mean more exercise anyway."
For example, by taking a walk to the supermarket instead of taking the car. By taking the bike to work instead of the car or public transport. You understand where I want to go.
Often you do not get too high a blood sugar level due to just one unhealthy factor. It is a confluence of several things. Think about:
- Eating unhealthy
- Eating too much
- Little exercise
- A lot of alcohol
- To smoke
- Too much stress in your life
- Unhappy Genes
You can do anything other than about your genes.
While you can't do anything about the unlucky genes, you can work on everything else. You can eat healthier, reduce your portion size, and much more.
One of the most important things you can't start too early with is more exercise. Its health benefits are hard, to sum up in a few sentences.
The one thing which you can't start too early which is the most important is more exercise.
"These benefits range from losing weight to living longer ."
In addition, the risk of developing depression is reduced. And I haven't even started about the benefits for your blood sugar. The studies are very clear about exercise in type 2 diabetes.
- The more often, longer and more intensively you can exercise, the better this is for your diabetes
If you haven't exercised for a long time, you have to build it up slowly. First, take a 10-minute walk. Build it up slowly to half an hour a day.
Want to get more out of it?
Then you could consider doing another more intensive sport. The important thing is that you keep moving consistently. You do this by choosing a sport that you enjoy and that you can keep up with. It doesn't matter what sport this is.
Hopefully, you understand that doing a 'mind sport ' won't do much for your blood sugar. You will really have to move and maybe even sweat.
Read this is food rebalancing more effective than a diet
#6 Right sweeteners to avoid fluctuations
Not everything sweet is bad. Not everything that is bad is sweet.
Fruit is experienced as sweet, but it is not bad for you. Potatoes aren't exactly sweet, but they won't do your blood sugar any good.
There is a way to eat and drink more "sweet" food without further worsening your blood sugar or type 2 diabetes. You do this by using the right sweeteners. The healthiest sweeteners are:
- Stevia
- Tagatose
- Erythritol
- Xylitol
You can use the above sweeteners as a type 2 diabetes patient. Research even shows that a sweetener like stevia can lower your blood sugar levels.
There is one big BUT when using sweeteners:
While the above sweeteners work well together (or even improve it) with type 2 diabetes, you want to be careful with them.
You have to teach yourself to eat all kinds of sweet things.
Your tongue is not going to like that as it is used to very sweet foods. Everything will be tasteless at first. By using sweeteners you maintain that addiction to sweet food.
So use it in moderation and only if you really have to. Learn to drink coffee and tea without sugar. It will not be pleasant at first, but your tongue will get used to it within a few weeks, according to this research.
#7 Fewer Liquid Calories
It is very important that you pay attention during this trip. This, together with
tip #1, is perhaps the most important tip from this entire blog. If anything is going to save your blood sugar and life, it's by applying this tip
- Nothing is more disastrous for your body than sugary drinks
Eating potatoes and pasta is nothing compared to it. And I don't say that to put potatoes and pasta in a positive light. It's more to give you an idea of how incredibly unhealthy sugary drinks are.
Drinks type 2 diabetes
Because a glass of apple juice (or other unhealthy drink) is full of sugars and contains no fiber, the sugars are quickly absorbed by your body. This raises your blood sugar level and from there the misery begins. The pancreas will have to make a lot of insulin to absorb the sugars.
- Drink sugary drinks regularly, you are guaranteed to get type 2 diabetes
Did you know that you have to squeeze 4 medium apples to get one glass of apple juice? You can drink a glass just like that, but eating 4 apples takes a very long time. If it gets you at all.
That's because apples are full of fiber. These ensure on the one hand that you get full and on the other hand that the sugars are released slowly. This means you can eat fewer apples, so you get fewer sugars and the sugars are also released more slowly so that your blood sugar level remains lower.
Would you like something to drink? Learn 11 Healthy Sugar-Free Drinks Here.
#8 Learn to read labels
You can really find added sugars in the craziest products. They are often products that you would not expect at all. If you eat a teaspoon here and a teaspoon thereof added sugar throughout the day, it will kick in at the end of the day. The average person eats 26 kilos of added sugar per year. This equates to 71 grams per day. And that...is a lot.
The reason why many people (and you probably too) consume so much is that added sugars are really everywhere. Did you know it's in:
- Ready-made pasta sauce
- Yogurt with a taste
- Canned soup
- Muesli/granola bars
- peanut butter
- Salad dressings
- Breakfast cereals
- All pasta
This is of course just the tip of the iceberg.
It turns out that 80% of the products in the supermarket contain added sugar. Automatically this also means that you want to avoid 80% of the supermarket.
And how do you do that?
Reading Comprehension for Diabetics
By reading the labels of the products before you buy them. Does it contain added sugar? Then you want to avoid it as much as possible and/or find an alternative without added sugar.
While this may sound easy, in practice it is quite difficult. Manufacturers are smart enough to give added sugars all sorts of creative names.
The many unhealthy names of added sugar
a
- Agave syrup
- Maple syrup
- apple juice concentrate
- Apple syrup
B
- caster sugar
- Brown sugar
- brown sugar candy
- brown cane sugar
- Brown sugar
d
- Grape juice concentrate
- Dextrose
- dextrose
f
- fructose
- Fructose Invert Sugar Syrup
G
- Galactose
- Burned sugar
- Burnt sugar syrup
- Concentrated pear juice
- Concentrated fruit juice
- caramelized sugar
- Caramelized sugar syrup
- jelly sugar
- Glucose
- Glucose fructose syrup
- glucose syrup
huh
- Honey
I
- invert sugar
- Inverter sugar syrup
- isoglucose
k
- candy syrup
- sugar candy
- cinnamon sugar
- Caramel sugar syrup
- coconut blossom sugar
- granulated sugar
l
- lactose
m
- corn syrup
- maltose
- Maltodextrin
- Molasses
- milk sugar
- malt syrup
- malt sugar
p
- palm sugar
- Powdered sugar
R
- Cane sugar
- cane syrup
- raw cane sugar
s
- sucrose
- Syrup
- Sugar
- sugar syrup
T
- Wheat syrup
- Trehalose
V
- vanilla sugar
- fruit sugar
- Fruit juice based on concentrates
- Fruit juice from concentrate
- Fruit juice concentrate
The number of names is mind-boggling. You don't have to remember them all, of course. But eventually, you will recognize the names in the packaging. Often there is also a lot of overlap.
If brand A pasta sauce has added sugar, then brand B probably will too. Perhaps under a different name. This way you quickly and easily learn to recognize the different names.
#9 Make your own sauces
As you saw above, pasta sauces and dressings are high in added sugars. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there.
Almost all sauces contain added sugars. And when a sauce contains added sugars, it's not just a little bit. And why would they?
- Sugar is a cheap flavor enhancer and it is addictive for your brain.
Why do you keep craving their products?
When eating sugars, the same parts of the brain are rewarded as when using drugs (such as cocaine). There have even been studies using brain scans to show that sugar is even more addictive to the brain than drugs. It is strange that drugs are discouraged through all kinds of campaigns and sugars are not.
That is why it is wise to make your own sauces based on dry herbs, pesto, or tapenade.
INSPIRATION FOR SAUCES
Do you want to make garlic sauce? A little Greek yogurt, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, works wonders
A sauce for your salad? Olive oil with a teaspoon of green pesto, tomato tapenade, or olive tapenade is very tasty
As long as you make sauces yourself, you can be as creative as you want. As long as you choose yogurt, crème Fraiche, sour cream, or olive oil as a base, you can't go wrong. Otherwise, you can use any dry herb on earth to make your sauce. Both your blood sugar and taste buds will thank you for this.
#10 Breakfast carbohydrate-free
Do you know that fats do not affect your insulin and blood sugar levels?
Only carbohydrates and sugars have an influence on this. Protein also has a small effect on your blood sugar, but this is negligible compared to sugars.
"This is a perfect reason not to start your day with carbohydrates but with fats and proteins."
It's a different story when you eat too much protein. Then your liver converts the excess protein into sugar. But the effect of this is still less than with carbohydrates and sugars.
When you wake up, your insulin and blood diver levels are relatively low. Which is good! Especially as a type 2 diabetes patient you want to have and keep both these levels low. Both levels (blood sugar and insulin) are chronically elevated. This is the whole reason you developed type 2 diabetes. Both levels only increase when you eat carbohydrates or sugars.
Additional information
By starting your day without carbohydrates, you avoid rising blood sugar levels. Your insulin level will also not rise. This is ideal since an increased insulin level actually causes hunger.
Proteins and fats are your new buddies in the kitchen
In addition, fats and proteins in combination appear to fill the stomach very well. Although the food is not much in terms of volume, they strongly suppress your hunger pangs. As a result, you don't have to reach for unhealthy snacks as much.
So enjoy yourself in the morning with:
- Eggs
- Cheese
- baking butter
- breakfast bacon
- Vegetables through your fried egg
- Full-fat yogurt (unflavoured, natural Greek yogurt for example)
Eat fried egg with cheese/bacon (and without bread) for 5 days in a row and you will be amazed at the lack of hunger for the rest of the afternoon.
You will also see this reflected in your blood sugar levels:
They will be lower
Diabetes breakfast
#11 Avoid unhealthy snacks that make you hungry
- Above you have read that eating proteins and fats at the same time can strongly suppress your hunger pangs. This makes you less hungry during the day. As a result, you will also reach for snacks less.
But what if you're really hungry?
Then, as above, eat products that have little or no influence on your insulin and blood sugar levels. Think of products such as:
- Full yogurt
- Cheese
- Meats
- nuts
- Vegetables
Additional information
If you take a cookie as a snack, your insulin level will rise quickly, making you even more hungry than you were before.
Since a cookie is also not filling (in terms of volume), the receptors in your stomach will not measure a 'stretch' but will measure an increased insulin level. This will make you hungry again tens of minutes later.
Do you choose a snack from the top row? Then you will hardly suffer from this. In addition, the above products are a lot healthier for you than a cookie in all areas. Especially for your blood sugar.
#12 More antioxidants
You may have heard of the term 'antioxidants'. Left and right you are being told that it is healthy, without actually telling you why this is so.
I'm going to change that:
Antioxidants are slightly toxic substances that stimulate your body cells not to be 'lazy'.
Your body will see these antioxidants as 'invaders' so that your body remains alert and therefore allows all processes in the body to run more efficiently.
An added benefit for diabetics is that antioxidants can reverse your type 2 diabetes to some degree. They increase insulin sensitivity. This allows your body to absorb sugars with a smaller amount of insulin. This is good for your pancreas because it means it doesn't have to work as hard.
Diabetes-Friendly Antioxidants
In which products can both find antioxidants? Think about:
- Black coffee
- Green tea
- Dark chocolate (provided 70% cocoa or more)
- Cinnamon (very good for diabetics)
- Dry herbs
- Colorful fruits and vegetables (antioxidants add color to plants)
Berries are the most antioxidant-rich fruit you can eat. The brighter or darker the color of fruit and vegetable, the more antioxidants it contains.
So try to incorporate as much 'color' into your life as possible. As a result, you will automatically have more antioxidants in your diet.
Also, don't be stingy with black coffee or green tea. They are also high in antioxidants. You can drink 5 cups a day of both, so you don't have to worry about the caffeine in the coffee and tea. Unless you're a heart patient. Then the caffeine often has no positive effects on your heart and it is better to stick to 2 cups of coffee.
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