What Are the Benefits of Healthful Eating for the Diabetic?

Healthy eating plays a major role in helping people maintain a better quality of life. For people with diabetes, especially, eating healthy helps stabilize your blood sugars, which will help reduce the risk of diabetes-related complications in the long term.

Benefits

• By eating healthy (grains, fruits and vegetables) people with diabetes will be able to maintain stable blood glucose levels. Stable blood sugars lessen the risk for diabetics to have kidney failure, go blind, experience high blood pressure or have nerve damage.

Foods to Limit

• Limit your intake of salt, alcohol, red meats and foods that have high sugar content but little nutritional value.

Misconceptions

• Many people who are first diagnosed with diabetes are under the impression that they can no longer eat the types of foods they love. That's not true. It's all about balancing carbohydrates and eating in moderation.

Carbohydrates

• Don't eliminate carbohydrates completely from your diet, as carbohydrates have the greatest impact on blood sugar levels. Choose "good carbs" (bananas, orange juice) over "bad carbs" (regular soda, candy).

Famous Diabetics

• Jay Cutler, Nick Jonas, Mary Tyler Moore, Halle Berry, Bret Michaels and B.B. King are just a few famous diabetics.