Easy Diabetic Meals

A good diabetic meal plan will fit your schedule and help you determine the best foods to control blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol. It is also important to make sure your meals are balanced with your medications and exercise routine. Planning meals can revolve around the diabetes food pyramid, creating your plate, exchange lists and carbohydrate counting.

Methods

• Using the exchange list is one of the most popular ways to plan diabetic meals. It consists of various food types in which you are able to exchange or trade foods within the same list because the nutritional content is similar. Your dietitian assesses your individual needs and recommends the number of daily exchanges in each group. The groups you'll choose from are starches, fruits, milk, sweets and other carbohydrates, non-starchy vegetables, meats, fats and free foods.

  The diabetes food pyramid divides foods into six groups, the largest being grains, beans and starchy vegetables. This is the group you will choose from more than any other, with six to eleven servings per day. The vegetable group allows for at least three to five servings daily. Fruits are next with a recommended two to four servings. The milk and dairy group suggests two to three servings. Four to six ounces daily are recommended in the meat group, and these are to be spaced out between meals. At the top of the pyramid are fats, sweets and alcohol, which should be used sparingly.

  Counting carbohydrates will also assist you in planning diabetic friendly meals. Since carbohydrates raise blood sugar, keeping careful track of your carb intake will help you manage your blood glucose levels. Start with approximately 45 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per meal. You can adjust this amount to suit your specific needs. It's important to eat protein and fat to balance out your meals as well. Read food labels when possible to determine portion sizes, total carbohydrates, calories and sodium. Foods that contain carbohydrates are starchy grains, fruit and juice, dairy, starchy vegetables and sweets. Non-starchy vegetables contain a very low amount of carbohydrates.

  Often the easiest way to plan diabetic meals is through creating your plate. The focus of this method is to fill your plate with non-starchy vegetables while having smaller servings of meat and starches. It's as simple as imagining your plate in sections--one line down the middle and another line dividing one side section, giving you a total of three sections. The largest section should be filled with non-starchy vegetables. The two smaller sections are for your starchy foods and meats.

Recipes

• Recipes can be found in a number of places on the Internet. Sites such as Meals for You, The Mayo Clinic and dLife all offer a large variety of delicious recipes to assist you with meal planning. The American Diabetes Association offers a tool called My Food Advisor, which helps you track your food intake and contains a database of over 5,000 different foods.